Passing Out

Have you ever passed out or watched someone pass out? I have passed out twice in my life and watched my cousin, Kevin, pass out. Actually it was more like I heard him pass out when he hit the floor.

My cousin and I were playing and we did something that Grandmomma didn't like. She got on to us and it made Kevin mad. I can't remember exactly what happened but somehow the three inch thick front door slammed shut squishing his finger. Grandmomma took him to the kitchen to put water on it. He was in a lot of pain (obviously) but he wasn't making any noise. I turned away from him for a second and heard a loud thud behind me. He lay sprawled out on the floor. It was a very scary experience. I thought he had died. Grandmomma revived him and put ice on his hand after sitting him down.

In the fifth grade, at recess, I played basketball with my friends. There was a pole near the basketball goal. The ball started getting away and went toward the pole. A kid and I went for the ball and the kid hit me on the left and the pole hit me on the right. It knocked the breath out of me and I ended up passing out. I woke up a little later and my head had a bump on it from where it hit the ground when I fell. I got up and we started playing again.

In high school, we had our own lockers. The lockers had a handle that you lifted up to open, and they were stacked in two long rows down the hall. A kid and I were horsing around just playing but I ended up getting shoved backward into a locker. The handle must have hit me just right. I remember it hurting real bad and closed my eyes trying to get the pain under control. I must have stopped breathing to control the pain because when I woke up, people were standing around me looking down at me on the floor. This time I noticed that darkness passed over my eyes before I blacked out.

There are times when I get up from crouching on the floor petting the dogs that I get those same dark patches. I am in no pain so what causes the feeling of nearly passing out?

In both situations, I noticed that breathing or the lack there of was the cause of my passing out. If you get hurt and try to control your pain by not breathing, you may pass out. Also, when I am in a crouch and come up, if I take a deep breath, the darkness is not present.

Not long ago, my Dad who is close to 80 years old, was sleeping and thought he heard my Mom screaming. He hurried to get up and ran to the bathroom. As he entered the bathroom he passed out and fell into the glass door of the shower. He woke up with his hand bleeding bad. He called Mom and she went home and took care of him. Be careful not to get out of bed too fast because your oxygen level may be lower while sleeping or your blood sugar level may be out of whack.

Always take a deep breath before getting up. If you get the breath knocked out of you, there is really not much you can do but wait for your breathing to return to normal. Hopefully it happens before you pass out.