Overwhelming pain

Thump-thump. Thump. Thump-thump-thump.

I woke up and thought something was caught in the fan that was brought into the dorm. The noise stopped and I didn't see anything so I rolled over.

"Somebody help me hold him up! Cut him down! Cut him down!"

Thinking there was a fight, I looked up and saw a haunting picture: my co-worker and bunkmate was dangling unconsciously from the ceiling by a noose with his head lolled to one side. Tex was trying to hold him up while Knox grabbed a razor blade to cut the sheet that was holding the guy up. I didn't fully realize what was going on until he was down and dragged into the day room and guys were beating on the door to get an officer. I was in shock, frozen.

The guy revived on his own and went into seizures right before the guards showed up. As the guy was making horrible wheezing sounds and thrashing on the floor, the guards thought the seizure was the whole story until we showed them the sheet. I was on my bunk, trembling and praying fervently.

The guy was taken to the hospital and will probably end up at the state mental hospital with at least a little brain damage from lack of blood and air for so long. I don't have a clue why he did it. We were playing dominoes and laughing earlier, and had eaten a prison pizza together just hours earlier. Nothing seemed wrong.

He left a note wrapped around a picture of his four daughters saying "I let them down."

That had to have been one of the scariest nights I've had. I haven't been to sleep yet and can't get the images out of my head. All I can do is pray for him, his family, the guards, the medical personnel, and us in the dorm.



~ God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world ~ C. S. Lewis