Sue called me at 4 AM Monday morning and I was up to take the call, which is unusual since I am a sound and steady sleeper, rarely waking and easily getting back to sleep when I wake. I woke around 1:30 AM, around the time she fell on her kitchen floor. I tried to go to sleep, but finally resigned myself to using the time constructively by looking into airline fares online for a trip I was planning. She asked me to bring Arnica since she thought she might be bruised. I also took a walker I inherited from my father.
I soon realized it was likely she had broken a bone in her right leg near the hip. I cleared her entry so a gurney could be brought in and after getting a few things in order, called 911. I drove to the hospital and found my friend the center of a lot of frantic activity. Later I learned that she had chatted with the paramedics, then said 'I'm passing out'. The paramedics gave her oxygen but she was not breathing. For the next forty five minutes or so they tried to revive her while I called her relatives.
Her death was sudden, likely caused by marrow spilled into the blood by the fracture, causing heart failure. My sorrow at her passing is greatly relieved by the feeling that this was how she would have chosen to pass away, without a lengthy period of invalidism and dependence.
