Have you ever been woken up by the sound of an ambulance? Maybe, but has that ambulance been in your driveway?

My mom had a problem with her heart. It was called SVT- supraventricular tachycardia. It’s a condition where her heart was beating abnormally fast. She had SVT for a while, but this time was more serious. The condition got worse as she got older.

I was 8 years old. In the middle of the night, I heard an ambulance’s siren right outside our house. Being the curious child I was, I got out of bed to see what was going on. You can imagine how shocked I was when I realized the ambulance was at my house! I went into the kitchen and found my dad. “What’s going on?” I asked. “Your mom is sick,” he replied. “Don’t worry, grandpa is coming over to watch you and your sister.” I didn’t know how serious the situation was and what was going on.

The medics came up with my mom on a stretcher. She looked cold and pale, like an uncooked bratwurst. On the way out, she saw my dad and me, and calmly told me, “Don’t worry Nick, I’m fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Then she was out the door.

My dad had my grandpa come make sure we went to bed while my dad went to the hospital with my mom. Before my grandpa was even at my house we were back in bed. I couldn’t sleep. I was nervous about what my parents were doing, and if my mom would alright. Eventually, I fell back asleep.

I woke up next morning and my parents were already back. The doctors at the hospital were able to temporarily fix my mom’s heart. Later, my mom went to see a specialist and got another operation, this time to permanently fix her heart. The operation went great and now she’s fine.

That night was one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced. I was worried for my mom and I didn’t know anything what was going on because of my young age. The life lesson I learned from the experience was to not take anything for granted, because the next day it might be gone.