"What an idiotic death that would be"

25.02—01.03.2013

The New Times continues to follow the story of a man who received a terminal diagnosis*

* Continuation. Beginning at Nos. 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43-44 for 2012, Nos . 1 , 2 , 3, 4 , 5 , 6 for 2013

I studied decently at school in all subjects, except for language: Russian and English were the only ones that teetered on the edge, all the time risking to slip into the “troika”. This had its own logic: my level of Russian was quite enough for me for life, but for some reason I was sure about English that I would never seriously need it. And if so, I reasoned, then why waste your time on them?

So today I remembered my teacher in English. I had to do this in a semi-conscious state, with oxygen tubes in my nose, under a dropper with dexamethasone. As it turned out, brentuximab sometimes has a side effect that causes spasm of the pectoral muscles. So during the infusion process, at first I felt some discomfort in my throat, then my head, it felt like it was swelling from the inside, I started coughing, not being able to breathe properly ... But all I could do in this situation was to jump up and whisper into the corridor: "Help!" After that I fell back...

Doctors came running and started asking me what was happening, what I was feeling. And I - without oxygen - completely went crazy, I lost not only English, but also Russian words ... I was lucky. Doctors guessed everything in just a few seconds by external signs: a person dying of suffocation has a lot of such signs. I myself couldn’t say anything, I just thought at that moment: “What an idiotic death it will be if I still don’t remember how in English “suffocate”. My “Englishwoman” would see me ... Now, the main thing is not to lose consciousness ... "

I tried on another ridiculous death. Now it’s funny to remember this, it was obvious that in the hospital I would have been “pumped out” in any case, but here the problem was trifling. But it’s still fun to watch the tricks of your own mind: while the lifeless body struggled painfully for survival, the cold and cynical mind made this old claim to itself: “You should have learned English on time, my dear.”

This is all to the point that if you also have English for a C grade, then you should know that there are situations in which you cannot manage with a phrasebook. The smart learn from the mistakes of others, the fools learn from their own. I hope that this example from the life of a fool will help you make your life a little better.

---

Help

By bank transfer to the account:

Beneficiary: Buslov Anton Sergeevich

Beneficiary's bank: OAO SBERBANK OF RUSSIA, MOSCOW

BIC of the beneficiary's bank: 044525225

C/C of the beneficiary's bank at the RCC: 30101810400000000225

Purpose of payment:
voluntary donation for l/s 40817810838061002884
PayPal: [email protected]

Yandex.Money : 41001231218106

QIWI : 9032676810

WebMoney : R326748372213