Peter Y.
Yelp
We were playing craps on Wednesday night at The Orleans after eating dinner at TRES Cazuelas Artisanal Latin Cuisine on Spring Mountain Road. The four of us were in a pretty good mood since it was our first full day in Vegas, even though I was down a couple grand.
Daryl was at stick left 2, I was on the hook, and Sean & Don were straight out left. Daryl was shooting and was hitting number after number. We were on a "Repeater" bonus table, and Daryl had already made the 4, the 6, and the 11. My place bet on 4 was up to $1,500, and my place bet on 6 was up to $1,200. Then Daryl made his point.
On the come out roll, Daryl made another 4. I was pondering whether to keep my place bet on 4 at $1,500, but decided to drop it to $200. Daryl picked up the dice and was going to make his second roll, and I was perplexed because out of my peripheral vision I saw him fall back. When I turned toward my right, he was on the casino floor with his right arm bent perpendicular to the floor twitching. I thought he was having a seizure.
Another player at position straight out right ran over, cradling Daryl and shouted "call 911" and asked if anyone had a stick or pen. A dealer at a nearby blackjack table brought a pen, and the player put it in Daryl's mouth. The world was moving in slow motion.
Daryl had stopped breathing but a few minutes later six security officers from The Orleans showed up. One of the officers in a chartreuse vest started administering chest compressions while another officer in a similar vest set up a defibrillator. The other 4 officers cleared an area a few feet around Daryl's lifeless body.
Daryl had turned white. They defribrillated him. No response. The officer started chest compressions again. He was pounding Daryl's chest pretty hard. At this point, I was numb and helpless. It was surreal.
They defribrillated him again. Then Daryl started breathing and moving, so i knew he at least was alive. He sounded like a donkey braying as he struggled to breathe.
A minute later the paramedics arrived and took him away on a gurney to the Spring Valley Hospital about 8 minutes away.
The Orleans closed down the craps table and colored up my chips. I had $5,600 in chips and Daryl had $2,703 in chips. We learned that in this type of situation the casino will take the player's chips to the cashier cage where only the player or someone who has written permission from the player can retrieve the funds.
Anyway, the best roll of our trip was cut short by this medical episode. And even though I was up that night after his roll, I still came home a few days later a loser.
Daryl was actually lucky he had that heart stoppage on the casino gaming floor because if he had that episode in his room or anywhere else, we would probably be planning his funeral.
Needless to say, I have great respect for the casino security team and would like to thank them for their efforts in reviving Daryl. They might say they were only doing their job but to me they went above and beyond and are heroes in my book.
Daryl seems to be doing fine although on Wednesday night at the hospital he seemed to have no recollection of what happened and kept asking the same questions over and over again: "Where's my money?" LOL.
Yesterday, Daryl had a quintuple bypass and is starting on his long journey to recovery.
