Monday, October 16, 2006

the rough streets ain't that bad

I am beginning to kinda like the area I'm working in. It's growing on me, like a fungus. Yeah, it's eyeball deep in the ghetto. Get called to more assaults and crack-induced chest pain than say, LOLNAD calls you get in other parts of the city, but all in all not a bad place to work. The cops are cool as hell and have our backs when the going get rough, the fire guys are always willing to help so I can't complain. Even the people in the area, for the most part aren;t bad people, just a bit down on thier luck, or dirt poor. This is also an area where most of our systems frequent flyers live. The asthma kid down the street from our station, the ex-crackhead (who is off the stuff because of a team of our medics) with a bad case of CHF who lives with her sister in some run-down apartments a few blocks away, the dialysis guy that lives with his brother with HTN, CHF and IDDM (the BIG three here) that we sometime stop by to make sure his meds are all in line, and nurmerous others that we see on an almost daily basis. Enough for them to know our names and what shift we work. Ok, so occaionlly we hear gunfire in the area around the station, but I can tell you for a fact, that no matter what the medics, we don't get messed with. Its like the people know, just know, what we do. We are the life savers, we aren't there to arrest them, or beat them up, or cause trouble. We are there to help "Mama" when she ain't breathing right. I am learning. After working for most of my time as a medic in the more afluent parts of town I getting the rules down.
1. stay close to the cops and never close yourself in a room with a crack user or psych. They can turn on you in a second.
2. Its Sugar, not diabetes, its high blood not hypertension, its a Water Pill, not lasix. We aren't dumbing it down, we are just calling it what they call it.
3. first on the the truck drives, and drop the boxes they can be replaced, you, however can't.
4. Yes, you can actully put a Grill on a four year old ( i didn;t believe that either, till I saw it with my own eyes)
I like the people of the area. They are mostly kind. I have heard more "thank you's" come from these people that I ever had working in the other areas. Some of them are the most grateful, gracious people I have ever had to treat. Yes, there are a few bad ones in there, the ones that spit or swing. And yes, the psychs and street drunks are more prevalant here. But it ain't a bad gig.

Oh yeah we had our first jumper off the New Bridge. That dude had traffic backed up for hours. He fell 200+ feet into the river below. And damnit if the guy didn't live, with out so much as a scratch on him. When I asked the people what ended up being wrong, they simply said 'He was wet."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK...A "Grill" must be a regional term as I've never heard of that one.

No

painter in hiding said...

from Urban Dictonary...

Grill:
1- Teeth
2-A gold/diamond plate that is molded for your teeth. It is decorated with diamonds and/or gold.

I think It Paul Wall that has a song about them. Form of "Bling" for your teeth. Why your would but them of a four year old is beyond me.

Anonymous said...

OK, I get it. It's been almost 25 yrs. since I left the city and I really don't speak "Urban" (we used to call it Jive, a la Airplane) anymore. It's a tradeoff...I'm now thoroughly fluent in Northern Redneck.

No