Saturday, July 26, 2008

Some needs to call the paramedics, Oh crap I am the Paramedic

So this morning I was sitting at the light in front of my house, waiting for it to turn green. Which sometimes it doesn't because it sucks and it stays red for ever and I have to call The Voices, who then call the city police voices, who then call traffic, who then fix the light. Well this particular morning, I was waiting for the light to turn, enjoyin my morning coffee an the new Death Cab for Cutie album, when I heard sirens and lots of them. I first think, how odd, I don't remeber Sirens in this song, them it dawns on me, its coming from outside. I see a fire truck, then another, then a ladder, the two squad cars. Phew, something big is going down. I cut off the car in front of my that won't turn and continue on my way. I find out when they were going in such a hurry.
I turn down the road on mu normal route and they are all clutered in front of the school with a bunch of cop cars, but no medic unit. I see the vehilce smashed all to hell and a man with all the fire guys franticly doing stuff over a man with lots of blood around the head area. I fly past all the chaos, and pull into the school parking lot, jump out of my car, barely remembering to put the damn thing into park and rush over. I am stopped by a police officer, mind you I am in uniform. "Can I help you?" He asked in that I'm a bad ass cop voice, even though he looked like my seventeen year old cousin. I look at him thn look down at myself, and go "Well I thought I might be able to help you, I'm a medic"
"Oh...OH....yeah...YEAH, go see what the fire guys need!"
I go walking over. "Hey yall, I was on my way in to work, thought you might need some help." I hear from behind me someone yell "Hey capt, he's CAT 1!" (Damn near dead) I turn around and he is guppy breathing, clamped down, blood everywhere. One of the fire guys, goes "We got a medic!, She needs a pair of gloves!" I get a pair of XL gloves thrusted at me from somewhere (I wear a small normally) And right at that moment I had a oh fuck moment. I was the only Paramedic. With nothing but a BVM and a pair of gloves. No drugs, no ambulance, no monitor. And at least six men turn to ME (gulp!) and go "What do YOU need us to do?" WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN "WHAT DO I NEED YOU TO DO" Oh Jesus Christ and all that is holy, I am now in charge. I am the senior Medic on this scene now. And All I could do was Bag this man. Breath for him. He still had pulses. We did have CSpine stuff, so we were starting to CSpine him when the medic unit pulled up. And never in my life have I been so happy as to see an ambulance. That 3-5 mins it took the medic unit to get there felt like an eternity. But when it did show up. I was happy to turn over care.

But I did have a Oh Fuck Me moment. A someone needs to call a paramedic, Oh shit! I am the Paramedic moment. When everyone, even though they were completly able and competent, turned to you. Because You have Paramedic in front of your name and goes, "Hey, what do you need?" I was alot of responsiblity that hit me all at once. I wanted to run away. But of course didn't. I had My fire guys taking care of me. And they did a wonderful job. So again I thank them too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

At some point in my career, I didn't notice when it happened, I was transformed from the young guy who was pretty bright to the old guy who knows just what to do when it hits the fan. Even though I'm often just whistling in the dark, I found that when everyone else depends on me I can rise to the occasion. They count on me. Me! I've found that can be the guy that knows just what to do and do it. In return for knowing that, the team follows very well and makes me look great. It's incredible! When did that happen? How do I do that?
Watch out, my friend, you are becoming one of those experienced medics that people depend on when it hits the fan. I know you are up to it and you prove it often. I'm proud of you for not getting too big an ego, either.

No

chucker said...

Hey, I'm proud to know you..and we haven't even met yet.

Thanks for what you do.