3am and awake

Back to posting in the middle of the night. Can't sleep again, This sucks. I spent the evening with the new graduating class of Charleston paramedics. If I can say anything paramedics know how to throw a party. I also was the DD. After last weekend I decided that I would abstain from ETOH for a while. Since I was not able to keep anything down until 1900 the night after my big birthday bash. I surprised my house wasn't set on fire after the guests started a huge fire in my fire bowl. Lets just say the woods behind my house was cleared of a few tree branches. Work has been slow nothing of note really, except the police department has been calling on us for really retarded stuff recently. I think there must have been an incident in the jail again. CYA type of stuff like a small laceration that needs no stitches on an assault victim's forehead. Comes out to us as a "head injury" or "bleeding, possible dangerous body area"

I got an email from on old patient. I don't really condone having contact with patients after we leave them at the Trauma Center, but this particular one holds a special place in my heart. Anyone who has read this blog before has read the post "The artist in the ambulance" It was June 27th 2004 at 0712 in the am, I had had about three hours of sleep in 48 hours ( I was still in paramedic school at the time) I had my first real trauma in which us as paramedics in the streets are the reason he is still alive. It was a hard call, he was pretty messed up. Awake with a gag, yet he had no face below the eyes. His jaw was completely gone and had no airway control. His arm was amputated and had a large alvusion to his upper chest. This call almost made me quit EMS altogether. However I worked through it. I still keep in touch with him. He is back to being a triathlete, just finished an Ironman race. My first save really. A save that has caught the attention of Zoll Medical. Zoll is the company who provides us with out AEDs, cardiac monitors and AutoPulse ( a CPR machine). Apparently Zoll has been tracking our Saves and wants to use my patient at a national shareholders meeting. So thats kinda cool. I really could care less about the Zoll thing. yeah getting recongnition is nice, but it's not why I do my job.