“I know it’s not good to say the q-word, or to taunt the EMS Gods, but…”
“But what,” I ask hesitantly.
“But I want to run a call. We’ve been quiet for the past month or so overnight. You, Eric and I are finally staying here all night by ourselves without any paid providers. I want to be able to prove ourselves I guess.”
“You and me both,” I sigh.
“Well, goodnight,” Drew yawns quietly, “hopefully see you before morning.”
I sleep fitfully, dreaming about my classmates and my family. I catch myself snoring once, and talking in my sleep another time. I dream that I hear us getting toned out for a multi-vehicle car accident. I’m jarred from my dreams by the alarm ringing angrily in the dark. Only then do I realize it’s actually happening.
“Station 1, central. We’ll have a medic in route shortly,” I respond hoarsely.
Drew and I jump in the medic while Eric takes the zone truck. I’m excited; we’re en route and the engine hasn’t even marked up yet. That’s when I realize that Drew had gotten out of the medic and is now standing on a chair, forcing the garage door open. It’s gotten stuck on something, and Drew looks like he’s perched pretty precariously on the chair. The door opens enough, and we’re on our way…but so is the engine.
“Damn,” I sigh, “guess we won’t ever be first on scene!”
The engine pulls in front of us at a stop light, and we follow it to the scene. I do a size-up from the passenger’s seat. There’s a van with minor damage that I can see, and a whole lot of debris (including a tire) littering the road. I get out and walk past the tire and see a red 4-door sedan sitting perpendicular to the road. The entire back left is destroyed, seats smashed up against each other. Our patient is trapped in the driver’s seat, and I hand a c-collar to the firefighter who’s taken c-spine control. I notice a laceration to the left side of his head, and a lot of blood coming from somewhere I can’t see.
The firefighters extricate him, and we get him situated on the backboard. As we strap him down, I ask some preliminary questions while Drew and Eric get the medic ready.
“Hi there, my name is Sam, I’m with the rescue squad. Can you tell me your name?”
“Brian,” he replies groggily.
“Hi Brian, do you know what happened to you?”
“Yeah, I was in a car accident, right?”
“Yes sir. Do you know what today is?”
“Um…Sunday, right?”
“No, it’s actually Thursday morning.”
“Oh, that’s right.”
“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. Tell me where you’re hurting.”
As we take him to the medic, he tells me he has some neck and back pain, but nothing else hurts. We expose him and Eric and I notice a fracture to his left wrist. Drew is booking it to the hospital; I can’t expose him before we’re already halfway there. A student splints his wrist while we get the IV, call the hospital, and get another set of vitals.
His pupils are constricted and sluggish, and he seems to be going in and out of consciousness. As Eric calls report to the hospital, I assess him again.
“Brian, can you tell me who the president is?”
“Um…no, no I don’t think so.”
“That’s okay. What happened to you today?”
“Was I walking on the street?”
“No sir, you were in a car accident.”
“Oh, oh that’s right.”
Eric gives me a worried look as we get closer to the hospital. Drew gets us there before I realize it, and we unhook Brian from our machines. We wheel him into the trauma room where I’m surrounded by fully gowned hospital personnel. We slide him over to their bed and try to get out of the way. I feel a hand on my back and see a former coworker standing beside me.
“Hey Sam,” she says from behind her mask.
“Oh hey,” I reply with a smile, “take care of our guy here, won’tcha?”
“You know it,” she winks.
The back of the medic is a wreck. Little puddles of congealed blood speckle the floor, and trash is strewn all over the back. The EKG leads hang limp across the floor, and loose change from his pockets has found its way into the stair well.
Drew and I clean with the student while Eric writes up his report. We spray out the back and sanitize every surface. We roll up the leads, restock the IV box, and hose off Drew’s safety vest. He made very little contact, but somehow managed to get covered in blood. It’s as if he rolled around in this guy’s blood; we can’t figure it out. Eric and I made a lot of patient contact, but somehow managed to avoid the blood.
Eric finishes his report, and we all climb back into the ambulance. He updates us; looks like Brian has a bleed in his brain. I look over at the student; she looks a little white.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” she sighs, “but I could use a drink.”
“Ah yes, I hear that,” one of my partners chimes in from the front seat.
Seeing how it’s not quite 9am, we stop at Starbucks instead.
