My first day in "The Box"

The Box. The module. The patient compartment.

Whatever you want to call it. It's the big square thing on the ambulance where the patient rides. In case you were wondering... that's where the title came from.

As I've learned, EMTs and Paramedics work in a very unique environment. Not only do we deal with the crazy things that happen day in and day out on the streets, but we deal with them while locked in a box going down the road at 60 miles an hour. You can't go in the next room, you can't go to the nurses station and there is no doctor to be found (except on the radio... but that's another story). Oh yeah, and forget about being able to hear anything in your stethoscope over the noise of the truck - especially running lights and sirens. Ugh... oh well. I'll learn.

Some background info... I'm currently in an 'EMT Academy' run by a large county EMS system. I'm paid a regular salary, given full benefits and have a weekly schedule that includes three days of class and two days of 'ride-along' time. Our system is fairly busy, averaging about 90,000 calls a year. So... I get exposed to just about everything... literally and figuratively.

My first day on the truck was pretty laid back. I rode along with a crew working from 7am to 7pm. Right out of the gate, we were sent to the northern part of the county, which is normally not very busy. We drove about 20 minutes north, parked at the fire station and went inside to chill out for a bit, while we awaited our first call.

After about an hour of lying around on the couch and watching tv, our pagers went off. First call... woohoo! It was a traffic accident. Imagine that.... a traffic accident at rush hour. We headed to the truck, flipped on the lights and sirens and edged out into rush hour traffic, following the lead of the rescue truck parked next to us.

Cars stopped, pulled over and we bolted down the middle of the road in rush hour traffic. Apparently, the crew I was riding with likes to drive fast. Really fast. This is good, if you happen to need our services. This is not good if you happen to be in front of us and unwilling to move or you're just generally out in space. If either is true, you'll receive several loud blasts of our air horn, which will briefly make you lose control of your bladder and/or bowels.

Side note - please pull to the RIGHT for emergency vehicles. It is absolutely amazing how many people will just freak out and come to a complete stop in the middle of the road. Amazing.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the traffic accident....

Well, it wasn't much of a big deal. Some lady had t-boned another lady in a mall parking lot, their airbags had deployed and they refused treatment and transport. Not too crazy of a call.

After we finished tapping out the call report on the computer, we got sent to another station in the northern part of the county - one even less busy. Well, we ended up sitting there for about six hours... no calls. Ugh. At least I had plenty of time to catch up on some studying I needed to do. Of course, once resources started getting low down towards the city, we got pulled away from that post and sent to one of the busiest in town. It's in a less-than-stellar part of town otherwise known as "the hood". Alright... now I was going to get to go on some 'real' calls! Or at least I thought.

As soon as we got close to town, we were called to another accident. We sped down the interstate with lights and sirens blaring. Of course, as soon as we got off at the exit, we got cancelled - meaning another unit closer to the call took it - or - they no longer needed us. Either way, I knew the people on the interstate were probably pissed.... they saw us pull off at the exit and cut off our lights and sirens. I'm sure they were cursing us.

Well, no sooner did we cut off our lights and sirens than we got another call nearby. On they go again. We read on the computer that it was a 911 call for a 'traumatic injury'... no other details. It was on a bad side of town, but we were close by and we had the fire department right behind us.

We pull into a dingy little apartment complex and notice a woman flagging us down. We pull the truck down into the parking lot and hop out. We notice that she's pointing to the basketball court, where there are several kids playing basketball. We were thinking that someone had fallen down... maybe broken an ankle or elbow. Well, as us and several firefighters walk up to the basketball court, the woman - apparently the mother of one of the kids - tells us she had called because her son's hands "Were about to fall off...".

Well, they weren't about to fall off. They were dry and a little cracked. Nothing a little lotion couldn't fix. Instead, she chose to call 911.

Sooo.... we took him to the hospital. The mom wanted him to go to the emergency room and see a doctor. We cannot refuse to take anyone, even if we think it's a trivial reason. Upon arrival at the hospital, he was immediately sent to the waiting room. Ha.

Of course, when we got the insurance information from the mom... to attempt to pay for the ambulance ride... she proudly insisted that "Medicaid's gonna pay fo dis..." Umm... yeah, I don't think so. Then again, she probably isn't going to pay for it anyway. Argh.

From what everyone told me, those kind of calls are more the norm than they are the exception. Gotta love it.

At least it'll give me plenty of material for the blog!