Improv Resource Center - Forums
Well so far i have procrastinated longer then i thought. I was going to begin this at the end of October. well i have let it go longer then i inteded. I suppose i am wanting or willing to write this, for my own benifit. My own way of complaining, or possibly another way of healing. Which ever way this is, it's the life of a paramedic in a rural setting. I'm not a writer so to speak, so my words might ramble on. Or even be incorrectly spelled. it's just my life. I shall start in the beginning.
I started origionally as a volunteer firefighter, to wear the banana suit as i put it. To be where stuff was happening. The places that you might see on the news. The event were everyone wanted to see. From there i moved onto becoming an emergency medical technician back in 1991. Then i finally moved onto becoming a paramedic in 1994. I have since then moved to Tn from Fl, live in a county that's roughly 50+k in population.
We have 4 advanced life support ambulances. I work in the busiest of the four. Our average call volume for my station is 6-10 a day. I first began working here in 1999. i will begin with some of most memerable calls. This will not obvoiusly be the day to day calls that i intend to place in here.
The first one that comes to mind is as follows.
I was returning from taking a patient to an out of county hospital. We were returning down the main two lane highway into town. We were told of a auto crash not far from us. Another ambulance was dispatched simultanously. We both responded without haste. My partner did her best, and succeded in arriving first. It was raining out. It was Sunday morning around 12:50 am. The crash was located just before the county line. two seperate countied connect to our's on the northern end. We were just south of the north eastern county, and the crash was just before the north western county. Which of course ment that all emergency vehicles were at the center of their particular counties. We would be alone for awhile.
My partner drove rather fast as i said. We arrived prior to anyone else. I could see the red sports car facing us as we arrived, on the opposite side of the street. Kind of lingering off the roadway. I say lingering because the car was some what being suspended in the air after striking the tree that it was now part of. I didn't know the extent of the damage until we turned on the left side ally light. I then climbed out of the ambulance, and proceeded to slide down the enbankment.
The passenger side of the car was centered on the tree. With the front and rear of the car "wrapped" around. As i climbed down seeing this severe damage i was only wondering what i would find. What i did find was a man, dangling from the rear window of the car. His legs trapped. His head was pointing towards earth, hanging there approximatly at my shoulder height. Facing away from me. I was all alone there, my partner still up on the edge of the roadway. i leaned in to look at his face to see if there might still be life in his eyes, there was none. He had brain matter being exposed outside of his skull. His pupils were dilated and non reactive. Large amounts of blood on the ground directly beneath him. His entire chest was crushed like mush. He also had a puncture wound below his right shoulder.
I then began to look around the wooded area for possible ejected patients. it was obvious that there couldn't be any one else in the vehicle. it had received so much damage. I looked around the vehicle and the trees, in the shrubs and on the ground. I had seen no other patients. I began to be amazed at the damage. To recreate what could have possible happened. I was leaning in looking in to the passenger area where the window would have been. Just seeing so much metal and plastic mashed together. Then i saw a few strands of hair and some flesh. I look harder, straining my eyes, that's when i realized that there might be another person in there. If there actually was they could not be alive. Not in the damage that the car took. I had yelled to my partner of my observation. the rescue squad had already been dispatched, and we were awaiting ther arrival. There was nothing i could do. I was helpless for an eternity it seemed. I did not hear any noise, breathing, nor see any movement.
Moments later the squad arrives. We finally are able to remove the man hanging lifeless from his perch with the aid of others. Then the tow trucks had to arrive to bring the car back to the road way to be stabilized, so we could begin the cutting. Cutting and pulling of the car with hydraulic tools. The jaws of life as they are called at times. Sometimes they can be the jaws of death though. Finally the door is pried away, then the dash is moved away, and finally we find the woman in there.
I remember the first thing out of the car after we finally made it in. It was her left arm. amputated just above the elbow. I remember because it was handed to a new squad member. it had been her first "real" call. she took it and stared, finally placing it in the black body bag after direction. the woman was found beneath the dash, in the area of where the shifter would have been. the top part of her head was partially decapitated. her head turned around, she was looking the wrong way. Face towards her back, obvously her neck was broken. her legs broken, skin cut open, pudding in your hands essentially. About ever bone in her body was broken. Her own mother would not have recongized her. We then placed her in the black body bag along with her arm.
He was 38 years old, he was married, had two daughters and one son.
She was 31 years old, married, had three sons, and one daughter.
They obviously were not married to one another.
Later it was reported that the city police visualized that sports car traveling at an estimated 100 mph on the wet slicken roadway.
Since then of course people including myself had specualted that she was perfoming fellatio at the time of the crash. I believe that is the extent of the humor. I (or we) will find humor in majority of calls. It's a way i believe that is theraputic in dealing with death and the dying. I took a picture of the man hanging there from his red sports car before he was moved. I have it in my scrap book. We all usually have some form of scrap book of calls we went on in the beginning of our careers, but eventually it doesn't become so important to fill after awhile or maybe gets to full. So when i say i can still see him there, i mean i can still see him there, in my book, not just my memories that can still be so life like and real.
uke:
I started origionally as a volunteer firefighter, to wear the banana suit as i put it. To be where stuff was happening. The places that you might see on the news. The event were everyone wanted to see. From there i moved onto becoming an emergency medical technician back in 1991. Then i finally moved onto becoming a paramedic in 1994. I have since then moved to Tn from Fl, live in a county that's roughly 50+k in population.
We have 4 advanced life support ambulances. I work in the busiest of the four. Our average call volume for my station is 6-10 a day. I first began working here in 1999. i will begin with some of most memerable calls. This will not obvoiusly be the day to day calls that i intend to place in here.
The first one that comes to mind is as follows.
I was returning from taking a patient to an out of county hospital. We were returning down the main two lane highway into town. We were told of a auto crash not far from us. Another ambulance was dispatched simultanously. We both responded without haste. My partner did her best, and succeded in arriving first. It was raining out. It was Sunday morning around 12:50 am. The crash was located just before the county line. two seperate countied connect to our's on the northern end. We were just south of the north eastern county, and the crash was just before the north western county. Which of course ment that all emergency vehicles were at the center of their particular counties. We would be alone for awhile.
My partner drove rather fast as i said. We arrived prior to anyone else. I could see the red sports car facing us as we arrived, on the opposite side of the street. Kind of lingering off the roadway. I say lingering because the car was some what being suspended in the air after striking the tree that it was now part of. I didn't know the extent of the damage until we turned on the left side ally light. I then climbed out of the ambulance, and proceeded to slide down the enbankment.
The passenger side of the car was centered on the tree. With the front and rear of the car "wrapped" around. As i climbed down seeing this severe damage i was only wondering what i would find. What i did find was a man, dangling from the rear window of the car. His legs trapped. His head was pointing towards earth, hanging there approximatly at my shoulder height. Facing away from me. I was all alone there, my partner still up on the edge of the roadway. i leaned in to look at his face to see if there might still be life in his eyes, there was none. He had brain matter being exposed outside of his skull. His pupils were dilated and non reactive. Large amounts of blood on the ground directly beneath him. His entire chest was crushed like mush. He also had a puncture wound below his right shoulder.
I then began to look around the wooded area for possible ejected patients. it was obvious that there couldn't be any one else in the vehicle. it had received so much damage. I looked around the vehicle and the trees, in the shrubs and on the ground. I had seen no other patients. I began to be amazed at the damage. To recreate what could have possible happened. I was leaning in looking in to the passenger area where the window would have been. Just seeing so much metal and plastic mashed together. Then i saw a few strands of hair and some flesh. I look harder, straining my eyes, that's when i realized that there might be another person in there. If there actually was they could not be alive. Not in the damage that the car took. I had yelled to my partner of my observation. the rescue squad had already been dispatched, and we were awaiting ther arrival. There was nothing i could do. I was helpless for an eternity it seemed. I did not hear any noise, breathing, nor see any movement.
Moments later the squad arrives. We finally are able to remove the man hanging lifeless from his perch with the aid of others. Then the tow trucks had to arrive to bring the car back to the road way to be stabilized, so we could begin the cutting. Cutting and pulling of the car with hydraulic tools. The jaws of life as they are called at times. Sometimes they can be the jaws of death though. Finally the door is pried away, then the dash is moved away, and finally we find the woman in there.
I remember the first thing out of the car after we finally made it in. It was her left arm. amputated just above the elbow. I remember because it was handed to a new squad member. it had been her first "real" call. she took it and stared, finally placing it in the black body bag after direction. the woman was found beneath the dash, in the area of where the shifter would have been. the top part of her head was partially decapitated. her head turned around, she was looking the wrong way. Face towards her back, obvously her neck was broken. her legs broken, skin cut open, pudding in your hands essentially. About ever bone in her body was broken. Her own mother would not have recongized her. We then placed her in the black body bag along with her arm.
He was 38 years old, he was married, had two daughters and one son.
She was 31 years old, married, had three sons, and one daughter.
They obviously were not married to one another.
Later it was reported that the city police visualized that sports car traveling at an estimated 100 mph on the wet slicken roadway.
Since then of course people including myself had specualted that she was perfoming fellatio at the time of the crash. I believe that is the extent of the humor. I (or we) will find humor in majority of calls. It's a way i believe that is theraputic in dealing with death and the dying. I took a picture of the man hanging there from his red sports car before he was moved. I have it in my scrap book. We all usually have some form of scrap book of calls we went on in the beginning of our careers, but eventually it doesn't become so important to fill after awhile or maybe gets to full. So when i say i can still see him there, i mean i can still see him there, in my book, not just my memories that can still be so life like and real.
uke: