I will report that not a single drop of Telway coffee was spilled in the performance of EMS duties Saturday night. Telway coffee plays a important roll in the daily performance of said EMS duties .That delicious cup of coffee is what will get you going for your shift, or sustaining you.
Our day crew is working over as they cannot get back to quarters due to too many runs and too few units. There are 8 units closed out of our active units of 24. The residents are calling as it is a warm day and night. There are just not enough EMS units and as a result, calls are being held over an hour before an Ambulance is available to dispatch.
I have a good partner this evening who is a young strapping lad.He is hungry and Armando's Mexican restaurant is on the menu this evening. Good coffee, good partner, good food. What could go wrong? Everything went wrong this evening. There is just not enough EMS units and we are traveling up to 20 miles from east to west, to north and south.
Our first run is at a high rise apartment building for a 23 y/o female with ABD . pain. The patient grunts when we knock to enter her apt. She is in a wheel chair with a disability, obese and pregnant. She does not speak English. She hands me the phone and a lady explains she is a O.B. patient who is not bleeding, but has abd pain.We attempt to move her to our litter as she does not have the strength to slide over. We stabilize her and transport. My mind wanders again to the test I spoke about in earlier blogs for a license to have children. I think wow, some guys will mount anything. Where is this guy now? How is she going to take care of her child? Hmmmm stop thinking JB. Take her to the hospital and stop using logical thought.
From there we move on to a party store where we find a drunk male and female staggering and yelling. There is a pregnant bitch dog at their feet that looks a mess. Ems was called by for the male due to his poor gait. When the store that has sold him all the liquor gets tired of their non walking patron they have filled full of liquor , they call us to get him out of there. The female and the male argue over the bottle/. The lady gets the bottle from the drunk and runs off with the mange Kerr dog.The patient is angry because he says" I am walking all over pissing on myself." the patient has piss in his shoes and his pants are stained with the golden fluid. The male said "I STINK"...In deed, he smelled like live stock or a Yak.
Our next call was for a drive by bricking to the head. We arrived on the scene where a guy just starts yelling at me and gets aggressive exiting the liquor store. He is not the patient. The patient left before we arrived, the brick lying on the pavement.
From there its off to a illegal immigrant , she was bitten in the back and punched in the jaw by her man. We render care and advise her to go to the hospital as her jaw is swollen and the bite would get infected, the patient has no I.D. or green card. her interpreter says she will go to the clinic in the A.M
From there it is a man in his boxers missing parts of his legs who has pulled out his dialysis shunt from his thigh. I pressure dress his wound as he does not want to go to the closest hospital. The family will scoop him up and private transport him to another facility.
Now we are off to the east side for a 18 y/o male walking in the street in his boxer shorts with a coat. He called 911 because he has diarrhea and has "shit " himself. He is hopeless for a young man . He does little to help himself and places his shit soaked pants down on the bench where I sit. Hmmm ....18 and pathetic, oh well;
We are off to the west side for and assault between a boyfriend and girlfriend.Police cancel us so we can go on another run. During the course of responding to this run we hear 2 confirmed shootings and a man killed on his motorcycle go out to units. A few more assaults and JB is really starting to get tired.
We are off to a 2nd floor apt for a elderly man that cannot walk.As i enter the apartment and turn the corner I am greeted with a hideous vision. Yes, I have been around since 1986, but damn, this was crazy. This guy had balls.....yes balls the size of basket balls. They managed to hang down below his knees. He could not even walk due to the size of the balls. He could not sit properly on the stair chair. My partner did not want to be bothered with the madness of the firemen. SO he took the bottom of the chair with the gigantic balls brushing his arms. Talk about taking one for the team. My back still hurt from the CPR run the night before. I was really tired and sick of my job this night. From Telway, Armando's and a good partner to piss , shit, and balls. I was tired and nothing here really made sense, but this is the land of misfits. We respond to a building across from the hospital for a lady with a cough. She has had a cough for 3 weeks and is troubled this morning at 4:30 a.m because she can not control her urine when she coughs and it is upsetting. Great, more stupidity for an Emergency service and MORE piss. We will close out the night with another 40 something smelling of piss and with abd pain and pancreatitis.
Much of our night was wasted on non emergency runs for adults who just cannot seem to care for themselves. My partner proved to be a great guy and a hard worker. I am sickened this night by the state of my employer and the clients I serve. I just want to get home and be a normal human being away from the madness. I welcome my off days and the one true thing that brings me happiness, My children. Peace and love, JB.