**For mature readers Only**
The following transcripts are from an online journal I kept of some of the calls I ran while working in the New York City EMS system. These are not by any means all the calls i ran since NYC handles over 3,000 calls to EMS dispatch each and every DAY! The system is huge. I worked for a company that provided medical transport, I also worked the 911 system as a paramedic in all 5 boroughs of NYC. I worked as an EMT for the 911 system in Jamaica Queens, NY. I worked in the system from Sept 2001 to Sept 2006.
The following transcripts are from an online journal I kept of some of the calls I ran while working in the New York City EMS system. These are not by any means all the calls i ran since NYC handles over 3,000 calls to EMS dispatch each and every DAY! The system is huge. I worked for a company that provided medical transport, I also worked the 911 system as a paramedic in all 5 boroughs of NYC. I worked as an EMT for the 911 system in Jamaica Queens, NY. I worked in the system from Sept 2001 to Sept 2006.
These are not necessarily in order but I tired to chronicalize them as best I could. EMS is a very difficult job..you have to seperate yourself emotionally, its the only way to survive the job. The burn out rate is 5 yrs...and every single EMS worker suffers from PTSD. Its a given! A typical day for us was an average of 6-8 calls per shift.. I worked a 12 hr shift 3 days a week and 4 days a week I walked on the beach, I stayed to myself, and tried to clear my head of all the "stuff"....So these are some of the things I recall from Going Hot-
"10-4 we are 10-98 and requesting 10-2" |
| My Classmate n Friend Tiffany |
When I moved to NYC I needed to get into a job fast so I decided to go for EMS instead of Upholstery which I had been doing for 25 yrs! DUH? yeah I know anyways I landed a temp job at Con-ED the union company that provides Electric and Gas to NYC-it was a great job, but I planned to be an EMT, enrolled in night class, worked full time and went to night class 4 days a week for 4 months! from 6-9 Mon-Thrusday...
I got my NY STATE EMT certificate on August 28th, and these entries are from an online journal I was keeing...the site was closed so I copied most of my entries but didnt get them all or in order...I begin on Sept 11, 2001!
SEPT. 11 2001
Mood=Sad
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| Memorials showed up on every sidewalk in the days following the attack |
SEPT 11, 2001.......yeah the day the world stood still and we were in shock.. I remember it like it was yesterday OMG what a horrible day that was..I was still working at Con Ed.. just finished my EMT training and passed my state test I was now a NYC EMT!
but on this day....I was walking down the hall way to go the ladies room.....at the end of that hall is a big wall of windows where our 6th story offices were....located at Hudson Ave. in Brooklyn on the East river directly across from lower Manhattan
I saw the huge plume of black smoke coming out of the one Trade Center Building...and I said "OH its on fire".....everyone who heard me came to see what i was talking about.....and we stood in horror and watched as the second plane came and slammed into the other tower....with a firey BLAST.....OMG i never saw anything like this in my life.....its like witnessing the Hindenburg......or the Titanic going down.. The fire ball was huge.
We stood and watched in horror as people leaped to their deaths rather than burn to death, then the first building began to lean and then collapsed...we couldnt believe our eyes...then the second fell and I cried...cause I knew the EMS workers and the First Responders would be there trying to work the MCI-Mass Causuality Incident! CON-ED was then put on HIGH ALERT, and we were told to GO HOME..
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| Candlelight vigils were held nightly |
I tried to walk over but everone was walking OUT of Manhattan not to it, one policeman told me a Q train was going to make one ride over then the subway system would be shut down rumors started that the subways would be bombed, all kinds of rumors began to cycle around...I got on that train and we looked out the windows and watched the plume of dirt and smoke rise out of the ashes....I was terrified!
I still have trouble explaining how i felt at that time...its as if a WAR Movie we saw on TV had suddenly come ture in NYC...we were under attack!!!!...We saw the F-15's as they scrambled, were they ours? We didnt know at first, we thought the planes that hit looked like Military Planes, we felt set apart & isloated from the rest of the world yet we knew the Nation rallied behind us,, there was Unity here for that time.. I saw the hordes of people walking out of Manhattan it was like a caravan of people in shock..That night we (my new EMT classmates & I) made our way down to ground zero..and we helped to set up triage areas.....but no survivors came to those triage stands.....they put me to work in the temporary morgue ...helping to identify the dead and mangled bodies brought in out of the rubble pile.......
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| Students in Washington Sq Park had Sing-Ins |
The bodies that we tried to ID were ripped to shreds and covered with that grey gunk, a mixture of asbestoes, cement, and water! IT covered all of lower Manhattan and everything south of 14th st. was closed....I lived on 4th and Ave A....
So I worked in One Liberty Plaza counting the dead, trying to match up legs n arms to torsos and heads... on the first floor where the temp morgue was set up...Armed National Guardsmen with M-16's pointed watched us as we worked...see One Liberty Plaza on the corner where we had set up had been a high end men's clothing store and the inventory sat on the lopsided shelfs covered with muck, but still worth protecting from the likes of US--- THE EMS WORKERS!!!
We stacked the bodies in bags 3 high..then packed them in refrigerated trucks for transport up to the Morgue. This one in particular has never left my mind...a corpse that was brought in --a male late 30's 6 ft tall. his head was gone but his face was still attached via the skin of the neck....and his teeth and gums were still attached to the lips..Ive never seen anything like that.. Most of the men had wallets on them but none of the women!! WE didnt get one single ID on a female! We did get many males some just the lower half, but it was better than nothing...
I have nightmares till this day--- that combined with all the following stories I guess you could say I have PTSD, pretty bad actually!!!
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| the Memorial Service @ St. Patricks Cath. |
The next day when I went down to G-Zero, # 7 building fell and we ran for our lives, since i was part of a volunteer group, I left that afternoon, Saturday and on Monday I went back to work at my job for Con Edison. One month later I got a job working in the EMS system of NYC.
(scroll to 9-9-06 for an update)
Driving Miss Dead Daisy
Mood=Embarrassed
Kat and I got along really good..we laughed and
cried together when things didnt go well we watched each others back. a Partner is like your lover only there is no sex. Well there is not susposed to be.
Sometimes we were so broke we put our change together and bought a bag of p-nuts to share for lunch.cried together when things didnt go well we watched each others back. a Partner is like your lover only there is no sex. Well there is not susposed to be.
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| KAT is from Colombia South America she speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and English. |
Kat has no family here and since I dont either we got very close and we were best friends I went to her place for a few parties they had..passing around "smokes" and the booze it was OK.. i passed on the smokes..but i shared a drink or two and I'd stay the night..she had a nice sky light in her small room and she placed her mattress right under it. and it was nice to lie there and star gaze and drift off to sleep on those nights when I was too drunk to go home!
Kat and I struggled at the base to try and get the Bus (ambulance) we wanted, the shift we wanted..and sometimes they would try to seperate us but after we both pitched a fit, they (our EMPLOYER) keep us together.
Once we arrived on scene for a PT (patient) who was to be taken to the ER although she was a hospice PT. We arrived, and this woman was dead and had been for a while!! This was the first time we had arrived to find our PT. dead...BUT the whole Hospice thing had confused us, we thought we were transporting her for THEM...so we took her off her bed. Her bladder had let go and she was soaked in urine --wow what a smell! When we tried to move her the smell just rose up like an ammonia demon-- OMG what a stench and I thought Kat was gonna Puke on top of the PT. Her eyes got large and her mouth opened and she turned GREEN..I remember saying to her "DONT you dare get sick!"
SO finally we moved her onto our stretcher we took her downstairs and told the doorman she had passed we loaded her up and started to the ER. I was in back with the body Kat was driving we pulled off and i said "Kat why are we taking a DEAD person to the ER?" SHE stopped and she said, "yeah, why are we?" So we pulled over..and called our dispatcher he said, "NO dont move her if she is dead, just contact the Hospice," OMG..
We turned around and took her back to the building as we came in the doorman said, "what u doing??"
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| Beth Isreal 14th St in Manhattan |
HE looked sort of spooked ,,,,,,people dont like being around dead people for some reason. SO we took her back upstairs and told the Home Health Aid who had argued with us to NOT move her..that we had decided she was right and we brought her back and put her right back in the urine soaked bed....I know, I know but what else could we do?
I know --dont say it--- we left and told our dispatcher we were 98 (clear) off the 83 not removed (dead body) LOL we laughed all the rest of that day (its a coping mechanism) after we said our Im sorrys for the death of the woman, but what a nice way to go in your own bed in your sleep..and to get that last little ride, from 2 baffoons!!!!!
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| Admiring my own reflection |
Action! CUT
Feeling=Loopy
Living in NYC is like no other place on earth the people, the traffic, the skyscrapers. Its just like being in another world! There is always something going on even a small incident can become big-- like sitting at a red light. Kat and I left the garage we were into our morning ritual of talking about how we hate our job, it sucks, we get paid sh*t for doing a thankless job. Our supervisors are a**e*, OK its venting at its worst and thats the way the first hour of work is. Most of the time it helps to set up the theme for the rest of the day
On this day we leave the garage and we are on Beverly ave in Brooklyn sitting at the red light. Suddenly this old 4 door pontiac in the oncoming lane when the driver sees the RED Light at the last minute he swerves in an over reaction and his wheel hits the curb causes a blow out. His car swerves up onto the sidewalk nearly missing a telephone pole comes off the curb at the pedestrain cross walk, into the intersection swerves to miss a parked car back onto the street car goes out of control again and then back up onto the sidewalk just missing signs, poles, & parked cars. The old pontiac was up on one wheel then slamming down back on all four then up in the air again like a bouncing ball. OMG the dust was flying I could see the dreadlocks swaying on the driver (Carnarsie isJamaican man) and the whites of the eyes of the terrorized driver stood out like boiled eggs! Just about that time his out of control car came to a sudden and rocking stop! Kat and I just watched this whole thing play out right before our eyes in stunned silence...it was like nothing Ive seen in anyHollywood Movie!! It was as if it had been corrigraphed and the director had said CUT-- I looked at Kat and said "OMG did you see that?" THE man in the car next to me rolled his window down "DID YOU SEE THAT," I nodded. Then the light turned to green we quietly drove off while the old Pontiac with the traumatized Jamaican with eyes wide and dreds swaying sat rocking in place. Im sure he had to change his pants when he got home!!
Another day in the life in NYC!
Can we say ATKINS
Mood=Mischievous & Hard as Steel
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| The Empire Stikes Back Sometimes! |
( 450 lb) woman sitting there breathing like a race horse cause she just buttoned her sweater and the exertion of doing that gave her SOB (shortness of breath.) Our BP cuff won't fit around her arm, she can't walk GOD FORBID, and she has not been outta her apartment for say a YR. Maybe more!But now for some reason she has to go to the ER, for she has a stomach pain and has not been able to keep anything down for say 12 hrs. GEE she'd live on her stored fat for a year maybe more, im sure she is no danger or dying anytime soon for lack of intake. We have to CARRY Her down the 6 flights in a strair chair and take her to the ER! Me and My partner weight about 300lbs Together!!
OK where is the compassion, I can hear you saying? Well we dont have any for the self inflicted,
the coke addict who's heart is pounding out of his chest, the teen mom who's baby daddy done beat her up,
the drunk who crapped his pants and can't walk, "I think I had a siezure," oh yeah...wonder why?
It gets very old day in and day out to see all this damage that is SELF INFLICTED---where is the compassion for one's self in that??? Where is the self love? Its more like a lot of self Loathing we see out here in the big nasty city that never sleeps--more like the city that never takes time to THINK!!!
THE BS (Bull Shyte) gets to you real fast. THE medicaid cards flashing, and the free ride is on. OK can you at least walk to the stair chair? "I dont know ill try" "well how did you get in that chair you're in now?" OH I been sitting here for 3 days now.. and then there is the smell of human indignity.
Radio in hand "Central --we gonna need back up here!" In the ER they raise that wtf eyebrow as we give our story to triage nurse who has even less compassion than we do........."and this is an emergency???" Well its like this--"THEY call WE bring them IN and then IT'sS your turn. SIGN HERE, and have a good night"....LOL
(footnote- our biggest fear is that we fall while carrying an obese patient on these God Forsaken Narrow and OLD stairways, they break their neck, we break our neck, and some of our CO-Workers are called to clean up the mess)
Canine Save
Mood=Mischievous
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| oops! Speed Kills- |
Working long hours get to you and makes you snappy sometimes..and Kat & I argued and yelled at each other like sisters and backed each other up like partners.. you become attached at the hip.....we talked about each other so much it was like OH my partner said this and that....and when we were together outside of work we introduced each other as My partner....some thought we were a "couple"...we let them think whatever they wanted.. It was rumored around the garage, we never denied it or said it was true just kept them wondering.....LOL
One day we were standing by in Queens waiting for a call ......this dog comes running down the street.. I love dogs...so I was LIKE "OH NO he will be hit by a car" ,so I got out and caught him...he had a broken or chewed thru rope on his collar so i tied him to the parking meter and we called animal control to come pick him up..while I tried to tie him he scratched me very badly on the arm..Kat took me in the back and bandaged my arm.....not good to have an open wound on you in our line of work.....for the next person you are around could have High FIVE..HIV or Hepatitis,, who knows so she took care of me..
WE got a call and had to leave the dog but not before we went inside a shop and asked the workers inside to give the dog water..it was a cloudy day so he was ok..and they agreed to watch him till the control officers came.
Another life saved!!
COKE Head Runaway
Mood=Surprised
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| Me posing by Vintage Ambulance- Brooklyn |
I was driving and Kat was teching in the back.. the Kid had that wild eyed look from his dialated pupils.. EMS had brought him in earlier that morning..
We were taking him to Gracie Square which in the ems world is known as Crazie Square....we have little names for all the hospitals.. like St. Marys is Scarey Marys and St. Vincents is St. Vinnys ....etc....so off we go
I can hear K talking to the guy in Spanish but he is not answering..we stop at a red light on park ave. and wow he wrestles with her undid the straps of the stretcher and then they had another tussle at the back of the bus....he poped the lock and out he jumped and ran up the hill with hospital gown flying ...
K jumped out and headed after him.....I was seeing all this in the rear view mirror...got on the PA and Yelled at her to LET HIM GO..but she didnt she kept chasing him up the hill I turned the bus around and started up too.....at the top a COP on a bike saw what was happening and grabbed the guy.....put cuffs on him..
We got back in the bus and she cursed him OUT...calling him every name in the book "YOU stupid MOTHER...F***ER you not gonna make me lose my job"" and little did he know she was in training for the NCY Tri-athalon so she was fit and could run all day if need be....LOL.. he was stoned on COKE so she had the upper hand....
SHE cuffed him to the stretcher and had the cop to ride along with us to Gracie... That was FUNNY
Larger Than Life
Mood=Chillin'
Problem solving is part of what EMS is all about there are lots of rules and protocols set up but when you get out there your on your own to figure out the best way to do things Sometimes its just how to get somebody from the house to the bus Like the woman in the Project building on E. 106 I believe was her area.
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| After we both became Medics Kat and I worked for different bosses, so this is my new and Favorite Partner, Maria! |
Shes on the 10th floor., and as in all project buildings in the city there are 2 elevators One of which is always broken..and the working one has always got someones Piss in it..(excuse those of you with virgin ears). I beleive its a game of the youth in projects to have a pissing contest in the elevator..anyway lucky they got elevators and their kidneys work I say
SO this lady has a 3 bedroom on the 10th floor, and we got the call for shortness of breath. When we got up stairs we brought our stair chair to roll the pt down stairs then we were gonna transfer her to the stretcher when we got back down.
Banged on the door.."just a minute she yells" when the door is opened there is a homehealth aid there... SHE takes us to the back bedroom where a VERY LARGE black female sat panting out of breath on a nasal canula attached to an oxygen tank.. she was very breathless. K and I looked at each other like OMG. This Woman weighs probably in my best guesstamation.....round 650 pounds.. we we are immediately thinking BACK UP.. maybe 2 units
We get our info for the ACR and then she says she can walk with the help of a walker and since the elevator is directly across the hall from her front door, its not far. So we didnt really think it was a good idea but she said she could do it..
We changed her from a Nasal to a Non-Re breather and put the O/2 up to 10 liters instead of the 2 she had it on.. and got her walker in front of her.
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| Maria is from Puerto Rico |
CON't
Friday, April 9, 2004
Larger than Life cont.
Mood=Chillin'
SO we placed her walker in front of her and with the help of all 3 of us she rose up on her feet and started to walk slowly to the door....we got her into the elevator and she was sweating Bullets....and WE looked at each other worriedly for doing CPR on her is gonna be impossible......and if she should collapse in the elevator then we got a real mess for she will be very hard to get outta a close space like this..
WE go to the lobby of the building..and she says "I cant walk that far" looking at our Bus parked out front.
SO Kat went and got the bus and backed it right up to the front steps and at the opening of the building.... We took our stretcher out of the van style bus we had that day ......and she ambled to the back of the bus resting every other step.....breathing very hard now..and her heart rate was up there in the 120 range.....once again we got worried...we finally got her to the back of the bus and the one step up was the biggest challenge to her.. SHE really was trying hard and we appreciated it for we could never managed to lift her in...and besides she wouldnt fit on the stretcher anyways......
We got her in and she was basically on one knee at the back..and then she pulled herself inside the bus and sat on the Bench seat ......panting and wheezing.. we used 1 of the 9 foot straps we are required to carry with us to tie around her to keep her balanced on the bench seat.. then replaced our stretcher which barely fit.. i had to place a towel between her knees and the stretcher so it wouldnt rub her.
We drove her to Mt. Siani hospital. on the way she told me she wanted to lose this weight #1 for her kids,,,,,,#2 for her health.......#3 so she could have sex with a man again....(her words)!!!! this woman was 38 yrs old.. .In order to get her out.....we brought the stretcher out of the ER one of the big ones..and brought it directly to the back of our bus.. undid the strap we had put on her and she slowly slid out the back directly onto the ER stretcher..
SO thats how 2 women who weighted 300 pounds together moved one that weighted 650!!!!! proving once again women RULE...teehee
Nobodys Perfect
Mood=Quiet
Working with Kat is lots of funn but she is a crazy woman and she drives like a maniac.. and she taught me the New York version of cursing.. and helped me to add new phrases to my already steamy vocabulary.....words i wont mention here for fear of getting a warning..LOL...
Kat is a good person, but she loves to use people to get what she needs out of life and this became the ultimate thing that drove us apart as friends..and the drug use...SHE did stop..for a while..
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| The White patch of the paramedic |
OK.. i know someone in the "save u" business should not be using drugs...we are not perfect...thats real life....like i said this is not always a happy ending story..
Kat and I talked about everything from Sex to our families and what we did and didnt expect outta life....while we zoomed around NYC with lights and sirens blasting..We were both starving to death working at Metro so we decided to enroll in Paramedic school.....after a year on the road I felt ready Kat had only 6 months but she figured she could catch up...by joining a few volley groups......she joined but i dont think she did too many rides with them..
ITs hard to do this for Free when You are used to getting paid for it......ITS like a Hooker suddenly giving it up for free, I GUESS!
Canalope Balls?
Mood=Loopy
THESE entries jump around they are written in no particular order just as i remember them..
Kat and I are in paramedic class at this point and we decide to do an ER rotation together.. at Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn..
The usual stuff is mostly elderly people with common complaints, GI bleeds, Fell and bumped head, Hypertension, Hypotension..AMS aletered mental status, Diabetic Emergency, hip fractures etc......
SO we are there doing all the blood, labs,, etc..and starting IV's just trying to get through another rotation in a Busy ER... working with the nurses and residents, trying to push the good drugs, and hoping for the CODE to come in so we can TUBE....anyways this guy comes in ..he is an elderly geri pt. and we are told he is here for prostate ca complications. The guy had Dementia and he was not going to stay on the stretcher and he kept saying he had to pee.. so we did the bloods and got the line started..and then we got some wrist restraints and tied him to the bed..so he wouldnt hurt himself by falling off the stretcher.
Well he insited he had to pee so we decided to help the poor guy out......we pulled the curtain..and got a urinal jug..
THE guy had on a pair of very tight boxer shorts and so I proceeded to pull them off....got ahold of both sides and started pulling it down while Kat stood over me watching my efforts.. and encouraging the PT to "relax we are gonna help u pee".
SO i got the shorts down to his grion and it was like stuck there,, tugged and tugged and finally it came free..
THERE was the LARGEST Testicle ive ever laid eyes on ........I stopped and K's mouth fell open......OMG it was the size of a canalope.......and his penis was small and shriveled up......MY eyes were big as saucers......we both gave a under our breath chuckle.....I tried to hold the jug under the little penis but it was nearly impossible to do.....with that gigantic testical in the way
WE felt bad for this guy but i gottta say it was amazing to say the least so we went and got the nurse to see........HE was as shocked as we were and now we saw what the complication of prostate CA can be.
The Circle of Life
Mood=Sad |
| Me at the Fountain Central Park |
NYC is a city of Trains.. we got the Subway, the Metro North..... the LIRR,(Long Island Railroad) the Amtrak.....and THE Path Train (straight Path to Jersey from NYC).. we got Grand Central Station..and Penn Station.. there are trains everywhere....tracks everywhere, some above ground, some below ground, and the rest on the ground!
It's a rainy Friday Night in Queens I am working tour 3 (3-11pm) on 54-Frank....out of the Jamacia Queens EMS station with a female partner -W.... we had a mostly quiet night.. near 7 pm we got a call for a trauma at the LIRR stop.....I dont remember the exact address ....We got there pretty quick..and headed up the stairs with the bag and the stair chair in tow..
As we made it up the strairs to the platform...we see a stopped train..and only a couple of people on the platform.. one was the engineer of the train.....the train had no passengers..and he said "You won't need that stuff".....at first I thought he meant "they can Walk" the music to our ears.. LOL...
But the solemn look on his face told me he was not happy at this moment..We came to the car where he leaned out of the door and he started to talk to me fast ,,,and I was still wondering why we had been called so far I saw no patient..
HE took us inside the car and it was empty...he said "this is a equipment run, we are not carrying any passengers so we were not stopping at this platform..but when I saw him he was either getting up from a sitting or laying position..and I saw him right before we hit him" and he walked to the opposite door which was open and he pointed down into the dark rainy night..at the ground below.
I put the Tech bag down and walked over to the open door .. he used his large lantern the circle of light showed me the gruesome sight..the body of a man...mangled and ripped.. head missing, right arm severed at the elbow.....Still partially clothed..
My partner asked me what I was looking at?? I told her it was a DOA..."are you sure its a DOA?' "yeah IM very sure" I replied..
THE engineer was visibly upset..and trembling..so we offered Him a ride to the hospital if he felt he needed it.. We did take his vitals and he was OK.. just shaken and disgusted..
It took over an hour for them to photograph the scene, measure the distance of the drag etc..and retrieve the loose parts of his body,,,,,once all that was done we pulled our bus (ambulance) close to the side of the hill where this track was located..and the ESU (Emergency Services Unit) helped us to bag and move him to the level ground below.. THE rain was coming down..and eveything glistened.
We had to wait because the cops didnt have a toe tag to fill out-- so we sat in our bus..with the body in the back our sheets that had been on the stretcher soaked in blood...we turned the lights off and sat in silence as we waited...
I was sitting there thinking of what may have brought this John Doe onto the tracks....ONE thing I did know was he was in shape..large thighs...and biceps-- so he worked out.....He was dressed nice,, not a homeless Drunk.. nothing like that.. In silence I turned over in my mind, what happened here?? A man who was in very good physical condition was alive one moment and very dead the next.....I questioned the very reason for living, just to die a violent and unexplained death??
A message came in on my cell phone just then, a text message.........I read it.....from Dorothy.. it read "Just watching some TV, hows your night going?" .......I just starred off into the black night and wondered if she knew what I was doing that instant would she still want to know how Im doing?"......My life seemed so different from the norm at that moment in time!
Then my partner gets a call, its her 4 year old he is ready for bed and calling to say goodnight,
"Hey sweetheart, did you brush your teeth," then a pause, then she continued, " mommy loves you, and I will see you in the morning," another pause, "Good night my love," then she hung up I saw the tears sliding down her cheeks as the street lights illuminated it.
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| Neonatal Life Support transport we transported premies delivered at 25 weeks-full term is 40 weeks. |
Finally the tag arrived and we made our way over to the Queens hospital morgue.. backed up to the back door which was opened up wide for us, we unloaded our stretcher and they slid the body bag on their stretcher...then they sprayed the face of the decapitated head to clean it off , photographed the it, and they took a quick look at the body......the guy was white probably 35 maybe 40, brown hair brown eyes, nice looking... or he had been ......before he was decapitated.......that is.
We de-conned the stretcher, then our bus, and went on the next call......a pregnant teen..
One leaves another one enters...the circle of life is complete.
FETUS's
Mood=puzzled
WHILE working my way through medic school i worked 2 perdiem jobs and lost K as my partner at this time too she got hired full time at NY Hospital and it was a better paying job so she took off..
I took a per diem working 911 for Jamaica Hospital in Queens.. and stuck at Metro doing per diem transports to fill in my check.
At Jamaica I had different partners all the time for per diems get called in to fill in for regulars when they are out.. I got to work with everyone there..and cant really say i liked it at all but it paid my bills.
I did go on lots of strange calls..Like this one.. I was working with a female partner we got a call to go to the home of a woman who had just been transported for the OB MISS meaning misscarriage...and that a Boss was going to meet us there..
So when we arrived sure enough there was a FDNY boss and he told us we were to find and transport the aborted fetus to the hospital.....GEE..so this girls B-friend had got excited at the site of blood and took off with the girl but left behind the baby.....our job to find and bring that baby to the ER...
A cousin was there at the house and she said the baby was stuck to a panty liner that the girl had been wearing..so we got it..put it in a zip lock sandwich bag....It looked like a shrimp....the head was there eyes looked like little black pepper dots and the arms were like little match sticks and the torso and legs came to a point......it was no more than a tad-pole about 3 inches long.....this girl had only been 8-9 weeks along.
SO i had to write an ACR on an aborted Fetus never did that so we had to call our supervisor and he met us at the hospital and helped me out with the ACR.. (ambulance call report)
This same thing happened to me again about 2 months later twins 16 weeks along...wow now that was bad we had to go find them and the cops met us,, a sgt, and a dect. they wanted to know if the babies had been viable if med. help had been given.. but she left them behind in a plastic bag.. a French Giannan woman. BUT there was no hope of life for these twins..they were about 10 inches long each in seperate placentas and they looked like those alliens you see with the big eyes and long graceful arms and legs, we transported them and the nurse didnt want to handle them so we put them in Formaldahyde for her. This woman had a history of this happening this being the second time she had miss carried twins.
December 24, 2002
DONT EAT YELLOW SNOW!!!!!
Mood=Silly
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| FDNY EMS |
While I was in Medic school I had to do 325 hours of rotations on an ALS -911 ambulance.. so there were a few times that I would get off the BLS bus i worked on at Jamaica and hosp. onto the ALS to do a rotation.. sometimes this meant an overnight..
Christmas of 2002.. I had signed up to work..and that night it snowed like crazy like 15 inches.. and they called me and asked me to help by being a 3rd on the ALS bus and they offered to pay me and sign it off as a rotation as well so what a great deal,,, I really couldnt pass it up.....a holiday ......shift diff,,,,,and getting signed off for 8 hrs of rotation.. Sweet Deal.,, With that much snow on the ground you really needed 3 on a bus to lift and carry all the gear and people through the snow to the bus..so It was not an easy night by any means..and i had already worked my 8 hr shift and part of that had been in the snow.. I worked 15:00 to 23:00 (3-11) .. so i was tired and hoping for a slow night so I could just chill out..and catch a few winks in the back..
We got a call for chest pain this woman who was overweight by alot.. with typical symptoms of CHF congestive heart failure..Politically correct way of saying it is APE or Acute Pulmonary Edema.....what happens is the heart is weakened for lots of reasons.. and cant properly circulate the blood and fluids intervascularly (spellin?) and so the fluids gather in legs, arms, and lungs......and then the Pt. becomes SOB..short of Breath and this causes pain as well.....some symptoms to look for to differentiate between MI and APE is the PT..usually has some edema visible..and you want to listen for rales in the Lungs.. or crackles .....its like when u rub your hair between your fingers thats the way it sounds.. IF the lungs are really WET you can hear it with the naked ear..
This woman was able to walk to the back of the bus .. her daughter helped her come out and we put her on the stretcher.. started a line on her ....I got that one ..and then we gave her Nitro tabs under the tongue.....that helps to vasodialate the pt..and so the fluid has a bigger container and it relieves some of the edema in the lungs.. and helps to restore breathing .....we also put Nitro Paste on her.....Paste is a good thing if the blood pressure drops which it will with Nitro .....You can wipe it off...and not over medicate the Body.
WE gave her Lasix.........now Lasix is another fast working drug when we give it IV and we give up to 80mg... It comes in a 100 mg vial so what the heck most of the time u draw it all out and shoot out a little to make as even to 80 as possible..usually shoot that out towards your partners Coffee ..teeheee
THE thing about Lasix..or Furosemide is that it makes you PEE....and IT makes YOU pee ALOT......its a dieuretic ...and that helps to get the extra fluid out of the body.....We can also give Morphine to these Pts. but you got to watch the BP..and Keep Narcan handy when using Morphine.....thats another story for later,, oopps
SO we had Nitro Tabs, Nitro paste, and we even gave her a shot of Nitro spray under the tongue too....and we gave her 80 of Lasix.. She said the Chest Pain stopped and she was able to breath again......and she suddenly HAD to PEE and I mean she did.......SHE FLOODED the bus .....gee it was not funny for we had our gear nearby..
SHE kept apologising ,,,,,but hey she had no choice but to let it go.. the Medic I was with in back.. said "On second thought dont give the Lasix till you are making the turn into the ER bay"....LOL.. Another life saved..but we had to DECON the bus.....and it was cold and snowy....
and then ..........by morning...to be continued below....
Christmas Eve Part 2
(MERRY FREAKIN CHRISTMAS!!! NY stlye) HO HO HO...
ON this same snowy night In QUEENS.. near the end of the tour....at 5 am.. we got a call for an unresponsive in the snow ..
We had been called out of a nap..so we made our way over slowly...When we arrived we saw the BLS unit just arriving at the scene.. (on unresponsives dispatch sends out both a BLS and an ALS unit)
We found a man.. in his early to mid 60's fully clothed lying in the snow beside a running vehicle.. the snow had been cleared off most of the car but some was still on it.. so we put together that this man came out to clear the snow off his car and had a heart attack during the exersion...
THE BLS had their stretcher already out so we put the man on it....and loaded him in the back of their bus..which was a van style..not the wide box style that we had.. so when we all got inside I was at the foot of the guy..and we were 4 people in the back....and it was like sardines.. so THE medic i was working with as a 3rd on the bus, asked the BLS to leave the bus.. after he got the tube on the guy..(i never even got a chance to try for the ET tube to Intubate the man)..we did CPR. started the ECG got only asystole..(flat line) and continued CPR got an EJ (external Jugular) IV in and called Medical control and asked for all the goodies.. High does epi, BI-Carb, Dextrose, etc.. anyway after all efforts he didnt make it we did transport and we called in a note.. for a cardiac arrest..
The ER resus team was ready when we arrived they worked another 15-20 minutes and then called him.. (dead)
That was our last call of the night and I was so ready to be off....the sun was up it was cold and the snow had stopped but it was a mess..When we got back to the garage they suggested we bring our cars inside and clear them off so i did that ...and then headed home.. I got out on Woodhaven Blvd.....was going on my way...and saw a car stopped on the street in front of me.. other cars were in the left lane so I couldnt get around it so i began to brake....HIT ICE and slid into the back of this parked car....
IT had been parked IN the Street.....not pulled off the street for HE didnt want to pull into the snow ....so he just stopped in the street.......When he came out with his paper under his arm this elderly guy with FL. plates....I said
"why did u leave your car in the street?"
HE LIED and said, "IT went dead"
....OH yeah right....and you just left it and went for a newspaper.. sure it did!!
SO i gave him my name, insurance info and i left......I was too tired to bother with that crap......so my car was messed up on the pass. front....and it still is to this day I did replace the head light pulled the fender up some ..but it LIMPS now..I mumbled Merry Christmas under my breath as i drove away...(my poor little Mercury, what a gutsy little car it was)
Friday, April 30, 2004
Book Worm
Mood=Chillin'
ON a very sunny day in Brooklyn, I was working Transport..and My partner for the day was a female L.
The call was for cellulites......which is an infection of fat tissue in an area of the body I believe the old word for this is Blood Poison......anyways we arrive at the apartment.....Its on the 5th floor..but our wishes were answered and there was an elevator..
We knocked on the door and it was answered by a Home Health Aid.. and we could hear a high pitched male voice in the background.. we left out gear out in the hallway till we sized up the scene to see what was up..
Inside we see a very large very unkempt male.....bout 60 yrs old.. He is talking 20 miles an hour and my southern ears had trouble understanding what he was saying..anyway i came to see him.. at the end of the hall he sat on a chair..
As i got closer to him.. i started to look around at the place he called home..
OFF to the right was the kitchen..but ahead at the very end of this hall was what i guess was at one time the living room........NOW it was like a warehouse..FULL of books..........FROM floor to Ceiling.......BOOKS....of every size, shape and color.. the entire room was filled with stacks of books........there was a small pathway winding through this maze of books to enable passage thru this space..
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| one of my IRREGULAR partners standing by in Brooklyn dancing on the sidewalks |
THE smell of musty moldy books was overwhelming.....and off into the distance i could see that yet another room was also filled with this collection of Unbelievable volumes.
The Pt..was a past teacher he told us...and a past veteran......also
We evaluted him..he had enormous Elephant Legs......full of water, full of infection.....RED and Large.......and his feet were so infected he couldnt walk......or barely.....HE had huge toenails sticking up ....resembling Bear paws..
With a very eccentric way of speaking Mr Book Worm.. was more worried that his apt. be properly locked up so none of his books would be bothered in his absence ... He had not seen a doctor for over a yr. he said.....
He smelled bad, and had not bathed for who knows how long im sure if I went to see his tub it was probably filled with BOOKS..
When we left he said I bet you couldnt tell that I like to read.......
NO i said I had no clue.........*wink*
Sunday, May 2, 2004
Men will be Men??
Mood=Angry
South Jamaica is not exactly a nice place to work.. ITs always busy.....and there is alot of violence there..
Working on 50E..tour 1 with R. a crazy male partner.. who loves to buff calls....ME Im happy to just do the ones that are given to me.. R. is crazed on too much caffine and who knows what else....LOL
On this night he has his police radio on..and he is just wanting to buff a good call.....some guys like the violence that other people do to each other.....it just makes me mad at how stupid people can be..
THE call came over the police radio..and R took off like a shot over that way.....so when the call came over the EMS radio.......he made sure we were the closest unit and he called and said Central this is 50E we are closer to that call ETA of 2 minutes...so we got assigned to it...
WE arrive even before PD.....the call is for fight with mutliple patients....and possible knife involved.. so im very hesitant and yet R. is jumping right outta the bus and headed to the group of men some on the ground, some leaned up on the side of the building..some still yelling and grabbing at each other......they had broken beer bottles they using as weapons against each other.......as the fight had spilled out of the bar to the street outside..
When we arrived some took off running.. so let them go.....finally PD arrives.....we got one guy in the bus already and he is bleeding very badly from a cut across the face....and then another guy is on the ground R. is over evaluating him..while I get this guy settled in the bus.. We get the board for the one on the ground he is unconscious..so we have to package him..
THEN another unit I cant remember who I beleive a St. Vinnys unit comes screaming up ...to back us up..they go over to a few more of the injuried men......and get them into their bus.....
We take in these 2 guys.. the unconscious one seems to have possible internal injuries..from kicking of his ribs im sure......Dont hear any crepities but who knows.. Alcohol and testosterone (sp) dont mix too well..
Running Hot..again
May 5 2004
Boys will be Boys
Mood=Worried
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| Jamaica Hosptial ER ambulance bay |
Football is a violent sport.. people get hurt.......even if its just a community group of boys playing..
Working on 51 Charlie, if i recall ,, tour 2 with E. B. a male partner...we had a busy morning already.....and the afternoon was lining up to be the same.. we didnt have time to take a rest or get food even..
This call took us way out of our area..which is Howard Beach and so we guessed the bus that usually covered it was on another call I dont recall the exact events of this but we got to the ball field and saw the FDNY Engine on the other side of the field.. we didnt see the little side street which we should have taken to get closer to the action..so we got our gear on the stretcher and headed over to people doing the circle of death around someone on the ground..
When we got closer I saw that the firefighters were putting this guy on a board..but he was shaking violently.....a seizure in progress.. a small boy standing near was screaming and yelling "IS he gonna DIE"?? "Thats My big Brother IS he gonna DIE??" OH shit he is DYING"........I got a quick story from the fire at the scene..and they said it was a friendly game......and while running for a pass there had been a collision.......they hollered out some vitals but i was more interested in getting ALS here for the seizure......we made a call over the hand helds......but were told NO ALS available.....DAMN..
THEY had him on a board but the collar was impossible nearly with the violent shaking he had going on.. and saliva coming out of his mouth.....SEIZURES cause a release of saliva causing the Foaming of the Mouth as its sometimes called..
We did get a collar in place..and then i saw a priaprism the only one ive ever seen..(this is an erect penis which is a really bad sign of TBI.. traumatic brain injury ) THIS kid had a head injury with a possible nuero-trauma-injury.......this was a true emergency and we got him packaged and ran........
THE little brother came in the back with me..BIG brother was shaking violently.. it took both of us to hold him and keep him from hurting himself more..
E. B. drove like a maniac and gave a note to Brookdale Hospital.. I was so afraid we wouldnt make it before this kid had an anuerysm or something.. I was just wanting to get there.. since I was in Medic school at the time I knew he needed to be sedated and Intubated.. for he was a definate less than 8 on the GCS..and he needed ER care immediately......
We got him there alive....and he was taken straight into the trauma room where a team waited to do what they could ....since there had been no ALS they had to get a line.. but first they gave him some Lorazepam IM to stop the seizure so they could work on him
His little brother cried outside....I told him to go call his mom......she needed to be there.. I wonder how he came through???
The Wonder Drug Narcan
Mood=CockyNarcan is a cool drug that we use... we love to use it too......ITS used to undo what any opiate does to you......so its what the herion addicts,, who use too much get when they OD....THEY explained in medic school how this works..but I cant remember all that now.. all i know is its the coolest stuff..and it reverses the effects of these drugs.
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| My Hattian Partner Anthony |
ON a few occasions we have used it..and watched in amazement how people who were on the door of death are basically dead one minute and sitting up talking to you the next.....
THE herion is such a downer it puts all the body systems in SLOW MOTION.. its a really big parasympathic release..so the respiratory slows to nothing.. and then you get all sorts of problems......beginning with AMS ..altered mental status.......then into Hypoxia,,Lack of Oxygen in the body... from the shallow slow respiratory.....and then eventually respiratory arrest.. followed by cardiac arrest then death if no one calls 911
SO here are a few Herion stories.. its hard to find a line on a junkie sometimes....and then some are blessed with good viens Call comes in for a guy at train station who is unresponsive. GUY is very lethargic when we arrive sitting with his head and shoulders drooping to the floor..he was on the F train in Queens,, the train had been held in station till we arrived to remove the OD'd guy,, the train patrons..were in such a hurry they all started to yell at us "GET him off the train we want to get going" we were trying to asscertain whether he was dead or alive at this point.. geeeee...so we get him in a chair and bring him up...get him into the bus and WHILE im starting the line on him....my partner is getting him on oxygen... I do get a good line on him.....and we check the pupils PIN POINT as we suspect....and this guy is a known user.. ITS friday meaning the meth clinics have given out the weekend supply of meth but these guys are addicts so what do they do?? they take the whole F***IN lot of it at ONCE..and.. bingo you got trouble.
SO we gave him 1 mg. to start...if you give too much it will acutally put them into withdrawl sysptoms....which is not a pretty site and is cruel to do.,, and they will puke in your bus and that sucks..so we push it slow to see how much he needs to come awake .....in this case he come up with only 1 mg.. so thats cool..
In another case we went to a home the girlfriend met us at the door.. she says I dont know what he did..we enter to see a very frail guy on the floor supine,,on his back..and his little dogs walking around him whinning.. we check the pupils..ask her if he is a herion user she admits he is ......I got a good line on him.....we gave him.....slow the whole 2 mgs.. and he woke up sat up and said "I aint going to no hospital" Later in the ER ,, he was sleeping it off as we got our paperwork signed off..ONCE we give ya something you are going.....and some addicts will try to get out of the hospital with a heplock in place so they can just shoot up at will...FIRE in the HOLE
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| Jamacia EMS Bus |
One other time..we couldnt get a line on a guy and we gave it IM.(intermuscluar).it worked almost as fast..its so cool to see the pupils come from Pin Point to Normal right in front of you.....abrakadabra .and see people who were nearly dead start talking to you and laughing. SOMETIMES if you want to get even with the ER nurses (they can sometimes be ..bitchy) you can wait just till u get there.. GIVE 2 MG fast..and then get signed out and leave fast as possible.. one of the problems with Narcan is it can cause u to puke up your guts.....so we leave that for the ER staff....LOLOLOLololol,,, awww revenge is sweet......teehee
May 9, 2004
Frog Man
Mood=Quiet
Somewhere out on Long Island there is a nursing home where a man lives Im gonna call him the Frog Man..
This day Im working a transport bus, with My regular Male partner.. J.. The first Job we are given is quickly 10-87 (cancelled) and we are given a different call.. GO out to this Nursing Home take this patient for a Botox Pain Treatment ...in Port Jefferson..
So we take our time we are not told its a rush or Stat job so it takes us about an hour to arrive...
Any time we are well received it usually means bad news for US.....means they cant wait to get rid of the patient, or for some reason they just want us to get in and get out.. on this call we are met at the Front Door........(OMG we are wondering why),, A tall well dressed woman says "OH good you have a box style ambulance".. (hmmmm now im thinking FATTY,,, Fattty 2 x 4 cant get thru the ambulance door) or something ....again not good news for us....J and I give each other that Knowing LOOK........We have arrived directly behind a BLS unit from some local company and they took the elevator as we came thru the front door and was stopped by the tall woman..When the door of the elevator opens to take us up.....the BLS unit is still in it.. But they got out.....and said "HEs all YOURS.......he wont fit in our bus"...!!!!
We.....just gave each other that Lifted eyebrows look again.....like WTF....are we in for here..
Up stairs we get the room number of the Patient.....and I leave J with the paperwork and I go to see our PT.....wondering what all the mystery is....
Inside the room are 2 beds both contain Men.....One is on a ventilator,,,,the other is watching TV.. I ask Him if he is MR. XZY and he says YEAH, HE is not old like most nursing home pts are..he is 40ish.. and he is awake and alert.. He has bad teeth..but not a terrible looking guy..
I said "you are going to Port Jefferson".....HE said "NO....not today???" I said "Yeah today..we are here to take you"......HE frowns and says he doesnt want to go..SO i went out to the desk and told the nurse "HE says he dont want to go"
She came and talked to him..and said "he will go" so i went back inside..
I said "can you walk at all MR.?? He says "No I used to walk ....but I cant walk now." so i go over an ask is it ok if I take your vitals and do a quick Physical Exam, Its part of what Im susposed to do..(this is a BLS (basic Life Support) job and I should have asked J to do the Pt. care,.....but i didnt) He says its OK "do whatever you need to do".. SO i took his BP, pulse,,,,,listened to his lungs, and checked his pupils.. and a quick Nuero of the hands.. strong.....and then I lifted the sheet to check the legs.......
WOW>>>>>>now this was strange.......HE is laying supine..(on his back) and his legs were spread apart at the hip.......and laid open in a Frog Leg fashion.......He was wearing an adult diaper...
"how long have you been this way"?
"7 yrs"......
"You've been like this 7 yrs??"
"Yes, sure have, I used to have seizures really bad so they operated on my head, they got control of the seizures but now my legs don't work and they are froze in this position!"
The paperwork called it Spastic Contracted Syndrome or some-such crazy word.. HE told me his legs wouldnt move back into the correct position.. and he hopes he is going to Port Jefferson for a wheel chair measurement...
I told him he is going for Botox pain treatment.. He told me he was in terrible pain all the time.. and he has many Decubities Ulcers on his Butt which give him lots of pain..
SO now the problem is getting him on this stretcher and out that door and into our bus.. with his legs extended in this fashion he measures 4 ft across!!...It was not easy we took our time..and finally got him on.. we left the safety bars down..and worked our way thru the doorways carefully so as to not hurt him..
The stretcher usually fits right up next to the wall on the Pt. right side.. but since his legs were splayed open in that fashion..we couldnt secure the stretcher in the usual manner......so we took the seat belts from the bench and stretched them over to the side rail of the stretcher and belted it in at a tilt away from the wall and I used the Tech bag to wedge in between the wall and the Right side of the stretcher....and at the back I took the seat belt from the Tech Seat and hooked that to the rear bar of the stretcher.. so it was secured..
IMPROVISING is what im very good at....
The ride was bumpy and he yelled and cursed at each bump, really bad fowl words, I thought I was bad, he took the cake on cursing!!!....I tried to engage him in conversation so he could get his mind off that pain.. HE told me he had been married and he had twin daughters..but his wife had left him.....after he got put in the nursing home, and divorced him..and moved to Florida..he said his brother lived only a mile away but only visits once a month..
He said he would like to marry again...
"Do you think a woman would marry me"?
"Honestly, I said ???" "NO"
"He said "thats what I figure."
I asked him why didnt he get his Hip joints operated on so at least he could go in a wheel chair......"Im afraid to have surgery" he said...I encouraged him to look into it..
Well when we arrived it was only a consult so we never even moved him off the bus the DR. came outside and spoke to him... he told him He is not a candidate for the Botox Pain Mtg. and he gave him a referral to a nuero specialist.....so maybe he will eventually get the help he needs..
"your a nice looking woman he said"..........
I told my partner that I would drive on the way back...and he could ride in back with the patient..if he didnt mind......and so i did and we took the Frog Man back to his room....where he had been lying on his back for 7 years he thanked us and we left...
Saturday, May 22, 2004
Lessons Learned
Mood=Sad
On this day Im working a transport shift with a partner I'd never had before,,, my regular partner decided to try to get into FDNY EMS.. so at this time im getting a new partner everyday and that in itself is a stressful thing..
ITS easy now to eat my lunch while we are Going HOT.. I eat while my partner drives and manuervers through the Not moving traffic. One thing about working transport (as opposed to working the 911 citywide system) is this.....
since we service all the bouroughs and any place USA really we never know where we are off to till we pick up that radio and say we are 98 out...where u want us to go?.....IT could be anywhere as I found out once ..
"go to Mt. Sinai in Manhattan..for the baby going to Washington, DC... OKAY???"
So anyway this means we can be told to go from Brooklyn to the Bronx........"LITE IT UP".....so we are sirens and lights all the way for maybe 1/2 hour....its quiet a thing to get through the Grand Central Parkway and just see the cars move out of our way...kinda like Moses parting the Red Sea......LOL
SO back to my story......we are dispatched to Queens this day... ITS snowing, sleeting,,,raining all together cold as HECK...and we are at Booth Mem. Hosp.. on Main St...just came out of the ER and went 98 (available) and My dispatcher sends us to a private home address.. this is what I dont like about transport.........ITS susposed to be transport....take PT from one hosptial to another or to a Nursing home,,or a PT that cant go in a wheel chair to a Dr. office stuff like that ......but with MetroCare its not that way at all they will send us to do any job that comes over the phone..
The call is for a CVA......take it on a code 1 (in transport that means GO HOT) so we go....we arrive in less than 6 minutes.. and check out the house.....the door opens up a frantic looking woman standing at the door.., pointing up ..so we get the chair and the bag, and oxygen.....up the stairs we go...very narrow stair case too..
"SHE is acting so strange.. My mother she is 83 and she is not doing good at all",,,,
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| View from the tech's seat |
Entering the room upstairs We see a very crowded room-- stuff everywhere and in the middle of the stuff is a hospital bed with a very frail elderly woman on it....she is white haired, pale, thin, and she is shaking..
"Whats wrong with her.??" as I examine her and ask my young oriental partner to try and get a BP on her.....Im checking the pupils they are pinpoint..and not reactive, that i can see...she seems to be shaking on one side only ......not all over..and mainly in the right arm.....
"What medical history does your mother have."??
"She has none really..she has always been healthy she is just old and weak.......she doesnt eat much.. "
I checked to see if she had a PEG tube (for direct feeding to the stomach) and she had none..this explains why she is so thin.. shes not getting much nourishment..I admire the daughter for keeping her mom at home and out of the Nursing Home scene.. and letting her pass this life in the way it was meant to be passed.....IF you get too old to chew and swallow....then you go to puree food....and then when you can't do that Dont put a PEG tube in their stomach and force feed them.....Please...
SO i told this woman "YOUR mother is having a seizure has she ever had this before.???"
"NO" she says.......
About that time the elderly woman stops shaking..and opens up her eyes..only a slit....I told my partner lets get her out of her now while she is post ithical...We quickly package her up and get her to the top of the stairs.....its very narrow and a tight go...this woman tho frail is very TALL.....her long bony legs poking ME in the chest as we go down..
Outside the snow and sleet is continuing and we get the stretcher out and quickly put her on it and load her in the bus......the daughter is yelling to not leave without her and she disappears inside the house.......meanwhile my partner went back up to get the rest of our gear..
In the back of the bus im putting her on Oxygen.....and getting out my IV Kit.....and she starts to seize again more violently now.. BY this time my partner and the daughter are back and i tell Partner who is an EMT by the way and has never worked ALS (advanced Life Support, Im now a paramedic) before to "open up the IV kit and get out a start pak"
HE says "WHAT??"
OK..now i realize that he knows nothing about what im getting ready to do.. Im getting my drug box out and My narcs out too. SO while im doing that i say
"Never mind get a BP on her"
so he starts to do that I tell the daughter to
"GET IN THE FRONT SEAT"..
I get my start kit out and since this woman is so dehydrated i can see every vein in her body.....so getting a good line was easy i had partner hold her arm steady while I placed an 18 guage in her AC of the Right arm.. HER BP is 80/40.......OMG.....I had my valium out but now im wondering how much to give Im a new medic..got no one there to ask but we always have Medical Control to help out so i call......and tell the Doc in the Box what i have........."how much valium should i give to her"... Well the normal dose is 5 mg or 1 ml......so give it slow....he says.....but bolus her with at least 20 cc of fluid and get a drip going.........I had already talked my partner through setting up a fluid challenge while i got my narcs out......
I drew up 5 mg..of Valium..this is a controlled substance...its a narcotic.....and we dont give it unless its an active seizure and she is so she gets it.. I had to stop the seizure.....
Meanwhile the daughter in front is going banannas.......
"IS she going to die?? IF she is going to die I want to be with her ......OMG I want to be with My dying mother"
"Im just trying to do my job....let me do my job", i tell her...."Im trying to save your mother..does she have a DNR"
"YES she does"
"Then you got to show it to me.....I have to see it", I tell my partner to get it if she hands one back she starts to search her bag.
MOM stops seizing..and opens her eyes.......she starts to speak to me..but she is very ......weak......we have been enroute about 4 minutes we are 2 minutes from the hospital.......and suddenly she closes her eyes..and i see the ribs not going up and down as much as before.. i check her lungs for air movement.....her Respiratory is slowing down.........."DAMN im thinking..".. so I yell up front
"DID YOU FIND THAT DNR????" the daughter says why ??? I say,
" cause she is not breathing now"
I put her down totally flat...so i asked partner to pull over a minute....he does....and i get my BVM and start to bag......her resp. is at 4.......damn i know its the valium....i gave her too much she didnt need this much......damn!!!!
SO I said "GO>>>>>get going im going to bag her"... meanwhile i had given a note to my dispatcher to tell them im bring in a seizure to the ER now im trying to contact him back to say now its a Respiratory Arrest.....almost....
We arrive at the ER in 2 minutes and we go in I give my report very quick....tell them she was seizing i gave her slow 5 mg of valium,......then she went into an almost resp. arrest....rr now at 4.....daughter is saying she has a DNR cant produce it.....so im bagging......and then he says stop bagging let me see.....she is breathing at like 6 or 8 now a little better........HE says did u give her any Narcan??? NO i said she went into depression 2 minutes out........so i just started to bag her .....
HE order 2 MG..of Narcan......and in a minute MOM woke up and said to daughter who was sobbing in tears,
"What happened?"
F**K.......what a morning that was and then I was called in for a review and asked why I didnt give the Narcan.......Honestly I was too busy to think of the fact that The time it took me to bag her i could have drawn up the Narcan.....but then I was there at the ER ......so i just brought her in......IM a medic in training....not seasoned and have an EMT parnter not another Medic to throw ideas around with........BUT believe me next time ill have my narcan in my pocket ready to give.....
Before I left the daughter came to me in tears and said "YOU saved My mother" while she hugged me so tight I thought I'd stop breathing
But i felt that I had let her down by not acting fast enough.....when i left they were holding hands and talking to each other..
I went out in the snow.....to the next job the next call......."IM 98......where do you want me "??? ..............go to XYZ street on a 1 unresponsive patient......DAMN.......here we go again...GOING HOT
Friday, June 25, 2004
Frog Man Revisted
Well yesterday I transported the Frog man again.. This time we took him to an ortheopedic for a consult about his condition..
It was a long ardurous task getting him out of his room and into the bus (ambulance) as usual.. since his legs are spread open in medical terminology.. they are abducted at the hip 90 degrees and the knees are contraced and the feet are pronating ....just imagine a frog laying on its back!
SO anyway this time the Doctor @ the Nursing Home where he lives ..went with us to give him support and to talk to the doctor to see what can be done.
When we arrive its as I suspected an Ambulatory Surgery office.. so there is no place to go with a stretcher and no stretcher to leave him on..so he has to stay on ours..and we have to stay for the duration of the visit..
This place was hopping with all sorts of people who will have THR..and TKR...total hip replacements and Total Knee Replacements.. all suffering worn our joints or sports injuries.. no one like The Frog man.. I had asked the DR. if she had thought of taking him to The Hospital for Joint Disease in the city....she said that was next if nothing could be done with this Dr.since he worked in that area..which is 55 miles away from the city by the way.
SO.. after we waited a long time.. they needed to see xrays that were taken 2 weeks ago over at one of the MRI labs.. etc so we agreed to go pick that up....after a fax was sent and HE signed for permission..We went over and the Lab tech remembered him right away.......he said OH the FROG MAN???? I was amazed that he had given him the same pet-name..but honestly its like a frog if you lay it on its back..that is the shape this man is in...
SO we return with the films..and while we were there the Radiology Tech explains what is wrong with his legs to me and my partner..
He said that because of the Brain Injuries that he had over the years.. (he had operations for Epilepsy) it had caused large amounts of bone to grow in places that it was not needed.. and so now he cant move his hip joints or knee joints..there is a very large name for all this extra calcification..but i honestly dont remember it.
SO we go back with x rays in hand..and the DR. reads them and then we wait to hear his recommendation..
He came into the back hallway where we had stashed our moaning PT. for he was on this uncomfortable stretcher of ours for over 4 hours.. we had placed him in the back hallway for his legs prevented us going into Exam Room # 3 as Cutzie little medical assistant had wanted us to...grrrrrrrrrr
Anyways ........DR. says this........
"OK.. we can go in do a major surgery remove excess bone from your hips knees..and feet......but you will never walk again..and you may not live thru the surgery........for it would be extensive..and very difficult."
"OR we can go in splice bone..and remove some and get the legs in a different position.... OR the best recommedation.......I can give is to amputate both legs....so at least you can go into a wheel chair and have a better quality of life."
We all stood looking at the floor in hushed silence as The Frog Man said.....
"You want to cut off my legs"??????
LOVER BOY
Mood=Flirtatious?
LETS talk about the young mexican boy that had a pretty little girl friend over in south Jamaican Queens NY..
Im working on 51boy, its an overnight, from 22:00 - 06:00 OK for all u non military or non EMS its 10pm to 6am. We were sitting sort of dozing on and off hoping that the radio silence stays that way. BUT then it comes over 51 boy for the leg fracture. SHIT that means we gotta splint, board, collar, and last but not least CARRY...grrrr
SO we get there in less than 4 minutes thats the beauty of the NYC ems...its on a grid and a very well covered grid you are only 5 min. from a hospital. So we arrive and PD is pulling up same time as us. We see a guy hoppin on one foot off into the shadow. WE get out and PD gets out. THEY go up to the door of the apartment where a man is cursing, and talking excitedly. We go in the direction of the now sitting person. A young mex. boy about 17 sitting on a short brick fence waiting for us to come to him. PD comes with us after talking to the man at the door. Seems our PT. had jumped outta the 2nd stroy window after his girlfriends father was banging on her bedroom door having found out the boy was in there..so instead of facing the RAFF of dad he jumped..
HIS foot was now aimed backwards.. his ankle a gross dislocation, and fracture, he was crying, We got the strethcer with board on it close to him, and he swiveled himself onto it we laid him down, collared him, and strapped him on, got him in the bus and splinted his ankle, and drove him to the ER, where he was taken to the Trauma section. HE told the triage nurse who could speak spanish, that he didnt want his parents to find out.. SORRY DUDE BUSTED
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Muscular Dystrophy
We got a call to go to Bellevue Hospital floor 7 East.. It has become known to us from all the cases we transport from the East Wing are usually either no insurance, or homeless, or very poor people. Sometimes we transport the illegal aliens to this wing. Bellevue is a state operated facility so they cant refuse service. Its a very good hospital and on the South wings they have first hand CCU's and ICU's.
We came rushing down the hallway with our stretcher, and went right past the nursing desk,,,right past the room where we knew our patient was .. in search of the bathroom.. after a while on the job you get to know the logical layout of a nursing floor.. so we knew the general direction to go in search of the bathrooms on this floor.
As we strolled past talking to each other and ignoring eveyone else.......they all started to holler......."Hey Metro , where are you going.....you went right past the room.." ........We look at each other and we say "" Gee whiz , whats up with these poeple they wont even give us a minute to Pee !!" .."we know, we reply we got urgent business at the end of the hall first.. " so we abandon stretcher and continue down the hallway......and find 2 restrooms waiting..
Once out we return to our waiting stretcher and I head to the nursing desk to inquire if the patient and paperwork is ready ......"there is no paperwork this patient is going home.." "OK, No problem then i need the chart" ......She gives me the chart.. I hear J. my partner making contact with the family in the room...speaking to them in Spanish.....im happy for a bi-lingual partner ......but when our patient, is Indian, Russian, Itallian, Egyptian,.. He is no help at all.. LOL
On reading the chart I see this is a 20 yr old male who is vent dependant has a tracheostomy, and was hospitalized for aspiration pneumonia. I see that the patient has a pmhx (past medical history) of this, as well as Muscular Dystrophy. Many times when i see this I dont know what to expect, it depends on the severity, etc.
I see a female who is talking in Spanish VERY fast to my partner and she is dirty and unkept with all her front teeth missing,,,,,her hair unwashed and uncombed.. her clothes seem as if she has never removed them to clean them. She is all smiles..and I have no clue what she is saying for she is really excited and talking 90 miles an hour (as we say back home)...Also I see a man, who also looks very unkempt.. dirty...clothes raggedy, and he needs a shower very badly. He has coke bottle glasses on as does the woman.. they really look pretty bad these two.
On the bed i see the Patient.. the 20 year old male.. he is dressed in a hospital gown.. and he has his vent hooked up to his trach at the base of the neck and he is talking too. BUT not in Spanish....in English. He is saying,,"Ma the first thing im gonna do when i get home is play my video games, ive missed them so much after 14 days in here"... so by that statement I know that Jas we will call him is Alert, Oriented and totally aware of his surroundings.... When i approach him to do my quick look part of the physical exam.. I see a young male, whose head and face are perfect.. but i see a body that is whithered and shrunken from lack of use.. I see no movement in the extremities and I see 2 parents who love their son more than anything on this earth........fusing over him like he just hatched from an easter egg or something...LOL
His mother then directs her attention to me.. and asks me if the vent is going to fit on the stretcher with him??? I tell her not to worry we will make sure its secure..and that we have done this many times before and all will be fine.. father says he is going to be going in a seperate vehicle and mom is riding with us.. so we make ready to get the Patient moved over to our stretcher and secure his vent at the bottom where feet usually go..but in this case since his are contracted upward there is room to place the vent here.
In the back of the bus on the way Jas..tells me about his video games and I realize its his escape, in those violent games he discribes he has workable arms, legs that jump and kick.. he can have control over someone else for a change......and he can be someone else. He is a happy child,, he is not retarded at all, but very immature and spoiled for sure.. and he says his dad doesnt like him playing the violent ones.. ......so he remarks that on his next birthday he will be 21 and then he can play any game he wants to ...LOL...
He tells me he has a girlfriend...that he met when he went to school..but now he is out of shcool...and she is in a wheelchair too..but she doenst get to come see him they talk on the phone...and he tells me his grandmother lives with them too..and that she is not susposed to be living there for they live in a project building and i guess they get a reduced rent based on the number of people in the apt...Jas is so happy to be going home. he cant wait he tells me.. for he gets visits from friends, and he has his cat,,and his games..
The use of one hand and 2 fingers is all he has he cant move anything else.. he can move his head and he can talk ,,,he cant feed himself but he can chew and swallow. He told me that up until 2 years ago he had no vent he just was not able to move. He sort of reminded me of the frog man in the way his legs were drawn up only not as extreme.
Mom is up front talking my partners head off she is a very hyperwoman.. my partner being a very sedate and easy going guy was like a trapped mouse in the company of an agressive Cat.. LOL
When we arrive at the home a project building in Canarsie, Brooklyn.. Mom runs in to get Jas's bed ready.. while we wait Jas and I continue to talk.. he is so happy to be home.. and then he says" OH i see my grandmother over by the door.. she has altzhimers and she can be a pain". So im thinking ..wow this woman is caring for a son for his whole life,,basically and now for her mother too.. no wonder she has no time for herself to clean up and shower and she doesnt even see herself as in need of any attention.
When the door to the apt. is opened i see a cat go flying down the hallway as cats tend to not like visitors and Jas is yelling at the Cat "Im home"........and to grandmother who has followed us up the hallway. the narrowness of the hallway and the strange angle of the door makes it impossible for us to take the stretcher all the way back to his room.. so Mom says in the living room we will use the hoya lift to transfer him..this is a hoisting device, for lifting people who cant move off a bed or wheelchair. Inside the apt.. I see piles of junk,, and an apt that has not seem a mop in a very long time, or any fresh paint in an even longer time. I see one sofa but its covered with junk.... piles of clothes, in the corner is a computer and on the other wall is a fish tank with lots of small fish inside. Grandma sits on the one end of the sofa thats clear of junk. There is a TV in the corner and there is one small 5000 btu airconditioner in the window. The room is semicool as if the AC is not really doing its job. (seeing this I think of my own MOM who is visiting my sister at this time ,,,the spacious home they have and my MOM will not only have her own room and private bath, there but they will be redecorating it to suit her wants, it will have all the comforts of home including a queensized bed, and anything you could wish for,,,, here grandma has no room at all but has to stay on the cramped sofa,,, she too is unkempt,,,and she smiles broadly to me)
The long narrow hallway takes us to the bedroom where Jas stays.. inside it is a hospital bed.. and all sorts of stuff needed for the care of an invalid person, diapers, towels, lots of stuff.. and there is his TV at the foot of his bed..with many wires which im sure are connected to his game. We used the hoist to bring him down the hallway so getting him onto the bed is no problem for it swings right into place and mom lowers him into place.... again he is happy in his bed...
Looking around i see his room has no AC only a fan.. and the open window lets in the muggy air from outside.. I feel like ive just dumped this kid in hell. He left the clean room at the hospital where it was cool.. and where it was a large private room and we brought him to a project building in south Brooklyn,, where its a hard place to live crime is rampart, and the building is old and over run with thugs and cockroaches, and inside its dark and dirty and the elevator smells like Pee and the place has not been cleaned in who knows how long.. Old boxes of whatever are eveywhere..and the floor is so dirty I dont even want to walk on it with my shoes ON..... a teddy bear hangs over his bed a large one its covered with a layer of dust so thick it makes the bear seem to have grey hair.. THE rest of the room is jam packed with wheel chair,, bed pans, hoist lift,,,,,,and then the boxes and thepiles of whatever... you cant see out the windows there aredirty blinds closed to the light.. and the room is steamy and hot, the only open space is the space right beside his bed.. His mom is very hyper getting him settled in her way.. pulling him into postion by herself.. I offer to help but she refuses my help and says she does this several times a day with no help... SHE says I know how to take GOOD care of my SON and she smiles very broadly showing the cavity where teeth should be.
Jas remarks that its nice to be HOME and a big smile comes onto his face....
When i first walked into that room at the hospital, I saw 2 people who have a child that is a burden to them.. but more than that I saw LOVE...they Love this child as if he were as normal as me or you... when i arrived at the home they have i saw a real need ......they need someone to show them that their lives are important too. They have value.. but they put all their energy into the care of the boy and not into the environment they are in and not only are they caring for an invalid son, but a mentally challenged grandmother......all in a cramped 2 bedroom apt. in the projects....
I just wish Jerry Lewis had to live in that apartment and take care of that boy for ONE DAY even.......where is the sanity in this.. why do some have so MUCH and others have nothing........???????????????????????????????????????????????
My heart was broken.. but i said my goodbys in high spirits and i grasped Jas's shrunken hand and said "Take care and have a wonderful weekend with your games" his smile was as broad as the Brooklyn Bridge...."Thanks for bringing me HOME"....
When i left i had tears almost coming out my eyes so I had to rush out.. MOM was yelling her thank YOU''s at my retreating back and I yelled back My your welcomes...
OUTSIDE i wiped my eyes and J shook his head and we got on the radio.."we are 98 and request 10-2.." ........."Come on home 025.. you are 10-2 have a good weekend."
Duchenne. The most common form of muscular dystrophy in children, Duchenne muscular dystrophy affects only males. It appears between the ages of 2 and 6. The muscles decrease in size and grow weaker over time yet may appear larger. Disease progression varies, but many sufferers need a wheelchair by the age of 12. In most cases, the arms, legs, and spine become progressively deformed. Some sufferers are mildly retarded. Severe breathing and heart problems mark the later stages of the disease. Sufferers usually die in their late teens or early 20's.
Monday, November 29, 2004
Frog Legs Update
Mood=Quiet
Just an update, (see original entry of May 9, 2004)
I was told by an EMT, that Frog Legs decided to have the operation and got the Bi-Lateral amputation. I have not seen him, and I cant say this is positive, but I believe in his situation I would have done the same thing. Would you want to lay on your back 24/7 with useless legs or cut them off get in a wheel chair and leave that room? To me its a no brainer, since the doctors told him the legs would never be useful even if they were able to put them back in the proper place.
IF and when I go see him again I promise a complete report!
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| My National Registry Cert. |
Sunday, September 11, 2005
National Registry Certification
Mood=Happy
After two tires I did get my National Registry Cert. Im happy to have it because now I can move to another state (38 states take NR) and my certification will carry over without having to recert!! That makes me Happy!!
9-9-2006
9-11 remembered...
The 9/11 memorial is coming up this Monday. Its a day I will never forget and those of you who read here know I live in NYC and I was a witness and a volunteer at Ground Zero since I am a NY State Emergency Med. Tech, now at the level of Paramedic. At that time I had just finished my EMT-Basic training and had my State Certification. Along with a group of about 15-20 of my classmates led by one of our class instructors we met at close to the site of the disaster that evening around 6 pm....it took me several hours to get home from Brooklyn. See at that time I lived in lower Manhattan, about a mile from Ground Zero...and I was working in Brooklyn. I always took the F train to work.
I stood in horror and watched a plane hit a skyscraper while another one burned and then stood in dismay and tears watching while they both tumbled to the ground. The huge panoramic bank of windows in our Con-Ed office suite spanned all of lower Manhattan, with the Brooklyn Bridge in the foreground and the twin towers behind..what a view it was... and on that fateful day it was the worst view I've ever witnessed. At first we thought we were under attack from a foreign army. The plane looked to be a dark green to all of us. One member of our group did take pictures. He had a 35 MM camera with a 500 telephoto lenses attached. This camera was used as a tool, part of his job. He ran to get it from his desk and began snapping pictures. Although he promised to share those pictures in the end he didn't I believe he SOLD them to the highest bidder!!(bast**d)
We suspected that what we were seeing was either bodies falling or terrified people jumping to their death...it turned out to be both. He wouldn't share the close up view of the lenses but we were able to see enough with the naked eye. The story unfolding before me made me retch and I sobbed. Since I had just finished my EMT training I knew Emergency Personnel would be responding to this and so when the buildings came crumbling down...I also knew they were lost.
Con-Ed could be a potential target so we were told to evacuate the building. We went outside and I told my boss I was going home to Manhattan. I walked up to the Manhattan bridge and was stopped by NYPD, no one is going in everyone is walking out! One police officer told me that a Q train was scheduled to go over I had to walk about 20 blocks to find the train entrance. When I arrived on that platform...I cant tell you how I felt, I felt a certain freedom, when you see an organized way of life suddenly thrown into causas, then it frees up something in your mind, the feeling that there is no order I find this hard to put into words..it has to be the way a freedom fighter feels as he raises his gun and aims at the oppressor. I still didn't know what had caused this horrible event to take place I only wanted to help the injured...so I waited for that train. Persons on the platform were screaming, mostly in terror of seeing their world crumble before their eyes...we didn't know if more were coming F-15s were doing fly-bys it was loud and scary. When the train rumbled in and the doors opened many shrunk back in horror and tears wanting to go home but too scared to actually do it...I wasn't. I got on that train...only about 1/3 of the people on the platform had the courage to get on. One 8 car bullet we shot out of the tunnel onto the bridge...the sight below was unbelievable a cloud of ash, smoke, and dust enshrouded all of lower Manhattan and the sun light was almost blocked it grew dark and dismal. I sat by the widow staring, wondering, praying. When that train got me on the other side I had to figure out where I was, I didn't usually ride the Q! My cell phone had quit working so when I hiked over to 8th avenue where my friend Tiff was working and we made our way to the rendezvous site of the volunteers.
Once there we organized ourselves and began to set up triage areas. All the walking wounded had already been removed and the search for survivors was on...we honestly believed we would be giving aide to survivors...but none were found. Rumors of trapped survivors were rampart. But none were dug out...they screams would go up but then die in horror as the bodies one by mangled one were drug out of the rubble. I was by this time just wandering around the site dazed. I wanted to help but I also wanted to witness the event. I left my triage post to the less adventurous and began to walk around. Over by #7 I saw large chucks of glass just waiting to fall on would be rescuers below and I told a couple of NYPD officers they should rope that area off...pointing up to the huge sheets of glass hanging literally by a thread...they DID! Yellow tape was stretched to keep passers-by out to hopefully a safe distance.
I was soon discovered by other volunteers who has set up shop in One Liberty Plaza. They were acting "Temp. Morgue" Ok..so I began to help them. Bodies were brought in from the gray mud pile of debris in black bags..we opened those bags and cataloged what we saw. Trying to determine sex, race, height, weight, any clothing, jewelry items? etc. Most men had ID on them no women had ID on them..if you read my e-book Snowman to Dixxebell you will read the details of what I witnessed that horrible night 5 yrs ago.
When I grew tired I found a park bench and laid down I looked up and for the first time since I had lived in NYC I saw stars twinkling overhead. I slept. In the morning I went home and showered and slept in my bed. I went back that afternoon and evening and tried to help again....but I realized it was useless...No living survivors were found. So on the third day I returned to work since trains were now moving again over the bridges...and the rest if history. I have one piece of burnt paper picked up from the ground and I have the goggles they gave me as PPE..other than that all I have are my horrible memories.
I was interviewed by a news camera from Albany....
(*Are you going to change the way you live your life was the question I was asked* I answered NO, this didn't change the way I live my life but it did change the way I thought about the rest of the world, Now I know there are people who Hate Americans and they do want us Dead! I also know we are NOT safe.)
... on that weekend I went down and stood alongside WEST ST. with thousands and cheered the firefighters, and construction crews as they came in/out changing shifts..it became a heroes gauntlet. Their faces told us what we all knew anyway...but we never lost hope. The flyers began to line the walls, LOST, MISSING, PLEASE help me find my MOM, SISTER, BROTHER, LOVED ONE! I read millions of them...I attended candle-light vigils in Washington Park, and in Union Square..we, strangers but united by the same horror sang "We Shall Over Come"...we held hands we prayed and we mourned the dead....for weeks we were all in a state of shock. Two weeks later I broke down and cried for hours, trying to rid my mind of the crumpled, dismembered and crushed bodies that lay before me encased in gray mud, they looked as if they had been freshly unearthed from graves and in a way they had.
I've heard many stories of what could have been done what should have been done what we will do next time....I for one never want to experience a NEXT time...let that be the ONLY time!
To all of you who had family or friends lost in the WTC disaster I offer you my condolences.
Stories Written by Me for News Blaze about my experiences at Ground Zero:
Ground Zero Still Claiming Lives
A Witness Remembers
Sept, 11, 2006
Mood=THRILLED
I have decided to move out of NYC AND GO BACK TO SC, Ive given my 2 weeks notice and Sept, 29th 2006 (my 53rd birthday) will be my last day working as a paramedic!!! I have my National Registry Certification and its good until 2008, in case I want to try it in another state! BUT Im going HOME and I just want to forget all this EMS stuff!!!!I have many more stories to tell and one day I may write them ALL down. I worked in EMS from 2001-2006 so thats a lot of Rides GOING HOT!!!!
This is a video I shot while we were trying to get over the Brooklyn Bridge with our lights n sirens on..UNfortunately my little digital had video but no sound..SO you have to pretend you can hear it...WHOOO, HONK..WHOO..HONK..we are going HOT--
This video is taken crossing over the Williamsburgh Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn
