Respond to a....

I had hoped to keep up with this thing a bit better since being back... but oh well. An 8-month old will do that to you.

I am now on the other side of the burn-out phase and most of the time can simply acknowledge that for the territory I work in.... it just is what it is. 80% of the time, its the stereotypical butt-ache call that if the person had an ounce of common sense or had been taking their meds as prescribed, we wouldn't have needed to have been called.

Ran a call for a possible broken arm on a 7-yr old. When we get there the Mom is on the belligerent side of making a scene. The kid had gotten hurt on the playground and was already wrapped in a sling by the school. I wont get into the conversation I had with Mom, lets just say it wasn't pretty. We call for a basic and dispatch tells us to stay in the area, we'll be waiting for PD to clear a scene for a person shot. It's 3 buildings away. We didn't hear any gunshots while we were with the angry mom outside.

PD clears the scene and we enter with 2 kids in custody and a third on the floor unresponsive. Its a crappy call. Anything that occurs where a kid gets hurt sucks. Lots of details I cant share here, right now, but lets just say it did not end well. After 3 1/2 hours of de-coning the truck and us, we were back in service. 2 minutes later we get called back to the SAME address for a..... 7-yr old with a broken arm. Yep... same woman as before. I am quite livid as we are enroute. (by the way.. its not broken, the poor little thing has a sprained arm that mom has no OTC meds to help relieve her child's pain, she just wants to make a scene about it)

We get there and I ask why she didn't go to the hospital with the other ambulance we called in for her. She says, "they said I didn't need to go". I'm thinking... I told you you didn't need to go. I call the basic unit and inquire as to what happened. They advised that the woman signed 2 refusal forms and didn't want to go then since there was a shooting happening in her apartment complex and wanted to know what was going on. GGGrRRrrrrrrrrr. So.... NOW she's ready for us to transport her daughter (who is in pain) to the hospital. Ma'am.... we are NOT your taxi service!!!!!

We ran a call on Arthur, a frequent caller who is homeless and when its just to cold or he's just tired of being chased from the front slabs at convenience stores, he calls 911 for a warm bed and a meal in the ER. This time he is complaining of difficulty breathing and chest pain, albeit from the coughing he's presenting to us. He says he was at the Er last month, diagnosed with pneumonia. I ask if he finished his antibiotics. He says no... he threw them in the bushes a few days ago because he started to feel better. As we're waiting for a basic transport to come get him, I ask him his history and how he got from someone who worked and supported themselves to this. He is a friendly soul who by his eyes longs for a simple purpose in life. He tells a tale of bad choices and big plans for the future as soon as he can get around to it. We help him into the other ambulance and make our way back for shift change.