The Choice

You ever run a call on that homeless guy, or the drunk (sometimes the same person) and had PD there. If so, I'm sure you've probably heard the cop give the individual in need of "help" this offer: You either go to jail or to the hospital.

I hate this phrase. I understand why officers do this. They don't want to deal with said person, they don't want to do the paperwork and they probably figure that the hospital will do more good than jail. I completely understand those points. If I were in their shoes I would be tempted to do the same thing.

But, this practice comes at a price. Now this probably inebriated person is going to 'choose' to go to the hospital. Most of the time they never called 911 and they have no medical complaint. Now we have to take an ambulance out of service.

For those of you that don't know, ambulances don't grow on trees. If you have an emergency in my area, a firefighter paramedic will be there fast and is able to perform advanced life saving medicine. But he can't get you to the hospital. So now the ambulance that would have been there in 5 minutes is now transporting someone that doesn't really want to go to the hospital. The next ambulance is coming but they are 15 minutes away.

Once the patient gets to the ER he'll take up a bed. Have you ever had to wait to be seen in the ER? Now this patient will be seated in the ER waiting room since he has no real medical complaint but he's still taking up time, space and money when he originally didn't want to be there.

So is the answer to have to cops take the guy into custody? Is that going to accomplish anything? Would it be more wasteful? Maybe there's another answer out there. I'm not sure. I just hate that offer, jail or hospital.

The 7 Eleven Answer

Have you ever heard the question, if 7 Eleven is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the door? I know one of the answers.

We woke up for the 6th time that night. Maybe the 7th. It all was kind of fuzzy by this point. We had been to this address before. It is one of the locations that the homeless use to call us. Matter of fact, we were just there about 2 that morning for an assault victim.

As we approached the convenience store we scanned the phone booth and to our surprise, it was vacant. We then looked up and down the street for someone that may have called but still found nothing. Finally, after exhausting all other options, we went inside 7 Eleven.

As we walked in the door we were waved down by a man behind the counter. We walked over to find the 60 year old employee laying on the ground in pain. He said that he was moving a milk crate up onto a shelf when he started experiencing severe pain in his lower back. He said it felt as if someone had place a knife in his back.

Within a minute or two we had him loaded up on AMR's gurney. His replacement, who supposedly lived across the street, still had not shown up. So we decided to lock up 7 Eleven and call PD to babysit the joint until someone got there.

Incidentally, the only other time that I personally know of a closed 7 Eleven was during the riots in LA in the early 90's. When PD enforced the curfew, 7 Eleven shut down.

Stabbing...Kind Of

For the fourth time that afternoon we were toned out to a medical aid with staging. This time it was for a stabbing at Rite Aid. We staged a half block away and watched as PD swarmed the area. They set up a perimeter really fast. They left us waiting for what seemed like an hour.

After about 5 minutes we were cleared to enter. We pulled up and jumped out. There was already caution tape stretched across the entrance. One of the officers raised it so we could slide past. Another officer, just inside the front door, directed us to the center of the store. We asked how bad it was and he said it wasn't.

As we approached the center of the store I noticed random drops of blood on the floor. As I turned onto the center isle I noticed a young man, in a security guard uniform, sitting on the floor. I didn't notice any bleeding so I asked him if he was hurt. He held up his and and I could see a bit of dried blood. I've seen paper cuts that have bled more.

The assailant had managed to take a small slice of skin off of the security guards thumb. I asked the guy if he wanted to go to the hospital, which he thankfully refused. As I placed a band-aid on his wound I asked if had had a recent tetanus booster. He had no idea. So before signing him out AMA I made sure he understood that he needed to go to his MD or a free clinic or an urgent care to get that shot.

As we walked out we canceled AMR. Another life saved (this last statement is literally dripping with sarcasm).

What Goes Down Must Go Up?

It had been a quiet shift. We decided to head over to the off road park to check things out. They were having a 3 day professional event which is fun to watch and usually good for providing a few calls. They always have a private paramedic ambulance on standby but anything serious or requiring manpower and we get a call. I told my engineer that every time we go over for a tour we end up getting a call there. It's almost as if the riders know we are close so they try some of the riskier moves, and fail.

We started down on the West side and worked our way East, stopping to people watch and to chat to the rangers. While traveling down the dirt road a dirt bike came at us in a hurry. A young man pulled up and said that a young girl had gone into the stream up one of the canyons. We flipped on the lights, notified the rangers and dispatch and headed that way. We also requested a helicopter figuring it's better to have it on its way and not need it than vice versa.

When we arrived at the accident we found a 11 year old girl laying on the trail. Her dirt bike was at the bottom of a 10 foot deep ravine. One of the "helpful" bystanders and decided to pull her up to the trail and take off her helmet. One of the rangers immediately grabbed c-spine for me. I can't say enough positive things about those rangers. They make my job easy.

A witness said that she had accidentally left her bike in neutral when she started down the hill. She accelerated to a speed which made it impossible for her to make the curve sending her into the stream below.

As I started my exam I noticed that she had a laceration above her right eye. The bleeding was relatively minor so I wasn't too concerned. The young lady kept complaining about her right foot. After my physical exam and noting that there were no other apparent injuries other than her cut and her foot my captain asked if I still wanted the helo. As I was about to say no I noticed that my patient started asking the same questions again, indicating a possible brain injury. I decided to fly her.

While some of the guys finished strapping her to a backboard others splinted her leg. I started an IV and then administered some morphine. I was working with an overtime captain and he was impressed that I even considered pain medication. I ended up giving the little girl as much as I could and it took the edge off of the pain from a possible fractured foot. Once all this was done we loaded her into the stokes basked on the back of the rangers 6 wheel ATV and headed down the hill. Part of our crew had already headed that way to set up an LZ.

Just as we got the the landing zone the helicopter appeared over head. Once I made sure the patient was safe from the rotor wash I snapped a quick video.

Once Calstar was on the ground we met up with the crew. I gave a report to the flight nurse who did a quick second check of the patient. We then loaded the girl onto the waiting helicopter, the engine never having shut down. Her father was going to get the ride of his life in the front seat.

After clearing the bird I took another video of them lifting off. In ten minutes she would be at Children's Hospital, instead of the hour it would have taken by ground ambulance.

Jealous Cops

Sometime around 0200 someone apparently assaulted a woman. It was enough of a fight that someone called the cops. When they arrived on scene and discovered that the victim had been pushed in the neck they called us.

Now there was a disconnect in communication somewhere. When we arrived on scene I found PD talking to the woman on the sidewalk. The first officer to talk to me said that she had no medical complaint. My immediate thought, "Then why are we here?!" As I approached, the victim (please note that I do not call her a patient) became agitated at our presence and made it well known that she didn't "need no firemen" and that she wasn't going to the hospital. I made sure she was able to refuse medical care and headed back to the engine.

As we finished loading our equipment one of the officers said that they had to call simply because she had been assaulted. I think they were just jealous that we were asleep and they weren't. Misery loves company.