What?! No Gun?

At just after 4 in the morning the tones went off. We were being dispatched to Denny's for an assault victim.

As we pulled around the corner we were greeted what seemed like every police vehicle in the area. As we walked toward the entrance we could see that the dining area inside looked like a tornado had swept through. Several of the officers directed us over to one of the 3 guys in handcuffs.

The patient, a man in his early 20's, had a bloody nose. He was very angry and didn't want any help from us. We checked him out anyways since he was in police custody. He said nothing hurt and continued to refuse treatment. One of the other guys had reportedly been hit in the head but he also denied any medical complaint.

While listening to the officers as the interacted with the guys in silver bracelets I heard that the three of them were involved in a fight with 9 other gang members. Not good odds. But what I don't get is how 12 gang members can have a fight and not one of them is carrying a weapon. No knife. No gun. No whip, axe or sling shot. I guess they're going soft.

Ashamed

There are times that I am actually a little ashamed to call myself a firefighter/paramedic. This last week there were a couple of those times.

The first incident was an occasion where the engine responded to a call just minutes before I got there for shift change. They responded to a critically ill patient experiencing shortness of breath. Because of the inexperience of the medic (the only medic on the crew) the patient ended up being transported to the ER with a firefighter doing chest compressions. I'm not going to get into the details here (I don't think it's the right venue for that type of venting) but I will say that more could have and should have been done. It's frustrating to me to see people claim the title of paramedic without taking the responsibility seriously.

The second incident was much worse. A neighboring department responded to the beach where a 57 year old male was attempting suicide by drowning in the bay. The victim waded out 50 yards to where the frigid water was up to chest. And there he stayed until he died, an hour later. Then, a 20 year old female civilian, waded out and brought in the body.

To be fair to the Fire department that responded they are no longer trained in water rescue. They called the Coast Guard for assistance. My issue is that when they discovered the the Coast Guard boat could not make it in to effect a rescue (something they should have known if they know their jurisdiction the way we know ours) and that the Coast Guard helicopter was on another emergency call and would be delayed why didn't they call the large FD next to them that has several rescue boats including IRBs which would have been perfect for this call. The neighboring FD could have had an IRB on scene within 25 minutes of the request. A full 35 minutes before the patient drowned.

I just think it's sad that a fire department sat idle while someone lost their life. We usually pride ourselves at thinking outside the box for solutions to problems. That seems not to have happened in this case.

I will admit that I was not there and I do not have the full story. I would love to hear what happened on this call from those that were there. Maybe there's more that we're missing. But for now, it just looks bad.

Here are a couple of the articles on the story:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/06/01/california-city-changes-policy-after-police-watch-man-drown/

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18177414?nclick_check=1

Eating Asphalt

We were toned out for a bicycle accident a little after lunch. While hopping onto the rig I wondered what type of call this would be. One of the ones where I cringed and tried to figure out how that body part was contorted into that position or one where I handed out a band-aid for the boo boo.

As we approached the intersection of the reported accident we noticed a lone squad car in the parking lot. The officer had the patient sitting on the front bumper of his car and appeared to be trying to get some information from him. My next thought was, "Great, a boo boo."

As I approached I noticed that the teenage victim had dropped his backpack by his bicycle. Sticking out of it were two katana swords. I quietly gestured to the cop to look at the weapons. He replied that they had made him nervous too and that's why they were over there by the bike and not with the patient. He was supposedly on his way to some martial arts practice.

The kid was ok. He had a bit of road rash on his arms and a little bit on his forehead (no, he was not wearing a helmet). By the time we got there any wound that was oozing a little bit of blood had clotted. Unfortunately, because he was a minor, we couldn't just release him. Eventually PD was able to contact his mom, who was able to contact aunt who then came to pick him up. The AMR crew that had responded were more than willing to take a little break and wait with the young man.

Now what I don't get is how we were able to find him in the first place. I'm hoping the he didn't call 911. I'm going to assume that he didn't. But still, when I was his age I rode my bike, with my two best friends, all over Los Angeles. When we ate asphalt we didn't whine about it and we sure didn't stick around for cops or firefighters to come "help" us. We kept our man cards, got back on our bikes and rode off. Kids these days (picture me shaking my head).

Moving

No, I haven't abandoned my blog. I've been moving. Not the blog, my home. Moving sucks. More posts to come when the dust settles.

High Angle Training

While I was working an overtime shift at the station with our heavy rescue one of the firefighters looked at a rescue magazine and thought, I bet we can do that. There was a picture on the cover of a crew using a specialized tripod for a high point in a high angle rescue. With that thought we all decided to head out to try using our tripod as they had in the photograph. Basically we pulled some stuff out and played.

First, we set up our raising and lowering system. We used the Heavy Rescue as our anchor.

We also set up the haul line at the same time. We anchored that off of the guard rail down by the stop sign.

Next we had our victim go down to be 'rescued.' We took turns.

Then the heroes came down with the stokes to save the day.

You'd be surprised at the amount of teamwork it takes to get up something as simple as this wall.

Of course the people in the offices here were quite curious. We would get groups coming out to watch on their smoke break.

How was your Monday? Did I mention that I love my job?!