I think everyone that goes to EMT or Paramedic schools are adrinalin junkies. The race with life. Being able to help people. The biggest thrill is the emergency call. You get to drive fast with sirens blaring, in uniform with your Jump box and save someone’s life. Of course emergencies don’t happen all the time. You have lots of “I’m sick.” calls. Anything from diareaha to skinned knees. Lots of calls from Nursing Homes to hospitals or doctors office for medical tests. I went thur EMT school but I decided I didn’t want to see other people’s bodily fluids. I did much better on the radio. I was a dispatcher. One of the most hated persons at a Ambulance company. I woke you up and told you where to go. Dispatching was great for the adrinalin rush. I loved knowing what was going on from all angles. I answered the phone and first got your address and phone number. A lot of folks didn’t want to give their phone numbers so I had to explain to them (this was pre 911) that if the ambulance got lost or anything, I could call back and no I wasn’t going to give it to anyone. You have to get pertinant information like why do you need an ambulance and no, I need a ride to the hospital and don’t have a car or money so can you bill me, is not an appropreate answer. Are you having trouble breathing? Chest Pains? Broken arm? I had gone thur EMT school and it helped me question the person about the nature of the call and render aid if possible. It made me know if the call was emergency or non emergency calls. Most of the time they give you confusing reasons. Remember the old saying, Don’t do anything you wouldn’t like to have to tell the emergency personnel? I’d give the call to one of the units that is closest to the address. The crew I send thinks I’m picking on them, making them run all the calls but they don’t have a clue as to what is going on with the big picture. So, anyway, the crew goes on the call and finds out what’s really going on at that address and where they are or aren’t taking them. You may have 8 to 10 other calls in a the same time period. It’s funny how things like that work. People will lie to you. Big time!
After a year working for a private ambulance company, I applied and got a job with the city/county emergency operators. It was the pre 911 of the day. 523-1313. I felt I had arrived. I loved that job. Coordinating everything except the city owned ambulances and fire trucks coming in to the medical center from a tri state, 5 county area. Working paramedic orders from the paramedics in the field to the doctors in the hospital. Having that knowledge to understand what they were saying. It was great. It was sad that the only time I got excited at work was when someone was hurt, car accident, heart attacks, etc. but that was the truth. Time was essential. Everything ran in seconds and minutes and the train ran on time. You had a partner and things just clicked when working together and being busy. You brought your lunch or whatever to work with you or you didn’t eat. You ate lunch chained to the radio console and eat when you got a moment. You may answer the phone with your mouth full because things changed from one second to the next. I then dispatched for the fire department. Learning about pumpers, ladder trucks, squads, hazardous materials, the military ranking plus medical calls! You hear some of the funniest stuff about how and why people do things that set their house, car, barn, grass on fire. Of course it’s sad but people in this line of work often have very dark senses of humors. I know, I know but how can you not laugh at the crazy bastard that uses a blow torch to unthaw the kitchen pipes? And people call the fire department for EVERYTHING! They think the fire department is like rent a husband. Call and a truck full of men come over. Cats up trees or when water is coming out of the light sockets. I guess they think they are plumbers and electrictions and get mad when the only thing they can do is shut the water off and call the electric company to come and cut the power. That’s what happens if your water pipes are upstairs. Then I dispatched the Po Po. People will call the police about any and everything. Fighting over a pork chop on the grill. The alzhiemer patient that thinks people are over at their houses when in fact they are alone.Like the kid that called 911 because his sister farted on him. Not many people know but an old phone with no service attached can call 911. I used to get kids all the time playing with Momma’s old phone call 911. Like the time I was dispatching ambulances, I answered a 911 call from a man that had shot himself. I do my job and try to talk him thur what to do to help him as my partners toned out the call. The man was lying on the kitchen floor. He had shot himself in thigh region. He couldn’t reach anything to help slow the bleeding. Not a kitchen towel, not a belt, not anything so I had him hold pressure with his bare hand. He was able to talk to me and I stayed on the phone with him. I asked him how he came to shoot himself. He told me that he was up in his bedroom playing with his new pistol and playing quick draw. He was in his underwear in front of his mirror and using the waste band of his drawers as a holster. He had stumbled down stairs into the kitchen to make the phone call. He almost bled out. They lost his pedal pulse pulling into the ER. But it was funny as shit after it was all over with. The picture of him in his underwear playing quick draw kept playing in my head. See? The adrinalin one the moment and the humor later. I loved my jobs. I really enjoyed the fast pace, quick thinking on your feet, the adrianlin rush, knowing your partner is right there clicking along with you. You don’t even have to speak, working hand and glove. It most certainly is not boring. It does take a special kind of person to do that job. And you can’t ask just anybody to watch the phones for you while you go pee. Some people are to afraid to answer the phone and don’t know what to say.
Marriages, relationships were hard to hang on to in the emergency buisness. The time apart, just like the firemen. 24 on and 24 off is really hard. Nurses, patients, paramedics bonding over emergencies like car wrecks, murder, suicide. The waste of life and the lack of morals on display.Some times, you’re just happy to be alive after witnessing death. Anyway, this was the best way I ever knew to earn a living. We all must work so find what you love to do. Being nosy was part of the reason I loved my job so much. I got to know what was going on in real time! I really miss those days.
p.s.
If you find spelling mistakes, it’s because I can’t find the spell check button on the new updated wordpresss feature. If you find the mistakes, can you send me your e-mail address and do you do puncuation marks too? I need an editor.I know so much that I’ve had to delete some of the old stuff like how to spell cat. lololol!