The little ranger that could...
Late one night we get a call for a traffic accident. It involved a truck and a tree. Most of these are due to people trying to dodge another car and in the process of slowing down they hit the tree. Not this guy! He wanted to end the tree's life. And while traveling approximately 100mph, he did just that.
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The night was a typical one; Bullshit at the main deployment with everyone and drag your feet on the post you were sent 10 minutes ago. Once we felt ready, and had the need to get some food, we headed to our post. Sitting here for about an hour my partner starts getting antsy. He wants a call cuz he's "Bored", so he starts doing some laps in the parking lot to burn some energy I guess. Energy burned, he immediately falls asleep. I never understood this, and thinking back, almost every partner I ever had just had to say "I'm going to take a nap" and then they would proceed to sleep harder than I ever have in my life. After several minutes of making sure my partner was alive (he had sleep apnea and snored louder than anything I've ever heard. Oh and the intermittent lack of noise coming from him would disturb me) we got a call. Traffic accident, second ambulance attached, and it's at the furthest reaches east of the city before going up the mountain. We're maybe 5 minutes out from the incident location, and the nearest fire department with a paramedic was about 2 minutes from the incident (3 minutes so they can take their jammies off). So we were all gonna get there pretty quick.
I didn't even need to try and wake my partner up. As if the radio was connected to his soul, he was slamming the ambulance in gear before the disptch finished. Wheels turning, we both begin to mentally prepare. My partner at the time was an EMT-Basic and he was going to Paramedic school. I was about 1.5 years into my career as a paramedic and apparently he liked my style. So naturally, all the questions start coming from him. Things I didn't ever try and think of, but honestly I was happy to hear that his mind worked that way. But at the time it was more stress than necessary! lol.
Following the long line of cars, we see the incident. A full sized tree was sheared at the base by a small Ford Ranger. In fact, it was about 60 feet high with a base to support. This man managed to cut the tree down only using his truck; Oh and also his life... This warranted a nice emergency blanket so no passerbys got the willies. But! During incidents like this people can really get spooked and want to make the situation about themselves. Hence the two patients I ended up with. Husband and Wife. They didn't get struck, nor did they see the incident fully happen. But when that tree came down it sure did scare them! It scared them enough to want emergency services to get them checked out by their local hospital. Depsite my efforts to show they are medically fine.
The joy on my face when we walked through the emergency room to the waiting room was always the same. Why? Because I tried to cover all my bases AND explain every little detail to my patients. This usually helped keep the people out of the hospital that didn't need emergency services. The alternative to that joy is when I try to keep patients from transporting but they ultimately choose to go and they get the closest example of an "I told you so..." after being seated in the waiting room with all the other non-emergents.
