Did y’all miss me last week? Liars…
For those Mumpers not paying attention, I took a week off because VunderKind came to visit at the VunderLair. We did all kinds of stuff. A couple of small honeydos, such as fixing the china cabinet that was coming apart from moving, and painting the gnarly wood burner so the rust wouldn’t show. We went to Virginia Beach, and to Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks to see [del]cleavage both places[/del] the Wright Brothers Memorial.
However, I think I ruined him, and scarred him for life on top of that. I ruined him because I took him as a ride along on 3 different ambulance calls, and the scarring came from riding with Deb who I’ve mentioned here before a few times.
The plan all along was to have him do a citizen ride-along, which is kind of like being the camera dude on an episode of Cops.
Our first two calls were extra runs, meaning we weren’t scheduled. The first was Friday night, for a 38 year old lady having chest pains. She did have heart trouble, a hole between the chambers, and is/was waiting for surgery at the end of this week to close it; the surgery being a second date because the first was canceled because of a staph infection in the PICC line she had.
She was having the pains, and was also passing out. That call was simple, load her and go. My son being my son, noticed the 3 daughters of high school age or better and determined all were very cute. He also liked one of the nurses at the hospital. 
When we were done with the ER, he said, “Dad, I think I want to do this myself.” So that was how I ruined him.
Our second call was a proverbial Charlie Foxtrot not of our making. Saturday afternoon the 911 phone system went down, and it took a while for the dispatcher’s office to recognize that it happened. Buddy and potential adoptive grandma Sue was on duty, and received a call from the local private ambulance service that someone near the VunderLair was having a stroke, and nobody was answering the 911 calls. We heard the radio traffic and responded because this was close by. VunderKind and I got to the house about a minute before the ambulance, to find out that our patient had already left by private car because they had such a hard time getting anyone to answer the phone. :rolleyes: Sorry the 911 system went down, but we did jump (and hard, too) when we did find out.
The old guy was stereotypical for a stroke patient in progress. Limp left side, from his face all the way down to his toes. I wish him the best.
The big finale was the shift we did together Saturday night. After dinner and a couple hours of butt picking, the call came in for an old guy who was unresponsive. Usually, when the call is dispatched with unresponsive, you can assume it will be big trouble and involves CPR. So there was a sense of urgency right out of the door, and I was by myself at the station. We had to wait for someone to answer to go with us. Deb did, and we picked her up along the way.
Do you remember Conchata Ferrell, the actress from LA Law? Loud, brassy woman… I bet you’d recognize her instantly upon seeing her if you don’t remember the name. Deb is much like her, only less girly, and with a sharper tongue.
I warned him of what to expect on the call. If we have to do CPR, there’s going to be a lot of people there to work on him, and unfortunately, he’ll probably die on us, either en route or shortly after we get to the hospital. My kid was cool with that possibility.
The scene was way up in the northwest corner of the county. I drove as fast as I could, but it was raining and I was trying to be careful. When we were about 3 miles short, the dispatcher came on and said CPR was in progress. Oh. Shit.
We got in the house, all set to start thumping and intubating, and our patient was sitting up in the easy chair, talking. 
Then the crowd of 4 extra EMTs showed up behind us, and chaos reigned for a couple of minutes while everyone else settled down from their respective adrenaline rushes.
Our patient had a history of multiple heart attacks and strokes, and had a pacemaker with built in defibrillator. Earlier in the day, he was at a family reunion, and his pacemaker shocked him, but he didn’t do anything about it. He did not eat anything while he was there. He got home, ate something about an hour before we were called, but then went to the floor. He denied losing consciousness, but family said he was out for a bit. I’ll put my betting money with the family.
The (electrical) shock in and of itself was enough reason to transport, even though it was ancient history by several hours. His vitals were pretty normal, so our assumption was he passed out from not eating earlier, with added dehydration; it was hot and muggy. We got him to the hospital without any event.
Deb being Deb, she was ruthless with him on the way back, and he gave it right back to her. That’s my boy… She told me several times how much help he was for someone who was untrained, and he’d make a good EMT on his own. Of course, my chest swelled, but since my uniform was a t-shirt, there were no buttons to pop.
That’s how I ruined and scarred my son for the rest of his life. 
