Sidewalk Slumber

His thick black hair was neatly trimmed and he was dressed in casual clothes and sandals. I took a knee next to him, he was laying down with a peaceful expression on his face and even a bit of a subtle grin. The guy just wanted to sleep, the problem was he was covered in his own urine and had turned the public sidewalk into his private makeshift bed. He had roused a large crowd at this point, all standing in a circle around him staring and pointing. After checking his blood sugar, vital signs, medical history and his cognitive abilities, I was pretty sure my newly acquainted friend had simply had "a few to many". We decided to play detective and check his wallet, it was here we confirmed our suspicion after pulling out receipt for alcohol purchased just hours ago. He smelled of beer and was able to speak with us, but would not leave his comfy sidewalk, firmly standing his ground. "You can't sleep on the sidewalk" I said to him. He just rolled his chocolate brown eyes at me and smiled, refusing to budge. I admired his determination, and his impressive sleeping abilities on such an uncomfortable surface, but I couldn't just leave him there on the street. I gave my new friend a choice as we radioed for the police. He could simply get up, leave with a nearby friend in a taxi, and sleep in his bed at home, or he could go to jail. He decided on the latter unfortunately. The police finally showed up, the first officer was about to explode out of his uniform he was so big, he looked like a professional body builder. The cop's leg was probably bigger than the entire man, he just walked over and looked down over him. It was at this point that new my friend finally woke up, miraculously standing up with out assistance, the bystanders must have thought it was a miracle! He attempted to apologize, but it was to late. It was at this point his pants fell down in front of the crowd which included women and children. I helped pull them up and the cop escorted him to the back of his patrol car, at which time he began laughing, it was at this point the cop and I also started laughing. The whole situation may have annoyed some medics, but after all the terrible things you see on the job, its nice to just smile sometimes.

Zombie Apocalypse

Working in this industry, things do not go as planned more often than not. Orchestrating chaos on a road side traffic accident, in an ambulance, or in someones bathroom, is not exactly the same as working in a hospital. Resources in a well established EMS agency in a first world country are bad enough. However, resources in a foreign country for a new and developing EMS system are scarce or even unavailable at times. This can be frustrating to say the least, but all one can do is improvise and adapt to the circumstances as much as possible. These are normally after thoughts, when reflecting back on a memorable incident retrospectively, as in this case.

It was about 11pm at night and I was on my way responding to a car accident. We where miles outside of our coverage area, but the neighboring district had ran out of ambulances and we where the closest unit available. As we crossed over the bridge in the darkness of night, I looked out the passenger window down into black abyss of the sea below. Our red and blue lights danced on the dark waters surface, giving it a brief moment of life in an otherwise silent and black void. We had never crossed the bridge before, it was the boundary of our coverage area, where our responsibility ended and someone else began, but as our back wheels cleared the bridges edge, there was no turning back. It was about this time that our radio updated us on the situation, the police where reporting 1 person struck by a car, dead on scene.

A few minutes later I could see the police lights in the distance, soon we where close enough to see the police in there stylish yellow road safety vest directing us to a desirable area to park. As I exited the ambulance with our gear I began walking towards a figure laying on the road. I knew the routine for pronouncing someone dead all to well, and thought this would be a quick job. I was only a few meters away when I herd the screams and began to see the figure as man, a man screaming and flailing about on the pavement. This was either the beginning of a zombie apocalypse, or the radio update we received about the patient being dead was possibly incorrect. I took a knee next to the poor fella and began my rapid road side examination. He was a young man with a dark skin complexion and although he was probably in his 20's, he had a boyish like face with soft features. His dark brown eyes appeared confused and where filled with tears which complemented his loud whaling. It didn’t take long to see why he had introduced himself in such a way.

He had a grossly deformed left arm and right leg. The Tibia and Fibula bones in his lower leg where obviously broken and pressed against the skin in his leg, the slightest wrong move and they would pierce through the soft tissue and skin of his leg and liberate themselves to the outside world. This of course, is an extremely bad thing and a delicate situation. To make matters worse, he had injured his head, which had resulted in him being confused and combative. He kept trying to get up and walk, which was obviously impossible, so we began to immobilize him. We gave him what little pain relief medication we had for the evening, but it wasn’t enough. Regardless, we had to relocate his leg. We delicately repositioned his broken arm and leg in a position which we could splint, ensuring to take special care of the fracture sites. Despite our best efforts, on our way to the hospital he began kicking and screaming, unfortunately this violent and erratic movement resulted in those 2 broken bones in his leg shifting. They pierced through his dark brown skin like a hot knife through butter and emerged clearly visible. His bone was now exposed to open air and he seemed oblivious to the fact, either as a result of his head injury, or because this was indeed the Zombie Apocalypse. Regardless, the trauma team was waiting for him at the hospital as soon as we arrived and chemically sedated the poor guy, which he desperately needed. His injuries where promptly treated by a specialized team with the right resources.