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.