The page came thru the overhead speakers, Rob Line 2, Rob Line 2. I walked over to phone in the dayroom; the dayroom is the room in the fire station where the on duty crew relaxes when they're not on projects or calls. Hi this is Rob, Hi Rob this is Christin, how are you? Reaching into my brain I tried to remember who Christin was, but without missing a step I said 'fine how are you'� hoping I would remember who Christin was, it came a second later she was the young CNA from the nursing home the other night. Good I thought if your offer still stood I would come by the station and talk about becoming a Paramedic, sure no problem when did you want to come by? How about after four when I get off, fine, see you then.
I sat back down at the table in the dayroom with the rest of the crew sipping my Latte that Vanessa the cutie barista at Starbucks had made.

Hey Rusty you remember that cute little thing you got all worked up about the other night? Well she's coming here after four.
Well shit the days looking better, hey do ya think she would go out with me?
Well Rusty is that before or after you tell her about your wife, Jesus why do have to bring that up I was just thinking about a quick bite at Micky d's then maybe a stroll down by buck's Island to check out the submarine races. Yea sure, well you will get your chance after four.

The pager chirped it's all to familiar chirp followed by Medic 31 possible hanging at the prison 1461 East 197th Street Firecoms clear. The trusty crew of Rusty my EMT extraordinaire, along with Tony my rookie medic, loaded all of our fire fighting gear on to the rig. We pulled out of the station with Rusty at the wheel, Tony in the back and me riding in the officer's seat.
Now dispatches have over the years become a source of entertainment to me so when Firecoms sends us out on a possible hanging I know that's just the way they dispatch, but really can't they say it's a hanging as opposed to possible, like maybe the guy just fell into the rope.
We pull up to the front gates of the prison where at the first set of gates I recognize the corrections officer, Hi Dave how's life? Oh pretty good what have you got today? Well dispatch said a possible hanging thought you might know more? No just get you thru quickly into SOC, which is the special offender's center where they keep the child molesters.
Now I'm not saying people make judgments against these prisoners but the fact that things happened in slow motion would be putting it mildly, when I explained this to Tony who was still unmarried without children it took a little while to sink in, he was out to save the world. I gave Tony a 15 second visual of why these prisoners were here right or wrong his pace slowed a little
The Guards opened the Outside steel gates, Rusty backed the medic unit thru the gates with a signal from the guards the first set closed and the second set opened. The second set was 20' high cyclone fencing with razor wire on top. When we stopped the guard looked under the rig, then inside, then logged everyone in and headed for the first of many locked steel doors. We finally arrived at the cell where the inmate had hung himself with a sheet. The guards had cut him down and started CPR on him. The prison Doc was there along with the prison nurse, this was not something they usually had to deal with they just happened to be in the cell block when it happened. The Patient had vomited large amounts of last night's dinner everywhere, the tile floors had now become like an ice skating rink. The Doc was new to the prison and had not dealt with a cardiac arrest, since medical school much less a hanging, he was doing his best to stay in control although when Tony said hello he was more than happy to hand the situation over to him. Tony asked the nurse for some towels, then had her lay them down on the floor so as not to get any of the vomit on him, 20 minutes later he and the Doc declared the patient dead.
They chatted about how you hang yourself with a bed sheet tied to the window frame three feet of the floor, which meant that the prisoner had to pull his knees up under him to choke himself out, this was someone who was serious. We loaded all of gear back into their bags and accompanied by the corrections officer we strolled down the hallway to the medic unit refilled the kits with the supplies we had used, five minutes later we cleared the gates, called Firecoms to tell them we were available for another call.

It was starting to be another interesting day at work, already one dead and we hadn't even finished with breakfast.
One of the medics on my shift would read the obits in the morning, one day I asked him why? He smiled and said 'I'm just checking my stats'�.

It would be lunch in an hour and there would be ten hungry guys to feed, I called the station with the Nextel and let them know we would be shopping for lunch. Now the way it works at our station is you buy all the food and prepare all the meals for one shift, now with ten guy's on a shift you buy groceries and cook only once in ten shifts. We work approximately nine shifts a month; you cook just a little less than once a month. My shift B-shift was known for it's gourmet eaters, no Mac & cheese or wieners for lunch. It had better be good and there had better be plenty of it. Our Captain had left his job as head chef of a big hotel to pursue a job in the fire service and personally made sure any of the young rookies that came onboard learned to cook weather they wanted to or not. We were short on time so it was going to be chicken breasts marinated in teriyaki sauce then barbequed with swiss cheese and a slice of pineapple on sour dough rolls. A fresh green salad, some sliced fresh fruit for desert, four liters of pop of assorted types and we were good to go.
A short 10 minute nap finished lunch and by 1300 we were ready for the afternoon tasks that needed to be taken care of when we weren't on calls.

By 1600 I was getting antsy, it was time for my late afternoon coffee I had spent the last three hours catching up on paperwork something I hated and was chronically behind on. I used the overhead paging system to call Rusty and Tony to meet me in the apparatus bay, Just a few seconds later the front office paged me for a visitor. Upon entering the office section I saw Christin the young CNA from the Cardiac arrest at the nursing home. Hi Rob is now a good time for a tour? Biting my tongue I smiled and then said sure do you like coffee? She said it wasn't necessary not knowing she was going to starbucks with us whether she liked it or not. She was about 5'4'� 115 lbs soaking wet long blond hair wearing jeans and a crop top that the young girls are fond of these days, Rusty was going to make a fool of himself flirting. As we went past the locker room I grabbed an extra sweatshirt tossed it at her and explained we were going to Starbucks and she would be riding with us but couldn't go dressed like that. You mean in the medic unit cool. When we got to the medic unit Rusty wouldn't shut up, he kept telling war stories and asking her questions, finally I interjected, Rusty drive and shutup I'm thirsty and getting cranky.
Knowing my addiction for the afternoon detail to the local Starbucks he shutup and pulled out of the station, five minutes later the four of us were sipping coffee, since I was buying Christin changed her mind and had a triple mocha. Sitting in starbucks Christin drank her mocha and asked Tony a lot of questions about what it was like to be a Paramedic student, he informed her that he had already graduated but was under the tutelage of the senior medic until such a time that he had satisfied all my requirements. He would then be working without the benefit of a senior medic lurking over his shoulder. Rusty kept trying to dazzle her with his moves but she didn't seem to notice his small show of attention.
I finally asked how long she had been a CNA? Six months and she had been working at the same place for all of that time. I asked her if the other night was the first time she had performed CPR? No she said although more lately, what do mean by more lately? Well in the last couple of months it seems like I have done it more than before. The Pager interrupted our conversation 'medic 31 two car mva mile post 24 on hwy 4'�
We grabbed our coffees and headed out the door Christin looked excited and said what shall I do. Just have a seat and relax. Enroute to the call the first responders on scene called to say they CPR in progress on an infant, one critical patient and two with minor injuries. Tony quickly requested a helicopter to the scene and advised the on scene commander we would need a landing zone. The mood in the rig had become a little less jovial. Upon arrival the EMT'S popped open the back doors and deposited a 3 month old baby girl onto the guerney that had no pulse or wasn't breathing. In the next minute three pairs of hands worked furiously A heart monitor was applied, A tube was placed into the trachea and a very large needle was forced into the bone of the leg( babies can be difficult to start IV's in, so a technique call an Intra osseous infusion is performed, a needle is inserted into the shin bone just below the knee cap) Tony had now broken a sweat , rusty was now hooking up the auto vent that would breathe for the baby, and Christin had been assigned to do CPR . She was interested in becoming a Paramedic this was a great way for to see what we really did. Tony had placed the tube in the babies trachea, I informed him that breath sounds could not be heard in the right lung, Tony was really starting to sweat he wanted some epinephrine given while he also listened to the babies lungs I gave the epinephrine as ordered. His eyes got large as he looked at me and said I think the baby needs a chest dart (A procedure where a needle is pushed into the front of the chest between the second and third rib about in the middle of the collar bone on the side that has a problem. This will relive the pressure that has built up inside the chest and collapsed the lung, hopefully...)
Tony proceeded with the chest decompression almost immediately pulses returned the monitor showed now showed a sinus tachycardia (a very fast heartbeat) color was slowly returning to the baby. Someone popped there head in the back of the rig and said 'the helo just landed'� Sixty seconds later the nurses were in the back of the rig getting report from Tony about what had been done and loading the baby onto their stretcher for the flight to the trauma center. The other patients had been taken care of and we watched the helo lift off knowing that the baby would be in the hands of a skilled surgeon in less than 20 minutes. But would it be fast enough? How long had the baby gone without oxygen and what trauma had caused the babies heart to stop? All questions we would probably never know the answers too.

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