Continuing the Night's Debauchery
Forgot about this.
So from minute one in the classes I teach, we pound into the student's heads that "Scene Safety" is the most important thing in the world. If you're dead, you aren't helping anyone, or so the theory goes anyway.
So Saturday night (pre- big wreck) we got called to Rosemary St. for a 25 year old male, struck in the head, unconscious. I rounded the corner onto Rosemary St. and met the Chapel Hill Police Department. I swear to you, they were all there. At least 12 cars. Plus an engine company from station 1, plus us, plus a medic. A HUGE crowd outside. What do I do? I pull on my gloves, and proceed to wade through the crowd looking for my patient.
Now, that's a lesson in what not to do. I mean, who knows who hit this guy, who knows who else he'd like to hit, who knows who else is in the crowd, and who knows what's really going on? The answer? Not me.
I think it was when the cop right in front of me pulled his taser and threatened to use it on a (loud) drunk girl, that I figured out maybe this wasn't the place for me. Still, I felt strangely okay. A.) People usually don't like to mess with me, I'm a decent sized dude, and B.) I rely on the general goodness of humanity. Surprising considering the people I deal with on an all too regular basis, but truthfully, some of the nicest people I've ever met are drug dealers the police have in custody.
If you go to work for the EMS agency in Durham, they give you body armor. I don't think I'd wear it. I think if I managed to get shot doing this job, either I did something to deserve it (all too likely), or that this world really is going to hell in a handbasket, and I don't want to be in it anymore.
Anyway, scene safety kids. Don't forget it.
So from minute one in the classes I teach, we pound into the student's heads that "Scene Safety" is the most important thing in the world. If you're dead, you aren't helping anyone, or so the theory goes anyway.
So Saturday night (pre- big wreck) we got called to Rosemary St. for a 25 year old male, struck in the head, unconscious. I rounded the corner onto Rosemary St. and met the Chapel Hill Police Department. I swear to you, they were all there. At least 12 cars. Plus an engine company from station 1, plus us, plus a medic. A HUGE crowd outside. What do I do? I pull on my gloves, and proceed to wade through the crowd looking for my patient.
Now, that's a lesson in what not to do. I mean, who knows who hit this guy, who knows who else he'd like to hit, who knows who else is in the crowd, and who knows what's really going on? The answer? Not me.
I think it was when the cop right in front of me pulled his taser and threatened to use it on a (loud) drunk girl, that I figured out maybe this wasn't the place for me. Still, I felt strangely okay. A.) People usually don't like to mess with me, I'm a decent sized dude, and B.) I rely on the general goodness of humanity. Surprising considering the people I deal with on an all too regular basis, but truthfully, some of the nicest people I've ever met are drug dealers the police have in custody.
If you go to work for the EMS agency in Durham, they give you body armor. I don't think I'd wear it. I think if I managed to get shot doing this job, either I did something to deserve it (all too likely), or that this world really is going to hell in a handbasket, and I don't want to be in it anymore.
Anyway, scene safety kids. Don't forget it.
posted by C at 2:40 AM
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