Child seats people....

I had a call the other day where a woman literally bent her Cadillac around a pole. She hit so hard the car was shaped like an "L". She broke the steeing column of the car at the base. Not easy to do. He kids faired no better. The baby was in a forward facing carseat in the front seat next to mommy. Her carseat exploded when the pole entered the passenger area. Peices of the dashboard and her carseat were found in her mouth. She was flown to a major trauma center. The other kids were in the backseat, no seatbelts or booster seats. They bounced around the back stricking the pole and each other. So far the baby has been released, the boy about 2 years old was flown from a local hospital to a major trauma center for treatment, and the girl about 4 was doing well last I heard. It is a wonder any of them survived the impact. Mom is going to jail. I always get very angry when little childred are injured due to someone else's negligence. More so when it is completely preventable. Car seats and booster seats people. Don't make me or my cohorts scrape your children off the road.

Fog, Booze, and a Train...

Recently I was witness to quite possibly the worst accident scene I have ever been on. I have seen a lot in my time in EMS and the Army. Recently we went to a call for a pedestrian struck by a train. It was extremely foggy, making the normal 4-6 minute response time to this location an agonizingly long 12 minutes. We walked the 1/4 mile of track to about 1/3 of the length of the train to find a poor guy who had apparently used the rail of the track as a pillow. It took this poor guy's face off. I hope he didn't wake up to see his end coming. Little pieces of him we scattered about over the area. Pieces of him were frozen to the rail of the track. So we waited for the coroner and helped bag up this guy and his pieces. His arm came off, it knocked his shoes off and ripped off his jacket and shirt and he tumbled about 35 feet from where the train hit him. We found his face laying on the gravel, he still had most of his bone structure there with the teeth. It was like he was smiling at us from the ground. I hear he was a father of 2. I have a little more respect for death everyday seems like. I can't count how many people I have seen take their last breath or shortly thereafter. Death is not pretty. I have yet to see someone go quitely after an illness like in the movies. Or give famous last words to quote them by from a bad trauma. Most people beg, cry, and/or struggle to keep going. Even the ones who are prepared for it to come. Except kids, they just kind of stop. Some will get very clear before they go and tell you something that gets burned into your memory forever. Like how very scared they are. And you just tell them that you're there, knowing that there is absolutely nothing more you can do for them. Or you can pray with them, but sometimes you wonder if it even helps. I have seen screaming mother's crying for their babies trapped in a burning building. I have held grieving family members after a breathed for their loved ones. I have pumped a dying grandmother's chest hoping to see some sort of change, only to shake her son's hand minutes later and be told thank you. I have scraped little pieces of brain from the soul of my boot. I have felt a car on the interstate driving to fast and close to our accident scene strike my coat and not slow down. I have done all this and more, I lose no sleep, my family deals with my abrupt mood changes. But I do it every third day and sometimes more. I do it because one of these we'll get there quick enough, do everything right and someone will get to go home from the hospital. Maybe one day it will be you.

I saw this in a movie once...

Ok kids, I'm sure we have ALL seen the Christmas Story movie. I had the distinct pleasure a few weeks back when it was so shit ass cold so see a scene sort of relived from that movie. We received a call to respond to a local high school for the 15 year old female...with her tongue stuck to a light pole. Now just for the record, if it the air temperature is -15 and the wind chill is a shocking -30 do NOT I repeat DO NOT touch anything metal with your tongue. IT WILL STICK! So a little hot water on the tongue/pole junction point and just like that she was free. However, pulling against the pole your tongue is stuck to will tear the tongue. Trust me I've seen it. So after we got the bleeding to stop I asked Flick, I mean tongue girl, did she do that on her own or was she a victim of the infamous double dog dare. For those of you who may not believe me, you absolutely can't make shit like this up. People are really that stupid. It's good though cause it keeps me employed. Hee Hee.

On to Memphis...

Ok so now I have one last step to take. National Registry skills test. The kicker is I have to go to Memphis Tn to take it. No biggie, nine hour drive to take a test that should last about 4-5 hours. But that is it, the last piece of the puzzle to paramedicdom. Shouldn't be too awfully hard, after all it is just skills. The same ones I spent a year and half doing. The test is St. Patrick's Day so I hope the luck of the Irish are with me. More to come on this....

I paid for the whole seat, but I only used the edge

Monday I went down to the computer and fired it up. Logged on and into my National Registry page. I sat momentarily on the edge on my seat in hopeful anxiety. I clicked the status button, and to my suprise and pure elation I noticed the words congratulations and passed in the same sentence. To be completely honest, I cried. Not for long mind you, but cry I did. All I said for about two mintues was "I did it on the first try". Just so you know what a feat that is, Nat'l Reg has a 35% first try success rate last I heard. So now I have one more test to take, always testing at the end, the skills test (practical). I showed I know what I'm doing knowledge wise, but they need to see I can actually perform the skills a paramedic uses on a regular basis. That should be a walk in the park. Just getting out the dummies at work and messing with them. No biggie, plus one of my Captains gave me a video put together of the test stations to get a feel for how it works, thanks to Bob for that one. So I little more luck and I'm done. But for now the world is as right to me as it can be. I want to publically thank the Mrs. for ALL her support, without her NONE of this would be possible. I love you Jess. For those of you who watched this bloggy thing progress...thanks goes to you also for your encouragement. This started as a journal of school and it should rightly end when I get my cert...but I think you all have earned the right to her about the very first call of Paramedic Steve.

No news is good news???

So I went and took my test...not a pleasant experience. Not a bad one either, just not something I look forward to repeating. The only good thing is that I now know that the testing facility has really comfy computer chairs. One of my classmates took his that same morning, one the way home he called my and let me know that he already had his results, he failed. He had his results in something like 6 hours. The little paper says it should take 1-2 business days. Mine still aren't up yet. So I don't know if that is a good thing or if they are just being slow. I'm confident that if I have to take it over I can get it done. I hate waiting. It sucks. So very much rides on this.

The big day approaches...

I finally have a day confirmed to take my written test. Quite possibly the largest and most important single test I will ever take. Thursday, 15 February at 2 pm. It is looming and I am torn on emotion. On one hand I want to run to it and give a big hug cause it took so damn long to get here. On the other, I want to smack it in the head and kick it's ass for being such a difficult bastard. I mean really...180 questions with a 3 hour time limit. I think we should get a 5 question quiz, with bonus points for correct name spelling. But I guess if you are giving people drugs like morphine and shovign tubes down their throat and shocking them with electricity they may expect a little more, than say...Joe Snuffy flippin burgers at McDonald's. I am certain I will do ok on it. 70% is the magic number. So set my sights high...like 71% and I know I can do it. Wish me luck...I'm getting nervous.

It's about damn time

I watched Super Bowl XLI, actually I didn't watch it as much as I was engrossed by it. I have been a Colts fan since I was little and learning the game. I have stood by and cheered during the really bad years, and had wishful thinking during the mediocre years. But these last few have been absolute heartbreakers. They had almost every piece of the puzzle. Manning breaks records, 13 straight wins, so on and such. But NO Super Bowl. I met Tom Brady once, nicest guy I ever hated. This year as the Colts are down 21 to 3 in the AFC championship game, I swore that if the Colts lost I would never watch them again. I was so tired of being a fan of the team with biggest offense fall on their face at the end of the season. But they won, come back kids and stuff. So I sat, in Bears country listening to the Bears fight song on the radio, seeing orange and blue everywhere. I hoped, prayed and wished for a Colts win. All I could do was wait. I watched NFL channel everyday for info on the game. Sunday finally gets here and I slept until like 4 pm. I worked the night before and it was a terrible shift up the full 24 hour shift with no sleep. Yuck. But it was ok cause my Colts finally made it to the big game. I made a chili dip and got my chips ready, then game time. I nearly cried when it was over...Colts finally champs. I finally got it, after 22 years. I have watched every supber bowl since i dont know when. But my team, the one followed all my life as a football fan wins one. So to say i'm happy is an understatement, all i can really say about the thing is that it's about damn time. GO COLTS!!