Last night I went to a going away party for an old partner of mine. I was glad there was a good turnout.

In EMS people work at a place for years. They come in to work everyday, work long hours, and give it their bes. They become a part of the life, of the city they serve. Then they quit or they get hurt, or in rare cases retire. The next day the work goes on, and it is if they were never there.

My old partner worked the city for 14 years. We were full-time partners for maybe two or three, but over the last six worked together occassionally on overtime shifts. We have many stories between us. Many of which we retold last night.

Life hasn’t been the greatest for my friend in recent years — he had an MI, and has been going through a divorce, which is almost final. As soon as it is, he is leaving for Florida. He wants to work an ambulance job, but says he’ll get a Home Depot job if neccessary. He likes the sun down in Florida and knows some people there.

Like I said, I was glad a lot of people came out to pay their respects.

At work they’ll cross his name off the books and write in someone else’s.

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A guy escapes from a mental hospital, hitchhikes to his friend’s house, then sits on the porch waiting for the friend to get home. Suddenly, he starts to feel his neck tighten up, and his face and arms. he can’t move them. Panicking, he staggers out into the road, lurching in and out of traffic, trying to get someone to help him. He thinks he is dying.

Finally someone calls 911 and reports a crazy man wandering in and out of traffic who appears sick or deranged.

When we get there he is very scared and anxious. I ask him what meds he is on, and he says he has been on Haldol for the last four days.

That’s the answer right there. Haldol can cause dystonic reactions, which produce symptoms just like the man is having.

I give him 50 mg of Benedryl IV and within minutes he can move his neck and face and arms.

“I thought I was dying,” he says. “I can’t believe no one stopped to help me. Aren’t people supposed to help others in distress.”

“They probably thought you were an escaped mental patient,” I say.

“I thought I was going to die,” he says.

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an•thro•poph•a•gi — Pronunciation: (an”thru-pof’u-jī”, -gī”).

***

She has beautiful blue eyes, a slender woman with long blonde hair who looks like at one time she was very pretty, but she has been sleeping on a mattress in a house that smells like urine. She says she has back pain and has been hurting too much to leave the house. She has two dogs there and the cop asks her who is going to feed the dogs while she is away.

“No one,” she says. “I’m here alone.”

“What about the guy who lives with you?”

“I got rid off him,” she says.

On the way to the hospital, she admits she’s on methadone, but has lapsed from her drug program, and has done heroin in the last few days.

***

A week later.

We get called to an address and told to wait for the cops. There is a dead body in the house and there are dogs. The cops ask us for masks. Evidently there is a stink.

We only have three masks. I let the two officers and my partner have them. I have learned over the years how to breathe so the smell doesn’t get to me.

The officer opens the door. A little white dog meets us. I notice a red stain on his cheek.

We start to walk through the house. I see a bigger larger dog dart quickly across my line of vision(almost like a wolf in the movies), then dissappear. There are piles of excrement scattered about the carpet. I’m guessing the dogs have been alone for several days at least.

The officer checks each room as we go. I am starting to recognize the house. “I’ve been here before,” I say now. “There is a woman who lives here. Her bedroom is down this way.”

Stepping over the feces, I lead the officer to the back bedroom where we find her laying semi- naked across the mattress. Her hair has been ripped out, her face eaten off. You basically see a skeleton head sticking out of a dead but still meated torso. She looks like an extra from Raiders of the Lost Arc. I am both drawn and repulsed by the sight. I remember how pretty her eyes were.

I notate the time, then leave the room.

Later an officer holds a pole with a loop on the end, which he is hoping to put over the neck of the bigger dog who growls at him. They appear to be at a standoff. The officer is not the regular dog officer. He looks very nervous. Another officer tries to tempt the dog with a biscuit.

The dog isn’t interested in the biscuit.

***

an•thro•poph•a•gi Pronunciation: (an”thru-pof’u-jī”, -gī”), eaters of human flesh.

Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House

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