We’re called for a stabbing. Its dark and when we pull up on scene, we can see officers with guns drawn. We stage and wait the word to go in. It’s hard to tell what’s going on, then another cop comes running out into the street right for us. We step out. “You’re going to…
Codes
“Wife says patient stopped breathing.” I know this one is going to be a code. Just yesterday we were dispatched to a “Cardiac arrest,” but it wasn’t a code. It rarely is when it comes in like that. People don’t know their terminology. Every time we get dispatched for a cardiac arrest and it turns…
Behind Every Door
I’m standing in triage with my patient when I find myself looking at a man standing unsteadily by the entrance to the ER. A security guard has his hand on the man’s upper arm, both holding him up and keeping him from walking away. The guard tells the nurse. “I found him outside. What room…
The Stink
About Tuesday I noticed a foul smell in the ambulance — a smell like someone had left a meat sandwich under the seat or a mouse had died somewhere in the woodwork. We left the ambulance outside with the doors open for two hours, but it didn’t help. It was a nasty smell, sometimes it…
Daily Special
We get called for a fall at the local fast food chicken restaurant. Back in the kitchen, the woman is laying on the ground between the fryers and the food prep table. She’s maybe twenty-two, but a big woman — looks like she’s been dining on the fast food fare most of her life. I’m…
The Stretcher
Arthur is making up the stretcher by the linen cart just inside the ER doors. “I’m going down to the cafeteria to get a sandwich,” he says, as he tightens the last strap. “You want anything?” “No, I’m good. I just have to get times and drop off my report.” I end up getting in…
Coming and Going
We’re sent on a priority to for the unresponsive, but when the cops get there they slow us down. It’s a 10- a dead body. We go in and walk down into the basement where we find the cops standing around the body. A man in his forties is sitting on a couch, his head…
The Man Who Wouldn't Die
We’re called for a person not feeling well in an elderly housing hi-rise not far from the hospital. The man is an emaciated AIDS patient, who is laying naked on the couch in his dark apartment. he has a colostomy bag. His girlfriend says they were at the emergency department for seven hours today, then…
Death in a Nursing Home
We’re called for a child not breathing. The address is a convalescent home. It makes no sense. Then we pull up. There is a car parked askance by the entrance, two front doors and a back door open. The engine still running. In the front lobby two nurses and a police officer kneel over a…