5.06.2008

Sleepless Nights

"Station 1, chest pain, 1183 Robin Road."
I look over at Eric and sigh. I had my things in hand, ready to go back to my bunk room for the night.
"Damn, and Golden Girls was just starting," he says with a wink.
Drew makes his way out of the dark bunk room, throwing on a shirt lazily.
"I've seen more of your chest than those of the guys I've dated," I say laughing.
"Yeah, well..."
"I'm just saying. You spend a lot of time in my presence with little clothing."
Eric looks over at me and shakes his head.
"Let's just go," Eric says as he climbs into the drivers seat.
"Shoddy!" I yell loudly, and I can hear it echoing in the bay.
"Aw, hell," Drew replies.
I check the address again. Robin Road is the kind of place that you usually check to make sure PD is coming with you on scene. It's two in the morning, and I consider asking Eric if he thinks we should ask for PD to accompany us. I reconsider and lay my head against the window sleepily.
As we arrive, I wrestle on a pair of gloves and head towards the door. Eric pushes me behind him as he knocks on the door from behind the wall.
The door swings open with his knock, and I see a woman sitting on the couch with a man who appears to be sleeping. She's clutching her chest and holding her head in her hands, and he's...well, he's not doing much of anything. I find it a bit strange that her husband, or whoever he is, can barely keep him awake while she may be having a heart attack right next to him.
Eric runs through all the normal stuff--SAMPLE, OPQRST, the works. As I'm getting vitals, I catch some of her answers.
Her pain is a 10 out of 10, she has dull, crushing chest pain that radiates down her left arm, she's never felt anything like this before, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Eric can't do anything on the monitor yet, so we get going in case she's having the big one.
"Drew, can you and Sam get the stretcher?"
"Oh, I'll just walk," she says standing up, "not a problem."
I wonder silently if it's because she's obese and doesn't want to be embarrassed by us calling for lift assist, or what her motives might be. By now, it's no longer an issue as she's climbed into the back of the ambulance and strapped herself in.
The rest of the ride is uneventful. I sit awkwardly as Eric calls the hospital.
"Do you think this could be because of my air conditioner?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Do you think I could be allergic to something coming out of my air conditioner? I just moved to that apartment, and now that I'm in the back of the ambulance, my pain is like a 6."
"Oh, I uh...I don't know."
"That's a negative for nitro and aspirin," I hear as Eric finishes talking to the hospital.
"10-4, negative nitro and aspirin. Clearview Medic 1 clear."
As we bring her in (walking again upon her request), I see the nursing staff roll their eyes.
"Strange," I think to myself as we get her situated in the room.
"Feel better," Eric and I say over our shoulders after he gives report to the nurse.
As we restock the medic and remake the stretcher, one of the nurses comes out to see us.
"Why did you bring her in?"
"Um...because she called us?" I'm not really sure what to say to that kind of a question.
"Aren't you all from Clearview?"
"Yeah, why?"
"She lives in Brook Forest."
"No, she just moved out our way last month," I say, remembering the strange talk about the air conditioner.
"Probably because Brook Forest stopped hauling her to us," she replies.
"What do you mean?"
"She was here over 100 times in the past year for the same substernal chest pain."
"All times by ambulance," I ask, absolutely incredulous.
"Yep. Might want to call dispatch and let them know," she laughs, "Your call volume's about to go up. Night, guys."
"Night," we all reply miserably.
By the time we clear from the hospital, I see our patient and her companion walking out of the hospital.
"Discharged before we can even leave," Eric says.
"There's just something wrong with that," I say as he puts the medic in gear, "This isn't why I got into this business."
"Here's to more sleepless nights," Eric says, hitting his soda against mine.
"Here, here," Drew sighs from the back.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering when you were going to meet her as I know her well from Brook Forrest and knew she just moved up here. Welcome to your version of GOMER. Yes she will be a problem.

P.S. The ABC store is directly across from the hospital which is where she has a tendency to go.

Chris

Anonymous said...

Sam,

I'm a long time reader, but first time commenter. I dont know if there is a post about it, but what are your partners really like!? You guys seem like the perfect team! A little bio on them would be awesome!

-Muni