Why Two Paramedics

Originally Posted April 30, 2003

So once again I have gone an inexcusable length of time without updating this website. A large part of that was due to the amount of time that I devoted on the computer from the first of the year until early april on redoing our Station 2 map books. You see we have individual maps of each apartment complex so that we can get around and find the building we need more quickly. Station 2 happens to have over 100 apartment complexes in its territory. Needless to say the job of scanning, correcting, titling, redrawing, and adding hydrants was time consuming. But its done now and what did I get? I'll tell you. I got my yearly evaluation sent back three times so far for lack of documentation as to why I received a higher than average rating.

Dekalb County in an effort to save money has made a few changes as of recent. The cost cutting measures of last year positioned me on the ambulance at Station 2 about once every seven shifts that I worked. I didn't sign up to work on the ambulance but everyone was being forced to so I have to go along or quit. It's a cost cutting measure because the county has changed the level of care that a person is getting on the ambulance since it is no longer staffed with two paramedics, but one paramedic and an EMT. EMT's don't cost near what the paramedic does and in most cases you probably only need one paramedic on the truck because most of our calls aren't real emergencies. Take for instance the 36 year old man who dialed 911 two shifts ago at 4:30 a.m. because he, "wasn't feeling well." No specific complaint. He just wanted to go to the hospital. When we asked him how long he "hadn't been feeling well," he told us it had been about a week. Now the next obvious question is so what happened that you decided to call us now, at 4:30 in the morning. Again he replied he just wasn't feeling well but, he added, "I have HIV." Now, whether he knows it or not he now qualifies for a ride in an ambulance, even if nothing is wrong with him, because he is immune compromised and that meets our transport criteria for who goes and who doesn't.

Are you still following? Point is that's how most calls go. Lights and siren to the scene to find out someone needs a band-aid and is insisting on going to the hospital in an ambulance which they have no intention of paying for.

But some calls are for real. Like the one that came in the last saturday I worked at about 6:30 in the morning. It was dispatched as a motor vehicle accident with entrapment on Interstate 85 northbound at Clairmont Road. When we got there we saw one pickup against the median wall and one in the middle of the interstate. Both were hard to recogize as pickup trucks at first. The police had completely shut down the interstate in both directions and for good reason. Now I'm not going to go into the gory details but two people died instantly and two were entrapped in the wreckage and dying. Out came the extrication tools and the vehicles were dissected around the patients. The short of it is that one of the pickup trucks was earlier travelling on I-85 northbound and missed the exit for 285-westbound so he turned around and started heading back the wrong direction. PD tried to stop him but he made it about five miles until he hit the pickup (that ended up against the wall) head on killing two of the three guys on their way to lay some brick. The entire bed of their truck, which was packed with tools, flew over the median wall and into oncoming traffic.

I had the pleasure of working on freeing the wrongway driver who reeked of alcohol and later on the way to the hospital in the back of the ambulance asked for another drink. The jackass had an open hip fracture, both legs broken so many times they made one big letter "S" on the stretcher, and an arm almost as bad off. Not to mention general trauma on the body and internal organs resulting from two vehicles both travelling at around 65 mph hitting head on. Did I mention there weren't any skid marks.

And that's why each ambulance should have two paramedics on it. For situations just like this. But they don't happen enough to justify spending the money. So that's where we were up until about two weeks ago when it came down that only three firefighters at a station would be in rotation to ride "the box" as we call it. Sh*t rolls down hill I have heard said and I happen to be one of the three with the least seniority at my station. So guess who's riding an ambulance every third shift now.

Now that I'm done complaining, let me make it perfectly clear that I am glad to have a job. I still like my job. Complaining is just a release. I would also like to apologize at this time for the rambling nature of the above since I didn't think it out beforehand but pretty much just typed it as it popped into my head.

In other news, Ben is doing great. He's almost completely potty trained as he will tell you and just about any stranger in a store or whomever is willing to listen. Paula's doing good.