Back at the firehouse 'morrow. 4 days 'off', but work interrupted my life. More like ruptured. Ol' Hotel Hell is packed to the gills with sun loving, tropics breezin', over-priced drink paying, tourists. Management must be loving it. Then again, if I owned the place, I would too. The weather has been killer, the breeze cooling, and hotel occupancy is high. Good things for the hawaii economy, I assume.
There has been zero, nada, ala's ...surf. Not even a whimper. Maybe a cringe, but nothing to write home about. So what to do? Wait, soon enough, winter is here. Swell time to be had. (pun intended)
One thing I will defintely miss upon promotion will be the humorous calls. Laughter is good medicine. Even a chuckle. There are times when stress is high, so breaking that is paramount to a good beer, chug of wine, bowl of poi. Little old ladies (aunty's), we get calls from those 'lifeline' companies, located on the mainland, with no idea of how to pronounce words that carry mucho vowels, all in a row. These Aunty's have been hood-winked into buying and paying for this service. Granted, it may come to use to some, but for the most part, not. So in the high-value area my station is in, we have elders that subscribe to a company, or two. The alarm comes in as 'unknown medical' so off we go. For some reason again, these happen at 4AM. Popular time. You get to the scene, and Aunty is waiting outside, PJ's, hairnet, disheveled. In the house you can hear over a speaker-phone like device - "this is lifeline, are you all right?" repeating. Over and over.
Youve fallen and you cant get up. What will you do? Talk to a recording, apparently.
Aunty is fine. She just wants us to shut the "godamn thing off" The company, she tells us, isnt answering her calls. So we disconnect the thing, call the company, tell them its OK, everybody happy.
So you go back to the station, back to bed. And 5AM, a call comes in, same address, same call. 'Unknown medical' Off we go. Arrive. In the middle of the driveway is a speaker-phone like device.
Aunty had enough.
School girls at Halloween, or on display, perhaps.
Auto accident. Car has T-Boned another. 815AM. School traffic here is terrrors. Busy, rushing, congested. It is Halloween on top of it. So we arrive at the scene, check out the situation, begin EMS duties. 2 17 y/o girls, driving Moms Land Rover. Brand new. No serious injury, cuts, bruises, scratched. Ask questions, calm the worry. The seats for the car are semi-reclined, so the girls are reclined, legs, askew. Why they were not wearing panties is beyond me.
We had alotta help for that call. Lots.
Diabetic Coma
Diabetes is a killer. A great deal depends on diet, eating, eating right. So we get calls of people unresponsive. Or people, well, kinda looney tunes. We go to this large, extremely large, mansion. Lady meets us at the door. In the back ground you can hear - "whooooo, ahhhhh. whhheeeee, whoooo, ahhhhhh" Loud. Shouting loud. Of course, it is 3 or 4 AM. Middle aged gent, in bed. whooping, hollering. Diabetic. EMS ambulance comes, IV, calms him to responsive, accurate conversation.
So now he is 'normal' , we ask what was the last thing you remember?
We are all still standing there, EMS, Fire, wife.
"I was having sex with her"
Wife turns fifteen shades of red.
You tell me.
Older people tend to let things go a bit too long. Weather it be the grass in the yard, or the meds they are suppose to take, some mess up. It can cost them, dearly. Or it can be pretty funny. We get to the scene of a run-down home. Trash in the yard, overgrown. Get into the house, find the patient. 60 something, run down herself. Not all there. "what seems to be the problem?" No answer, blank look. Do some tests, ask more questions. No answer, still.
She has meds that are near that indicate she has diabetes, heart condition, breathing problems. Ask more questions. Still, no answer.
Do blood pressure, check pupils, ask one last time, "what seems to be the problem?"
Slurring. Hazy speech. So I put my ear up to her lips, and she shouts - "I dont know, You tell me"
I now have spittle in my ear, the crew is convulsing in laughter, and she, dear old lady is grinning.
I guess she told me.
Aloha.
No comments:
Post a Comment