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It’s 10° out and I’m flashing back to my private EMS days. This jacket has been with me since 2005. It’s warm, comfy, and Highly Visible. With new patches, long underwear, and my Thinsulate watch cap I can go all day in this weather. (It helps that the new rig has a great heater, and… Continue reading 22/365: Day 12
Happy New Year from Engine 10/Medic 4. Busy saving the city until next year! Very likely to run both the last and first calls of the year before I go home. Thus begins another attempt at a Project 365. I haven’t completed one since I carried my Nikon D70 around for a year. Back then… Continue reading Project 365/‘22: Day -1
July 1999 A brand new EMT walks trepidatiously into the ambulance yard. He's not completely lost; he's been a volunteer fireman for a decade. This medical stuff is all new though. He introduces himself to his assigned crew and mispronounces his preceptor's name. He has no idea what is in store for him. The sun is shining, the tunes… Continue reading The Spare (2021)
"Is this an emergency vehicle?" he spat at me before I could say hello. I slowly turned my head to look up at the rear of Medic 9 towering over us. Red and yellow chevron stripes, seven multicolored flashing LED lights, snakes and staffs on blue Stars of Life. I turned back to him and… Continue reading Ice Cream Truck
Into the distance, a ribbon of black stretched to the point of no turning back a flight of fancy on a windswept field standing alone, my senses reel. . . A shift swap has brought me back to the Witch City for the afternoon. My old shift is now occupied by new medics. I roll… Continue reading Earth-bound misfit
While I was awaiting the return of my slides from the lab, I grabbed my Polaroid Spectra for a few quick shots. It had a pack of Impossible B&W which I needed to finish. Imagine my surprise when these popped out. I really shouldn't let cameras sit around with film in them for so long.
A sunny Sunday morning. A crowded neighborhood; the closest thing we have to tenements, filled to the brim with people seeking the American dream and finding everything but. Paramedic 9's diesel screams at the curb, nose to nose with a fire engine in the tiny one way street. They will have to back out. We… Continue reading Muerte
Coming up on today's episode of What Were You Thinking? EMS Edition: A dispatcher confuses the medic crews, A diabetic takes his insulin and goes out for the day without eating, Texting and driving almost kills a man, A coworker loses his temper, And I make a poor first impression. Stay tuned!
There is a memorial plaque in town. I pass it regularly. I remember. I remember a sunny Saturday morning drilling at the firehouse. I remember swearing loudly and running to the engine when the tones dropped. I remember almost overshooting the address, and I remember the horrid moaning sound the engine's radial tires made as… Continue reading Memory
The helicopter crew turns the corner ahead of us in their blue jumpsuits. Their patient doesn't look too bad. She's awake, sitting up on their stretcher. I cannot see a heart monitor or any IVs, and I wonder what she did to warrant flying. We roll together into the Acute area of Big City Trauma… Continue reading Scenes from an ED
Notes from Mosquito Hill 