Get Back on That Horse

I never was very good at horsemanship....

Physics over the summer, an ass ton of callouts (four, FOUR on one day) and my research have taken priority over this blog. I missed it though, so I'm back (thanks, AlbinoBlackBear for awakening me from my slumber).
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I've decided to apply for MD/PhD programs. That's how much I've been liking my research as of lately. The key will be finding a program where I can keep doing what I love and still fund me. Its an interesting mix of exercise science and medicine. Really, its exercise as a specific treatment for chronic pain. I think I'm going to get a masters first, especially if I get the big mutha' of a grant I just applied for.
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Rescues have been lacking as of late now that there's just a little bit of snow on the ground. Not enough white stuff to play in or slide, just enough to make it muddy. The few rescues we have had we're impressively fun.

This weekend entailed a full on alpine rescue. First, in the dark then into the next morning and afternoon. Granite covered in Rhine ice, a little snow, some really stuck kids, it made for a challenging rescue.

Highlights: A helicopter offload at 8,000 feet with one skid on a wee small granite fin, stepping out onto snow and with full packs on; beautiful alpine rock and ice; everyone surviving (I didn't think we were going to make it there in time); getting to watch my good friend and roomate lead his first rescue team in to support our helo team; getting hoisted off the mountain- I always feel like I'm flying hanging beneath the rotors of that beautiful bird.

It cannot be stressed enough: no matter how many times I get to play with the helicopters they still give me a giant woodie.

Lowlights: Getting hit in the chin as the helicopter peeled off the mountain in a wind gust; wondering all night if these kids were going to die because I couldn't get to them till the morning (and not sleeping one wink because of it); having to tell a patient that they were "just going to have to hold on till daylight" for the first time because my team couldn't climb to them in the dark; having to tell a new team member to take his comments off facebook because of the poor things they said about our patients- and the attitude I got back from it.

I'll try to upload some video we shot during the rescue but until then enjoy the poor quality pics I grabbed off the news:

Sorry

I can't finish the last series of posts... its just not going to happen. Hopefully I'll have something else to write about soon.

Two Rules

1.) Its no fun to climb and die

2.) Learn to down climb, it will save your life

that is all, back to physics

ThreeFive Days in the Water Part Two

Did I say three days in the water? How silly of me; I meant Five. Allow me to ruin the end of the story for you. We didn't find the body, rarely do we ever find the body. But, we sure as hell tried.

Like any story worth reading; this epic has a girl involved. Actually, a really hot girl, some damn good ice cream, a $50 bottle of port, and my hot tub. Then my fucking pager went off (to which the first words out of my mouth are always "oh shit") and that will be the last we ever hear of that girl.

The page was its usual cryptic self:
"S&R CALLOUT SEARCH OF 10YOF RESPOND TO (GETTO) BRING DIVE EQUIPMENT"

Translation: the kid is dead, he's been in the water for an hour before fire called us to find the body. Never mind that we have an actual fast response rescue team. I guess someone at the station forgot to set the TIVO and they had to head back home to catch House.

I changed into my wetsuit at my house (in front of a very perplexed female, I guess I didn't explain what I do very well) and high tailed it to the scene. By the time I got there it was the normal multiple agency cluster fuck. I was assigned to build the grid- a giant man made strainer down stream- but got pulled into a zodiac for a bank search. Of course, I didn't clear that with my commanding officer and got an ass reaming for it that night.

A lot of people on our team readily assume that every water call out is a body recovery. They're right 98% of the time; but that's not good enough for me. I grabbed (stole...) a jump bag from the ambulance on scene just in case. I can't image how stupid I would feel if I found an *almost* dead patient and didn't have shit on me to help.

Of course, the bank search was uneventful and we went back to probing. A lot of people ask how we find bodies in the water. We pick the most likely spot they could be and see if we can snag anything with a giant metal pole with two or so hooks on the end. That is when most of my friends stop asking what I do... gruesome indeed.

Darkness fell, the rain started, and the fishing continued. We had three people in the zodiac- one running the outboard, one probing, and the other holding onto the bottom of the bridge so we'd stay in one place. We found a lot of shit- blankets, pillows, signs, shopping carts- all of which feel A LOT like a body. Each time we'd get our hopes up, only to have them be killed. It could be worse, we've found bodies in this river in past searches... that weren't the body we were looking for.

Midnight came and command sent us home with the promise that we'd be there the next day bright and early. My dreams were short (as was my sleep) and weird; it wasn't until I got home that I realized EXACTLY what we were looking for:

• someone's daughter
• someone's sister
• someone's niece
• some little kid's best friend
  
• some little boy's first crush

Dammit...

Three Days in the Water, Part One.

Its been a while since I've had anything to post on here. Its been

QUIET

DEAD QUIET

(may the ems god smite me... fuck them)

Until this weekend any way. Friday we were called out to a 3 year old who fell in a creek while chasing her dog. I had just began an exam when the page went out. I glanced at it and all I had to see was "3 year old" and "swift water" and I was out of my seat and heading towards the door. The TA confronted me, I explained the situation (swift water rescues are one of the few times where our response time means life and death) and continued out the door.

"I'm going to fail you" was the last thing I heard. I couldn't care less- I don't think I could ever forgive myself if a kid died because I wouldn't leave some pointless piece of shit exam. I hauled ass to my partners house. He was waiting, wetsuit on, so I let him drive while I tossed mine on in the car (I'm sorry to everyone on Main street i flashed).

As we drove we checked in on the radio reports; witnesses were reporting seeing her, still alive, further and further downstream. We adjusted our course accordingly (wishing our friggin department would give us blue lights the whole time) and finally hit a part of the steam accessible to the road downstream from her position.

We readied for a "live bait" rescue. In escence, something like this:
One team member has a rope attached to his rescue PFD and stands poised at the waters edge or on a rock while the other team member gets ready to belay him from shore with the rope. When the "swimmer" (patient, victim, w/e) is in sight and slightly past the rescuer in the water he makes an elegant swift water entry (belly flop), grabs the swimmer, and is then pedulumed to shore by his team mate who hope fully still has hold of the rope. The difficulty of this maneuver is compounded by a struggling patient (yes, I hit them if need be), and the shear idiocy of jumping into the very situation killing your patient.

I couldn't have been more surprised when we hit the shore and there was our little girl, laying in the shallows... face up. My partner gave two quick rescue breaths (without a barrier... oops) and just like that the girl coughed up a little water, gave a wail, and pinked up. The ambulance was right on our ass so we handed her off to the medic and that was the last we saw of her.

I got to finish my exam... and I got the high score in the class... eat that Mr. TA!

New Packing List

They say that you can tell an EMTs experience by the amount of shit on his belt. The more shit there is, the less experience he/she has. I think the same can be said for SAR; except I carry everything in the back of my car. Now that its summer I can get rid of most of my winter gear (skis, avy gear, etc) and I took hard look at what I was carrying.

My goal was to have a pack that was ready for 90% of our missions pre-packed in my car. This includes food, water, etc. I use a Lowe Alpine Alpine Attack 50 for my SAR pack because it *can* be a load hauler when I end up with the 600 foot static line or I can compress it down if I'm in the HASTE team.

I was always amazed at the small size of the packs carried by experienced members on our team. Especially considering they ALWAYS had what they needed. Now, I understand why. Speed= safety (as long as you have the crapola you need). Here's what I'm keeping pre-packed:

1. Lowe Pack
1. Top Pouch

i. Map

ii. Compass/ Whistle

iii. Pro Bars (2)

iv. Pair of socks

v. Laser Pointer

vi. Safety glasses

vii. Headlamp

viii. Fire starter + matches

ix. Sunglasses

2. Main pouch

i. Team shell

ii. Team fleece jacket

iii. Team fleece vest

iv. Team fleece hat

v. OR waterproof gloves

vi. MH fleece gloves

vii. Helmet

1. headlamp attached

viii. Climbing bundle

1. 3 Omega Team Carabineers

2. 15’ webbing

3. 20’ webbing

4. Personal prussic cords (2)

5. Black Diamond Alpine Bod harness

6. Petzyl gloves + keeper carabineer

ix. Climbing harness

1. ATC + belay carabineer

2. Personal Purcell

x. One Nalgene (water)

xi. One Nalgene (gatorade)

3. Outside pocket (crampon pouch)

i. Team first aid kit

1. Trauma sheers

2. BVM

3. Gloves (Large)

4. Bio Bag

5. Kerlix Roll

6. 4 X 4 gauze (4)

7. 8X 10 Combine dressing

8. Cavet bandages (2)

9. Mole Skin

10. Triple antibiotic packages (2)

11. Antimicrobacterial wipes (3)

12. Ibuprophen (2)

13. Diphen (2)

14. Bandaids

15. Bug X towelette

16. Sunscreen

17. Sting relief

ii. Sam Splint

So that's about 1000 calories plus a combination of clothes that will keep me comforatable in a range of conditions. I'll drop my primary climbing harness before we set out if it doesn't look like we'll need it- its a super heavy (comfy) big wall harness but I'll keep my main climbing kit because a simple carryout can require belays very quickly.

Also, in the back of my car ready to go is my radio chest harness. Now, I'm not a huge fan of this thing. Its hot, heavy, and seems to get in the way. I'd rather toss my radio in my crampon pouch on my pack and run the lapel mic up to my shoulder strap. I'm still afraid to not have somethings attached to my body (space blanket, radio) so
for now it stays:

1. Radio Pack
1. 4 X 4 bandages (2)
2. Space Blanket
3. Sharpie
4. Pen
5. Notepad
6. Small flashlight
7. Team medical form
8. Two pair large medical gloves
9. One pair each: small and medium gloves
10. Medical reference card
11. Small gerber
12. 800 mHz Radio + Lapel mic
13. Medical tape
14. Ear plugs (helicopters)
    
15. AA/AAA batteries (3 each)

Finally, I have two small duffels I keep in the back of my trusty subaru. One is specifically for swift water rescues and the other has some snow/ice gear (there's still a lot at high altitudes) and my normal clothes/boots I wear on callouts.

1. Duffel
1. Tall leather boots (socks + gaitors inside)
2. Mountaineering boots
3. Crampons
4. Ice Screws (6)

i. 10cm (2)

ii. 15cm (2)

iii. 17cm (2)

5. DMM ice tools (2)
6. BD Ice Ax
7. MH winter gloves
8. MH prima loft jacket
9. Green team pants
10. Team short sleeve t-shirt
11. Synthetic boxers
12. Long sleeve synthetic shirt
13. AA/AAA extra batteries (10 each)
1. Swift water duffel
1. Swift water PFD

i. Whistle

ii. Knife

iii. Attendant line + locking carabineer (LOCKED)

2. Helmet
3. Neoprene gloves
4. Neoprene socks
5. Wetsuit
6. Old tennis shoes
7. Throw rope

That's still a ton of stuff, but I'm open to ideas of what I can get rid of....

Quite Possibly the Finest Prank Ever

I credit myself for being a little bit of a prankster... Its a defense mechanism and a way of reminding my self that none of us are really all that important. Usually, its little stuff. Like sneaking into one of our deputies cars and turning up the radio so that when he turns it on in the morning he'll be bombarded with Mexican polka (bonus points for taking the radio control knobs off or covering them in KY) or tying my team leader's boots to the litter as we're practicing carries.

One deputy I work with took the cake though. We were doing a body recovery. A really, really bad body recovery. The kind where you bring the pieces out in small trash bags as you find them and hope the patient had good dental records.

Well, for some reason, the patient's ear was found far, far away from the rest of the pieces of the body. The ear was placed in its own bag and because of that forgotten about when the rest of the pieces were handed over to the coroner.

This deputy realized his mistake about an hour later, and sheepishly told our commanding officer. Our CO's reply:

"Fuck, well just throw the damn thing away, none of us ever saw it..."

Ay, ay captain, and so it was done, or we thought.

Not long after the call out the afore mentioned deputy and went to grab us sandwiches after the call out. Our CO had been bitching all day about how hungry he was and how long the recovery was taking, etc, etc, etc.

The Deputy returned from his food run, handed out all the boxes of food, and (quickly) walked away. Our CO opened his sandwich box, opened his hoagie to pile on the mayo and letuce and there, smack dab in the middle of his ham was the ear that had been "thrown away".

Our CO immediately recoiled, and chucked the sandwhich at the (now running) deputy. After a brief pursuit the deputy handed out CO his real sandwhich, the ear was finally thrown away, and one of the better pranks in our department went down in infamy.