Wednesday, June 17, 2009

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...

Sunday, June 14, 2009

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!