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!