Back To Work

Kevin returns to his shift and finds management changing things around and a better work environment for his crew.

 

Back to Work

 

 

 

 

As Kevin returned to work, after two well-deserved and busy days off, he could not help but think of the child he had helped bring into the world. Paramedics can never totally insulate themselves from the patients and situations they face from day to day. Memories, both good and bad, return from time to time. Some were easier to deal with than others. This memory kept Kevin smiling through the drive to work.

            Kevin arrived at his customary check in time, which was about fifteen minutes later than the owners liked to see. He had played their game and arrived fifteen minutes early during his probation, but now was different. That was his fifteen minutes and he was not giving it away any longer.

            Reggie Williams was Kevin's partner for the next twenty four hours. Reggie was tall and spoke with a very thick Texas accent. He was still a rookie by most people's standards, but he was street smart and that gave him an edge. He was also young, single and just as apt to stay at the station during his off days as he was to go home. As a result, Reggie was the best source of information at Life-Star Ambulance that could be found outside management. Kevin liked that about Reggie. It helped him negotiate with the owners and often gave him the inside track on all the rumors and any new policies the owners may try to slip by on them. This gave Kevin and the other supervisor’s time to offer alternatives and keep their hands in the running of the company.   

            Reggie was busy washing their unit as Kevin parked his aging Corvette in the supervisor's space. It dieseled and died with a wheeze as he shut it off.

     "Mornin' Kevin. Still haven’t gotten around to tuning that thing of yours up yet?” Reggie greeted Kevin.

     Kevin's aging Corvette was a running joke between him and Reggie. "I’m afraid to touch it. It might not ever start again if I try. These babies are very sensitive."

        "Yours is just on the rag. It ain't sensitive." The quip came from Mike Torres, the company mechanic. "You need a truck. They'll never let you down."

               "Just tune the thing up if you get a chance today", Kevin requested. He knew Mike would break his neck to get to his car, but lately there had been too many ambulance break-downs for him to do much work on other vehicles.  Kevin placed his overnight bag in his private sleep room and went out to check in on Reggie.

               "What kind of shape are we in today?"

               "They were busy last shift. Joyce is staying over for Sandra, but she is dead tired.  All the units are stocked, but Medic 12A-7 is out of service. They broke an axle on the overpass last night."

                 "I heard. Joyce called me right after it happened. How's their patient?"

                "The patient died this morning from a massive intracranial bleed.   She never had a chance anyway."

               “How is Joyce taking it? Is she still holding up alright?” He knew Joyce hated to lose a patient as badly as he did himself and she always took death very personally.

            “She handled this one pretty well, at least until they wrote her up for the unit’s condition.”

            “They wrote Joyce up for poor unit condition? Her units are always stocked and cleaned.”

            “They wrote her up due to the mechanical problems. They really don’t like her on that shift, or is it just me?”

            “The assistant feels threatened by her, that’s all. She should get a life about her, not try to ruin someone else’s.”

            “Well, I guess that’s about the size of that situation. I couldn’t agree more. She’s a piece of work.”

            "How about the sick out?" Kevin hated to ask the question, but it had to come up. A few of the newer employees were protesting the company’s new drug testing policy and had started a sick out a week ago and the owners had just decided to cut the services back until they could find replacements.

          "Only six called in today. Mickey and Jake decided to come back. They are on transfer today. Robert is here and Sandra will be in about 10:00, after her drug test."

         "I'll call our station in with two units available. If Randy shows up today, he'll ride with us. He is about ready to be out on his own. How are we doing with the other stations?"

          "We're up to full strength except for Station 4. They have a team and a half. Think we should send a crew from 3 over?"

           "That’s good thinking. I'll send one team over to 4's after Roll Call. Don't forget, we have to go out of service for a while this afternoon. Life Flight is meeting us for lunch."

           "That's what I forgot. Laura asked about that last shift. I told her you had them down for lunch. She said she would come by at 1:30."

             "Christ, why does she always have to be their front person?"

             "Officially, she wants to go over our off-shore flight contracts. Life Flight is putting pressure on the oil companies and on Laura to set up guidelines for all medical air flights done within their area. The latest hurricanes and other issues with medical care have really pushed this contract. Now unofficially, I think she has other things on her mind."

            "Did Susan finish our proposal for us? I'll really need to finalize all this with Flight-Med before Laura approves our protocols"

            "It's on your desk. I guess she got wind of the money we were going to lose if she sat on her butt again. I sent the copy to Flight-Med myself. They should have gotten the fax copy last night."

           "Good. I'll give Laura a call and find out where she wants to meet this time. The owners are still okay with us handling this meeting with the oil execs?”

            "That was their idea from the word go. Now as far as lunch goes, let’s make it cheap. Pay day is still a few days away."

            "She owes us this one, partner. We bailed her out of a hole the other night when their bird was down with a burned out generator. This lunch is on Life Flight."

            Kevin took the morning reports and a copy of the morning paper to his office. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost time for the second crews to arrive. Randy showed up as Kevin was reading the morning paper. Randy had a knack for giving you all the news from the paper just as you began to read it. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down across from Kevin.

            "Hear about that street person saving a cop's life last night?"

             It was almost too uncanny for Kevin to believe. He had just begun to read that story when Randy mentioned it.

            "Actually, no", he began and Randy began telling the story so Kevin folded the paper to listen. There was no sense in trying to stop him once he got started.

             "Full cardiac arrest in his car. Cop just slumped over the wheel at a stoplight. Ambulance 55 reported a street person was doing CPR on him when they arrived and the cop had begun to respond as they were getting ready to shock him."

            “A street person did CPR on a cop?”

            “Would not have believed them either had I not seen it for myself,” Randy responded.

              "Rode with 55's again last night?"

             "Guilty as charged. Slap my hand, I deserve it."

            Kevin ignored the hand Randy offered, focusing attention to the story instead. Randy loved EMS and since he was young and single, he spent a lot of time riding extra at Life-Star or with Houston. He was one of Kevin’s rising star medics. He had lots of energy, and lots of drive. 

            "A street person actually did full CPR? That's hard to believe. Was he doing a good job? Stupid question. I guess he was or they would never have let him continue."

            "He even had a CPR mask with a one-way valve" Randy continued. “And he was doing the new techniques, not the old 15:2 stuff. He was thumping away at 30:2.”

            "That sounds like he knows his stuff. The new protocols for CPR are barely off the presses."

             "We all thought it was pretty strange, but the cop is alive and this street person saved him. That's really all that matters."

                 Randy was turning something shiny between his fingers as he spoke to Kevin.    

                 "What's that?" Kevin asked.

                "Something I found at the scene last night. Looks like a broken pair of wings."

                 "Mind if I have a look at them?"

                 "Sure", Randy said and passed the broken wings to Kevin.

                  Kevin studied the wings for a moment and asked Randy to get Reggie to the office for a moment. As Randy left, Kevin took a shiny object from his watch pocket and compared the broken edges to the edges of the broken wings. They matched.

                Kevin's mind went back to that night in Houston night several years ago. They were just finishing a psyche call when the tones went off. A young woman lay in the street, bleeding from a large wound in her chest. A young man lay close by, several knife wounds in his chest and abdomen. Kevin had just gotten two started IV's on the woman and requested Life Flight when he heard a voice behind him.

               "Will she live?" A large black man asked the question in a husky voice.

            "They’re doing all they can for her", a policeman replied,” You need to get out of their way so they can do their jobs."

            "Is he still alive?”

             "Yes", Greg replied.

              "Why ain't you helping him with the girl", the black man asked in a very cold still voice.

               "As long as he has a chance, I have to work on him. Please, step back and let us do our job."

              The black man turned as if to leave, then drew a sawed off shotgun from under his coat and aimed it at the man's head. Two blasts from the shotgun blew the man's head off.

              "Now you have one patient", he said.

             Once more, the alert tones drew Kevin back to reality and he shoved the wings in his desk.