Welcome back, to the old school crowd and for the new crew. Welcome to my vault, filled with tales of intrigue and human “awesomeness” that defy logic and common sense. Tales of everyday ‘heroes’ – right here in our city.
“Crying wolf”- A young female came to us in a coma. The ambulance crew had no useful information about her. Typical start. The RNs (nurses) and I furiously began examining her from head to toe but were completely stumped. There were no obvious injuries, no evidence of intoxication, no pain response, but just very shallow breathing. Due to her poor effort at breathing, we prepared her for mechanical breathing. While doing this, with meds in hand, I noticed some strange eye flickering, which seemed ‘weird’. Something seemed off. I asked my team for a long ‘Q-tip’. With that in hand, I carefully inserted it into her nose to lightly bump a very sensitive area. BOO YAA! Like a miracle, she opened her eyes, sat up immediately and let fly a howling “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” She screamed, to which we reply, “What are YOU doing?!” No explanations were given for her behavior. Her own little secret. But another ‘life’ saved.
“Karma”- A labourer came after an accident (again, flooded by information from the medics). There was a gaping wound in his head, leg and arm injuries, and he was sleepy and not talking sense. Again, we attended to his immediate needs. Once stabilized, some of his coworkers showed up. They then told me his story. This poor guy initially slammed head first into a steel beam (that’s bad) but that isn’t where his misery ends; he happened to be standing beside a stairwell so the slam caused him to get knocked over the railing which resulted in him falling down two flights of stairs. That explained the arm and leg injuries and his broken neck. Come on now! Not one bad accident, but two for the price of one!! What had this poor guy done to deserve this? Was he Hitler or Attila the Hun in a past life??
We’re done, but don’t despair; there are more heroes out there and we’ll hear from them later. But take heed to my warning- no need for heroics, unless you don’t mind everyone reading about you.
By Dr. DMS
