If you work in a big city, sorta big city, or even a rural area, after a while you get to know your response territory. Generally, although not always, you’ll have a primary response area which you’ll get to know very well, but you’ll also have some knowledge of the areas you have to cover when everyone else is busy. After a a while you’ll find that you have not only repeat customers, those that you transport on either a routine or “emergency” basis, with emergency being vaguely defined. After a longer while you’ll notice that you are on some streets and at some addresses frequently. Homeless shelters, elderly housing facilities, public housing facilities, clinics, and of course, police stations all become places you can drive to with your eyes closed. Which, for the record, I recommend against, even in the middle of the night.
One day, it will dawn on you that some of those places are a bit, uh, different. As one of my co-workers pointed out one day when we were once again dispatched to one of our most “popular” apartment complexes, “I’ve never taken a legitimately sick person out of that place.” When I thought about it, I realized that he was right, we were dispatched to a plethora of “emergency” calls, but each and every time the symptoms and complaints were blown way out of proportion either by the caller our are “Wheel of Misfortune” level call takers. That is, they don’t really listen to the caller, but have a wheel that they spin to come up with the dispatch code. No Vanna White, but in the background I suspect there is someone shouting “Big Trauma, Big Trauma” or something similar.
But I digress.
The danger here of course is that like a blind squirrel, one of these days a call taker will get one right and the now cynical and jaded responders will get burned because they figured it was just old Joe again with his anxiety driven dyspnea. Only this time it was dyspnea driven anxiety caused by hypoxia. That’s a cautionary tale in and of itself, but once again I digress.
As your career continues, assuming you stay in the same area, you come to realize that there are some addresses to which you never, ever, respond. Not too long ago we were dispatched to an address in Sorta Big City on a street that I had never heard of before. It wasn’t that large a street, but it was less than a mile from our station and neither I nor my partner had ever heard the street name before. I commented on that and wondered aloud if that possibly meant that this was not someone who was accustomed to calling 9-1-1 for an ambulance. Which could mean that it was someone that was really ill and needed our assistance as opposed to a mere ride to the hospital. As it turns out it was someone who wasn’t deathly ill, but did need our assistance. The patient and the family were polite and appreciative, even slightly apologetic for having to “bother us”. We assured them that they were no bother, treated the patient, and prepared to transport. When we arrived at the hospital the patient and family thanked us for helping them.
All of which got me to thinking. In this business, as with the police, it’s easy to get cynical and more than a bit jaded. We tend to see the same people over and over, we go to the same addresses over and over, and often the people we serve are demanding and unappreciative. It tends to make you think that everyone is like that, but the reality is that most people aren’t like that at all. They work, they pay taxes, they mostly want to be left alone, they hardly ever have contact with police, EMS, or the fire. It can be difficult, although it’s really important to understand that we see just a small fraction of the people that live in our response area and the ones that we do see over and over are not the norm. Just like those streets that we never hear of and never respond to, these people are out there and compose the majority of the residents of any area.
Even in the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city most of the people are just like you and me. Keep that in mind next time you go to an address you’ve never even heard of before.
Excellent post and an excellent point!
We have this in the fire department too – there is one apartment complex that gets an AFA at least once a week, usually late at night. It’s always burnt food or someone smoking. It’s also a shabby building. I know that, one day, we’re going to get a real fire there and the response will be slow and light since it’s just “another damn smoker” – I just hope the residents actually evacuate when it happens – they usually don’t even bother getting out of bed.
Well said.
Is it just me, or are those “I’m sorry to bother you,” patients always the “Erm…we’re gonna go lights and sirens to the hosptial,” patients?
Absolutely. I remember one night when we were sent to a house in the suburban part of the city. When we arrived we found the patient sitting in a chair in the living room. He was white as a ghost and soaking wet. His son told us that the patient wasn’t feeling well and they had been trying to get him into the car to drive him up to the hospital, but he kept passing out! Even worse, the son told us if we’d help them get the patient in the car, he’d be able to drive him to the hospital without bothering us! Because, he told us, you people are busy taking SICK people to the hospital!
What can you say about people like that? Their poor father is having a huge MI, and they’re worried about bothering us.