Chapter 7 Elmo

Chapter 7 ELMO

I am beyond tired.

We are cleaning up hose from a structure fire at a gas station last night right off the Interstate. Dirty hoselines stretch from the engine all the way to the western horizon. Picking up hose is a long and painful exercise. You bend at the waist, roll the hose into a small donut and roll up the remaining hose up into a giant donut of very dirty hose. When we get back to the station, we will take it off the truck, throw out the rolls, clean the hose and hang them to dry. Then we can reload the hose from the rack.

We are going to be doing this forever.
I am at least 10 years older than most of the guys on the crew. Because I am the oldest, I am always the last one to sit down and today that is taking its toll on me. Nothing sounds better than a hot shower, a couple of a ibuprofenand a bottomless cup of hot coffee.

I love every miserable minute of this, I was always supposed to be a firefighter. My youth was wasted on a series of jobs that were not my true vocation. I got remarried late in life to a profession I love. Even as I look at the endless dirty hoselines, its hard to think that that I would ever find another job I love like this."Hey Lawler, send Tom over for coffee"

Beep Beep Beep
Engine 3, Paramedic 3 respond to Burger King for an unresponsive male

"It looks like we are all going" Chris says.
The address is right across the street where we are working. I am relieved that I will not be rolling hose for the next little while and hope the young guys will get a lot of it done before we get back. When we are done with the call we can get hot coffee and breakfast sandwiches.

The crew gets in the engine also glad to not be picking up hoselines. 

Engine 3 responding

We arrive in minutes and as we pull up that there is a body face down lying by the order board. No one is touching the person and I am thinking we have found a body.

Engine 3 arrival with one unresponsive patient in the drive through, establishing BK command, we are investigating.

I can smell the booze before we get to him. One Hispanic male flat on his face in front of the menu board in the drive thru. Everyone is looking around to find a car that may rolled away or any indication that this person was hit by a car.

The Sheriff Officer is pointing to the car behind the man in the drive thru. "She said he staggered in front of her car, yelled at the ordering box and fell down. He has alcohol onboard"

In a department where I am the only person of color, I hate to see incidents involving minorities. In our response area, most of the Hispanic wage earners work in agricultural, and the turkey processing plant in town. They work hard all week and when they have a day off during the week they play as hard as they work.

Protecting his head and neck we roll him over and find him breathing on his own and without difficulty. A wave of old beer and vomit wash over all of as he is rolled over. Quick check does not show any airway compromise, deformity, significant trauma, or blood loss. I am doing a quick secondary assessment when the patient starts to stir.

"Alto" I say to the patient and he stops and stares up at me. 

 
This is the moment I have waited for. I do not speak Spanish and everyone expects me to. Thank you Elmo, thank you Sesame Street, I am speaking Spanish to this guy and he understands me.
I ask my partner to take his vital signs and get a quick head to toe assessment done.

“Hasta Tomado?” I am on thin ice now. I have just asked him how much he has had to drink. Mercifully, he starts counting on his fingers in Spanish. He has stopped at nine and is holding up nine figures. I announce the result to everyone helping providing patient care and the Sheriff's Officers standing over us all.

"He has 9 drinks" said Captain Obvious

"Cerveza?" I ask and he nods. That does not need any translation. .
Everyone nods silently and I am floored. I am a runaway train now, way past my Sesame Street Spanish. I want to stop speaking Spanish but I can’t stop myself.

“Donde te dwelle?” I am asking where it hurts. Up until this point it does not occur to me that at some point he will answer me in Spanish I cannot understand. I should have stopped with “Alto” and called it a day. Any minute he will start talking in rapid fire Spanish that I will not understand or the Sheriff’s officer will ask me to ask him a question. I out way past thin ice.

The patient is in his late 40’s and has the look of a farm worker. Bronzed and wrinkled by the sun he is lean with strong arms and shoulders. He points to the laceration on his head and speaks to me in rapid fire Spanish. I have no clue what he has just said, but he is clearly looking at me, glad to have an interpreter, a brown face among all of the white ones. He still stinks of booze and is trying to lay back down on the pavement.

Drawing on all of my medical training, I announce in succinct medical terms just what is wrong with him.

"His head hurts”. I cannot stop myself from pointing to the laceration on his head his head.

"Paramedics are here"

I stand up, and walk towards the ambulance, glad for the last second reprieve. I am giving the paramedic a quick turnover report and he has assumed patient care.

After giving the paramedic’s a brief report I motion to my crew to come back to engine. Now we can stop for coffee, it looks like all the dirty hose is picked up and a quick update on the radio tells me there is a fresh crew back at the station ready to clean and replace the hose on the engine when we get back. 

 
Suddenly not as tired, I have my second wind now. I am more pleased with myself that I am able to admit, if I knew no one was looking I would be punching the air with my fists.

Engine 3 in service

I see the paramedic’s loading the guy up and walk over to the Sheriff’s officer to tell him we are leaving. He is facing me and I am facing away from my crew. The officer now asks me if I can ask the guy how he got there, was he with anyone else, does he have a car and to find out home address, phone number, and explain to him that he is going to detox.

Elmo where are you now?

I explain to the officer that the dialect of Spanish he is speaking is confusing for me and I am worried that I will misinterpret something or use a term he would not be familiar with. This is technically correct, his use of Spanish is confusing for me and the possibility that I could use a term that could confuse him is very probable.

Walking away from the State Patrolman, I turn to my crew and give them the thumbs up. We have saved lives and property today. I tell the engineer who is driving the engine to pull up next to the Starbucks down the street. I am buying.