life, the universe, and donna

There are times when I simply HAVE to believe in karma, if only because it’s the only way to have faith in humanity.

This morning, I was running a little late for work, so when I saw the bus sitting there when I came out of the building, I started running. Then, I saw a crowd of people around the bus. Hmm. Odd.

Then I saw the guy lying on the ground in front of it. Shit. I kept running.

Male, mid-to-late 50s, lying prone with some people crouching around him. There was a bag of empty bottles & cans, and a case of empty Corona’s nearby, a few of the bottles smashed. I went up and said that I have paramedic training and squatted down next to him. Someone else was already talking to him, getting his phone number so they could call his wife. Another woman was crouching, so I checked with her to see what had happened.

Turns out, the guy was riding a bicycle down Dundas when a brown (or beige or taupe or something like that) GMC pick up with an Italian flag sticker hit him from behind, right in front of a bus. The bus stopped, and 911 was called from the bus. The guy in the truck was seen to be on the phone, and everybody assumed he was also calling 911…

…until he took off.

Update from my mother (It’s fun when you get all the transit-related details too): … it sounds like the guy was trying to duck around a bus stopped at the bus stop, and basically ended up squeezing between a bus and traffic… and got hit from behind that way.

Don’t try to squeeze between a bus and a large pick up. Just sayin’.

Worse, nobody got his license plate. Understandable, since it looked like the guy was stopping, but mother of god… a bus with like 30 people, and NOT ONE of them got even a partial license plate number? Shit.

Nobody saw the actual impact, so a spinal injury can’t be ruled out — and I’d be willing to bet he was hit at a pretty decent speed given the location, so without a jump bag, a spinal kit, and oh, other trained responders, there’s exactly nothing I can do other than encourage him to lay as still as possible and reassure him that the ambulance will be there as soon as possible. He was in pain, but coherent — enough to give his phone number — so his level of consciousness was fine. Speaking clearly, so his airway was clear, and respirations were fine. Pulse was pretty normal for a guy who’d just been hit by a truck, and he was sweating a little, but a warm sweat, not cool & clammy so no signs of shock just yet.

So at that point… we just wait.

Within a few minutes, the ambulance shows up and takes over. Sure enough, he’s being treated as d-spine, and they get out the hard collar kit. The lead paramedic does a quick rapid body survey, and they roll him.

Ok, maybe I’m extra-picky about this because I had to re-do my spinal roll about seven gajillion times before I got it right, but … he didn’t do the spinal roll properly. I’ve had it drilled into me REALLY HARD about how to landmark your elbow against your body somehow (generally your leg) so that your hands stay steady while you’re holding the head, and … he wasn’t doing it, and sure enough, the patient’s head moved around a fair amount.

Still, I watched with great interest as they applied the hard collar, got him into the clamshell stretcher, and then up onto the cot and wheeled him away… and felt really, really good about the fact that I could have done that, and aside from hopefully doing the spinal roll properly, would have done everything the “real paramedics” did.

Interestingly, the second paramedic (ie, not the one who did the spinal roll) was a guy I went to elementary & high school with. I think I’ve known him since I was 6, but haven’t seen him in probably 15 years. The only reason I recognized him is because I chatted with him on Facebook about being a paramedic a few months ago, although I thought he worked in the interior. Strike up, “It’s a small world, after all…”

Obviously couldn’t chat with him at all (uh, hello, injured person in an ambulance?) but as they were pulling away, I called out to him, and sure enough, he recognized me. Hee. Cool.

So, instead of being 10 minutes late to work… I was over an hour late to work. By the time the buses started moving again, Nick had come out, so I was able to ride in with him and jump up and down excitedly.

I’m so full of adrenalin it’s crazy. Hot damn, I love this emergency medicine thing.