I've been a paramedic for 20 years but I also dabble in fighting fires, at least since I was 15 having fought a dozen or so house fires in my youth, and since hurricane Katrina my local community has taken a big hit in volunteer support. Considering my paramedic certification and experience they practically begged that I come back on board (been absent since Katrina), so I threw the firefighter bunker gear on and took up the challenge yesterday. They're also thrilled that I'm a CPR, ACLS, and PALS instructor capable of getting the rest of the department certified.
My local community, West Hancock (Pearlington), has a very large area of response - Pearlington, hwy 90 to old 90, port Bienville, the most dangerous section of the interstate in the whole state (first 5 miles into MS from LA), and the first 5 miles in LA on hwy 90. We have about 1-4 calls a day, mostly medical rescue, owing largely to the huge response area. All volunteer, no pay and no benefits other than altruism and good will to help total strangers, we will brave burning buildings, crushed cars, floods, and all manner of rural emergencies. It's a tremendous responsibility that I didn't accept lightly having known what the demand was before Katrina. I had to think long and hard before joining again, but since things will be going to hell in a hand basket in the next few years I thought I'd sacrifice the time to do what feels right before we're all eating each other to stay alive. Maybe I'll die saving someone rather than have to kill anyone to defend myself, that would be a better way to go.
Kim Jones, the fire chief, told me about a recent call that they had last month in which a man was making pipe bombs; to throw into the bayou and kill fish, and one detonated in his hand. His left arm and right leg were blown clean off and other shrapnel injuries to his head and chest. It wasn't a pretty scene, a local bar on Cowan's bayou - "turtle landing", and the nearest ambulance (AMR) was 35 min's away in Pass Christian, MS. Our rescue team requested a medical helicopter but AMR (a private ambulance service that has the S. MS 911) refused to call one until their paramedic had arrived on the scene. Unfortunately this paramedic was inexperienced and when they finally did arrive he wanted to take the patient to Hancock Medical Center, a small town hospital in Waveland, MS. It was very ill equipped to deal with a major multi-system trauma patient and when the ambulance arrived there, a good hour after the explosion, the ER doctor came out and said that they had called for a helicopter to land there and take the patient to New Orleans (Tulane Medical). The ER physician was pretty pissed too that the AMR paramedic had decided to transport to this small hospital rather than a facility that could meet the unique the patients needs - a trauma surgeon. Needless to say that if I had been with the fire department I could have made the call and had a helicopter sent. Paramedics are the ones with that authority here in MS.
Kim Jones then went into the bad public relations the department had experienced since that call. It had made AMR look bad. A couple weeks later after the incident one of the firefighters collapsed at home and was suffering from a undiagnosed diabetic coma, blood sugar was 1600, and when AMR sent the fire chief the bill it was 1400 dollars! Normally, the fire department personnel, since they are volunteer, are exempt from ambulance bills, but AMR corporate (located in Denver, CO) pressed the case that West Hancock firefighters would pay from now on. Naturally, this was likely due to the ugly PR received after the pipe bomb incident.
The way people sometimes treat each other is monstrous.
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