Friday, August 11, 2006

911......What is your emergency?

Thank G-d, it wasn't my emergency but I did call 911 the other day. It was pretty crazy.
I was driving home from Great Lakes Crossing (outlet mall) after a very successful trip. Although I did not find the ONE thing I went for which was a FANCY red or maroon dress or top to wear with a ball gown skirt to my close friend's wedding. Anyone have any suggestions? I've got two weeks left. AHHH!
Back to the story. So I was on the highway on the way home thinking how lucky I was that there wasn't traffic in my direction and I notice all traffic start to slow down. I also see on the side of the road (the inner part of the highway) a pick-up truck that appears to have flipped over but I notice that it is still moving. It was actually in the process of flipping over. What a sickening sight. He was right on top of an overpass and I was scared he was going to flip right over it. Luckily, he came to a stop.
Right away I noticed that there were at least 3 cars involved in this accident and all traffic came to an immediate halt. After the intial shock, people started moving again and we were all pulling over to the right to avoid the wreckage. I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911 and tried to figure out where we were. I thought to myself, "am I just going to call and tell them I just passed an accident? Or should I stop and tell them the details." Then it hit me, "Natalie, pull over right now and stop. You are (or rather were) a trained EMT and you are first on the scene. Get out of car and run over there to help." So I did that. I pulled my car over and traffic was pretty slow so I was able to run across the highway. I was on the phone with 911 at that point telling them where we were, how many cars were involved and how many people I saw injured. At that point, I just saw one man with blood running down his face but I didn't know if anyone was left in the flipped car. They took my name and phone number and said EMS was on the way. We hung up and I told them that the ambulance was on the way. The man was being taken care of by another person and she was pretty much doing what I would be doing. She asked if anyone had water which I realized I did and ran back to the car to get some. I went back and we were talking to the man, asking if he had anyone that he wanted us to call. He kept saying he ruined his truck, he can't believe it. His wife is out of town and he has to call and tell her her crashed the truck. Luckily, there was no one else in the car and how he crawled out by himself, I don't know. But by the looks of his injuries, he was pretty incredibly lucky!!! Then I went over to the other lady whose car was smashed right up next to his truck because no one was talking to her since she didn't appear injured. I was concerned she be in shock. So I went over to check if she was ok. She seemed to be fine physically, she was just shaken up. She kept pointing out how close he was to her door and how she could have been really hurt. She was also lucky. There were 2 other cars aside from those involved but no injuries and minor damage to their cars. I guess what happened was traffic started slowing but someone didn't notice and they all collided. It was pretty crazy.
EMS and the cops arrived. The medics took the man away and then were talking to people on the scene. I went back to my car for a minute and a cop asked if I was in the accident. I said no but I had called 911 so he told me to pull my car in front of everyone else and wait around for a minute. So I did that and the few of us that were there spent a few minutes talking about the accident and what we saw, etc. Then the cop came over and told the woman I was talking to that they probably wouldn't need her but thanks for stopping and for her help. She pretty much did the same thing I did - we just stopped to help and see if everyone was ok and called 911. So I told him that he probably doesn't need me either. I just saw the tail end of the accident (no pun intended) and called 911. So he thanked me for stopping and I went on my way.
Whoooo.
My heart was pounding after that experiance! It sure got the adrenaline pumping again.
It made me realize that I really don't know much about being an EMT anymore. Although I can still keep my cool in an emergency situation. But I feel like I should review my books or something. And I should definitly keep a First Aid kit in my car, along with rubber gloves.
And most of all, I miss being an EMT. I miss having a job that DOES something, that makes a difference in people's lives. Something that counts.
One day, I will get back to it. Some way other another. I toy with the idea a lot. The idea of DOING something with my life. In a professional sense. I just don't know that right now is the time. Maybe I am just scared. Of change? I don't know. We'll see what happens.

By the way, I told a couple people this story and they thought it was really strange that I stopped. They never would have stopped. So maybe it's the EMT part of me that made me do it. I know that in my thought process, I felt it would be wrong to keep driving. Because I didn't know who else was there? And maybe I could help. Not that I still know very much.
But I would do the same thing again.

What would you do?

4 comments:

Veev said...

Great post, great lady!! :)

SHEV said...

first of all, u can borrow my skirt again 4 the wedding. second of all, omg- i wud be so freaked out after that. how r u still driving??

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