Snow Hills

I swear, this is the second to last Winter 09/10 post!

After most of the fire department had been trapped at a fire house for going on two days without relief, I decided to pull an extra shift to help out since I could still get from point A to point B unlike many people.

Just as I walk in from the bay, the tones go off. Well, that was lucky!

I dash out to the ambulance, catching the Captain and the officer I am replacing in the bay and doing a quick personnel transfer. The directions are easy and our driver seems to be doing well despite the poor plowing conditions.

We approach the location, a school, and are greeted by someone who is trying to wave us up a heavily snowed in driveway. No way the ambulance is getting up that. We stay on the street by move closer down to the entrance to the patient.

Its dusk as the friend leads us past the school to the back field and down a very steep hill. I am eternally grateful that instinct my told me to grab the Reeve’s stretcher when we found out this was outside. We start a quick assessment and discover that the man got his foot stuck under the inter-tube he was sliding down on, leaving him with significant pain in his ankle. I can’t see much since he has rain boots on, but its very painful to movement.

Our driver has to tell the surrounding sledder to NOT sled down by us, seeing as if one wears reflective clothing, one will have people draw to the reflective tape.

A quick transfer later, me, the driver, and my partner are trying to get this man up the sledding hill. The driver is a good sized fire fighter. My partner is barely larger than me and I am pretty small when it comes to hauling people up snow hills. Halfway up we finally get the attention of some bystanders who are willing to help, thus filling the handles from three people to six. Much better. The girlfriend is ahead carrying the tablet that is making an amazingly good flashlight.

Once in the ambulance, my partner gets vitals as I cut open the boot and socks to find his foot completely flopped over to the side and a grapefruit sized swelling an inch or two above the ankle joint. Yes, that would be broken. Feet simply do not flop to the side like that with the knee strait up and facing the ceiling.

I wished I had been able to give the man painkillers in the ambulance, but I am just a Basic. We did try to avoid as many bumps as humanly possible on the way to the hospital, but it was rather difficult with the poorly plowed roads.

Not the way one wants to end the day on a snow hill.