By Racehl Raskin-Zrihen
Vallejo Times Herald (California)
Copyright 2007 The Times-Herald
All Rights Reserved
VALLEJO, Calif. — On a recent day described as typical by Medic Ambulance partners John Stevens, 22, and Fred “Eric” Guatlo, 30, they raced to back-to-back emergencies - real and perceived.
“Sometimes, people call for silly reasons, but it’s still an emergency to them,” Stevens said. “All you can do is show them compassion.”
The first response of their shift that recent morning involved an elderly woman who had called 9-1-1 after a dizzy spell. It wasn’t her first encounter with local paramedics.
Medic Ambulance No. 129 and Vallejo Fire Department units arrived almost simultaneously at the woman’s retirement home, and took the stairs and elevator to the 88-year-old’s apartment. There, her condition was assessed, her medications cataloged and the determination was made to strap her onto a gurney and take her to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Vallejo.
Firefighters locked up as they left, and emergency personnel surrounded the gurney as it wound its way to the facility’s parking lot, where the woman was loaded into what the Medic guys lovingly call “the bus.”
Along the way, Stevens sat with the woman, taking her blood pressure, checking her blood glucose level and keeping her calm.
Stevens said a paramedic must stay with a patient until care is officially transferred to hospital personnel. And then there’s the paperwork, provided there’s time before the next emergency call.
“It’s very busy, but I like it that way. That’s the best way to become a better paramedic,” Stevens said. “People don’t really know what we do. They think we’re just ambulance drivers, but it’s a lot more than that.”
Sometimes belligerent
Within minutes of leaving the dizzy woman with Kaiser medical personnel, another call came over the radio involving a middle-aged Vallejo man who had fallen at home, striking his head. He was bleeding profusely.
Sirens wailed as Guatlo dodged seemingly clueless motorists to reach the victim in the shortest possible time without involving the ambulance in a crash.
After securing the man, who appeared to be intoxicated and belligerent, to a board and a gurney, medics transported him to Sutter Solano Medical Center.
As one team member delivered the man to hospital personnel, other medics rushed to clean the blood and disinfect the ambulance and equipment in preparation for the next call, which is never too far off.
It’s just another part of the job, said former iron worker Jason Tyhurst, 31, of Dixon, a Medic supervisor and four-year paramedic veteran.
There was no time this time, for the requisite paperwork before No. 129’s radio crackled with a call for an infant with breathing trouble.
This prompted another trip through town, avoiding motorists unwilling or unable to get out of the way despite the wailing sirens.
The baby appeared fine, but was taken with his mother to Kaiser for safety’s sake.
There was barely time to wish mother and son well before the men were needed again.
Shut the doors, start the engine, flick the siren switch ...