Tonights Episode: A Spectre Looms Over District 47

This was one of those shifts that you just can't believe that all this stuff is happening on the same day. Not only the same day but in the same district. And not only the same district, but within a 2-3 block area. All told, we had four deaths in less than 12 hours: a suicide by hanging (not on that call), a nasty fatal car accident, and a code blue for a ninety year old after a square dance.

Warning: Graphic subject matter ahead. I try not to be too gory here but this can't be described in any other way.

The most dramatic call, of course, was the car accident. I have not been on an accident that grisly in a long time, if ever. It came in for the next district over, but since I was driving the truck that day (OK, Quint) we responded as well; the truck goes to all auto accidents. Our dispatch reported that there was an auto accident in the intersection right in front of Station 47 and that Engine 47 was on scene reporting two possible DOAs.

When we were a few blocks out we radioed to Engine 47 asking if they had an assignment for us. E47 radioed back, "We're not there, we're at the training exercise" which happened to be a few cities away. My captain radioed dispatch to confirm that someone was on scene ahead of us. Dispatch replied, "Affirmative, Engine 47 is on scene stating two possible DOAs". E47 again replied, "No we are not on scene. We are not in the city limits." It seemed now that we were going to be first in and that changed our game plan considerably. We weren't arriving to help out anymore, this was going to be our scene.

(It turns out that one of our off duty fire captains had witnessed and reported the accident, stating he was at Station 47 which, I guess, dispatch took to mean he was E47 on scene, hence the confusion.)

We arrived at the intersection and saw a horribly mangled car that had come to rest in the bushes in front of the fire station, almost hitting the station itself. The roof had been ripped about half way off and the steering wheel was on the ground about 6-10 feet away. I drove through the intersection and parked alongside the station just past the wreck. My captain and firefighter went to face-to-face with the off duty captain, the police, and check the scene while I put my rig in pump and prepared to pull a hose line just in case. I was the only paramedic on my rig so before pulling the line, I quickly followed my captain to see if we had any more pressing medical issues. That's when we saw the other car. It was on it's roof about another 100 feet or so away on the drill grounds of the fire station.

The off duty captain had said there was one DOA in the near car and possibly one in the far car. On my way to catch up to my captain I looked in the first car and did a double take. I then needed a third look just to make sure I had it right. Inside the ripped open car was what, at first, appeared to me to be our rescue mannikin. It was bald, pale, and twisted in completely unnatural positions.

I initially thought, OK he made a mistake, it's a dummy. And then I looked again and realized that it was indeed a real person. The driver's head was pretty much facing the wrong way and was partially decapitated. Mannikins don't have actual anatomical structures visible on their inside, he did. I didn't have long to look and sort it out though, because he was obviously dead and my captain was calling for me to move the rig around into the drill ground to the other car.

I ran back to my rig and drove it around the station to the other wreck, pulled the hose line and charged it. Help had arrived by this time. The next due engine was on scene assessing our extrication and patient needs. What I saw when I arrived at the other car was what I was sure was going to be another dead body. I was wrong. He was unresponsive but breathing, though not well. The car was on its roof and the patient was in the backseat with his feet toward the door and his head hanging outside of the smashed rear window in a large pool of coagulating blood. The car had rolled, slid, and at the very least spun around one full revolution. I know this not because there were witnesses to tell us but because there was a blood trail on the pavement in the shape of the number nine leading around the car and right to our patients head. He had essentially done a parking lot 'donut' with his head out the window and dragging on the ground.

By the way, wear your seat belt.

Also, don't drive in excess of 80 miles per hour on city streets, don't race through red lights, don't run from the cops, don't commit vehicular homicide...the list goes on.

We quickly stabilized the vehicle and popped the door off with the Amkus tool.

I was pretty much a support person for this operation, getting the backboard ready, getting the trauma dressings ready, helping pull the patient out and onto the backboard. Once he was out, we put the trauma dressing over his large head wound, cut off all his clothes, secured him to the board, and sent him off to the trauma center with the waiting ambulance. His head wound was severe and while we were working on him he had decorticate posturing, which is a bad sign for the head injured patient. I seriously doubt he will survive and if he does it won't be as he was before.

As you can imagine, we were on scene for quite awhile after the patient was transported. We had a lot of clean up to do and the police had taped off the entire scene (including my rig) so they could do their investigation. The only saving grace was that we didn't have to extricate the deceased victim from his wreck. That would have to wait for the coroners investigation and fell to the unfortunate crew of Station 47 who were out at training and returned home to this mess.

We continued to run calls that shift, including another car accident in the same intersection, and ended our night with the 90-something year old code blue.

I think I've had my fill of death for a few shifts thank you very much.