Johnny On The Spot (prose edition)

For those who may have been confused by last entries open verse poetry stylings...here is the story.


My engine was called out to assist the police department with a wellfare check. This was in the retirement mobile home park and the resident hadn't been seen by neighbors for several days.

PD was unable to find an open door or window to make access into the home and so called us - so we can do all the damage. Following the preeminent rule of forcible entry which is try before you pry we took a lap around the house to see if we could find a way in. Now, I'm not in the business of showing up the police department but it can be fun when it happens and you get some points in the sibling rivalry game between cops and firemen. As we made our way around the house trying doors and windows it appeared that the pd was right and the place was locked up tight. But just before we committed to breaking down a door I looked again at the window to the sun porch and thought it looked just slightly off. Upon much closer inspection it was open just a fraction of an inch and I called out that we had a way in.

My firefighter popped off the screen and I slid the window open. The window was maybe four feet off the ground and not very big. So we would need a ladder to get in. My firefighter started to leave to go and get the attic ladder when I reached through the window to see if I could clear some space. The first thing my hand blindly fell on (and pulled out of the window like a rabbit from a hat) was a step ladder, just the right size.

I called out again to my firefighter and told him I didn't need the ladder. Two for two. I climbed up the step ladder and shimmied through the window which led to a sun porch/deck area. I proceeded to the door to let my crew in. We were still not inside the house so may still have to force entry. My captain went to the side door and I went to the slider. The captains door was locked. The sliding glass door opened easily for me and I again called to my crew, "I'm in." Three for three.

Normally PD will take over at this point and go clear the house and make sure it is safe for us to enter. But for some reason they had not come through the door with my crew. I waited for a second to see if they would be coming along then decided, as I heard nothing from inside the house, that I would just go in and check it out.

I announced my presence loudly, "Fire Department!! Anyone home?"
I got no answer and so proceeded through the kitchen looking for the occupant. As soon as I cleared the kitchen I looked down the hallway into the bedroom and saw the elderly gentleman dead on the floor. Even from such a distance I could see that rigor had set in and his hands were actually up in the air like Blue from Old School.

I let my crew and PD know what I'd found. Luckily, much like this mans immaculate home, the scene was surprisingly clean. There was no smell of days old death or any of the other unpleasantness that comes with wellfare check bodies. The police still needed an I.D. or SSN/DOB info and began searching around the house which as I stated was probably the cleanest and most organized house I've been in in a long time. They weren't having any luck finding what they needed however. That's when I saw several envelopes on the lower shelf of the nightstand from AARP. They were perfectly stacked and in chronological order. I opened one up and read off to the PD all of the pts pertinent info that happened to be on page one of the first document.

Four for four (or 5 for 5 if you count the body).

We put the step ladder away, closed up the window and replaced the screen and cleared the scene.

And while it was a sad call overall, as far as those types go, it was an easy one. And I got to be Johnny On The Spot at every turn and one step ahead of the law.

Johnny On The Spot

called for a well fare check
pd couldn't find a way in
found a window just slightly cracked
removed sceen and opened window
couldn't climb in easily
reached in and pulled out a step ladder
climbed in to sun porch and opened main door for crew
inner door unlocked
PD? anyone? okay I'll just go
there he is

Well that is kind of the point of the exercise isn't it?

The last several years I have taken part in a huge two day, multi-agency exercise/competition as part of the water rescue team portion. I have been a proctor for the rescue swimmer station, a competitor on the team, and this year I proctored the towing and search and rescue stations.

Day 1:

The search station involves plotting coordinates and the proper search pattern for the area given and to find and "mitigate" three different objects (mannequins as victims, barrels as hazmat containers etc). The designated search area was just a ways off of one end of the bridge. It had been joked about many times already that if we got a jumper this would turn into a real exercise.

Shouldn't have said anything.

We were just starting the exercise for the second crew of the day when the radio reported a jumper from our end of the bridge. We immediately abandoned the exercise and began to haul ass back towards the bridge.
On the way we could already see the smoke from the signal flare. When someone jumps from the bridge the bridge workers drive out to the location the person jumped from and toss a smoke bomb over the side. This gives us a good idea where to start the search and also shows drift and current. There wasn't a ton of current and the smoke wasn't going far.

As we headed towards the smoke we could see a couple of boats in the area that had stopped under the bridge. On the rear deck of one boat a woman stood pointing into the water several yards ahead of her.
We quickly spotted the object she was pointing too and made our way to it.

Now, I've been on a few searchers for jumpers and others lost at sea but I've never been on the boat that found them or made the recovery. At least not of anyone who wasn't alive. I've pulled cold and thankful victims of capsized boats out of the water, but never a body.

Approaching so the body was drifting towards us we could see that the person was face down...and shirtless. Not sure exactly how that happens or what the mechanics are. Wind as you fall from height? I really don't know. The waves were enough to make the approach somewhat difficult and we had to use the gaff to hook a belt loop and bring him close. One firefighter used the gaff and I laid down flat on the deck reaching down to hold on to the body so it didn't go under the boat. That's when I noticed that the victims arm was separating at the shoulder. Not quite deep enough to be severing but enough that I probably couldn't use it to pull him into the boat. Goes to show how strong an impact hitting water can be though.

 

As we were maneuvering the victim towards the back swim deck the coast guard vessel arrived. As they are much better equipped to handle the body and all follow up we were able to pass the body over to them for recovery. Which was just as well by me.

We were requested to search under the bridge a bit more to see if we could locate his jacket in the hopes of finding some identification.

 

As we continued our search we noticed two porpoises (maybe dolphins) approaching the boat from the ocean side of the bridge. They moved, side by side, jumping their way in unison along the surface of the water. They passed right along side our  boat and continued on into the bay. it was a beautiful sight and a very surreal moment; standing on the deck of some other agencies boat, some other agencies area of operation, having fished a tragic suicide out of the water, witnessing these animals as I've never seen them before, and simultaneously loving being out on the water doing this job.

 

We never did find the jacket and so returned to the search and rescue scenario to save a mannequin and a plastic barrel. It didn't quite have the same sense of urgency after the jumper though.

Day 2:

Our second long day out on the water started out much the same as the first with great weather and mostly calm seas. There was of course continued talk of yesterdays events and maybe this time we should talk about getting a boat fire or something else instead.

We were just starting the second group our station (again) when a report came in for an unconscious male in a dinghy in the next harbor up from where we were conducting our drill.

Here we go again.

We broke from the exercise and headed off hauling ass up to where the reported victim was. We had pretty limited information but received a report when we were almost on scene that the victim had been picked up by a passing boat. Shortly after that update we were flagged down by the crew of that boat. They told us that they had towed him in to the docks. I asked if he was talking and if he was okay. They told me "yeah he woke up".  Well that's not really a good enough answer for us so we still wanted to follow up and make sure everything was okay so we headed in to the docks. We still had only "white dinghy" as a description and there didn't appear to be any vessels of that description there. Fortunately there were some people at the docks who had seen the boat get towed in and told is it was down at the dinghy dock at the end of the next pier over. They also gave us a description of the boat.

As we turned the corner around that next pier we could see the boat floating loose by the shore. Even through binoculars the boat appeared empty but we couldn't be sure. So, we tied up at the dock and made our way ashore and around to the dinghy. Sure enough there he was. Completely passed out in the boat. The good samaritans had apparently taken him as far as the dock and said farewell. This guy never tied up or got out of the boat and just passed out again. He'd been out in the sun for quite some time and was shirtless. He looked exactly how you would expect a castaway to look. However he was just drunk and no Tom Hanks by any stretch.

 

The crew waded in to the water and got hold of his boat and pulled it up on shore. They then proceeded to perform a medical evaluation on our intoxicated and disoriented patient.

Upon finding our patient still in the boat we had radioed for the local fire agency to respond with fire and ambulance. The firefighter on the engine that responded turned out to be one of the guys on the boat that had picked up the jumper with me the day before.

We still had time to finish up the scenario and rescue the mannequin and the barrel and get back to the dock.

Waiting for the next contestants to arrive I wondered what else could possibly happen.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

The guys from the next station over were at our station for fuel and we were catching up when we were called for an elderly patient with ineffective breathing. Uh oh. Not a dispatch with a good prognosis. It was a very close by address so it took us no time to get there.

On arrival the patients wife met us at the door crying and severely agitated, near hysterical. She had a land line phone in her hand and gave it to me as soon as I walked in the door. I didn't even know where the patient was yet or what was going on or who I was talking to. I said hello and heard no answer so just set the phone down on the nearest surface.

 

I rounded the corner into the kitchen and to my surprise the patient was sitting at the kitchen table. To my next surprise I was pretty sure he was dead. He was so pale and lifeless that the first thing I did was check to see if he had rigor to see if I even needed to work this code.  He was an even waxier and a paler shade of white than Bono here, if you can imagine that.

As I checked for rigor and felt for a pulse he moved his arm much to my continued surprise. He actually responded a little bit to my voice as well.  I looked at his face and he had a profound facial droop. I called to my captain, who was in the other room dealing with the hysterical wife, to find out if my patient had any previous stroke history. He was trying relatively unsuccessfully to get any meaningful medical history from the wife and I got no response. 

The firefighter and I got to work assessing vitals, checking blood sugar, getting an ekg, and setting up for oxygenation and IV access. With all of this manipulation and management going on the patient actually became a little more alert. 

Within a few minutes the ambulance arrived and as I was giving them my report I noticed that the facial droop was almost gone. His vitals were all pretty good actually although his blood pressure numbers were questionable and would have to be repeated for verification.

We quickly got him moved to the gurney and to the ambulance to do a couple more tests and determine where he would be transported to, depending on whether there was a cardiac component or if he simply needed a stroke center. As the tests were being performed another family member arrived and I was able to determine that my patient had had a mini stroke just a couple months ago and had a couple of stents put in. Definitely good info to have although I already had a good idea of what was going on.

I popped my head back into the ambulance to update the crew on this new information and found that the patient had zero facial droop and was now talking to the medics. He was still pale and hypotensive but was quite a different picture from the deaths door patient I encountered when I walked in.

It is pretty amazing to see the change in patients like diabetics or those with TIAs (transient ischemic attacks or mini strokes) in a very short period of time with some simple interventions. Sometimes it works against us when we try to explain to the ambulance crew or the hospital that this perfectly normal seeming patient was circling the drain just ten minutes ago. No, really, I swear...I thought he was dead. But I guess he got better.