This St. Patty’s Day was filled with lessons learned for B Shift. To start there were 2 JCHS students riding the Engine & Ladder, so we got to review a lot of stuff with them. Next, a man from Waste Management is trying to obtain his EMT certificate and came to ride along. Most of us didn’t get to socialize with him because the unit he was riding stayed on the road. Then Engine 1, Ladder 1, Medic 1, Engine 6, Medic 6, Ladder 7, Engine 5, and a few assorted members gathered at 6 for HTR training. I was looking forward to hearing some good music until we got there and I realized they said we were training on the Bi-pod and not the I-Pod; oh well, still fun anyway. We all got some needed reminders of basic and advanced skills.
The students got a lesson in washing every unit in the house, and station chores which they thoroughly enjoyed. It's good to bring joy into the life of students. We learned that a fellow in a north side station was heard to say “she was only 185 at 5’ 2”, I’m not sure what the context was here but I felt obliged to include it. The Medic unit doled out some lessons yesterday too. For instance; a person went to RMH complaining of nausea and vomiting and belly pain. This person grew weary of waiting for the staff there to call her back to be seen after 1 ½ hours so she signed out and left. Instead of going home in Southeast they decided to visit our lovely southwest fire station. After smoking a cigarette, talking on the cell phone for 25 minutes, and eating a burger they came in and asked for assistance with ‘severe’ abdominal pain, exactly 2 minutes after the chef called the troops to the table for dinner. After a discussion the pain, err patient, was transported to the ER where the nurse immediately recognized her and sent her back to triage 15 people down on the list. Important lesson to her, the ambulance can’t get you seen any faster than walking in some times.
Our final lesson of the day came to a member of team transient deciding to nap away the ½ gallon of Wild Irish Rose he decided to consume in the St. Patty’s Day celebration. What was his lesson? Don’t go to sleep on a bench at a hotel, they’ll call the cops.
Over all this was a good cycle for B Shift. No major incidents and everyone is going home safely with all of their appendages and healthy as when they started the week.
