I finished up my three-day Emergency Medical Dispatcher course in Port Huron on friday. It ended being quite a bit more interesting than I expected, and the folks at Tri-Hospital EMS were great hosts. So last night I took my first 911 calls. It’s interesting (and frustrating) how different it is to talk to a patient on the phone versus being there on-scene with them. I’m a rookie all over again. I managed to keep from screwing anything up, but that was the extent of my success… it certainly was not smooth. And I had the (no so) good fortune to have my calls magically transform into things they were not supposed to be. “My boyfriend overdosed on xanax and is now unconscious on the couch” turned into a violent, unsecure scene when the ambulance arrived. Apparently, he was not as profoundly unconscious as I was led to believe. The other couple of calls were roughly similar. But… I did learn a lot.
And I still want to pick up the phone and say, “Ambulance and fire. Please state the nature of the medical emergency.” A memorable line from the only good character on that show. Ah well. Instead, it’s something like “Ambulance and fire, what’s the address of the emergency. No… the address. … The place where you are calling from. … Yes ma’am/sir, but before I can send an ambulance, I need to know where to send them to.” Ahh… the (lack-of)communications center strikes again. Going back tonight to try it again.
