Everybody thinks it's great to be busy. High volume areas are in demand, Paramedics and EMT's brag about the number of runs they do. *Newsflash* It sucks. Patient care crashes. Morale crashes. The ambulance crashes. I don't care who you are, and how many calls you do, and how many lives you save, and how […]
It's 0700. Shift change. Fresh faces at triage, tired ones still pushing stretchers in. Different patients, similar stories. The shift that just left fought the weekend battle with us, was as punch drunk as we were, beaten down by the incessant barrage of patients, some drunk, some mentally ill, some bleeding, some dying. Some had […]
http://newsblog.projo.com/2011/05/poet-and-playwright-edwin-honi.html I had the honor of meeting Edwin a few years ago, and though not quite the kind of meeting I would have liked, I was profoundly effected by his presence. October 21, 2008 He’s old, now, closer than ever to infinite eternity. His mind is gone, the brilliant thoughts that once sprang to life […]
Three flights of trash filled stairs, cat urine overwhelming, barricaded door, filthy floor, empty fridge, a kitchen void of food, five hungry kids, girls with no shirts, babies with no diapers, hospital sheets instead of blankets, empty wall sockets, nothing to fill the plugs, no TV,no radio, no blow dryers or cell phone chargers, no […]
She had been down this road before and was ready for me. "Do you know where you are?" I asked. "Right here at home, 572 Fedora Street, Providence, Rhode Island, USA 02908." "What day is it?" "Thursday, May 26, 0737 hrs, SIR!" she snapped off a crisp salute. "Who is the president?" "President Barack Obama, […]