Try Not To Think About It

Within seconds of the dispatch six of us were piled into the back of the rescue truck, all trying to grab space on the handrail as the truck rolled out of the firehouse. With one hand I continued fastening my coat and pulling my helmet chinstrap tight. We knew the accident scene wasn't far so we had an extra sense of urgency readying our gear. from the back we could hear the voices on the radio yelling for help. All of the key words were being called out... "Jaws of Life, roof, doors, cut off, trapped." I couldn't make out the exact sentence, but given those clues, somebody was trapped and they needed us to cut the roof and doors off. We quickly organized into teams, and who was going to handle what. Being one of the only EMT's in the company, I always ended up near the patient, while at the same time, working on removing parts of the car from them.

As the siren subsided, I leaned down to peek through the windows and saw other apparatus and ambulances who had arrived ahead of us. The truck had barely come to a complete stop when we erupted out the back doors. I walked immediately to the side compartment where the hydraulic "Jaws of Life" was kept. With one motion I opened the door with my left hand, reached in and pulled the tool off its bracket with the right. The 55 pound rescue tool felt more like 10 with the adrenaline pulsing through my body. I held the tool with one hand while quickly pulling the hydraulic lines behind me with the other. I carried the tool toward the vehicle involved in the accident. This was the first time I took in the overall scene. We were at a sharp bend in the road and at the bottom of a hill where we were called fairly frequently for people not slowing down enough to make the turn safely. This time, I noticed the car had come to rest off the road between, several trees, along a riverbank. A crowd of paramedics and firefighters blocked by view of the entire vehicle as I walked up behind them. Once they saw me bring the hydraulic tool closer they separated allowing me acess to the driver's side of the car. It was at this time I realized how serious this was and how difficult, and time consuming a rescue this was going to be.

It was a two door car of some kind. The amount of damage to the car prevented me from recognizing it as any make or model I knew of. The two wheels on the driver side had been dug deeply into the ground, as if it slid sideways off the road into the dirt. The entire side of the car facing me had been twisted and distorted with dents after ricocheting off the many trees nearby. However, the worst part of this scene was the fact that the roof was collapsed down to the same level as the hood and trunk. Apparently the car had slid sideways, dug into the dirt, rolled up on its side, forcing the roof to slam into into the trees, collapsing it down on to the occupants, before the car came back to rest on its wheels.

I placed the tool down on the ground and walked up to the side of the car looking for access into the driver. Looking through the space which once held the windshield, I could see the driver's legs beingheld down by the dashboard, and then another set of legs in the passenger seat. Myself and another rescue officer surveyed the damage and decided we would cut the roof off right away and get a medical crew into the patients. The driver wasn't responding to our calls, while the female passnger we could hear moaning and crying in pain. Quickly, the rescue crew came to life firing up the tools, and attacking the mangled vehicle with a vengence. There were two seriously injured people inside this heap of metal and it was our job to get a medical crew in, and everybody out, as fast as possible.  I used hydraulic cutters to cut the roof post in front and in back of the driver's door. When I was done, I tossed the tool up on the hood passing it over to the guys waiting on the passenger side to do the same thing. We began prying our side of the roof up so i could reach the driver. With a flashlight in hand, I could see the driver's head was leaned back on the top of his seat and pinned down by the roof. He was unconscious and I was pretty sure he had stopped breathing. Once the roof had been totally cut and removed, I could then confirm, no pulse and no breathing. I looked around to see who was going to start the treatment and saw no EMT's on my side of the car. I leaned in and moved a few grocery bags in the back seat so I could jump in and get to the female passenger, now yelling in pain.

"No! Take car of my boyfriend first! Is he okay! I can wait! Take care of my boyfriend!" I wedged myself in between the two bucket seats to block her view of her lifeless boyfriend, and began checking her for injuries. she continued screaming and whenever I touched an injured part she just got louder.
"Hey, I'm just checking to see where you are hurt, okay?'

"You need to get my boyfriend out first!"

"Listen, we have done this more times than you, believe me, I know what I am doing, and taking care of you right now is how we do it...trust me and we'll have everybody out in no time."

A paramedic leaned in from the passenger side and began treatment from the other side. The rescue crew continued working on removing the doors on both sides of the car as I tried to keep the girl calm and distracted from the boyfriend who wasn't moving or talking. We needed to get her out before she realized why. In a matter of minutes we had her broken bones splinted, lacerations bandaged, and were soon sliding her on to a backboard and finally to a stretcher. As the crew wheeled the injured female toward the awaiting ambulance I turned and finally sat comfortably in the backseat...taking a breather among the groceries spilled about the car. The driver still in the front seat, had finally been covered with a sheet. As I made my way back out of the car, trying to find footing to climb out, I kicked some soda cans out the way and noticed what appeared to be spagghetti sauce broken open on the floor behind the driver's seat.

Soon we were back at it, in a less urgent manner, ripping the car open some more to remove the driver's body. The fire and rescue personnel milling about the scene began cleaning up the tools and getting the trucks back in order. As the stretcher from the medical examiner's van was wheeled up to the car, I jumped back into the passenger side, knowing they would need a hand removing the body from the car. As I began leaning the driver forward, I suddenly noticed the massive head injury he suffered on the back of his head. His head was deformed, and had a gaping head wound from the roof collapsing down on him. Moments later, the driver was placed on the stretcher, covered with a blanket and wheeled away from the car. The bright lights that surrounded the scene began darkening, one by one. As I walked toward the rescue truck, a new firefighter walked up to me.

"Hey Lieutenant, did you see all that spaghetti sauce in the back seat?" he said with a big grin. He was referring to a conversation we were having prior to the call coming in about how much I like spagghetti and other pasta. I didn't want to kill his enthusiasm.

I put my arm up on his shoulders and said... "I saw the backseat, but that was no spagghetti sauce."

I am fortunate that during the rescue efforts I have ever been involved in, I am able to focus on the tasks at hand and the people needing my help. The sights and sounds often come back after the fact, and you realize what you just saw or what you just did. Until things settle down and it finally hits you, you do your absolute best, and try not to think about it.