Latest / We Didn't Plan for This Podcast / 12. People Be Peopling: The People Behind the Sirens - PART 1

Transcript

12. People Be Peopling: The People Behind the Sirens - PART 1 · We Didn't Plan for This Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to another episode of People Be Peopling.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_03: This is Adrian and Nora.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: And today we were lucky to have two amazing emergency service uh first responders on our show talking to us about how they've experienced people be peopling in their life.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_03: We've had to break this into two different episodes because there was just so much content.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: So we broke it into two pieces.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_03: First piece is talking more about kind of what they deal with on a daily basis, like what life as an EMS, how it's not uh considered an emergency thing that they have to do.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: So with that being said, you'll hear their stories and then you're gonna hear the funny stories, the crazy stories, the wacky stories.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: In the second episode.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: People be peopling.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: So great review, subscribe, send this to some of your EMS friends, and send them our way.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: We want to hear from you.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks, guys.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hi y'all.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Adrian and I are really excited to have you join us for another episode of People Be Peopling.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Today we have the honor and fascination of sitting and talking with a couple of medics from Central Texas.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one I happen to have known for a very long time.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: One that's in bed next to you, so you better know him.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And a friend, a close g friend.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, Colton, for sharing and spending time with us today.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: We are so excited.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Benny, thank you for sharing your time with us today.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, you owe me.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: This is like a dream come true for me.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: Like I have wanted this.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: We are so excited.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so excited.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: Like, this is literally like anytime I meet somebody who is in emergency services, I'm like, tell me all your stories as quickly as you can so I can soak them all in.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: I just am fascinated.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: I really wish I was smart enough and um could tolerate smells better and wouldn't like gag reflex through the job.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but like and I wish I could type faster so I could be a dispatcher, but like I fucking adore emergency services.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: I think what you guys do is amazing, and I am fascinated to see you see people on their usually their absolute worst moment of their life at that time, right?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: How many years have you been in emergency services?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've been in for about five years now.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a paramedic in central Texas area.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: And then what did you do before that?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was in the military and then did construction for a little bit.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh short stint two years as a porn star.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: And his dreams.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: Great videos, by the way.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh search and rescue and a rescue diver.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I did I did wildland firefighting, stuff like that.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um so like uh you're kind of a big deal in my mind because you put yourself right in the middle.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely in mine.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's the fact that you put yourself in situations that people are running away from, you know, and you're running into them.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: So I find that fascinating.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: Colton, what about you?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I've been in Central Texas as a firefighter EMT since I was 18.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_04: I'm 33 now.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_04: Uh started volunteer, uh, loved the fire department, didn't care about medical.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_04: Then I learned that you have to be an empt to do fire stuff.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_04: So went through all the EMT certs and been a medic for seven years now.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_04: Nice.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_04: So everything before that was pretty much nothing.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_04: It was I was in high school, didn't know what I want to do.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_04: It was probably going to be military, but the department I joined uh really pushed, you know, me going to the academy and doing all that.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_04: So, how does that all work?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like, tell me about like if I I'm 51 years old, I want to join, I want to be a firefighter.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: How would I go about doing that?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_04: In the state of Texas, it's very it's it's kind of confusing.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_04: You'd be like, that's just ridiculous.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_04: But more so you got to go to EMT school first.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: There's three levels, technically four levels of EMT, but your basic EMT.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we're the we're the the top tier uh your advanced and your paramedic.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, if you at least have your basic EMT, then you know you can pretty much work anywhere, any medical department in some fire departments.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, then you go to fire academy.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_04: So you can't be certified as a firefighter unless you hold a minimum of an EMT certification.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_04: And then you can get your commission through the state to get your firefighter.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then after that, it's just depends on where you want to go.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_04: Every department's very different.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_04: So um, and then you can pretty much go through more schooling if you want to be a paramedic or not.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: So you've been through all of that.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_03: Not if you're old.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: Not if you're old.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_04: Well, Fire Academy also depends.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_04: I know a lady that was in her 70s and past Fire Academy, but she was it was more so of uh uh their poster child and they're like, Oh, look, we have an old lady here.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: They she didn't have to do much, but everything's online nowadays, which makes it easier.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so you can go to like I'm a dot com firefighter, so I did my fire academy online and then went somewhere and did the skills for a couple weeks.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_04: So it's a lot different back in the day, it was six to eight months, but yeah, it's more conven you know financially convenient to do it online, but absolutely.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: So you've been both doing this quite a long time.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: How did you both get into EMS?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like, was it you want you said basically, I think you kind of answered that, Colton.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_03: You did it because you wanted to be a firefighter.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: Daddy, what about you?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my wife said I had to do something instead of sitting around the house.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then we went through the whole I mean, he was already doing wild wildland fire and doing volunteer fire, and yeah.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it it's been around, around and it's definitely in his wheelhouse.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I went and looked at the fire department instead.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I still don't like firefighters, but um I don't either.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Went and looked at that and they were like, you have to be an EMT.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one of how I started an EMS and decided that I like EMS more than the the fire service.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think the fire service is a a little too uh ate up and paramilitary for my taste.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that means.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: It means they're like highly structured and they like pretending that they were they're in the military with all their crap and stuff like that.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Not all departments are like that, but most of them are.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: They just have like a pride kind of thing.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of energy that focuses on shining the giant red penis that they ride around town all day.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then they and then they gotta wash it six times a day and make sure everybody watches them polish their knobs from the main street to see where taxpayers' dollars are going.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, seeing me making fun of firefighters has rubbed off on her too.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: I got your back, Colton.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Figured it out.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I got your back.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Figured it out.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: I would be running the fuck away from a fire.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I they can cannot they can handle it.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they can handle it.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, they're doing what rain can do.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: What rain can do.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: You poor thing, Colton.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: I can't believe you have to work.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_04: I agree with Dennis.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I like I said, I got a lot of fire experience when I was in my 20s, and now I'm I'm just like him.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_04: I could a lot of these guys, they just you know, they've probably been working for five years maybe, and they're already promoted.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_04: They never ride the ambulance, and you know, because 90% of our calls are EMS or medical.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_04: So if there's a fire, I don't get the raging boner anymore.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_04: I don't get the adrenaline rush.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, hey, y'all, y'all can go, let them go.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_04: I'd rather just stay here, you know.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, I agree.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_04: Now we we kind of need a little bit of that military culture in the department for these young guys that come in just acting, and that's what I agree with on that part.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_04: But yes, I've worked in other departments, like Dennis said, and these guys are just they walk around strutting their stuff every day, even when they're off duty, they're wearing their fire department t-shirts and their radio straps, and like uh it's it's too much.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: If I was a firefighter, I'd fucking do that too, though.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_03: Man, I would be like so proud to be able to do that.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you would.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: I would be so proud.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I Denny gave me two patches, and I love them.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm off work.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: When I'm off work, I'm off work.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want anybody to look at me.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want anybody.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, as if anybody looking at you on any given day doesn't know exactly what you do just by the way you carry yourself.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I was that guy.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_04: I did.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_04: I went like I was 18, had the stickers on my truck, wore the t-shirts, and and you know, for a long time had the lights on my truck.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_03: I God, I totally I totally would.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: I've been begging for a police scanner, like at least a good police scanner app that I can like understand what's going on.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: I I I have a hard time, I guess, with hearing.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so specifically at work, when it's like we can't understand what's going on when we're listening to the radio weekend.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, good.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: Don't get freaking spirit because you won't understand the thing.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's literally like at work, if there's something it's like, shut up, shut up.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, wait, what that is a hundred percent the exact situation that they're dealing with when the tones drop because I've been there and I'm like, oh my god, it's the Snoopy, the teacher talking over the So what the fuck?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't they fix that?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm off why can't they fix that?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then yeah, we have they don't bother because they have digital dispatch now that just sends us a text on our phone, yeah.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_04: So we can see it on our phone, and but we've asked there's a lot of things we need fixed, but we're just the peons and yeah, walk around and I like it that way.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_04: That's true.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's true, that's true.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: Better than wearing the okay.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: You want to get into start asking them some situational questions.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: I'm dying.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: Are you kidding me?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: I'm already like, whoa, okay.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um where do you want to start?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to start that.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: I want to ask, um I wanna ask what people who have never worked EMS misunderstand about your job.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's a good question.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think some of the things they don't understand are, you know, rules we follow, rules we have to follow, stuff like that.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think some of the biggest arguments I've ever got in and on scene is, you know, like patient rights, for example.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not kidnapping anybody.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if we get called to a nursing home or something like that, and the patient doesn't want to go, but the nurses want them to go, sorry.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a hospital has to take a patient.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: I I I don't, you know, kind of kind of situation.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: I I get it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: The general public, they don't know.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's the problem, right?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: There's no school that teaches them how to call 911.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: There's no school that teaches us how to do taxes, right?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_03: Or to like, you know, file a W-2.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_04: Like that's we have to throw our taxes.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_03: We do.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: Don't worry, you're a civil servant.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: They got you back.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_04: I agree with Dennis, though, that's it's you know, especially like power of attorney or something.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_04: There's no schooling if grandma has power of attorney, the daughter, they're like, Well, that means I can do whatever I want.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_04: Well, legally, no.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_04: Like, you can't tell us if she is in her right state of mind.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: We can't we can't force someone to do anything.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but I usually start those conversations off with, look, I'm this, I'm not coming across rude, but there's a little education behind this, uh, just so you know it's my legal right to treat, but at the same time, it's their legal right to refuse if they don't want treatment, if they're obviously not having a stroke or they're not having a medical emergency.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so none of that's taught.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_04: None of that's talked about in uh just the everyday civilian world when you know you go about uh medical and there's there's nothing like that talked about.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um they're just like, okay, sign here.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, here you go.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um I also think they I also think they completely misunderstand the capabilities in the back of a Mickey.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we we go go on like I we picked up a a lady who fell the other day, and I'm trying to get information from her, and she's like, Well, the hospital knows all my information, and it's like, no, no, I don't think you understand.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're treating you in the ambulance right now.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: I need to know.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're not at the hospital yet.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have some pretty advanced capabilities on a on a Mic U ambulance these days.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, especially the older generation, and they're let's face it, they're the ones we go to the most.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um tell them, tell them what a Mickey ambulance is.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what I was gonna ask.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Medical ISO.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: So mobile intensive care unit.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: I guess look at how smart you are.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I tried.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I went to the listen, what's your what's your newest podcast obsession?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, um my uh the ER edit and um the world's most okayist EMS podcast.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: I I love it.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: I listen to my latest obsession, so she's listening to a bunch of EMS stories on there.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: I find it fascinating because it's like you know, you're really seeing people at the worst moment or one of their worst moments.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's crazy to me because watching people react, right?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: And respond to you, who's coming in to help, and then they're like, you know, I I guess, and especially in the economy that we're in, many people are like, I can't afford an ambulance ride.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have insurance, right?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_04: We get that a lot.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I also see like you know, it may be the worst moment of their life, but it's just a regular daily moment for me.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And the way I always see it is like if you ever see me like in unit or or well, like on a call or anything like that.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: If you ever see me excitable or excited or something like that, something's gone seriously wrong.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: And people I think people forget that we're also professionals that go and do this, so chances are I've seen that before or something similar, and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get as excited as you know, other people are, so you're not gonna get that same response.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and and honestly, nor do we want to get that same response.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Do they really?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, people, oh yeah.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, Oh, you don't care.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, what do you mean I don't care?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm not running around like a you know, a chicken with chicken with its head cut off.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: What the fuck?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: I would not think that.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: I would think that people would be more like, I mean, when uh when Brian was in the hospital and uh and I had you know all of these questions and all of these things to try to figure out, I didn't want my doctors to be like, oh my god, what's happening?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: You know, like that would be fucking terrible.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: I want them to be calm, yeah.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: But but say you're on a on a scene with people in their house, families and stuff like that.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not rushing around and acting a fool, they're they don't think you're doing your job.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense, or they think that you're not like being um urgent enough.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: I can understand for the situation and that's the panic that they're feeling.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: I can understand that.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So how do you do have to keep their cool?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_03: How do you deal with people like that?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have like a certain way that you handle them?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, or is every case different?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't think I'm the person.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: No, I was not gonna give don't give Denny the microphone, Nora, to put that away.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_03: Colton, let's hear how you calmly.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: No, I'm just kidding.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_04: Well, usually there's typically what two of us minimal on a scene.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and if it's a critical call, there's we you're looking at four to six, maybe eight.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_04: So typically when we have a critical call, uh medical, um, we usually have more than two guys.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_04: And if that's the case, we'll delegate one of those guys to deal with family.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_04: Many times I say, Hey, can you deal with family?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, there's a lot of traumatic events where the family wants to watch, and it's what you tell yourself, well, what do I do?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like this is their loved one, and you can't pull them away, but you know every second they're watching, it's gonna you know scar them for the rest of their life.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but you gotta do, you gotta pretty much do what they want to do.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_04: So, but if they're being combative and stuff, I mean that's just you you delegate the this guy most seniority, or maybe the guy that's a people person and calm people down to to you know get them out of the way, distract them somehow.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um what I usually do is no, I was gonna say definitely not doing it.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: He's driving.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_04: I and I usually just you know take them to another room, say, hey, what's their medical history?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_04: What's you know, just ask the questions that maybe that patient can't tell us in the moment.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_04: So they're like, you know, it gets their mind off track, just you know, yeah, telling us, okay, oh yeah, they're allergic to this.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_04: They're they had they had a you know a catheter put in, a heart stint put in a month ago.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_04: So then they start calming down that way.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_04: So that's just one of the things.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_04: But I mean, I'm sure Dennis uh Denny has also, but we would uh, you know, have law enforcement get there, and there's some people that get combative, and you just gotta maybe hold them down, you gotta have a wrestling match with them until you can get somebody there.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: So it's happening.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's my favorite part.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_04: I was gonna say that it is fun.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: That is crazy.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, do you do kind of one of those like you know, ro shambeau or rock, paper, scissors where you're like, okay, it's your turn to talk to the family, it's your turn to be the point person for them.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's just whatever you go with the flow.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_04: I so I tell all the guys like it's a natural thing.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, when you're going through school, the your preceptor asks you, what are you gonna do?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, oh, go do this.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_04: I hate I hate doing that because your mind gets focused on what you're possibly going to, what's your how your treatment plan, how you're gonna handle the scene.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_04: Then you get tunnel vision.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_04: So I tell a lot of new guys, like, hey, the reason why I'm not asking you prior to we get on scene is because I want you to go with the flow.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_04: I want you to see what you're gonna do.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: And that's how I work.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_04: We could be going to something very critical that sounds, you know, even as a seasoned medic, kind of scary, but I'm like, you know, it we're going with the flow.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_04: And when it comes to those uh, you know, combative uh family patients or whoever, you know, like like Denny said, you just you just go with it, you know, you're gonna know, hey, this guy's closest to them, or this guy's, like I said, better people person.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_04: And it's just gonna flow.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_04: So it's good to have that pre-plan to know who's doing what, but at the same time, we do that every time we go on shift.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_04: We know, hey, I'm I'm the lead medic on this truck um, or I'm the senior firefighter, whatever it is.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_04: So we know what we got to do.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_04: It's just keeping everybody in line, and maybe that lead medic needs to be a lead and delegate, hey, you know, because there's there's calls we go on where none of that happens and it becomes a cluster.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: Then things get lost, things get missed.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_04: Patient care, uh it, you know, there's something we missed in patient care that could have been done better.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_04: So having that lead person, hey, you do this, this, this, yeah, once we get on the calls, because we know what's going on then.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_04: There you go.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_03: So that's good.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's really good.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_03: And it's, I mean, the other thing is like talking about the you know, wah, wah, wah, the dispatch and not being able to hear it, but then getting kind of the digital information and then the information that it's now coming to you, you know, second hand from someone else.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: And then how sometimes third hand.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, third hand too, right?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so then it's like, okay, so you get this information and then you gear up, you get ready, you go out the door, you don't really know what you're gonna run into, right?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: So you're probably constantly on your toes.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: How do you manage the adrenaline?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I would just say you get it anymore.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I exactly.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_04: It's like I don't get that crazy, like my gut drops and just shaking and sweating.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, as a young EMT, absolutely.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_04: But um that's why it's good to have these these senior guys that have been doing this.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_04: Uh everything tends to stay a lot calmer.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_04: And that's where I've learned through a lot of the senior medics or firefighters is how like how calm they are.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_04: And again, you you know, someone from the outside sees it, well, how can you be so calm?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_04: This is this is crazy.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_04: But when you experience it, you know, so much you learn from others, you just it just comes naturally.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so for me, that's usually what I do, just stay calm and and teach the other, the young guys the same way.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, I feel like it's it's it's basically what you're saying, it's experience, it's time under tension.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely experience.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: Now you can have a couple and emts that are fresh and they do excellent.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_04: They may act like they are seasoned, but everyone's different.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_04: And there's, you know, that we have people that are EMTs, maybe firefighters as well.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_04: And you can tell also that, hey, this ain't for you.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, like I know you're trying, but this is not the field you need to be in.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like this ain't for you.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_04: And you gotta be honest with them, and I usually am.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um Denny is in his own ways, uh, but it's you just gotta be honest with them.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_04: And I think like, you know, with with Denny having uh previous um military experience, I mean, he he is just because he's been a medic for what five years doesn't mean like he's not seasoned, like he has all that previous experience and seeing what he's seeing and doing all that.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_04: So uh compared to someone that's 18 out of high school, that has no idea they're gonna see a a bone sticking out of their arm and freak out, you know.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_04: But that's just This is normal.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_04: It's something we don't get on to them about and be like, hey, you know, this is going to determine is this for you?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_04: And then, you know, that that's what happened to me.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_04: I think my very first traumatic call that I can remember was someone that got hit on the highway when they were still alive.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm telling myself this, I don't want to see that.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_04: I don't even want to go to this call, but I kind of do.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and then once got there, I'm like, yeah, her legs completely wrapped around her head, but this this is normal.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not, you know, I'm all that adrenaline's gone.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I just focused.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_04: You know, went with this.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: You're doing your job.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: You're trained well and and you you take ownership for the fact that you know, this is this is your calling kind of thing, you know.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: You're there when other people can't be.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_04: It's definitely a calling for you, you I mean, you know it very soon in life, you know.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_04: You got some guys that are maybe they're no military or no public servant of any kind, and they join, and you can see a huge difference, even if they've been an EMT for a department for 10 years, you can see the difference in those people.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_04: You can see the way they react and stuff like that.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: So what's something about the job that surprised you when you first started?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like something that you were like, oh wow, I had no idea that was part of the job.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: I had to ride the box when I wanted to be a firefighter.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: What does that mean?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_04: So I you well, a lot of the guys that go do this job want to be firefighters, especially at a young age.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_04: They want to fight fire, drag the hose, be cool.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_04: But again, like I you know mentioned earlier, you have to be an EMT as well.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_04: So little do you know when you're the new guy, you're on that ambulance for probably a year.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_04: You might not even see a fire truck.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_04: So you get all that excitement, and you're like, I didn't sign up for this.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_04: I want to be a firefighter.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_03: So it's called the the box is the is the ambulance?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the box.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's usually what we call it.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I think for me, the the biggest shock to me was you know, when you think about an EMT or a paramedic out there on a truck, you think they're their school prepared them and they're highly trained.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: But you get out of EMT school, more EMT than paramedics, but when you get out of school you realize you don't know shit.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't teach you shit in school.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think that's the quicker you learn that, the easier it is on you.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that was kind of my shock.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like I went to Mst and EMT school and was like, Oh, okay, I kind of know what's going on.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, you know, I did it later in life, so I had more life experience.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I got on the truck and I'm like, okay, yeah, they didn't teach me any of this shit in school.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they started talking about hey, put a 12 lead on, and I'm like, I can't even count that high.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean you know what I mean.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Seriously, yeah.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's less it's less when you come out of paramedic school, but um they do a better job in paramedic school, but I think that's I expected coming into this to to come out knowing more than I actually did.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_04: I agree with Denny.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, there's it honestly the most, and another thing was when we come out of school, so school was an EMT school and fire academy, they you're taught for life or death emergencies.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_04: That's basically all you're taught.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_04: Life or death, because you got to make that decision then is this going to save their life or is it not?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_04: You know, even if it's splinting a limb uh or like their arm or something because they broke it.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, making sure they still have a pulse in their arm after you splint it.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_04: If not, they could lose their arm.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_04: You know, there's everything we're taught is just embedded into our brains of life and death.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_04: But when we get out in the field, little do most people know that's not what you're doing, probably 60% of the time, maybe more than that.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of what we're doing is going out 30 miles in the county to check somebody's temperature because their thermometer's not working, or um a lift assist, which he's totally serious.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: You laugh now.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is actually what they're doing.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_04: They're like, yeah, you know, because people see us as hey, they're there for them, or they're saving lives, but little do they know we just have a little, you know, a 30-year-old guy that's in the back truck because he stubbed his toe and he wants to go to the hospital.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I mean, that's majority of what we do.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_04: We are running elderly moving service.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Elderly moving service.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_04: The the bullshit calls.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: So transfers, uh most of what we do is just it it's just and that's what burns out a lot of medics and emts is that we're not doing what we're taught because a lot of us want to do the cool shit.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_04: We want to no, we want to do the 12 leads and and um you want to use the jaws of life and like crack, yeah, crank and somebody out of the car.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_04: We want to give somebody blood, or you know, we want to do we want to do the cool shit.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_04: But we rarely do the cool shit.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_04: Medical nowadays is just a uber line, is all it is.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_04: People see it as I want help with something, I'll just call 911 and they'll firefighters come over and they can do it for me.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that is that is a hundred percent real.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um and it's crazy because back in uh you know the 90s, 80s, 70s, 911 was true.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, most of your calls back then were very serious calls.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_04: Uh a lot of a lot of trauma, uh, even the medicals.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_04: And now it's you you don't know what you're gonna do.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_04: Most of the time that we spend is just just doing our servant work to the public of helping them do something, helping them up off the floor, telling them no, you don't need uh, you know, it's my medical device money.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: We we can tell you what you can do, but I cannot tell you I can't, you we can't take you to the hospital because we can't, we cannot, even if we know it's complete bullshit, I can't tell them, hey, this is bullshit, go back to bed.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_04: Uh we gotta be those professionals and tell them, yeah, you know, yeah, you probably don't need to go to the hospital, but if you want, oh yeah, I want to go to the hospital.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_04: So they're like, okay, well let's go.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_04: So that's a lot of what we do.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and like nursing homes use us, you know, oh their doctor says they need to be seen, so call an ambulance cheaper.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's cheaper for the nursing home itself to call an ambulance to come and take them to the hospital than it is for them to hire or maintain a a van to take them.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: So even the nursing home doesn't have to pay the bill, the patient or the patient's family does.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that's embarrassing.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_03: That's embarrassing.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but I'm speaking for many services, not just our own, but many services, and that's just a common thing.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_04: And they they wonder why there's such a shortage of medics in the state of Texas, which Denny, you might know.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's nine or ten thousand medics in the state of Texas.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, wait.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_04: Like nine or ten thousand param like certified paramedics in the state.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think it's somewhere around there.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's it, may have gone up a bit, but yeah, it's it's but you also gotta remember that you know there's a a percentage of those that aren't working in 911 services, or even in the field.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Some work in in a facility, some work in the hospitals themselves.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hospitals have found that paramedics are good bitches in the in the ER because we work under a different set of rules than nurses do.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: We're more autonomous.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: We're not you know nurses for the most part have to wait for a doctor to tell them to do anything, whereas we can act autonomously.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's very cool.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: But it's also very sad because it's like, what are we doing?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: Why do we only have nine or ten thousand people in the whole state of Texas that are in the service of care, emergency care?
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: To be frank, the the biggest problem is in the state of Texas, EMS is not considered a an essential service.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not considered something that has to be provided to the citizens.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, some of the stuff in Texas is so back ass worth.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's not just Texas, it's like 28 states.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: It is a lot of states.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, but oh my gosh.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's called emergency services, motherfuckers.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's important.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what's more important?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: EMS is relatively young.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you think about police departments, they've been around since I think Boston was one of the first ones that started way back in the day, you know, during the revolution time.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not 100% sure.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Don't quote me on that.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: But and then fire departments have been around, you know, more or less since fire's been around.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: My grandfather was EMS is barely 50 years old, maybe a little bit more.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's 173 or 76.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: I would have totally thought.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_03: So basically, before EMTs and paramedics, well, what were you were just firefighter or police officer with the emergency training for first aid?
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: Or a lot of people don't know that EMS doesn't fall under the Department of Health either.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: It falls under the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_04: I think most before were uh worked at the like the funeral homes because that's what they used to pick up.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_04: So and also medical EMS 30, 40 years ago was just very basic things of like uh they didn't carry the narcotic drugs like we carry today.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_04: So I would say, I mean, I'm not sure I would say in the past 15 to 20 years that we most services have been able to carry these narcotics for sedation, uh paralytics to paralyze you so we can put a tube down your throat.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_04: Like what would you would consider, you know, the doctors doing at a hospital we can do now.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_04: But like Denny said, we're still in our infancy of VMS.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_04: So they're telling us to do one thing, and then they say stop doing it.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_04: Then two years later, like, no, go back to doing that.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_04: That was actually better.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_04: So we're the state, everyone's still learning so much, and we're the one we're the guinea pigs that have to deal with it.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Our our ambulances, we like paramedics, we I think it's like 189 drugs, different drugs we can administer, you know, we can intubate, start IVs, do IOs.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um we tell tell not all services, but tell our listeners what an I.O.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: isn't nerosteus, it's where we drill into the bone so that we can give fluids or medication through the bone marrow.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a faster way.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not as effective, but it's it's it's a faster way.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: And we got things like 20 care ultrasound, so we can do ultrasounds, we you know, Dopplers to you know verify things and you know, full cardiac monitors.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: We do cardiology.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, paramedics do.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_03: I had no idea.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_03: I really had no idea that that paramedics uh you know, the emergency medical services is something that is so young, it's only been around for not very long.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: I had no idea.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_03: I always thought that that that this has always been this way, you know.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean if you think about it, if you know if if you're our age or our generation, chances are your parents when they were teenagers, they couldn't call 911 and get an ambulance because they didn't really exist.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Outside of some very, you know, like New York City or something like that, they had some, you know, that kind of stuff.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well, alright, so what I want to get into is this questions that I have been dying to ask anybody in emergency services that will answer them for me.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so I got like a couple I wanted to start off with.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_03: So um, what's one call you'll probably never forget because of the people involved?
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: I just had a recent one at Burning Man that like I said, it shocked the hell out of me.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: And anybody who knows me knows I'm not judgmental at all.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't judge people on their you know lifestyle choices or anything like that.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in no position to be throwing stones in a glass house, if you know what I mean.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: But um Get him a little bit closer because I want to hear this one.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was working as a I was working as a paramedic in Burning Man and got a call for a lady I couldn't even tell tell you how old she was, twenties, maybe thirties.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um who was taking a G Nap.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: What is that?
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: Which means she took GHB.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh which you know Is that that kid?
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's a day rape drug.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's not kidding.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's G H B is a day rape drug.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um she do that for fun.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: People take it because it yeah, it it causes an alcohol-like effect.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: But the therapeutic window is very small, and the not really overdose, but the you took too much window is very large, which causes what's called a G nap, which means vitally your body's just fine.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna not gonna die or anything like that, but it's lights out, nobody's home upstairs, right?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so we got a call for her.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: She was out at one of the our car raves and actually got her awake in the back of the ambulance.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: Did you do a sternum rub?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: Did you do a sternum rub?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, I didn't.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh she was more or less naked.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that's not shocking.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: I was at Burning Man.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right, exactly.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: But uh you know, when she woke up, and it's kind of funny, when they wake up, most of the time they they're completely aware of where they are and you know, all that kind of stuff.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like you know, coming out of a coma and confused or anything like that.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_03: But uh But there you didn't have to give her Narcan or anything like that, or did you have to give her a nice one?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, Narcan does not work on that.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: Normally we will when we find them like that at a at an event like Burning Man.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, give them Narcan.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it didn't work, so it's not Narcan.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, gotcha.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: Or it's not an opioid.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um but you know I I I had to ask.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, why would you why are you people taking a drug like that, you know, yeah, yourself, you know, recreationally.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: And she flat out told me that she likes to take a drug that knocks her out like that around a bunch of people because she likes to wake up not knowing who and for no lack of a better term, raped her.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: She she enjoys it.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just like, that was way shocking.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't judge people too much, but there's some judgment going on here.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's like on the street.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: Not just on you, but on the people you think are doing that, because I don't know who's worse in that scenario.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that just made me feel super uncomfortable.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just want to like how do you think I felt sitting back there with a naked woman with me in the back of the ambulance?
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: She's telling me that, and I'm like, I ain't going out like this.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody get back here, baby with me.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly, exactly.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my god.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_03: All right, what what about you, Colton?
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_03: What do you got?
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: With people involved, I I would say probably when my brother-in-law had his wreck, and I was actually responding to it.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_04: Uh back in 2023, May, in May, uh working for a small, very small department in central Texas, and uh call volume might be one or two calls a day, maybe.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_04: And my parents had gone out of town, so usually when I'm at work, yeah.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: My mom uh watches my dog for me.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I'd take them to grandma's house and she watches them.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, but they were out of state for that whole week, so I had to take them to work, which was no big deal.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_04: Like I said, a very small uh department.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you're basically living in a shed for 24 hours, so um, no big deal.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_04: So we we get a call and uh out for a um major motor vehicle accident out off of one of the highways, and where the accident occurred was is in a very gray spot.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_04: So there's three different county lines that that goes in between this highway.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_04: So if someone calls 911, you don't know who you're gonna get.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_04: You're gonna get the the dispatch from a different county, so it but it went to us, so we have no idea how far out it is or anything, and um, so we're going.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_04: We had another guy riding out with us because he was new, so I was just riding in the back of the ambulance and he was up up front, and then another guy was driving, and my sister called me.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_04: And again, this is very royal, uh, I mean, remote area that you don't have cell phone service.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_04: And I thankfully I did at the time, and I could it was my sister, she called me saying that you know, she you could tell she was shaken up.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_04: She's like, Hey, where are you at?
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, Well, I'm working and we're going to a bad accident.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_04: She told me that that was more than likely my brother-in-law.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they were coming back from a golf tournament, uh, him and my niece uh that weekend from Austin.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_04: And they uh she has them, I guess, on the life 360.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_04: And, you know, because they weren't moving, they're just in the middle of the highway.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_04: So uh she got a call from a niece that was actually involved in the wreck and said, Hey, I mean, she's kind of in shock.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_04: So she's in and she just sounds like she's drunk, she's in and out of consciousness, she doesn't know what's going on.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_04: She said, Hey, we're in bad wreck.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know anything.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_04: So I told her, I said, Well, the information we're getting, there's a fatality and it's pretty bad.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_04: So didn't know if it was my brother-in-law, didn't know any of that.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_04: So we get about halfway there and we were canceled.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_04: So we we probably drove 40 minutes and we were told, hey, you know, it's closer to this town.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, there's already EMS there, helicopters, y'all can go back.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_04: But me knowing that that's my brother-in-law, I mean, I went from being a paramedic to just a normal human, just like freaking out, you know.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_04: I've I've been on really bad accidents and stuff, and it doesn't bother me.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_04: But once you're on family, it definitely changes you.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_04: So I had no information.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't know if he was alive or anything.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: And then there was the long 40 minutes all the way back to the station.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I was able to get a hold to my niece as well, but again, she was just in and out of it.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_04: So I guess a bystander took the phone and I was like, hey, you know, is my brother-in-law alive?
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_04: Is he one of the fatalities?
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_04: And uh and she says, Well, there was a man that was driving a certain pickup, and he's was pulled out, and he's the medics are attending to him.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I and she described the truck that he was in, and it was the truck I actually sold him a year or two before.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_04: And so that that was a good thing.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_04: He was alive, he he's alive, they're attending to him.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_04: Great.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_04: So I told my boss, I told my boss, hey, I'm leaving, I gotta go.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_04: So I had to go pick up my sister.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_04: She had to drop off her kids, and you know, we had to do all these arrangements because grandma's not home, so she can't take care of nobody.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_04: So we're trying to call friends, hey, can you do this?
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_04: And we're going to Austin, and we knew they were going to Austin because uh they're back to Austin because they were um we were I was told by one of the bystanders that they were being flown to Austin to be treated.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, so we were about halfway there, and the trooper called me and he gives us the the rundown.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_04: And and he told me, even in his 20 years as a trooper, I mean, he's been on many accidents, a lot of bad things, but this one just sat different with them.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_04: And the reason was because when they had this accident, he was hit head on uh by another female driver.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, she was passing.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_04: So, like in the state of Texas, there's a lot, a lot of smaller highways, two-lane highways.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of people are used to passing each other.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but this was the most fatal highway.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_04: Even years past, there's been bad wrecks.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, she was passing and um she didn't get around in time.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_04: There's a curve, and the guy that was in front of my brother-in-law swerved, and then she hit him head on.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_04: Probably she was probably going 100 miles an hour.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_04: Uh they flipped the truck, and I think the most shocking thing out of all of it, when it comes to you know, the people involved was there was two uh blue-collar kids.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_04: They're like 25 years old.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they were they happened to see it.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, the female was the fatality.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_04: She was killed on impact, and they said that the truck my brother-in-law was in flipped.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_04: It was laying on its driver's side.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_04: His head was still out the window underneath the truck.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_04: They pretty much thought he was deceased.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_04: So they pulled out my niece from the passenger window and then they flipped the truck over.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_04: Now, for granted, this is a it was a 2008 Chevrolet Z71 with 35-inch tires, uh, six-inch lift kit.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, this is a big truck.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_04: This is a huge truck with a 200-pound grille guard on the front and back.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's huge.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, so they flipped it over, and that was the shocking thing.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_04: The trooper says, like, you know, yeah, it's adrenaline, but for them to flip that truck over, you know, was just like they're like Hulk mode, you know.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_04: So they they actually peeled the frame of the door down.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_04: What they all grabbed it, peeled it down, they pulled him out because they noticed he was still alive.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, by the time his feet got out, the whole truck burned down.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_04: So he didn't, you know, he didn't receive any burns or anything like that.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and he was flown to to Austin and had amazing care over there.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_04: He ended up breaking his basically his whole back.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_04: And initially we're told he was going to be a quadriplegic.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but he didn't completely rupture his spinal cord, he just had an incomplete spinal fracture.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_04: So, in other words, the trauma he sustained to it killed some nerves, and it just messed it up.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_04: So um, and he's doing a lot better today.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_04: So he's actually learning how to walk again.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_04: He's he's doing excellent.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_04: But but yes, when it comes to people that were involved, that was just, you know, again, even if I was that trooper or uh, you know, if I was the medic there, I'd be saying the same thing.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_04: This is a very small uh not many people traveled down this highway, and the trooper said it was like I-35.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, there's so many people there to help.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_04: And so me selling the truck, I think, saved his life, but also what really saved his life was uh those kids and the people that are that were helping.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um wow, so that is that was crazy.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_04: That was a life changer because that was a rough year because the two months prior before that, so that happened in May.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_04: So in March and April, had already lost two good friends in the Fire department.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: So it was then that was like the third thing month to month back to back.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_04: And that like I had to take off.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I was mentally unstable in the fire department.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_04: So which one?
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_04: So one was from a car accident, and then the other one was suicide.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have something?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_03: I was gonna say, do you have that a lot in your field?
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_03: Is death by suicide?
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and even for small town that I don't work at anymore, I still live.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_04: Uh there's five helmets hanging on the wall at that station.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_04: And you you you know, big departments have a lot of guys that, you know, there's some they lose, but for a small town, you shouldn't see that.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_04: And out of those five, I think two were suicides.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, it's it's very traumatic um, you know, thing to go through.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_04: You and that's when I learned to cope.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, I went through therapy and all that, and uh, especially with my brother-in-law, because he was we didn't know how long his treatment was going to take.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_04: And he's basically a brother to me, so he's like one of my best friends.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_04: So that just took a huge toll.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, but honestly, the you know, the people we work with are just the biggest supporters, you know.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_04: It's like if Denny came to me about something, I'd be his biggest supporter.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_04: Same thing if I went to him, I'd expect, you know, the exact same thing.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_04: So my way to cope was to just go to work, you know, continue working.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_04: I took off for a little bit, but because if I'm not around these, you know, crazy dark humor people that talk crazy all day, then I'm not gonna be well at all.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_04: I need to I need to hear that.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_04: I need to I need to be around those people.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_03: So I mean, that's just like an it's just an incredible thing because you don't know what's gonna you're gonna show up to.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_03: So like I kind of want to make this a two-part episode.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_03: So like thinking about this kind of being nearing the end of like how how it's like being in the EMS in Central Texas, right?
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like how life is and how you know you could be on a call and be it Burning Man and have somebody be a fucking crazy person, right?
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's like no judgment here, but still, um, you know, but to kind of hear your backgrounds and kind of things that are going on, you know, when it comes to the EMS and being that it is so young, what are some of the things that you're like hoping to happen?
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_03: Like, are you see like you know, um trends or you know, more research or things that are kind of coming your way?
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_03: Anything good?
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think for me, I think the biggest thing that I think moving forward uh further, and it's mainly in your more larger, more progressive systems and stuff like that is commun is community paramedicine.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh community paramedicine is basically a paramedic, um and in some cases, depending on where they're credentialed and stuff, uh paramedic practitioner that's not on an ambulance.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're on you know, they're in an SUV, they have all the same equipment and the same capabilities and stuff like that, but their main job is to go and help and treat people in the field.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: Not like uh uh, you know, we come and we take you to the hospital.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: Their main job is to, you know, they're gonna they're gonna go uh check grandma out who's you know not doing so great and make sure that she's got the medicine she needs and that her vitals are good and she needs IV fluids or something like that, she can get them at home, you know, stuff like that, uh, which takes a burden off of the ambulances itself.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um and the hospitals and the emergency rooms.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but we don't care about them.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_03: But like for the most part, I like pissing them off.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you do.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_03: I was gonna say, why would you want to piss off the people in the hospitals?
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because you're do they make your that would take a whole disturb the hornets.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_03: I was about to say you're about to kick the hornets.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_02: We'll come back to that one.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, we'll come back to that.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll come back to that.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_03: I was gonna say, uh wouldn't they make your life more difficult?
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_01: No, they think they do.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_04: I'll I'll put it in perspective of like at a call, like you get the the nurse that shows up.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_04: I'm a nurse, how can I help?
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_04: And then, which is okay, you know what?
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_04: I got someone that can help hold something, basically.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_04: You're not gonna do anything else, but you're gonna hold this.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_04: But the mentality of a nurse, or honestly, anyone in a hospital is a lot different than in the field.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_04: So we do get treated pretty rough, I would say, in the hospital.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um basically, I feel like we're thought of, hey, we're just their taxi service, so they can treat the patient and not care what we've already done for the patient.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um that makes sense.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_04: Like, okay, thanks for bringing us a patient.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks for putting more work on me.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_04: All right, see you later.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, but when you get them in the field, they see, and this is I wish every nurse could go through a some kind of traumatic event on an actual scene, just because most, if not every nurse I've seen on a scene has changed their mindset towards paramedics, towards EMS completely.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_04: Because they know that we treat, they know that, oh, y'all gave this, cool, whatever, thank you.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_04: But when they see us working in a field, it's so much difference than being behind a computer or the you anything at the hospital, you know, being behind you.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_04: You're in a stable environment, you're in home base, you're in yes, you're at you're at your job and you don't leave.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_04: We're at our job, but we leave to you know, foreign grounds.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_04: We don't know where we're going.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_01: So and then you're running a code in a small bedroom with three dogs running around you and four cats, and you can't kneel down because you don't want to put your knees on the carpet because it smells like cat big.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I can't.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_04: They they really change, like wow, like I mean, I just they're they would say I never you know put it in perspective what y'all truly do on a call.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_04: So I feel like we they should all do ride outs with us, uh, because EMS again, we're our own breed of people, we're a different breed of people, and people would maybe do it right and be like, I don't know what y'all are crazy.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_04: Y'all, you know, what are y'all doing?
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_04: But it's what we live and thrive for.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, no, and I think it's amazing the full story because we you know, we we put our condoms on and protect ourselves when we have outsiders around, you know, you know what I mean?
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh yeah, we're not allowed to ride together.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: I can see that.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wait, no, that's me and me and me and another guy aren't allowed to ride together.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_01: Last time we rode together, we got three back-to-back codes.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_03: So is it that's like the whole superstitious of like you rode together, so so like the oh it's a you're the black cloud, you're the yeah, yeah, or there's a full moon.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_03: Shit magnet.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_04: No, Denny is a shit magnet, and um I'm in the middle.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_04: I'm kind of a gray cloud.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but Denny, nope.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_04: He it's always when he's transporting a patient, we're going non-emergent to the hospital to mid-transport.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, we're going emergent.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, what did what did Denny do this time?
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, since I want to make this a two-parter, I want to have this be kind of like the kind of wrap of a like a little just background into what it's like to be in the EMS in rural Texas.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a story that you've told your coworkers a hundred times because it's just too good not to tell, that's probably exactly what we're looking for.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: We can't wait to hear what happens when people be peopling.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a story for us, reach out to WDPFT podcast at gmail.com.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: We look forward to hearing from you.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're good.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: Dinner's ready.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, good.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: I love you.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_03: I'll talk to you tomorrow.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_03: Bye.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: Bye bye.