Until you are incapacitated, even for a short time, you don't realize how much help you need from other people.
We are told that at least 70% of fire departments across the country are involved in EMS. For these departments, there are usually three times as many EMS calls as fire calls each year. The number of EMS calls nationwide is staggering. In many places, EMTs and paramedics are overworked by frequent "taxi rides" to the hospital and other nuisance calls. Some people are even called "frequent fliers" because they abuse the system.
A few months ago while I was at the Firehouse World show, I fell at the San Diego Convention Center and injured myself. An off-duty San Diego Fire Department captain was right behind me and immediately called for a paramedic engine company. Within a few minutes, the engine company arrived and proceeded to check me out. The crew members were very professional and went about their procedures. An ambulance arrived and I was loaded on a stretcher and was headed to a hospital in San Diego. That hospital, however, was on "divert" because of an overload of patients in the emergency room, so the ambulance was directed to Coronado Hospital, located about a half-mile from the convention center. I was brought into the emergency room, examined and X-rayed. I did, in fact, have a broken hip. Eventually, I was transferred to a room and met with a surgeon who said I would have a partial hip replacement. The doctors and nurses were extremely nice and tended to my every need.
Since the convention center is just across the bay, I was fortunate to have numerous visitors before and after the operation. On my second morning in the hospital, the chief and deputy chief of the Coronado Fire Department paid a visit. They gave me their cell phone numbers and said if there was anything I needed to give them a call. Over the next several days, crews from several shifts in Coronado paid me visits. I received fruit baskets, flowers, cards and phone calls from well-wishers. All of these things made me feel so extra special to belong to a fire service family so large and yet so close. Many close friends continued to call and visit. I stayed at the home of Marty Walsh, our San Diego liaison, for a day before I flew back East. My good friend John Hayes accompanied me on the two flights back home, then stayed with me for more than two weeks. Sometimes in an airport, you have to dodge the golf carts whizzing by. For my trip home, I was taken by wheelchair to security and then to the gate and onto my flight. Arriving in Houston, I was again taken by wheelchair to a golf cart and then to another terminal. Another wheelchair allowed access onto the second flight. Two of my paramedics met me at Newark International Airport in New Jersey and took me home.
Until you are incapacitated, even for a short time, you don't realize how much help you need from other people. I want to thank all of those people who called, sent flowers or fruit, and were concerned about my well-being. I tried to be a good patient while I observed the work of EMS crews, the hospital and other health-care workers and all they had to offer. From the patient's view, they all did a first-rate job.
