Lucas

Back about 20 years ago, I was a medic in a coastal southern town. Hot as a bastard in the summer and chilly in the winter but the spring and fall were pretty good. Made about 700 bucks after taxes every two weeks and paid my bills and had a little left over. I was part of a great organization and it spoiled me as to some of the less then stellar outfits whom I have had to deal with in the ensuing years. We rolled down there. County had a EMS division as part of County Police, Catholic Hospital purchased a EMS outfit when Trauma Central bought out two organizations to start their EMS Division. I was part of Trauma Central. Worked with Rick and Hal, both of whom did the Flight Medic thing on their off shifts. Both Very good and tried pass that on to the rock breaker (Me). I worked with a very eclectic bunch of folks. Pretty good bunch but each with own way of doing things.
Worked with one of the brothers, one was a Nascar kinda guy and the other was a bit too cerebral but still a very good medic. I was working with Premed that shift and we got a call down into the Gardens. Bit of a rough place but not as bad as some in the downtown area. Delta was a pretty town on the surface but was in the top ten in the country for homicide. Trauma Central is/was a Level One Center and was profiled on one of the Reality shows here not too long ago. It was good for a reason, 4 Trauma Alerts going on simultaneously tends to bring out the best. Luke's Mom had bailed on a bad abusive relationship. She was staying in the Gardens with some friends until she got things sorted out. She didn't have much but she had Luke. Luke had the Croup and he wasn't sounding good. Mom called 911 and we picked up the call. Me and Premed walked in the door and I could hear the stridor walking in. Luke wouldn't tolerate a nasal so I got him on a simple mask. We didn't do field nebulizors at the time. Luke weighed all of twenty pounds. I scooped him up holding the mask, Mom had a lock on my arm that left fingerprints. Premed Carried the O2 cyl out to the truck. I held him on the short ride to the hospital and carried him through ER right in to Med/Obs. Handed him over and told Mom the ER Folks would take care of him. Got back out on the road. Came in about hour or two later. Luke was bouncing all over the ER. Ain't Epi grand? Ran into Mom month or two after that. She gotten a job at the hospital. Asked how Luke was doing. I don't remember names of the folks I took care of. Luke was the only one I ever remember by name. Twenty years ago.