News What a day...

What a day...

Ever since yesterday, my blood pressure has been high and I've been having migraines.

So yesterday the power goes out at work. Not even the generators worked so the whole place was blacked out. They told everyone to go outside (over 2,000 employees were ordered outside). THREE TIMES they told us to go inside, only to be told to leave again (happened within an hour).

At about 11:30am, my wife's manager told everyone to go to lunch for an hour. My wife is walking towards me and falls. Apparently, there was a imperfection in the sidewalk and you can't see it unless you're walking towards it. Fine..so they call for an ambulance and the fire dept shows up first and then the ambulance. they put her in the back and I was off to the hospital.

I arrive to the hospital before my wife and i stand around waiting for her. I see the ambulance roll up and i stand in the bay area where the ambulances are. EMT #1 takes the cot out of the rig and realizes that the bottom of it won't lock. He said this out loud and thats when my wifed asked for me to come closer. I'm holding her hand trying to calm her down cause she was in pain. EMT #2 hops off the rig and tries to lock the cot. Still no luck.

Just so you get the pictures, this cot is one of those heavy duty cots and the ambulance was no small ambulance, it was one of the bigger ones that usually sit in the firehouse with the fire trucks.

Ok..so EMT #2 said, "Lets just go, I've got it". To which point he went to reach for the back of the cot from the side. So you can picture this..u know how bull fighters hold the red drape to one side, well imagine the EMT's hands the same way and trying to hold a cot. Now the cot is not light and neither is my wife.

So as he "tried" to hold it, the cot tipped over with my wife strapped to it still. She landed on her knee. So she went in with an ankle injury and now the knee got added to it.

I went off on EMT #2 and got in his face cause he hurt my wife more. it was the moment type thing that I got so worked up. My wife snapped me out of the rage and another firefighter tried to calm me down.

I told EMT #1 I wanted his name and his partners name and their supervisors name. They did better by bringing me their captain. I spoke to him and now they're investigating what happened. I met every captain and chief from the fire dept. The head guy, which I'm assuming is battalion chief, spoke to me and said he promised a full investigation as it seems it was a mechanical failure and operator error.

After all that, they had to call the cops cause i got in the EMT's face. But they just did a report and the cop was cool. he just said to be careful next time although he understood why i was upset. he said he would of went nuts too.

So now I have to call the risk management dept and we also spoke to a lawyer just in case. But unless something is completely serious to where my wife needs surgery or something, then we don't have a case but he said the county where it happened, they're real good about compensating my wife for time missed at work and things.

We shall see what happens. I feel better that I let it out now.

well just glad you didnt sucker punch one of those dudes

And I agree that people make mistakes, no one is perfect. But there are some mistakes that can be prevented. This guy could of easily said, "wait, lets change cots" or "let me get some help". My wife wasn't having a heart attack..she was there with an ankle injury so she could have waited a few minutes until they figured it out.

I even told the EMS captain and batallion chief that the EMT could have just waited to figure something out and they agreed.

Well the important thing is your wife. How is she? All this other drama can be sorted out later.

My wife is okay. Her ankle is really sprained. Her knee swelled up and she has bruising all along the side she was dropped on.

And E. ur right. hopefully, they find out what went wrong. If its a training issue, then I hope they correct it cause this could of easily been an elderly person, a child, etc. And from what I just found out, he's a rookie. So he doesn't have that much expierence out there in the field.

rookie or not it still shouldnt of occured

An update. We have an adjuster from the county is coming out on Tuesday to speak to my wife. he wants to write the report with her there in person. he'll most likely want pics too, which I've taken as the bruising has progressed.

We'll see how that goes.

good luck man

Thanks. Another update..my wife has been having lots of knee pain now. like a sharp pain on the left side of her knee. So now we gotta call the county to see if she needs to see one of their doctors or if we can use the one we have now.

Wifey has an appointment on thursday to get her knee checked. The adjuster came by today to speak to her and he got her statement and he also took the CD with pictures of her knee/thigh from the day after until recently.

Apparently the county wants to offer a settlement once she's 110%, then its up to us if we think its a acceptable or not. They're also going to cover any life time medical treatment that deals specifically with her knee. Hopefully nothing major is wrong with her knee. She's been through way too much in the last 2 years for her to go through another surgery.