EMS Ride Along

My current rotation requires us to do 1 ride along with the county Sheriff. The special thing about them is that they are Paramedic/ Sheriff so they are allowed to arrest you and if they need to shot you, they are obligated to try to save your life right after. Basically, they respond to all calls- medical or not.

I got to the Sheriff Department in Flint, Michigan [voted the most dangerous city in the US last year] and had no idea what to expect. I met with a group of Sheriff's and then was introduced to Mike, the Sheriff/ Medic I was going to ride with. A 6 foot 4 in handsome 27 year old white guy, looked promising... until I stealthy looked at his left hand to then find his wedding ring.

The shift was from 3pm to 11pm and I had a blast. We rode around the city patrolling and when we werent responding to calls, we were scoping out the local real estate.

"Well thats kinda a cool house" -me
"Want it? You can buy it for a $1"

That was the theme of the night. We also stopped at Starbucks where we got free coffee just for being in uniform and got dinner to go later in the night.

We would cruise around and he showed me the city and then we would get a call, turn on the lights and sirens [of the Ford SUV] and we would speed like crazy.  I never felt scared because he didnt go to crazy, and would always slow down to a near stop when approaching an intersection that had a red light. We did go about 120 on the freeway though. And damn it feels great to be driving 80 on a city street and have everyone move out of your way!

 One of the first calls was a young man having a heroin overdose. This is also how we ended the night. In between we had a baby with a seizure, a deaf lady with a bug bite, a man trying to cash a fraudulent check at a gas station, etc Probably the most entertaining was a call we got at about 10pm, "women in her 40s shot" we responded to the call and when we walked into the bar, we found a middle aged white lady sitting in a chair with her leg extended, looking pretty comfy. Yeah, she was shot...with a beebee gun.

I am very happy I had this opportunity to see life as a first responder. It almost bums me out I did not try being an EMT or paramedic for a while. Life in the ED will be just as exciting though I'm sure. Im looking forward to doing another one this month if I have time and also doing another ride along in New York on my next rotation.