Mazeh

Monday, July-12-10

Yesterday morning’s shift began as disorganised as usual. Apparently too many people showed up for the shift so after some shuffling around it was decided that a Mazeh (another Tel Aviv station) ambulance was going to come by and pick me up after their call. I thought I’d be waiting around forever but within 20min they showed up. To my pleasant surprise I was going to be with two other Chulnikim (from the overseas program) along with a driver who I’d heard really good things about. The morning was off to a good start. Our first call was for an elderly man who had fainted in the bathroom for an unknown reason. It was a simple transfer to the hospital and as soon as we left the hospital we got our next call to a car accident. A van had rear-ended a taxi with a young woman inside. No one was hurt badly but we took the woman to Ichilov as she was complaining some neck and shoulder pain. We ‘backboarded’ her as a precaution and I use quotations because well it wasn’t exactly the kind of backboarding we learned in class. Just a neckbrace and the board with no straps, but it worked and she was a good sport even saying that it was fun to be pushed on the stretcher. Next was a moped accident (they are extremely popular in Israel) where a man had badly broken his ankle. It was a relatively easy call but it was a little unpleasant to be with him in the back when he was in so much pain and all we could really do was put ice on it (and the ride to the hospital isn’t exactly so smooth). This was turning out to be quite a busy day and we were only back at the station once. In the afternoon we had another accident involving a pedestrian who got hit by either a car or a moped, I’m not exactly sure. He didn’t have any obvious injuries but was saying that his shins/knees were extremely painful, a pretty typical injury for someone who was been hit by a vehicle. We got him to the hospital and now he was grimacing in pain anytime someone went to touch his legs. After, we left him with the doctors and got our last call of the day, a CVA (stroke). It was an elderly man who presented with left side weakness. Gave oxygen and got him to the hospital quickly. While we were chilling outside waiting for our 20min beak to be up we see our last patient, the guy with shin/pain walking out of the hospital and it’s not even an hour and a half later. He yells thank you to us and continues on, so much for all the drama.

That would be the end of that shift and I really enjoyed it. The entire day we had good calls. Nothing beyond epic, but nothing too monotonous either. When got back to the Mazeh station and now I realized that I’ve never been here before and did know exactly how to get home. I walked up to the main intersection expecting to have to take 2+ buses and I see the sign for the 26, the bus that takes me directly home. It was sweet. I had been avoiding doing shifts here because I thought it was too far/hard to get too but after today I’m for sure going to end that. I even think it this station is busier than Bazel/Tachana (the main station) but that could have just been the particular day.