I've learned my lesson. If I am at an emergency room for some reason, there will be firefighters that I know who will see me there and get a little nervous. For that matter, there will be firefighters who know me and will stop to say hello - even if I don't know them.
On Friday morning, while working at the animal hospital, my best friend (and photographer), Fran, was bitten quite severely by a cat. The bite is at the base of her thumb on her right hand. She was seen at a walk-in, treated (basically) and released to return to work. The doctor at the walk-in faxed a prescription and Fran said she'd pick it up after work. Apparently, no one really understood just how serious this bite was. It is very, very deep and cuts into the muscle of her hand. I picked her up from work, we stopped on the way home and got her medication - doxicycline. When she got home, she took her first dose.
A few hours later, she noticed a red line traveling up her arm. NOT a good sign. The area around the wound was turning a deep red. We talked about it and I was ready to take her to the hospital right then. We finally decided to call over to the JFD and ask if we could bring her to the station to have a paramedic look at it - we were trying to determine if the line was actually an impression on her skin from the sweatshirt that she was wearing or if an infection was brewing. They ended up sending the rescue out to us and the guys said that they thought she could wait until morning, but if it was worse, to go back to the ER. She was actually scheduled to work on Saturday morning and planned on going in. We woke up around the same time - about 5:15 AM and her hand was worse, and so was the line up her arm. We decided to take her over to RIH. We ended up there from about 6 AM until after 2 PM. She was given IV antibiotics.
While we were there, a handsome young guy in a PFD uniform rounded the corner. I didn't recognize him, but he recognized me. He pleasantly stopped, backtracked, waved and gave me a "how are ya?", smiled and walked away. Fran asked me to make a couple of phone calls a few minutes later and I went outside to do it. I walked down toward the Rescue bays and found that the young man was still there - I think he was riding on Rescue 3, but I could be wrong. He saw me and got out of the rig, approaching and introducing himself to me. His name is Matt Tadry - very nice guy. We talked for a few minutes, of course inclusive of why I was there. He wished us well and off he and Captain Raymond went to go back into service for their next call. As I stood there, I realized that my friends, Zach Kenyon and Michael Morse were also scheduled to be working. I figured I'd give them each a buzz and let them know. I didn't get to see Zach, but Michael did end up at RIH - and stopped in quickly to wish Fran well. I caught him for a minute before he left, too.
It's funny - I don't really think about this stuff ahead of time and I guess I didn't really expect it, either. It was nice, though, to know that whether or not I know them, these guys know that they have an automatic friend in me. It made me feel good in the midst of a scary situation.
Sometimes they don't realize that they're helping us - it is just who they are. Hopefully, that will show itself in my film.
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