With a Friend Like This Guy...

So I'm sitting there, minding my own business, wrapping up a run report at the hospital and looking at the clock.

0200ish.  WAY past my bedtime.  I finalize narrative on my report and pick up the radio mic to advise that we're back in service, but my partner asks me to wait a second so he can get a bottle of water before we clear.

It was a quiet night, and the only radio chatter was Fairview PD's gang unit running a surveillance detail.  Waiting to clear for an extra minute wasn't gonna be a big deal.

Or so I thought.

As he gets back in the car, FPD requests an ambulance for a TC -- traffic collision -- as the result of a pursuit.  The stated location is a whopping 3/4 of a mile from Fairview Memorial Hospital, and the nearest station is a couple miles away.  There's no mistaking it -- we're gonna be up for a while longer.

I go to advise dispatch that we can handle the TC, but my partner stops me, saying, "Man, don't clear.  They only want a tow truck, not an ambulance."

This is what gets frustrating about using esoteric codes on the air.  The cops used their standard 10 code for an ambulance, but my partner was sure that they used the tow truck code.  I was willing to bet my next paycheck that PD wanted us, but my partner swore he was right.  We made the standard bet -- a bottle of water -- and I cleared us from the hospital.  Turns out I was right and they wanted an ambulance.

Sure enough, as soon as we clear, we get the TC.

Being so close, we smoke FFD getting on scene.  Our total response time, from the moment that PD requested us, was about 70 seconds.  We arrive to find an unmarked FPD gang unit and a marked cruiser parked haphazardly, doing their best to block Fairview Boulevard and preserve the integrity of their crime scene.

We see a typical G-ride -- old Buick with a sound system worth far more than the car itself, sporting the finest hydraulics money can buy, complete with 22 inch spinners and a ridiculous paint job -- that has crashed into a pole.  The vehicle impacted at high speed, with the impact point at the right front of the car.  The engine had torn loose from the vehicle and flew more than 50 yards before embedding itself into the front of a business down the street.  The speed limit on that stretch of the Boulevard is 40 mph, and these jokers were clearly not too concerned about shattering that limit.

I get out of the ambulance and walk up to one of the gang unit guys, who reports that the vehicle was going in excess of 80 and running from the cops at the time of the wreck. He adds that these guys are known gang members, and the driver is very likely under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

So I approach the car and note three occupants that all appear to be pinned in and unresponsive.

I check the pulse on the driver, and it's strong and regular. There's no obvious trauma, and no passenger space intrusion to the driver's part of the passenger compartment. His breathing is normal, and he is completely unresponsive.

I check the left rear passenger. The force of the impact buckled the roof, forcing it into the kid's head. His neck is bent at an unnatural angle, with his head resting against his shoulder. I check the pulse, and it's strong but very irregular. Like, 30 beats per minute and slowing quickly.

I walk around the back of the car to check out who appears to be the right rear passenger. No pulse, and no visible trauma. Interesting, but I don't have time to really think about it right now.  I'll find out later that he had actually been the front seat passenger, but the impact was so severe that most of him ended up coming to rest in the back seat.  Yikes.

I return to the left rear passenger, and check his pulse again. LUB-DUB. Longish pause. Lub. Dub. Even longer pause. lub dub. And no more.

I advise fire that we have two black tags (dead) and a red tag (critical) and let the cops know that it's at least a double fatal.

The engine and truck arrive and extricate our driver. We package him up, start an IV and beat feet toward University Medical Center. He was protecting his airway really well, but I brought a fireman just in case he needed to be intubated. It turned out that intubation wasn't necessary, as the patient woke up halfway through the transport. He got really combative and belligerent and was just a general pain. He was fully alert and oriented, and his combativeness had nothing to do with a head injury and everything to do with him being a knucklehead -- and his drug use.

He finally got around to asking us about his friends, and the fireman mustered all his tact and professionalism and blurted out the unvarnished truth: "You killed both of them in the car crash."

Not the best death notification I've ever witnessed, but certainly not the worst. The patient got even more combative and had to be restrained. He ended up having no medical issues aside from intoxication and ended up being cut loose from the trauma ward before dawn. FPD took him directly to jail on the vehicular manslaughter charges, and I filled out my paperwork and went to bed.

The next weekend, FPD got together with FCSO, Fairview Heights PD and Fairmont PD to do a massive warrant sweep at the memorial service for the two dead guys. A number of gang members went to jail on outstanding warrants, and more than two dozen weapons were recovered from the bushes at one of our local gang parks.

What a waste. Nocturnal Urban Pharmaceutical Sales won't typical end up with the sales associates being dead, but it's a definite hazard of the job. Maybe they shouldn't have run. Or maybe they shouldn't have been cruising with their lit buddy. Or both.

At the end of the day, though, the good guys were all safe. No innocent bystanders were taken out, and the pole the car hit wasn't damaged enough to warrant replacement.