Homeboy Ambulance

Another beautiful fall day in Fairview:  I've just finished up a run, the gurney is back together, the run report is done, and I'm just waiting for an ambulance that'd blocked mine in to move out of the way.

While I stand there playing with my phone, a Homeboy Ambulance rig flies into the ambulance bay at Fairview Memorial Hospital.

Homeboy Ambulance, you may wonder.  What on Earth is that?

Here's the definition according to Urban Dictionary:

Homeboy Ambulance

noun; 

1.  A car which is used to drop off victims at a hospital or police station. The vehicle usually drives into the ambulance bay, or to the front of the hospital, where the patient is pushed out, and the homeboy ambulance leaves quickly, without making any contact with hospital staff. Most patients dropped off by these homeboy ambulances are gang members or hookers. Usually seen in urban areas and county hospitals.

This is a fairly typical example of a higher end unit:

So, anyway, the driver gets out and yells, "You've gotta help me, man!  My buddy's been shot!"

I look around, and there's nobody else in the ambulance bay to help.  Wonderful. 

I walk to the passenger side of the 'ambulance', in this case a purple metallic-flake El Camino, and observe a conscious, alert and very lethargic 25 year old Latino male sprawled across the bench seat.  He says his name is Junior, and he says he's really scared.  He states that he was minding his own business in an area notorious for drug and gang activity when a 'whip' pulled up, 'a bunch' of guys got out and 'someone' shot him.

As I extricate him into a wheelchair, I take a quick look at the entry wound in his stomach: small caliber, minimal exterior blood loss, no stippling.  I check his back, but there's no apparent exit wound.  Not much for me to do here except wheel him inside.

FMH isn't a trauma center, so I figure they'll be excited to have a shooting victim.

Boy, was I right.  And then some.

They freaked out.  Now, sure this kid is in rough shape, but panic seldom does anybody any good.  They cleared out the closest bed -- in the cardiac room -- and all the nurses went off to find a doctor.  Or maybe they all took a smoke break.

Either way, they were gone for two or three minutes, and I was alone with the patient.  I got him into the bed and got his shirt off without cutting it off, which I suppose is really helpful from an evidence preservation perspective.  We can't get away with that out in the field too much, but here there was no reason to destroy the evidence.

I again asked him about the circumstances of the shooting, and he was again very evasive.  He knew the assailants were male, and that was it.  No sex, age, height, weight or even ethnicity.  This kid clearly had some idea who they were, but he wanted to keep it to himself so his crew could score some revenge.  Amazing.

The ER staff suddenly reappears with a doctor in tow, so I tell the guy good luck and get out of the way.  He seemed to have a change of heart, though, and gave me a decent description of the shooter.  He lost consciousness shortly thereafter, and they scrambled to get him into emergency surgery.

FPD showed up, and I gave a statement to the officer.  Given the kid's shaky hold on life at that point, I went into the interview with the assumption that the guy's gonna die sooner rather than later.  If he ended up giving me his dying declaration, I'm glad he gave up who was behind the shooting.  If he ends up making it, hopefully he gives up bangin' and makes some positive changes.

Life's short enough as it is, y'know?