A Night With the Paramedics

Hola from Bolivia!!! Yesterday Jake and I had the chance to spend the night shadowing the on-call paramedic team that is stationed a little way down the road from hospitals of hope. It was a great chance to practice our Spanish when they picked us up. We found out that Jose and Jimmy are two twenty-year olds who have been working as paramedics for a little over a year. We brought our sleeping stuff and Captain America in Spanish, planning on having a relaxing night, watching a movie they liked, sleeping and waiting for a call. But as soon as we stepped into their little waiting room the radio buzzed to life and a voice came over through the static in hurried Spanish describing the situation. There had been a car crash in the city, truck vs. taxi. We quickly rushed out the door, hopped into the back of the ambulance and sped down the road with sirens blaring and lights flashing. The first thing I noticed was that no one pulled over off the road for the ambulance. Thus we found ourselves swerving in and out through traffic rushing to the scene. The firemen had already arrived and were taking a Bolivian husband and wife back to the hospital due to their more serious injuries. We picked up the taxi driver who only had a few minor scrapes and cuts and took him back to the hospital. As soon as we walked in to the emergency room I was a little bit shocked, it was my first time seeing such a traumatic scene. They already had the woman stabilized and it looked like she had a broken leg and 6 inch gash on the back of her head. The man however commanded the majority of our attention. He had been drinking and driving and was being very loud and hard to constrain. He had suffered multiple fractures in both legs, along with lacerations, and a shattered knee cap. The skin on the heel of his right foot was barely hanging on and he had also hit his head hard and had a huge gash to show for it. We helped to hold him down to the bed while the doctors and nurses helped to get him stabilized with blood, fluids and a catheter. Once he had been stabilized and sedated he was loaded onto a stretcher and rushed back into the ambulance. We took him down father into Cochabamba to another hospital that had a radiografia machine that would give an MRI showing any potential damage to his head. On the way there however we encountered one of the most shocking experiences of the night. We were speeding down the left lane when Jimmy suddenly swerved. There had been a man laying sprawled out in the middle of the road that we almost hit. We didn't even stop to check his condition, take him to the hospital or at least move him off the road and check for identification. After the MRI had been examined by a radiologist, it was determined that there was no serious damage to the head and we took him back for surgery on his legs. A doctor named Trish, who we had become friends with, asked us to come scrub in for the surgery. This was the first time that either of us had seen a surgery so we were super excited. Once they had examined and cleaned the wounds they started to tie off blood vessels and prepare to stitch him up. It ended up being a huge mess as they ended up using over 30 stitches. Another interesting thing was that throughout the entire procedure the doctors and nurses were taking pictures of everything on their cell phones. Jake and I had a hard time understanding much of what they were saying due to the fact that most things had to do with medical terminology that we were unfamiliar with in Spanish. Finally around 3:30 in the morning the surgery was done and jake and I washed up and went back to the volunteer house where we stay. As I lay in bed physically exhausted, my mind was wide awake racing, trying to process all that had just happened. I realized that all the blood and gore that I had just seen didn't phase me at all. The thing that was hard for me to watch was the family as the three children were told that their parents were hurt. Also listening as the extended family talked about how they are going to be able to scrape up enough money for the medical bills. It was also inspiring to see how quickly and efficiently the surgeons worked in analyzing the situation and acting on it. I realized how excited I am for that day far in the future when I might be able to help some one in a similar way if the Lord is willing. This memory of our night with the paramedics will help to serve as a motivation for me when I'm up late next year studying O-Chem, reminding me that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that there is a good reason to work diligently in school. ¡Dios les bendiga! Ben