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Paramedic Stories XXII: Trick Or Treat! (By Pat E. Moss, EMT) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Rated "PG" by the Author.
Working the paramedic beat on Hallowe'en night often brings more tricks than treats.
I don't like working on Hallowe'en, especially at night. And especially when there is a full moon; that is when all the crazies seem to be out, and as far as emergencies are concerned, anything goes. Anything can (and usually does) happen.
If it isn't the trick or treaters coming to our station when we are there, begging for candy, all dressed up to kill in their Hallowe'en finery, it is having to take care of people, who, for some reason or another, get sick or hurt somehow. Yes, even on a fun day like Hallowe'en, when everyone dresses up and buys extra candy, people can get sick or hurt. Nobody is immune from sickness or death, even on the holidays.
Some of the most memorable events that have occurred on Hallowe'en included a three-car wreck that injured five and killed one (this happened two years back), a fire when a kid set his bed afire (the kid was burned, but he survived; the home, on the other hand, was a total loss), a trick or treater (a little girl) who was hit by a speeding car eluding the police (it was a drunken driver) (the little girl, aged six, could not be saved, no matter what we did for her), a teenaged kid who was impaled when he fell against a broken piece of fence (he had a seizure), and several teenagers who got into a good-sized brawl that resulted in broken bones and busted up faces (and other body parts).
I have tried to remain businesslike and professional when working on Hallowe'en, but it is hard when we dress up in crazy get-ups (it still isn't funny when a guy dressed up as Bozo the Clown is doing CPR on a little kid who had a heart attack from an electric shock), and it is hard when everyone is acting so goofy in nature or passing out treats to each other. I still enjoy working, but as for working on Hallowe'en, I don't really care for it because we get some of the worst cases imaginable, such as when the little girl was struck by the car and died despite our best efforts to save her, the five people who were injured in the three-car wreck that also resulted in the death of one person, the little boy who was burned when he knocked over a lit jack-o-lantern (he died later from his burns; he was no more than three), or the kid who was impaled by a piece of fence when he fell against it as he went into an epileptic seizure. I also remember a little girl who had a stroke (she was just four; she is now severely disabled and can't do much for herself now; she was just a baby of one year when she had the stroke), and several heart attack victims who could not be resusciated, no matter what we did for them. Our efforts to save them proved to be fruitless, and it put a real damper on our Hallowe'en.
Hallow'en is supposed to be about having fun or dressing up and acting silly, not about death or despair; and nobody should have to have their Hallowe'en celebrations marred by accident or illness. But unfortunately, people DO get sick or injured, even on the holidays, and we have to deal with it and take care of the sick and injured as best as we can, and then go on and try to salvage our own Hallowe'en celebrations.
I guess you can say that for me (or any other paramedic or public service worker), Hallowe'en is more about tricks than treats because we really can get some bad ones on Hallowe'en! Hallowe'en just isn't fun any more, especially as far as people's lives are concerned and you have to use all your wits in order to try to save them from dying.
So, on that note, let me wish you all a Happy Hallowe'en, and may it be full of treats instead of tricks!
*BOO!*
~Written by Pat E. Moss, EMT for the Nashville (TN) Medical Response Team, on Hallowe'en, October 31, 2004.
We should all praise the EMTs and the police officers and the fire fighters who all risk their own lives everyday to save ours - especially on the Holidays.
Thank God for two paramedics that saved my neighbor years ago when he tried to commit suicide. I have always wondered about people who die on Halloween. That time death did not win. Thanks again for a wonderful story.
Christmas - only days away; plastic snowmen and glowing reindeer adorn the lawns of neighborhoods all across America. All is calm, all is bright, and yet there is something tragically wrong about this Christmas night.
With swift passage thr
A short story of mine was included in an anthology of short fiction by fourteen of Port Town Publishing Company's authors. It is out of print and no longer available except as a download. Contact me at charlenetess@yahoo.com if you want it.
I don't like working on Hallowe'en, especially at night. And especially when there is a full moon; that is when all the crazies seem to be out, and as far as emergencies are concerned, anything goes. Anything can (and usually does) happen.
