It is called many names: all hallows eve, all saints day, dia de los muertos, new moon festival, samhein, halloween, and hallelujah night for the Christian fanatics. The Ghetto Boys started their song "My mind's playing tricks on me" with the ever famous lyrics "this year halloween fell on the weekend...." Well this year it fell a Wednesday. At the beginning of our 24 hr shift, I remember asking my partner, "Lott," if he had ever worked on Halloween. He said he couldn't recall, but said it should be just another day. Oh how wrong he was. R-O-N-G rong. It turned out to be one of our busiest days in recent memory. It was nonstop nonsense. We responed to call after call after call of what firefighters call BS. You can use your imagination on that one. Here are a few of the not so emergency calls.
There was the lady who faked a seizure in her car while stopped at a stoplight with her mother in the passenger seat and her baby behind her. The mother was hysterical and the daughter was far from an academy award winning performance. They are lucky they didn't get hit.
Or how about the "group home" nestled in a neighborhood. These homes are a medicare scam and are popping up everywhere. Well the nice lady called 911 because her 86 year old patient was "gasping for err." The old woman told me not to touch her and told us to "go home" because she was fine. Far from gasping for err. When asked the lady's medical history, the caregiver couldn't tell us anything. While we were trying to figure out why we were there, she became defensive and wrote everyone's name down. So we in turn called our supervisor and wanted to speak with her supervisor to which she refused. She is incompetent and unfit to take care of a cockroach let alone an elderly lady with medical problems. But she said she's been doing this since 1976 and she dropped out of junior high to pursue her career in getting paid to pawn off old people to EMS and the hospital system so she can sit at work and watche re-runs of one life to live. Even though the lady said she was fine, we took her anyway. We learned from the patient that the caregiver made the gasping for air thing up and learned that the lady's elbow was out of socket.
Yet another lady faked another seizure/stroke. We've made her several times already and dread going to her house because it stinks to high heaven and is dirtier than a "2 dolla hoe." The real issue I have is that a 2 year old is left in these deplorable conditions while the lady fakes injury for attention.
A 15 year old who is in dire need of a spanking was outside and scratching herself with a piece of glass to make it seem like she was a cutter or committing suicide. The police called us for scratches some of which she did the day before-superficial in nature and not bleeding. The girl was bad mouthing everyone. The mom said she is done with her and will not sign her in to a psyche ward. The mother was passing the buck to the police who tried to pass it to us. We walked out to let the police deal with the unruly child as she was cussing out everybody. She ended up leaving in handcuffs.
The darker it got, the crazier it got. First there was a young man who was jumped by about 8 people as he was trick-or-treating with his girlfriend. Turns out we have a group of thugs driving around the neighborhood picking out easy targets and beating them up. No sooner had we got back to the firestation when the trick-or-treat bandits struck again. The mother of this vicitm gave us a 20 minute monologue on how she just moved into the neighborhood, was paying $1000 a month in rent, and was ready to move. She said that she "done moved into some sh*% up in here." She said the "women want to be men, the men don't know what the want to be, my son wants to be in a gang and can't even fight. How the he!! you gonna be in a gang and can't fight? And "bubba(the neighborhood rent a cop) got himself a flashlight. what the he!! he gonna do with a flashlight?" I still laugh at her monologue almost every day. I'll bet she would have beat up those thugs.
The stupid person of the day award goes to a 25 year old woman who jumped out of a moving vehicle to "show" her boyfriend "how much" she "loves him." What a crock. She split her wig pretty good on the concrete. There was blood everywhere. She was crying and going on and on how her boyfriend doesn't appreciate her and that he doesn't even appreciate what she just did for him. You think? I told her if she was my girlfriend I would never talk to her again and for sure would never want to see her again. I told her that the only thing she proved was how stupid she is. I told her if her boyfriend didn't appreciate her, find someone who would. The poor guy was torn on whether to support her by going the the hospital or end it there. He followed us to the ER and then left when we did. I hope he ends this madness now before she cuts off her arm to prove her love.
So that was my Halloween. No candy. No costumes. No sleep. Just people acting stupid without wearing a disguise. For me it was a true model of how messed up we are as humans, how desparate we are to be loved and noticed. It shows how much we need a savior- someone to rescue us from ourselves and this world. Jesus came into this world to do just that. So that we could find our true identity in Him and so that we could know what it is to be loved and to love. Til the next episode.
There was the lady who faked a seizure in her car while stopped at a stoplight with her mother in the passenger seat and her baby behind her. The mother was hysterical and the daughter was far from an academy award winning performance. They are lucky they didn't get hit.
Or how about the "group home" nestled in a neighborhood. These homes are a medicare scam and are popping up everywhere. Well the nice lady called 911 because her 86 year old patient was "gasping for err." The old woman told me not to touch her and told us to "go home" because she was fine. Far from gasping for err. When asked the lady's medical history, the caregiver couldn't tell us anything. While we were trying to figure out why we were there, she became defensive and wrote everyone's name down. So we in turn called our supervisor and wanted to speak with her supervisor to which she refused. She is incompetent and unfit to take care of a cockroach let alone an elderly lady with medical problems. But she said she's been doing this since 1976 and she dropped out of junior high to pursue her career in getting paid to pawn off old people to EMS and the hospital system so she can sit at work and watche re-runs of one life to live. Even though the lady said she was fine, we took her anyway. We learned from the patient that the caregiver made the gasping for air thing up and learned that the lady's elbow was out of socket.
Yet another lady faked another seizure/stroke. We've made her several times already and dread going to her house because it stinks to high heaven and is dirtier than a "2 dolla hoe." The real issue I have is that a 2 year old is left in these deplorable conditions while the lady fakes injury for attention.
A 15 year old who is in dire need of a spanking was outside and scratching herself with a piece of glass to make it seem like she was a cutter or committing suicide. The police called us for scratches some of which she did the day before-superficial in nature and not bleeding. The girl was bad mouthing everyone. The mom said she is done with her and will not sign her in to a psyche ward. The mother was passing the buck to the police who tried to pass it to us. We walked out to let the police deal with the unruly child as she was cussing out everybody. She ended up leaving in handcuffs.
The darker it got, the crazier it got. First there was a young man who was jumped by about 8 people as he was trick-or-treating with his girlfriend. Turns out we have a group of thugs driving around the neighborhood picking out easy targets and beating them up. No sooner had we got back to the firestation when the trick-or-treat bandits struck again. The mother of this vicitm gave us a 20 minute monologue on how she just moved into the neighborhood, was paying $1000 a month in rent, and was ready to move. She said that she "done moved into some sh*% up in here." She said the "women want to be men, the men don't know what the want to be, my son wants to be in a gang and can't even fight. How the he!! you gonna be in a gang and can't fight? And "bubba(the neighborhood rent a cop) got himself a flashlight. what the he!! he gonna do with a flashlight?" I still laugh at her monologue almost every day. I'll bet she would have beat up those thugs.
The stupid person of the day award goes to a 25 year old woman who jumped out of a moving vehicle to "show" her boyfriend "how much" she "loves him." What a crock. She split her wig pretty good on the concrete. There was blood everywhere. She was crying and going on and on how her boyfriend doesn't appreciate her and that he doesn't even appreciate what she just did for him. You think? I told her if she was my girlfriend I would never talk to her again and for sure would never want to see her again. I told her that the only thing she proved was how stupid she is. I told her if her boyfriend didn't appreciate her, find someone who would. The poor guy was torn on whether to support her by going the the hospital or end it there. He followed us to the ER and then left when we did. I hope he ends this madness now before she cuts off her arm to prove her love.
So that was my Halloween. No candy. No costumes. No sleep. Just people acting stupid without wearing a disguise. For me it was a true model of how messed up we are as humans, how desparate we are to be loved and noticed. It shows how much we need a savior- someone to rescue us from ourselves and this world. Jesus came into this world to do just that. So that we could find our true identity in Him and so that we could know what it is to be loved and to love. Til the next episode.
1 comment:
I can't believe it took me this long to discover your blog! Cool stories of how humans are so fragile and stupid. Keep up the good work!
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