Two Busy Days

I woke up very early yesterday to the sound of my daughter screaming, "Dad! There's been an accident! Somebody's hurt!" I bailed out of bed and dressed and ran. A pickup had rear-ended a school bus, my son's school bus, and the driver of the pickup was on the ground, moaning and bleed ing from his nose. The kids on the bus were okay, Kami was on the phone to Dispatch. I attended to the driver: Primary Survey (RABC); Secondary survey (head-to-toe visual and palpation survey with neuro check). LOC good, alerted and oriented x4.... lots of jargon. I haven't done the EMT or 91B Combat Medical NCO thing in a while but it was all there. When fire rescue arrived I maintained spine immobilization, then the ambulance showed and I transferred custody... and went in to the house for coffee.

Followed by a run into work a little more than four hours early to teach a DT (Defensive Tactics) class to some enforcement deputies with visiting Feds- entries, infighting and counter assault with ground fighting elements. Fun and sweaty.

Then regular work- mental health issues, inmates threatening others, nothing memorable, but a classis day in that I don't remember doing much but I never quite had time for lunch and was writing reports up to the last minute.

Today started slower- spending a good deal of time saying goodbye to K before she heads off to a convention in Seattle. Work was insane, literally, for the first 4 hours. An inmate on disciplinary status decided to play the "suicide card". Many think that if they express suicidal thoughts, they will get special priveleges or not be held responsible for misconduct. Instead they are locked down in a room with no furnishings and given a quilted smock and nothing else. This one was claiming to hear voices. He then made the mistake of threatening to kill any officer that came to move him. So they called me. No problem, but by the end of everything it was halfway through my shift and I hadn't even set foot in my assigned sector- which had fuses blown in one dorm, climate control out in another and inmate phones dead in a third. Seven hours into the shift, finally a chance to sit down and eat.

You know what? Those are two good days!