Cool old lady and crazy twenty something

Last night was an interesting night on my ambulance. It started with the typical DUI blood draw, and ended with a near deaf old lady with a cold.

The night of course started with an intoxicated driver. We do blood draws for evidence for all the local Law enforcement. This guy was a weirdo, knew all sorts of stuff about drawing blood. Thank God I didn't miss or I would never here the end of it.

The other notable calls were weird enough too. I had a pt in a complete heartblock (very rare) and he didn't die (as of yet). I had a old man fall down and get intubated. We had a crazy half naked chick drunk off her ass in the middle of the road. We had the deaf old lady who screamed to get her point accross.

Nothing really to bitch about it was a little busy but not a big deal.

Todays story is about what really pisses me off.

Just because you have insurance, or medicaid, or medicare, doesn't mean that you are going to ride for free. Some dumbass called and actually said, it's been bugging me for 15 years now and tonight I want to get it checked out. He was proud that the VA would pay for his ride in an ambulance, then had the tenancity to bitch that we used the lights and sirens coming to his house. 450 tax dollars vs. 5 dollar cab ride.

Listen people there are many reasons to call an ambulance but just as many reasons to get your butt into the ED in your own car (or taxi).

Stubbed toe= cab
heart attack= ambulance
hang nail= stay home
breathing problem= ambulance
anxiety attack= stay home
profused bleeding= ambulance
intoxication= stay home
accidental poisoning= ambulance
small laceration= cab or your own car
death= coroners car
diabetic problem= stay home, eat a meal if your sugar is low, go to doc if high.

Now I could go on and on and on about these but please just use some common sense. Oh yeah and don't try to bring your whole family along in the ambulance (especially if your driveway is full of cars) we don't want to drag everyone into the already overcrowded ED's.

We've got eight minutes to get to your house in our city. If it's not serious thats eight minutes that you could have been driving already.

Finally today. Don't meet us at the door with your luggage packed and hair done. You just lost credibility. Stop using the ED as your primary care doc.