Strange Things DO Happen

With some significant time being passed since my last entry, I have collected a few interesting yet unrelated tidbits of oddness.

Downtown last week, a middle-aged woman was driving down the street in a late model SUV. At some point, she drifted over the curb and struck the guywire for a power pole. This caused the vehicle to flip over on its side. We we arrived, the lady was dead. It was reported in the newspaper pretty much just like that. One would naturally assume that she died in the accident. Me, being skeptical by nature and with several years of experience with such accidents, came to the conclusion that we did not have the whole story. A few days later, the autopsy showed that she had died of a heart attack and the low speed motor vehicle accident was a secondary result.

Late one night we were sent out to "check out" a 25 year old guy with leg pain after walking across the street. Since this was 3 o'clock in the morning and both the guy and his buddy reeked of alcohol, our approach was rather straight forward. It went something like, "So what happened?" "Pain?" "OK, you want to hop on the stretcher and we will give you a ride to the hospital..." At that point, since the guy wasn't moving much, we prepared to unceremoniously lift him to the stretcher. For some reason, one of us decided to check the leg to see why there was the ambiguous "pain". Much to our chagrin, it was obvious that the guy had a broken leg...from walking???

Mid morning last shift we were dispatched with the medic unit to an unconscious female. Almost as soon as we went en route, the details were updated to include the fact that the patient was no longer breathing. Arriving at the address, we noted the address numbers posted at the mailbox and knew we were at the right location. After turning into the lane, we were confronted by a very disconcerting situation; there were two houses and a large motorhome, all locked, and none with any indication of address or any other indication of where the patient was. I scattered my crew to the various possible locations and then went to knock on doors and hopefully locate the patient. I finally found an open back door and made entry into one of the houses. After calling out and getting no answer, I called the crew on the radio to say that I had found an open door and was still searching for the patient. I then took a few steps down the hall, discovered the patient, and the husband. The husband was standing so still, it took me a moment to realize he was there. I still do not know what he was thinking or if he was simply not mentally processing. It turned out that the woman had just had a heart pacemaker installed the day before and likely it had lost a wire or something else had malfunctioned. I was very frustrated because the patient died and I truly believe that the delay was a major contribution to the negative outcome. Since the couple was 80+ (although in apparent good health and living independently) it is not likely that the husband's actions will be scrutinized too closely.