Rabid Vultures
by

Too many paramedics on the scene? Ha! It get's even better when half of them are new hire probationary medics, just drooling to jump into the fray!

My department runs FF/EMT and FF/PM staffing on the ambulances. 911 calls are triaged through dispatch for response levels according to the severity of the patient. If a call requires two paramedics, depending on what part of the city it is in, potentially two ambulances may be dispatched to meet the requirements (if a paramedic engine company or the paramedic supervisor is not available or stationed in that part of town).

So I've been up for all but three of the twenty-four hour shift; I have a cherry FF/PM interning with me, and we're heading back to quarters after transporting a stabbing victim just prior to shift change. We're sent lights and sirens for an elderly male, unconscious with breathing difficulties, after falling down a flight of stairs. Dispatch, in this case, sends a BLS engine company and a second ambulance as well.

We arrive third on location (over the vocal disapproval of my cherry medic). I walk in and find that my relief had jumped on the engine company at our station with his new hire FF/PM, and that the second ambulance had a new hire as well!

Obviously, the patient has a severe overabundance of ALS care at his disposal. I walk up to the engine company captain, mumbling about how I was pissed I didn't have my disposable camera with me this time.
The captain looks at me with raised eyebrows. I point around the room explaining the situation.. three cops, two FF/1st Responders, three FF/EMTs, three FF/PMs, and hovering and pawing over the poor patient like rabid vultures, three FF/PM new hires!
I exclaimed to him... "Is this not a Cluster %&^@?"

The patient made a full recovery.
Fire Junkie