A Doc with a bad memory
byKevin A. Curtis EMT-B

I'm still fresh outta EMT school but I've been around as a volunteer fireman prior to getting EMT. I got a job doing non-emergency rides, our main client is the VA and they have only one major hospital in the state, the outlying facilities are just nursing homes and we transport their patients to the central hospital for their appointments. It's a easy job but one ride sticks with me.

Me and my driver, himself a 20-yr retired fireman and 20-yr retired police chief head to one of the VA homes to pick up a gentleman in the alzheimers ward to take him to an appointment. Of course we are buzzed in and the person in question is sitting in a wheelchair by the nurses desk waiting for us. My driver had just transported him one week prior and greets him by name, the patient responds appropriatley and I confirm with the LPN, he confirms that this is who I'm after and he helps us load the pt. I do a quick assessment, gather pt history from the LPN and secure the pts records for transport. The ride is clockwork, no problems during transport or upon arrival. When we take him to the clinic he is scheduled for we check him in using his VA Card (Photo ID). We transfer the pt to one of their cots and the unit clerk knows our service and gives me our number from memory. we had no other rides pending so me and my driver decide to go downstairs and get some breakfast. No sooner than we get to the ground floor our dispatcher calls us and says we need to return to the clinic because we have the wrong pt. We return to find a doctor in the hallway adamantly declaring that this is not the patient we were supposed to pick up.

Now, the clinic in question is very busy and I'm willing to wager that at least 100 pts go through it every day, so I seriously doubt the doc remembers all his pts from yesterday, to say nothing of 1 pt a week ago. I inform the Doc that we were directed to this pt by an LPN and that the pt responded when we called him by that name, plus my driver had transported him last week and recongnized him, and besides he was in a locked ward and I seriously doubt I would get buzzed out of the ward without someone saying "Hey, where's he going?" and besides we have his VA card with his picture on it.

The doctor then walks into the exam room and takes the pt's sock off (he's a podiatrist) and says, "Well if I'd have taken his sock off I'd have known it was him." He then held up the sole of the sock with the pt's name on it. My driver and I shrugged our shoulders, got a estimated completion time and left. We laughed our way back to the cafeteria and finally had breakfast.

Kevin A. Curtis EMT-B