MHSC
Senior Moderator
The Ebola story in America ? about that single case in Texas ? is properly told at a calm and rational distance.
There's the distance between your eyes and the paper or the screen where you're reading or watching the news about Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan and his family, quarantined in Dallas.
Beyond that is another distance, to some city where an epidemiologist in a lab coat talks in dry tones about precautions and necessary steps.
But some can't keep a distance from this. They are the first responders, the emergency medical technicians and paramedics.
They're the first to open the door and see a man on the ground, vomiting, and perhaps children and other adults, worried and afraid, ready to bolt and run.
So I called a Chicago Fire Department paramedic I've known for a long time. "That distance, well, there is no distance for us," he said. "It's over once you walk in. You're in it.
"Say there's a person vomiting, with fever, and the first thing you do is ask the question, and they give you the magic answer: 'My brother just got back from West Africa.'
"And the training kicks in. You think, 'I've got to do A, then B, then C.' You do your job. You don't want two coppers coming through the door or firefighters going in. I'm in it, but I don't want anyone else in it.
"You get on the phone and tell the cops to set up a perimeter. You call the hospital and let them know what's coming and you talk it out with your bosses.
"Which hospital, how do they want you to go, do you use just one ambulance? I'd rather use the one, even if I have to make two trips, because I don't want to expose any more of our people.
"The thing is, you're in it, you're trained, you do your job. We've dealt with AIDS, and viruses and other hazards. We know what to do."
Then he paused and took a breath.
"The hard part comes after," he said.
What hard part?
"Well, if it's Ebola, the hardest part will be calling my house later and saying, 'Honey, I have a little problem. I'm not coming home tonight.'"
...
Ambulance 37 is parked in a Dallas city lot in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood. It, too, is under quarantine, with police rope around it and red tape on it warning of biohazard.
...
"We deal with infectious diseases all the time; influenza, TB, meningitis, all these things," he said. "Educating, I think, allays a lot of fears. They have an understanding of what to look for and what to do ? for many of the other infectious diseases that we deal with."
...
"Every EMS system in the country, every hospital, already has protocols for dealing with this level of infectious disease and transmission by blood and body fluids," Hinchey said.
There are also protocols with dealing with the family, the people who called for the ambulance, the ones who have been exposed.
"You have to keep them there, you can't let them leave," said my paramedic buddy. "Some will want to get out of there. Some will just sit there afraid. You have to treat them with respect and kindness, even when your brain is going 300 miles an hour, thinking, Did I do A, then B, then C?"
The Chicago paramedic said he hopes all emergency dispatchers begin asking questions before paramedics arrive, questions like:
Has the person been to Africa? Is he or she nauseated and perspiring?
...
"I don't think it'll happen here, but if it does, well, I know how I'll feel if I open the door and realize I'm in it," said the paramedic. "Like I just tried to swallow a basketball.
"But that's no different than being at Cicero and Harrison, hearing the pop-pop-pop-pop and there she is on the ground, some girl curled up. You run over to her, and your stomach's up in your throat.
"And then training takes over."
There's the distance between your eyes and the paper or the screen where you're reading or watching the news about Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan and his family, quarantined in Dallas.
Beyond that is another distance, to some city where an epidemiologist in a lab coat talks in dry tones about precautions and necessary steps.
But some can't keep a distance from this. They are the first responders, the emergency medical technicians and paramedics.
They're the first to open the door and see a man on the ground, vomiting, and perhaps children and other adults, worried and afraid, ready to bolt and run.
So I called a Chicago Fire Department paramedic I've known for a long time. "That distance, well, there is no distance for us," he said. "It's over once you walk in. You're in it.
"Say there's a person vomiting, with fever, and the first thing you do is ask the question, and they give you the magic answer: 'My brother just got back from West Africa.'
"And the training kicks in. You think, 'I've got to do A, then B, then C.' You do your job. You don't want two coppers coming through the door or firefighters going in. I'm in it, but I don't want anyone else in it.
"You get on the phone and tell the cops to set up a perimeter. You call the hospital and let them know what's coming and you talk it out with your bosses.
"Which hospital, how do they want you to go, do you use just one ambulance? I'd rather use the one, even if I have to make two trips, because I don't want to expose any more of our people.
"The thing is, you're in it, you're trained, you do your job. We've dealt with AIDS, and viruses and other hazards. We know what to do."
Then he paused and took a breath.
"The hard part comes after," he said.
What hard part?
"Well, if it's Ebola, the hardest part will be calling my house later and saying, 'Honey, I have a little problem. I'm not coming home tonight.'"
...
Ambulance 37 is parked in a Dallas city lot in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood. It, too, is under quarantine, with police rope around it and red tape on it warning of biohazard.
...
"We deal with infectious diseases all the time; influenza, TB, meningitis, all these things," he said. "Educating, I think, allays a lot of fears. They have an understanding of what to look for and what to do ? for many of the other infectious diseases that we deal with."
...
"Every EMS system in the country, every hospital, already has protocols for dealing with this level of infectious disease and transmission by blood and body fluids," Hinchey said.
There are also protocols with dealing with the family, the people who called for the ambulance, the ones who have been exposed.
"You have to keep them there, you can't let them leave," said my paramedic buddy. "Some will want to get out of there. Some will just sit there afraid. You have to treat them with respect and kindness, even when your brain is going 300 miles an hour, thinking, Did I do A, then B, then C?"
The Chicago paramedic said he hopes all emergency dispatchers begin asking questions before paramedics arrive, questions like:
Has the person been to Africa? Is he or she nauseated and perspiring?
...
"I don't think it'll happen here, but if it does, well, I know how I'll feel if I open the door and realize I'm in it," said the paramedic. "Like I just tried to swallow a basketball.
"But that's no different than being at Cicero and Harrison, hearing the pop-pop-pop-pop and there she is on the ground, some girl curled up. You run over to her, and your stomach's up in your throat.
"And then training takes over."
