Sudden Response (EMS #1)(27)

He didn't want to be here today working with this prick, but he knew if he missed work that would just piss Joe off more and only make her more determined to get back to work. She was too damn stubborn sometimes. He was not looking forward to the bullshit he was going to have to go through to get her off the truck permanently, but as long as she was safe and happy it would be worth it.

"Echo seventeen?"

"Echo seventeen," Eric said, knowing that tone. They were about to get a call. As long as it was short and sweet he didn't care. His eyes darted to the dashboard clock. It was barely half past nine in the morning. He hoped they didn't get screwed all day. Not that he had a problem with working, he didn't. He hated to sit around and normally loved to stay busy, but he was hoping for a chance to swing by Joe's and bring her something for lunch, knowing his mother wouldn't allow her to eat anything more than Jell-O and broth all day.

"Echo seventeen, I need you to respond to Sunflower Nursing Home on 34 Chestnut Avenue for an unwitnessed fall."

"Echo seventeen, responding to Sunflower Nursing home for an unwitnessed fall," he said into the mike.

"Son of a bitch," Teddy snapped, pulling out a run sheet as Eric flipped the emergency lights on.

"No one saw the patient fall?" Greg asked from the back of the ambulance, thankfully sounding a lot less nervous than he had last week.

Teddy snorted out a chuckle. "They're all unwitnessed," he said, filling in their information on the run sheet.

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Eric started only to pause as he slammed on the brakes as some dumb f**k sped through the intersection almost slamming into them as they tried to race through before they lost the green light.

He chuckled when he spotted a police car waiting in the opposite lane throw its emergency lights on and go after the prick. Eric paused in the middle of the intersection, allowing the police officer to take the turn and go after the jerk. With a wave of appreciation to the officer, Eric proceeded through the intersection.

"Holy shit!" Greg gasped. "Weren't they supposed to stop?"

"Yup," Eric said, switching the sounds of the sirens in demand for the cars in front of him to move out of the way. "You'll find that most people have enough common sense to move out of the way or stop at intersections so we can go, but there are others-"

"Assholes," Teddy added, and for once they were in complete agreement about something.

"-who will refuse to move out of the way, or will rush through the intersection whether or not they had the green, and my personal favorite are the ass**les who ride our tail when we're responding."

"Those are the ones who usually get creamed," Teddy pointed out.

"Seriously?" Greg asked.

"It usually happens when they try and follow an ambulance through an intersection," Eric explained, pulling into the long driveway of Sunflower Home.

"That sucks," Greg mumbled distractedly.

"Echo seventeen on scene," Eric said into the mike as he pulled to a stop at the front entrance.

He shut the ambulance down and pulled the keys out. Some crews left the trucks running or the keys in the ignition and he would be the first one to admit that he used to make that mistake. A mental patient stealing a running ambulance right outside an emergency room a few years ago helped him break that habit quickly.

Everyone had laughed at the crew even as they cringed, thinking that could have easily been any of them. The patient didn't damage the ambulance, but she did have a hell of a ride. Three hours later the police found the ambulance parked behind an abandoned building with the crew's lunch smeared all over the inside of ambulance. Thankfully no one had been hurt, but it could have easily gone the other way.

"What did you mean about all the falls being unwitnessed?" Greg asked when Eric opened the doors to the back of the ambulance.

"It usually means that whoever witnessed the fall or caused the injuries doesn't want to get written up so they usually report it as an unwitnessed fall," Eric explained as he jumped into the back of the ambulance and loaded the stretcher with the long backboard and the trauma bag.

"And they get away with that?" Greg asked in disgust.

"Yup," Teddy said, grabbing a handful of gloves to stuff in his pocket.

"Are we going to report them?" Greg asked.

"Can't report them unless you have clear proof or you witnessed the incident," Eric explained, hoping to calm the kid down. He knew how he felt. Sometimes it was frustrating to work in this field and see the things that they saw on a daily basis, but he knew that running to the state and reporting every little thing could actually cause more problems than they'd solve.

"So they get away with it?"

"No," Eric said, shaking his head and wishing Joe was here. She usually answered these questions and did a hell of lot better job at it than he was doing. "You have to remember that not every injury is abuse, especially when you're dealing with the elderly population. A lot of the calls you get that claim the patient fell and no one was around will be true. A lot of patients, young and old are bullheaded and hate asking for help or get sick of waiting for help and try to do things on their own that they know they shouldn't. So don't go jumping the gun and assuming abuse."

"But you said-"