Ambulance Rides and Crocodiles

By a chance encounter with a friend of my cousin's, yesterday I had the opportunity to shadow a paramedic who works for Cape Medical Response, a privately-owned ambulance service in Fish Hoek.  Here in South Africa, if there's an emergency people don't call the government ambulance (like we might with 911) because in this area it might take 30-45 minutes for help to arrive.  So most people phone a private ambulance service for fast care, and I spent the day with the paramedics that work at one of these companies.

Going into it, I was apprehensive about what I was going to see, after hearing stories about township stabbings, shark attacks, etc, but it turned out that my most exhilarating experience of the day was nearly having a heart attack on the ambulance ride to the scene, rather than what happened when we got there.  Our first call was to treat an older lady who, while going on her morning bike ride, got off her bike and then fainted.  It was about a 15-20 minute drive from the company office to where she was, but we made it there in about 10 minutes, despite the fact that very few cars here actually slow down or pull over for the ambulance.  It was the most hair-raising car ride I've ever been on, hands down.  We sped around corners, drove on the wrong side of the road, and narrowly missed cars several different times.  It's a miracle none of the paramedics have ever died in a car accident!  Not wanting to seem uncool or anything, I had to really concentrate on not reflexively grabbing the door after every swerve, but the truth is I was terrified.  And to top it off, on our way we happened to pass a train of about 8 Porsches, which prompted the ambulance driver to whoop and holler and shout to himself, "I'm passing the porsches, nah nah nah nah".  Very confidence-inspiring.  But anyhow, we got there alive, and the lady turned out to be alright, so that's all that mattered.

The second call was just for an elderly man who injured some ligaments in his shoulder when he fell in the garden, not too exciting.  But what interested me most perhaps in the whole day, was hearing about a gas station attendant named Desmond.  Apparently he's epileptic, and has daily seizures while pumping gas at work.  So the paramedics all know who he is, because they frequently get calls when his seizures are longer than normal, or when he's not recovering well after a seizure.  He has medication, yet doesn't take it, because according to the medic who was telling me this, it's seen as a sign of weakness in his culture for him to be seen taking medicine for the "falling down sickness".  So rather than managing his condition, Desmond continues to have daily seizures at work.  To me, it doesn't make much sense, but I suppose his decisions are so tied to his cultural and religious convictions that I couldn't even begin to understand where he's coming from.

Other than those two calls, the rest of the afternoon passed by very quietly, I suppose it makes sense that not many violent crimes or car accidents happen in the middle of the day.  I'm probably going to go back for another shift in January, and I'd like to see if I can get in on a night shift so that I can see some more action.  While I was there on Tuesday, I talked to the two paramedics (1 of which is 22!) who recently saved a shark attack victim who had his leg bitten off, and hearing their stories put me in awe of their responsibility.  All in all, I think being a paramedic must be an awful lot like being a cop- long periods of  boredom punctuated by adrenaline rushes and crises.  Probably a very exhilarating and fulfilling existence, but definitely not for me!

One thing I also noticed while meeting and chatting with the paramedics yesterday, was how funny some people's attempts to relate to America can be.  When I told one guy I was from California, he said "Ooohh!  My friend just went to Miami for a wedding."  I didn't really know what to say, never having even been to Florida, so I just gave some generic response like, "oh yes, I've heard parts of Florida are really pretty" or something to that effect.  It's puzzling, yet kind of entertaining, when people give you completely random bits of information that they feel relate to you, yet you really don't have any idea where they're coming from!  I'm sure South Africans experience this phenomenon about 10 x worse in the US, probably getting things like "Oh yes, I've been to Egypt" or "my neighbor went hunting in Kenya", but for me, not being used to it, I really notice it when it pops up.  I also had to giggle (silently, of course) when the paramedic I was shadowing explained to me that here, in South Africa, they have a breed of alligator, slightly different than the American one of course, called a "crocodile".  Even better was when he told me that since the US doesn't have as big of a problem with TB and AIDS as South Africa, our biggest health challenge was probably old age, in Florida.  I was speechless for about 10 seconds, but after I got myself together I told him I thought cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other problems associated with obesity were pretty big issues for the US as well as old age.  Other people's perceptions of America never fail to entertain!