ALL ABOUT NOTHING

What role do d rugs and alcohol  play in an emergency responder’s nightly encounters We hear a lot about the damage to society that the abuse of drugs and alcohol can cause. In a city the size of Chicago, which is home to some 2.7 million residents, there are plenty of people misusing alcohol and drugs as part of their daily lives. When you work nights as an emergency responder, you tend to encounter quite a few of those individuals.  Today, we’re sharing a couple of stories from paramedics in the Midwest to show the complexity of dealing with those who abuse drugs and alcohol.  First, we have the example of gentleman who called 911 at around 2 am, complaining of chest pain. Paramedics raced to his location, outside of one of Chicago’s subway stations. They sat him gently down in the ambulance and started to question him about the nature of his pain.  Only, it turned out there wasn’t any pain. They established instead that the man had just been rele...

Three lessons you learn after midnight as an emergency responder  Chicago is home to over  4,500 uniformed firefighters and paramedics , according to the city’s Bureau of Operations. They serve the city’s 2.7 million residents and the 28 million people who pass through its two airports every year. Altogether, Chicago’s emergency responders receive more than 500,000 emergency assistance calls per year.  Every 911 call is different, and every call brings with it a unique lesson – some are hard to hear, some are distressing, and others are just plain ridiculous. Today, we’re focusing on three very different lessons that Chicago’s paramedics have learned while responding to emergency calls between the hours of 10 pm and 7 am.  We’ll start with a lesson that can at times be really tough to bear: In most scenarios, the emergency responders who are first on the scene never find out what eventually happens to those they help.  A Chicago paramedi...