Abuse, Drugs Nightly Near You

What role do drugs 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 released from a nearby hospital and had realised it was too late to be accepted into the local men’s shelter for the night. With nowhere else to go, he had called the paramedics in the hope of some assistance – and some painkillers. 

As the paramedics found out when they took the man to the hospital that had released him, he was a recurrent 911 caller and hospital visitor who tried to use the emergency services to get hold of prescription drugs. He was in no pain, but clearly in need of help. The emergency responders handed him over to the hospital triage team and left him under medical supervision. 

Alcohol, too, is the cause of plenty of 911 calls, but not just as a result of mishaps while under the influence. One Chicago paramedic recalls being called to the train station to deal with a person who was unwell there. Upon arrival, the station’s security guards directed the emergency workers to the food court, where they found a 55-year-old homeless man asleep on the floor. 

It turned out the security guards had let the homeless man in to the food court, where he had proceeded to drink from a bottle of vodka until he passed out. Not caring to remove him themselves, the staff called 911. 

One has to question quite why the security guards let the situation get to the point that it did, as well as why they felt it was enough of an emergency to warrant calling 911. 

The paramedics dutifully assessed the man, recording his vital signs (blood sugar, blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration rate, oxygen saturation level, etc.) and what action was taken. In this case, that meant transferring him to the nearest hospital, handing him over to the care of the charge nurse and leaving him to sleep it off. 

Supporting people to be rid of drug and alcohol addiction, particularly where homelessness is also a factor, is an incredibly complex task. It requires a joined-up approach from a wide range of services. Sadly, too many of those who need help are unable to access the intensive and sustained support that they require. Instead, they slip through the cracks and disappear until the emergency services encounter them once more after dark.  

When is a 911 call an abuse of the emergency services system 

Between the hours of 10 pm and 7 am, when the majority of citizens are safe at home, the emergency services deal with 911 calls ranging from difficult and distressing to downright ridiculous. 

In honor of the hardworking emergency responders of the Midwest, and to highlight the tricky situations that they sometimes face, we’ve gathered together some real-life experiences to share with you. 

Today, we’re looking at the interaction between the emergency services and Chicago’s various treatment centers. While paramedics, police and firefighters are supposed to deal with emergencies, they are often called to situations where the ‘emergency’ is anything but. 

Let’s take the case of a 26-year-old woman in a treatment center who started hearing voices. The center called 911 and asked for the emergency services to take the woman to hospital. 

The police and fire department showed up to help the young woman. They found her to be neither violent nor overly distressed. There was no discernible reason why one of the counsellors at the centre couldn’t have jumped in a taxi and taken the woman to hospital directly. Instead, staff decided to call 911. 

This kind of call, where there is no emergency to be dealt with, happens all too often. The cost to the taxpayer is somewhere between $1,000 and $1,800 per call, while the time that emergency responders spend not only dealing with the situation but filling out the resulting reports is time that they don’t then have to help those who do genuinely need it. 

Another example of this kind of abuse of the 911 service is shown by an incident at a treatment center on Chicago’s West Side. The center called the emergency services team to undertake a psychiatric assessment of a man who had had an altercation with another resident. 

Paramedics, firefighters and police officers responded to the call. Center staff brought the patient to the door and asked that he be taken to hospital as an involuntary admission for care and treatment. 

The paramedics spoke with the patient and assessed him. They found him to be conscious, alert, aware of his surroundings and not intending to harm himself or anyone else. He was neither combative nor unruly. It would have been simple for the treatment center staff – whether a counsellor or a security guard – to accompany the man to hospital in a taxi or a share ride service. Instead, they called 911. 

The center in this example calls on the emergency services regularly. It’s not unusual for them to call 911 two or three times every 24 hours. Every time the emergency services attend one of these calls, they have to fill out medical reports on the individual’s physical and mental state and go through procedures to check their vital signs. They have to discussion medication and write up a narrative of what took place during the callout. That’s a whole lot of paperwork for a non-emergency situation. 

The more we can do to tackle such abuses of the 911 system, the greater the chances of emergency responders being able to save the lives of those who really are in need of help. 

while this story is inspired by actual persons and events, certain characters, characterizations,  incidents, locations and dialogue were fictionalized or invented for purposes of dramatization.

by Will Knight Photography LLC