Diary of a Girl from Seattle

Born to Run

Dear Diary,

I was almost late for shift this morning (which for the record has never happened) because, for the first time, I didn't want to go. The shift started out fine, though we all seemed pretty drained, especially after everything with Rigo, so it was kinda quiet around the station. The whole day was kind of just a blur of calls, sitting around, trying to get some sleep but failing, and barely talking to each other. By morning, we were so ready to be done, but of course we got one more call, an MVC. Reluctantly, we all got up and headed out.

Arriving on the scene, we could immediately see it wasn't going to be an easy call. A truck had plowed into a small biker gang, leaving bodies and motorcycles strewn across the road. In checking out the driver, it was clear that he was drunk. The entire cabin of the truck smelled like alcohol when I went with Travis to examine him. He was injured pretty badly, and Travis and I knew right away that he wouldn't make it. Maya called our new Probie over to swap out with me, saying that he would be the one to intubate and try to save him. Travis and I protested, saying that it was a really rough thing to do, but she insisted and reminded us that it wasn't our call to make. I sighed as I walked away; I was so close to making it through the shift without getting mad at Maya, but I guess it was too good to be true.

I went down to help Jack and Andy with some patients that had been thrown from their bikes. One woman even ended up stuck in a tree. Jack and I worked to get her down and started CPR, but it was a fruitless effort; she was too far gone. By my count, that was already the 3rd fatality in a matter of 15 minutes. I started to set the leg of another victim when Ben got there to take over since he had a likely head injury. We learned that he was a doctor, a plastics guy, who wanted to join doctors without borders and it somehow made us even more determined to save him.

A few minutes later, we found out that there were 9 total riders... and we'd only found 8. I went back up to help look and found him in a bush. Thankfully, he was alive and conscious. Maya passed him over to the 23 team that came to assist, and sent me back down to help Gibson and Herrera. I knew they didn't really need me but I went down there anyway. Ben had gone back to get a rescue gurney and was heading back down at the same time. Seeing that Andy didn't need help with her patient, I followed Ben over to our plastics doc. By the time we got there, he had lost consciousness and was unresponsive. We suspected a brain bleed so I quickly helped Ben get him up to the PRT. Maya saw me back up by the rigs and reprimanded me for not following orders. Warren tried to say that I was just helping him out but she didn't seem to care.

I went back down to 'help' Andy even though she didn't need me there in the least. She told me that too, but I explained that our wonderful captain had insisted that I work with her and Jack. Just then our patient coded. Jack started compressions while Andy bagged him and I grabbed a monitor from the med kit. After three rounds of epi and 20 minutes of compressions, we knew we weren't getting him back. Flores said it could have been internal decapitation, we had to let him go. Jack didn't want to stop compressions, but Andy yelled at him, saying that his body couldn't sustain it even if we did manage to get a heartbeat. She said it was cruel to keep forcing it, to keep trying to make him live when he couldn't anymore. I think she started to actually hear the words she was saying and realize how much they apply to her dad, cause I saw her face drop. As we walked away, I wanted to ask if she was alright but she knows me too well and asked me not to. She needed some time to think on her own first. I nodded and went to update Maya on our patient.

When I got up there, she and Montgomery were bringing our one survivor over to the aid car. I ran over to help so Trav and I could get him to the hospital. As we loaded him in, he told us that the group wasn't a real gang, they just rode together once a month, but they hung out and talked all the time. They were a family. And a truck hit them, killing almost all of them instantly.