First responder

I was on my way to class this morning, annoyed that the inability to put the crossword puzzle down had made me late, and annoyed that the cars in front of me had blocked off the side street so the west-bound car couldn't turn. So the light turns green, the cars start moving, the biker I had just passed is coming up to the side street, the car in front of me waves the turning car on through...right into the biker. (Just picture badness, I hate trying to describe accidents with words; that's why incident reports have pictures on them)

For a second I hoped that the cyclist somehow swerved, but when I saw the wheel flip up into the air, well, that's when my sympathetic nervous system kicked in. Were I a swearing person, I'm pretty sure a choice word would have escaped my mouth. Instead, my thoughts were, "Well, this is what you're training for, GET OUT OF THE FREAKING CAR!" I was so glad 3 of my classmates also stopped, because it was way less nerve-wracking that way. So I get out of the car and the first thing I do is make sure someone's already got a dispatcher on the phone (I mean, really, the first step is to call for help). So then there's this poor girl just lying sprawled in the road, neighbors in their pajamas saying "Don't move." Meanwhile, "ABCs! ABCs! ABCs!" kept running through my head, but she was talking and breathing just fine, and when the answer isn't "rapid sequence intubation" I get all thrown off anyways, so we just kept her talking and asking for the 40th time if she had neck pain. I did manage to ask some semi-relevant questions, check her pupils, and take a pulse before the fire truck got there, but they were way more systematic in their approach (and actually had supplies like a BP cuff and a C-collar), which made me glad my first time as the good Samaritan wasn't a life-or-death situation.

She was fine, a poor first-year med student, and former EMT, on her way to class, and not too thrilled at being taken to the ED. But you could see the shock setting in, her jaw shaking from adrenaline and cold when she tried to talk, so I'm glad they took her anyways. Besides some road rash and sore knees, she managed to escape as well as possible. Luckily I had a bike rack on my car and took her bike to campus where she was able to pick it up when she was released. Shoot, even I had some shakiness once the adrenaline wore off. And of course, as I think about how I want to be prepared next time, I'm realizing that first aid kit and CPR mask I bought are nowhere to be found. Rats.

All in all though, it pretty much solidified that even though it will be scary when someone yells, "Is anyone a doctor?" I know that this is exactly what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. (Well, maybe not tending cyclists on the street, but you get the idea)