The rest of my shifts went well last week. I had one interesting call at the police station. Young man having an asthma attack. He had left his medication at home, and as you can guess he wasn't allowed to go and get it. It was a little unsettling, my patient was lying on the floor of a tiny cell. Something you probably wouldn't even put two people in back home. And sitting along the wall were four other prisoners watching me as I crouched over the guy. The other cell wasn't even locked and all the guys were watching me. Always helps to have several police officers at your back too.
The man was having a pretty bad attack, really clear wheezes when you listen to his lungs. At first the driver and the cops tried to make him walk out but ended up dragging him a bit. I guess they get a lot of fakers at the station. I managed to convince them it was pretty urgent and we carried him to the stretcher. This is the first time I have found this service frustrating. Back home he would have been a clear candidate for ventolin. But we aren't certified to give it here. Instead all I could do was try to comfort him. That was hard too! He only spoke Creole-French. I think my french was enough for comfort at least.
Though with the Christmas season approaching, everything gets busier. Especially crime. Friday was pay day and since they had neglected me last month I was anxious to find out if I would get paided this time. I did, but ran into some trouble getting any money because my bank was robbed. Pretty sad actually, two guards were shot and one was killed.
Another difficulty with this service. I wasn't on duty during this call, but as usual it was just one EMT working with a driver. They were able to call the supervisor who is a Canadian CCP and he came to help. But still, two critical patients were transported with just one vehicle and limited equipment. This service has come a long way in the last couple years, but still has a ways to go.
I have had a good week off duty too, My friend was able to borrow a car for a few days so we did some exploring. We found a nice beach on the west side of the island to watch a sunset. There is a phenomenon I had been wanting to see where just as the sun sinks below the horizon there is a flash of green light. But it didn't happen. I'll have to go back another time.
We also went out for a drink last night, to Jimmy's Dive Bar. My friend ran into an old friend and we got introduced around. Ended up sitting with a big group chatting which was fun. I did laugh that they were all people living on the island, but were mostly Canadian. Also met a guy from Mozambique too. Towards the end of the night all the power went out in Grace Bay. It was absolutely beautiful, we were sitting outside and the stars were incredible.
Today I walked up the beach again to Grace Bay, it takes about 40 minutes. I did pick a bad day to go as most of the shops are closed on Sundays. I got a little shopping done and enjoyed the sun. It was a hot day and had a swim when I got back to my beach, and fought with facebook and have finally succeed in posting pictures from my trip over to North and Middle Caicos.
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