Features

Above, the DAC's first ambulance, a '59 Cadillac nicknamed the "Gray Ghost."

Two hours later, an alarm sounds. The report: "unresponsive male, vomiting" in a Memorial Union Building bathroom. Cartier and John "Jori" Argue '03, a certified EMT whose shift began at midnight, don their dark blue DAC coveralls and jump in the front seats of DAC's A2 ambulance. I hop in back. Inside the ambulance--Cartier calls it "a miniature emergency room"--is a stainless steel, wheeled stretcher, boot camp-neat with pillows, blankets, towels and seatbelt-style straps. A saline bag hangs from railings attached to the roof. The walls are lined with supply cabinets with tourniquets, catheters, wrist and ankle restraints, cold packs, duct tape, gauze and, somewhat jarringly, a Teddy bear. Near the stretcher's head is a LifePak 12 device, a combination heart monitor, defibrillator and external pacemaker.

Today's ambulance reflects the enormous advances in the emergency medical service industry. "EMS is still a fairly young profession," says Karen Henny. "It was just getting off the ground in the late 1960s." Doctors now recognize "that we can be their hands and eyes and ears out in the field,"she adds. "There's a lot of stuff that we can do that 10 years ago you couldn't do until you got to the emergency room. Studies have shown that what we do is safe and efficacious."

Gathered in the day room are, from left, [standing] Hildi Orkin, Brian Cartier, [seated] Rachel Cartier '01, Greg Worsman '03, Fleury and Bernie Garland.

Basic EMTs are now trained to operate automated external defibrillators (AED) for heart attack victims, and may administer a patient's prescription drugs. Intermediate EMTs do more detailed on-site assessments and administration of drugs, particularly those used to treat cardiac arrest, asthma attacks, anaphylactic shock and diabetics. Paramedics also have a greater array of pain medications and more sophisticated treatment techniques at their disposal, including external pacemakers and trachea tubes.

But "people still refer to us as ambulance drivers and don't see us as intervention," says Cartier. "We still have a ways to go in terms of recognition."

Shortly after 1 a.m., we arrive at the MUB and meet Worsman, who lives nearby and answers calls from home. The EMTs roll the stretcher into an elevator and we squeeze around it. Firefighters are waiting with the patient in the bathroom. Cartier, Argue and Worsman hoist a barely-conscious, 21-year-old man onto the stretcher and cover him in blankets.

Cartier determines the patient, "Fred," has been in the bathroom for more than an hour since the MUB closes at midnight. He instructs Argue to prop the patient's head up with a pillow to make sure his airway will remain clear if he gets sick again.

"Wake up, Fred, wake up. Stay with me," Cartier keeps telling him and watches to see that he gets a response each time. The young man on the stretcher slowly recounts his evening--at least a dozen shots of 99-proof, banana-flavored schnapps at a downtown bar, followed by a few games of pool at the MUB. He's not a student, but says his fiancee is.

On route to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, N.H., Cartier initiates an intravenous drip while Argue calls ahead to notify the emergency room of our arrival. He's careful to report Fred's symptoms, but doesn't mention the conclusion that I came to--that Fred is drop-down drunk.

"That's a diagnosis and only doctors can make a diagnosis," says Worsman. At the hospital, after Fred is taken to the emergency room, Cartier fills out his run report and Argue and Worsman re-make the stretcher. On our way back, there's a call about intoxicated students at a dorm. Smith and Rachel Cartier are on the scene and by the time we arrive we're told that only one student requires care. They head off in the other ambulance to Wentworth-Douglass, where they will deliver the student to the ER. (Although UNH has extensive programs aimed at assisting alcohol abusers and UNH Health Service's staff will later offer the student an opportunity for alcohol counseling, the role of EMTs and paramedics is limited to immediate medical assistance and transportation.)

At 3 a.m., our group of four returns to DAC headquarters and the wait resumes.

 Easy to print version