Kansas City...Paramedic Internship

SHIFT 29...Rick's ReFlections of his 32 years career in the Fire Service...

I'm going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come
I'm going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come
They got some crazy little women there
And I'm gonna…

Ok, so…I’m ‘not gonna get me one’…but I did live with one…well actually two. The first was little Miss Julia, then 95 years young. She provided me with her spare bedroom and use of the entire house in a quiet neighborhood, making a much better situation than the thought living in a hotel for three months.

System Status with MAST

 My first rotation was a six week stint with MAST Ambulance in KC, Missouri.  Upon arriving for my first shift I was told that my preceptor would be a guy named Randy. It was this same Randy that most feared because of his apparent toughness on interns. I’ve always been a person that tries to give the individual the benefit of the doubt and figured to give Randy the same. I’m not sure if they were just wrong or if I was able to create some confidence that very first shift.

 

It was late in the evening when we were called to a shooting close to downtown. Upon arrival we found a teenage boy down with what appeared to be a couple shots to his torso. We immediately got the young man unto the gurney and began to expedite to the closest hospital. In the back of the ambulance Randy quickly began the first IV and I was given the intubation tube. A very difficult one at that as we had to suction quite a bit before searching for our typical landmarks of the vocal cords. Totally unable to view the cords I went for the ‘air bubbles’. This is a technique that we’re taught in school, but not often experienced in the field, especially someone’s very first intubation. The result…the tube goes in and we ventilate the patient effectively. Randy takes the BVM, allowing me to start the second IV. Mom and family arrived ahead of us at the ER with much predictable crying and wailing as we pass them moving her son into room three. The doctors continued where we left off, giving the young man the best opportunity to survive the shooting. Towards the end of our shift we had been told by another unit that they had later pronounced him dead. What was a very emotional and difficult scene became my ‘baptism by fire’ into my internship and relationship with my ‘tough’ preceptor. Don’t get me wrong, he was tough, but that night I had won a great deal of his confidence, unfortunately due to a very senseless act of violence.

A major part of our internship is acquiring a set number of ALS (Advanced Life Support) calls. I was kept quite busy working six 12 hours shifts per week, obtaining most of my required calls within the first six weeks. In hind sight I would have stayed solely with MAST, but the agreement was for me to do the second six week stint with Johnson County in Kansas City, Kansas. Everything changed…the good part I moved to South KC, having a basement all to myself with a cool running partner, Charley, a chocolate Labrador. The not so good part was that the call volume and critical nature of the calls was greatly reduced. Though we had ‘good’ calls still, I was glad that I had spent those beginning weeks with MAST. 

Lightening over Kaufman Stadium in KC

Aside from the internship and the living arrangements, that summer in KC provided good times eating  exceptional BBQ, viewing their beautiful fountains throughout the city and taking in a couple Royals games, including one with my cousin Scott, ten years my junior whom I had not seen since 1970. He’d grown just a tad at 6’7”. I also attended a game on the Fourth of July that provided fireworks, both man-made and by the Creator as the game was delayed due to an incredible lightening display. 

All in all, the conclusion of my internship brought the close of perhaps one of the most trying, but most amazing years of my life. And I nearly gave it up…to be a Lieutenant. 

KC...city of fountains