Out! -- I Mean Safe! -- Legacy of an Ear

A number of years ago, one of our ambulances was involved in an MVA. The EMT in the back went flying forward and banged his head against the cabinets and sliced his ear against a sharp edge. When he regained conciousness, his ear was just hanging there. Shortly after, he recieved (I believe) a prosthetic ear and a nice cash settlement. And the rest of us started getting nets hung up in the back of our ambulances at the end of the bench seats.

The nets are sort of a pain when you are getting in the side of the ambulance. There is much less room to maneuver. When I respond to a nursing home, and if I want to bring my monitor and house bag in, which I always do, instead of just tossing them up on the stretcher, I either have to lean way in to get around the net, or I just take them out of the side and dump them on the stretcher after it is pulled. No big deal, but a tiny little bit of a pain.

Anyway, yesterday I am in the back with a patient when I stand to get over to the cmed radio to call the hospital, when my partner slams on the brakes to avoid a car cutting him off. I go flying forward -- right into the net. It absorbs me like an Ozzie Smith baseball glove snaring a fastball. But instead of being out, I am safe.