I wish things had turned out better

Where do I start?

A long day at lab was winding down. I took out the dialysis bags, reading to purify my samples.

Then the pager cried out angrily. Wall collapse.

For a brief second as my neurons organized a response, life was still, and simple. 50-70 mph winds blew rain horizontally into my face as I dashed to my car. A line of scared construction works frantically waved me into the construction site after I waved my EMS sign for clearance.

I haphazardly parked next to what looked like anti-tank mines from "Saving Private Ryan." (Later I would have to jack up my car to dig out the spikes that destroyed one side and almost punctured several wheels.) I joined an officer and we sprinted towards the collapsed walls. From the talk afterwards, it looked like the crazy hurricane speed horizontal winds collapsed one side, and the domino effect created this insane scene from a movie.

The officer and I dashed into the mess of bricks. I scooped a helmet off the floor, and dodged rebar waiting to stab me. I climbed up the ladder, and it really was like a scene from a movie.

Over 20 construction workers were frantically pulling rubble off their fallen coworkers while the rain and wind overpowered my feeble attempts at medical Spanish. Lighting flashed to illuminate the black afternoon sky, while a circular saw screamed in agony in order to free someone trapped under layers of cinder blocks.

I found the ranking officer on scene, and tried to work the worst patient.

I searched for a pulse, praying for even a weak rebound against my fingers.

None. I stepped back and searched for more patients while they continued CPR.

The rest of the day blended together. Fire/Rescue arrived, and they used the massive construction crane to gently float patients down to the ground. The city's finest pulled a sheet over the traumatic arrest. God help his family.

Sometime in that hour, the rain stopped and the sun creeped up and said "surprise!"

What was f'king messed up was when my mud caked shoes kissed the ground again, we had a page to my dorm, several individuals trapped under a stairwell collapse. Can you say Cluster F'k?

Turned out to be a false alarm. I don't know who to thank.

Crap loads of people kept calling me. When my mom called, I promptly dropped the phone into a pool of mud. She thought I was dead for an hour or so.

A psych came by the conference room, and we just talked about the call. We were all fine.

What a day.