Page 12 Daily Nebraskan Monday, December 16, 1985
' TTTTf (TOW O W 'TTT
Story by Deb Hooker
Photos by Mark DsvSs
. As he sat at the kitchen table work
ing the crossword puzzle in the Lincoln
Journal, Chuck Woll, an architecture
majorat UNL, didn't seem unusual. The
tall, mustached man didn't look up
from his task except to flip the ashes
from his Winston into the small ashtray
on the table.
Then the bell rang.
Woll jumped up, grabbed his jacket,
and headed out the door with his
partner for the evening, Nate White.
The two men climbed into Unit 8, a
basic life support ambulance, and fas
ter J their seatbeits. They spoke some
foreign mathematical language into a
radio, turned on the siren and the
lights and sped out of the driveway.
Woll dodged cars all the way from
41st and Vine streets to CCih and Bald
win streets. lb and White arrived at the
scene to find a f;re, engine and a heart
team from Bryan Hospital already there.
A crcwd of people J&hered around a
20-year-old woraaalying on the snow
covered comer,
"You'd think she'd wear a seaibelt
since she's pregnant," one cf the fire
fighters mumbled out of the women's
earshot.
"She's bumped, her head," a nurse
from the heart team said to White and
Well. "Get her in, right away." ;
They lifted the hysterical woman
onto a stretcher and loaded her into
the ambulance. The nurse s?c':e soo
thingly to her as she tried to determine
the extent of the woman's injuries.
They didn't lock serious, but the
woman had t o go to the hospital just to
make sure, the nurse declared.
The woman's husband rede in the
passenger seat while Woll hurried to
Saint Elizabeth's Community Health
Center, 555 S. 70th St. White sat in the
back and continued what the nurse
had started He checked the woman's
eyes, head and legs for injury, speaking
quietly to her the entire time.
By the time the ambulance pulled
ii.to the hospital's emergency drive,
V. "
incident except to explain what had
happened.
Reluctance to talk about their jobs
seems to be a common trait among the .
paramedics and emergency medical
technicians at Eastern Ambulance.
Eastern, the only ambulance service b
Lincoln, employs 12 university students.
RusssI Bayer, who owns the service
with Mike Dodge and Marty Miller, said
the paramedics, who qualify for advanc-.
ed life support, and EMTs don't talk'
about their calls because the job is so
stressful that dwelling on the incidents
would drive them crazy.
White, who is not a student, agreed,
adding that the paramedics and EMTs. .
have to try to joke about the situations.
"You've got to get to the place where
you can laugh about it or it will really
haunt you' he said,
Kcv.ever, some cf the accidents hit
them hard, theyseii. Woll said helping
children and ycurg women bothered
hm the most
White said Ma worst exp erience was
tne first, time '.someone, died .while he-;;
was trying to save them,
"That's the call that you remember
forever. You can see that cr.3 in vivid
color," he said
Full-time employees at Eastern
Ambulance work on what Dayer called
the ABC system. They work 2 hour
shifts-every ether day until they have,
worked 72 hours. Then, Eaycr said, they
get four da3 cff. He said the system's
main adwtto is tfcst it makes sure '
evcryc-no has scme-tvedcenli tx '
lEoweversi;
"There's nothing like going to bed at
11 at night, and kitovv that you are
going to be awakened at least 3 times,"
he said.
Eight of the 12 students employed by
Eastern, are full-time workers, Bayer
said. The others fill in on, busy shifts
and during vacations.
Jeanine Cock, who is studying phy
siology at UNL, works at Eastern 63 to
65 hours per week. She said she doesn't
her little time for fan.
"If yea don't have asocial Ufa, yrj
.
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