19 01 12

I woke up, hit the snooze the button, and woke up ten minutes later at 5:10.  I got ready to go to work, finished packing for the weekend, made myself a cup of coffee, and left for work.  I walked the forty minutes to work, stopping to buy an energy drink on the way.  I got to the station and we were there for less than an hour, just talking and hanging out, before the phone rang.  We all looked up to see who the call was for, and were surprised when he just said, 'everyone.'  So everyone piled into the ambulances and we left.  I was in the Atan (ALS) and I swear I had never seen any driver go as fast as we did today.  We heard over the radio, 'car accident' and 'at least 7 injured.'  From a distance, we could see smoke hanging over a section of the road.  Closer, we could see the thick pillar of smoke coming from one distinct spot.  When we turned the corner we saw chaos.  The first specific thing I noticed was car - the twisted remains of a car - completely in flames.  A fire crew was already hard at work trying to put out the fire.  Three or more other cars, all totaled, scattered across the road.  Other ambulances arriving, firefighters, policemen, and medics running.  Smoke everywhere.
We got out of our ambulance and ran past the burning car to another one.  There was a man trapped in the driver's seat, barely able to moan with pain.  We brought a backboard and neck brace, but couldn't get him out because of the way the metal was trapping him in.  There was also the threat that the front hood of the car would catch fire and explode, so the firefighters needed to take care of that before bringing in the Jaws of Life.  With enough people there, I noticed two other people laying in a ditch, and called another medic with me to treat them.  One was able to be helped walking to the ambulance, but the other was not.  We didn't have a neck brace, so the medic left to get one from an ambulance while I held his neck in C spine.  We got the neck brace on, but there were no backboards available, so he had to leave again to get one, and to get enough people to help with it.  We got him on the backboard, and the backboard onto a bed, and then had to wheel him past the burning car to our ambulance, and then start treating what we could on the way to the hospital, which the driver did even faster than getting to the accident.
Being there was so different than any other call.  There were tons of bystanders and witnesses just standing around, and even some people who trying to get close to take pictures.  We actually had to tell someone to stop filming us, because he was blocking our way to the ambulance.  We were always running, and could barely see at times because of the smoke from the car.  People everywhere and cars in the road and sirens and lights flashing and equipment being run from one place to another, trying to find the people who need it most.  There are two large dirt stains on my pants and mud on my jacket from kneeling in the mud against a bush to help someone.  There's a puncture spot on the bottom of my shoe - and a corresponding bruise on my foot - from where I stepped on a piece of burning rubber when carrying someone to the ambulance.  There's smoke in my hair, mud on my hand because at some point a glove ripped, and what I really hope isn't blood on my shoes.
I know that in two or three years, I'll remember the tiyulim with my friends, and those emotional Shnat moments, but I'll also remember running past a burning car carrying a backboard and neck brace, covering my face from the smoke, hearing the Jaws and people yelling and moans and orders shouted and sirens blaring, smelling the fire and feeling it's heat, seeing the firefighters and medics and cops and bystanders all running around also.
My friends volunteer in elementary schools and agriculture farms, nurseries and second hand clothing shops.  But I volunteer in Magen David Adom, and I saved lives today.