I was settling in to do some work on the ol' compultilator when I overheard a state trooper asking his dispatch for clarification of a location of a motor vehicle accident. I missed the location, but it sounded like it was right near the house and just over the Cavendish line. An official call! Conveniently, the Weathersfield town constable had overheard the same call and called for clarification of the clarification. Route 131, just in Cavendish, car overturned, engulfed in flames. Sounded like a place an EMT might be useful. I brushed the snow off the car and flew (obeying all speed limits and slipperly road conditions, mind you) off to Cavendish. I felt very Christmasy with my emergency strobes going. I came around the corner and there was the car accident. The road was closed in both directions as no one could get around the flaming car in the ditch. There was only one person in the car and he was pulled out by bystanders before the car was fully engulfed. He had walked several hundred yards down the street and was sitting on a guard rail. One of the Cavendish EMTs was already there doing primary care. I took over manual c-spine stabilization from a bystander. The teenaged driver had a badly cut hand and some bruises. My hands got very crampy in the ten or fifteen minutes it took for the ambulance to arrive and us to put him on a back board. We had him stand up from the guard rail (carefully) and did a standing take down to get him onto the board and then onto the cot. We put him in the Ludlow ambulance and that was almost that.

So; several new things today; first real c-spine stabilization, first real takedown, first real MVA. It all seemed to go like in training, though I did find that holding the patient's neck my hands got *very* crampy and started shaking. The poor patient didn't notice, though, and I'm sure he appreciated my not sticking my fat paws on his big scrapy patches. The patient's hands were roughly bandaged by the time I got there but the other EMT repackaged them before transport. I made myself watch it and I was okay with it, although I'm glad they weren't my hands.

Riding with the emergency lights on is a special thrill. I'd used the lights once before at a car fire I stumbled on in Lebanon but hadn't actually used them in motion before. I felt like I was breaking the law even though I wasn't. Sort of that "I've stolen the police cruiser now where do I go" feeling.