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I originally posted this image fourteen years ago, when Kim and I were working on the ambulance, neither of us at our final occupational destination, but on our way, headed in the right direction.

Back then it was occasionally exciting, often boring, at times insane. It was a good way to help people, earn a living, and collect stories you'd be able to tell the rest of your life.

And every day was different. Cardiac emergencies, inter-facility transports, psychiatric emergency calls, fires, shootings, stabbings, diabetic emergencies. If I didn't see Everything, I sure saw enough to hold me over until Everything got there.

After reading THIS today...just last week I had to work for forty minutes to convince a crew member on set that the hospitals really Were full, that ambulances really Were waiting hours to drop off a single patient.

Back then, Kim and me in the ambulance, we'd pick up a patient, head to the hospital, and once there, drop them off. It'd take around 10-20 minutes (depending on how quickly we wanted to get back to work). We'd hand over paperwork to the nurses, we'd explain what was going on with the patient, we'd transfer the patient to a hospital gurney, and we'd be on our way.

We'd normally run between 7-10 calls. We were efficient, having a good time.

But now...waits lasting several hours...I can barely imagine what it's like. Having to stay with a single patient for hours while they're stuck on an ambulance gurney, they must becoming intensely uncomfortable.

The possibility that the patient has covid.

Not knowing when the hospital will be ready/able to accept your patient, forcing you to wait in limbo.

The physical and emotional drain of having to do that day after day, not knowing when things are going to improve. On top of the constant worry about contracting Covid.

Those days, fourteen years ago, they seem so simple as to be a fantasy. If I told the Kim in this picture what was to come, she'd have slapped me, then fled for the hills.

Taken on: January 9, 2021

Tags:

1.8.07

Kim Van Groos

polaroid sx70

polaroid 600 film

portrait « less

Sets appears in: • Photo Sessions '07 • The Flickr Kids are Alright

Stats: 24,872 views / 6 comments

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