Just another quiet Sunday...NOT!!
It started out as a normal Sunday, church, dinner on the grounds, cleaned the car out, started on the house, then the cell phone rang about 4:20 or 4:30 maybe...That's where quiet left... It was Jennifer (Cowart) saying "I need you now...at my house Graham has broke his leg...Now! Chonda comeon" "ok I'm on my way" is all I could say. I yell for Daddy to get the truck while I'm grabbing my medical bag from the car and he says "the pager hasn't went off what's wrong with you?".."yea I know but it's fixin to. Graham has broke his leg comeon NOW!" I made one call to Jay Ezell who is an ex first responder and a physical therapist assistant. Jay and I have worked many calls together and I feel comfortable with him and rely on his input alot.

For what may of you may not remember since it's been so long ago, was Graham was & still is "one of my babies". He and Ryan for many years were my boys...well as well as Jennifer's also!

When we get there, Shelly has is arms wrapped around Graham and Jay Ezell has begun to cut his the leg of his pants. As soon as we got it high enough, I could tell his femur was broken. Thank GOD it was NOT broken thru the skin, for that is a whole different more complex matter. I like Jennifer did not want to cause him any more pain than necessary..what's the sense in moving him now to cut his pants, moving him then to get his boot off, moving him again to get a splint on and then moving him once again to get him to the backboard and in the ambulance?!?!? I made my right to First EMT on scene decision. NO ONE MOVES ANYTHING TILL AMBULANCE GETS HERE WITH A TRACTION SPLINT. I've worked a traction splint only once before and they are awesome things...mind you it hurts getting it on and the leg straightened out but it is relief almost instantly. After ambulance got there, the boot was cut (and graham wears REAL cowboy boots..the tall kind), and his leg was put into traction and moved to backboard and then into amublance.

After an hour and a half the police went and found the on call ortho Dr that wouldn't answer a page. I'm like Nana, we won't go into detail on that, but I saw the "Herring" come out in Jennifer and Mrs. Barbara. Which in my opinion was acceptable considering the circumstances. This is a picture of the x-ray I took over Shelly's shoulder while he was looking at it...ok so maybe not over his shoulder, but under his arm.. I know it's hard to see the break, but it is there and they were overlapped even with the traction splint still on. At about 9 pm they come to get him for surgery. Jen sent me a text about 11:15 or so to say that he was out of surgery.

For a 12 year old, Graham was an amazing patient. I've had MANY adults be all acting in pain, when I'm really wanting to say "get real you don't know pain!" But I have to restrain and can't do that. Graham on the other hand, was very calm and reacted as I would have expected him to do when we moved him. Him being calm was a blessing for me. This is one of those cases, in your mind, you know what you are suppose to do, but how you handle is it differently.

Sometimes on the scene of an accident, if I offend anyone I'm sorry. I have one task to complete and it is that of saving the life of my patient or making them as comfortable as can be under the circumstances. I can be harsh if you are in my way, I can be an all together b*tch if i need to be, I've seen the pain they are in many of times, I know that what I have to do may at the moment may further the pain, but if I do anything like that it is because I know relief will come shortly or their life is in danger. I rely on my fire dept guys when I need help. I work with an AMAZING group of guys ( I can say that since I'm the only female on the dept) I have been in circumstances where I need my fire dept guys to bring me back to earth, times in which I need them to have my back and keep me from harm, & there have been times when afterward I needed them to just "treat me like one of the guys" and let me destress from the call with them. NONE of them have ever backed away from anything I've asked of them. I am the only certified EMT in my district. I'm very glad to say hopefully by the end of March Justin Lloyd will be certified and can be my backup or I his. Once he has completed all his training I feel he will be a big help to me and the community. I have a feeeling Justin and I will butt heads on a few calls, but you'll never see us do that in public. If you aren't a supporter to your local fire department, please consider becoming one. A lot of fire departments run First Responders and EMT's as ours do, but the funding for them is very scares. No one really realizes the importance of a First Responder/EMT in the rural area until they are needed. Support your local volunteer fire deptartment as much as you can. They work off of donations and grants, without those, they couldn't exist.

I'm glad to say Graham looks like he'll be out of the hospital tomorrow. Will be on crutches for a while and within a few months should be back on his horse with his new boots Nana promised him while the other ones were getting cut off! Mrs. Barbara (Nana) also posted on this incident if you want to check out her blog as well. click on http://nananotes.typepad.com/nana_notes/2009/01/life-is-never-dull-on-cotton-branch.html and it should take you to that post.

Stay safe out there!