The drug overdoses (that either aren’t dead, or are awakened) always go the same way: Shaq and I stand around with between four and six firemen, and at least two police officers for upwards of an hour trying to convince this guy to go to the hospital.
And they always wind up going. But we waste a lot of time.
The cops can’t threaten these patients with arrest, because the state has an amnesty law. Basically, if a call for help is made, then a cop can’t arrest for drugs that are found out in the open. I think that is a bit ridiculous, but it is what it is.
Doctors won’t commit these patients involuntarily, so we can’t threaten them with that.
Usually it is just a matter of wearing the person down.
And it gets tedious.
So we ran one of those today. A guy in his thirties relapsed, and shot some heroin after being sober for two years. This guy can’t help that he’s an addict, but he certainly has to take responsibility for shooting heroin into his veins. It turns out his ten-year-old son found him lying in bed, not breathing, then called 911. The son woke the patient with a glass of water splashed on his face.
And enter Shaq and C.
There’s the requisite crew standing around: six firemen, two cops, one shirtless guy with dirty hands sitting on the floor, and one crying mother in the living room. Of course the patient first attempts to deny that he did the drugs, then admits to it when confronted with the full syringe in the bathroom. Then he says he is fine, and doesn’t want to go to the hospital. Shaq and I are standing kinda in the background when he nudges me: “watch this, dude.”
Shaq makes his way to the shirtless guy on the floor, and stands all of his 78 inches over the guy on the floor. Kneeling down to get somewhat on his level, he delivers an excellent oration:
“Hey, dude. Check this out. You’re going to wind up going to the hospital with us today, that’s a fact. You say you don’t want to, but you’re going to. These guys in light blue? They’re from the fire department, and they get off at 7 in the morning. These guys in dark blue, they’re cops. They won’t arrest you, but they won’t leave until we tell them it is okay for them to go. Your mother out there in the living room? She’s calling your wife at work, and she already called your father. They are both on the way over here. Between the twelve of us, we will wear you down like a cheap pencil, and you will walk down those stairs, and you will sit on our stretcher, and you will go to the hospital. So what my partner and I are going to do now is walk outside. We are going to go outside to your front door, lower our stretcher, raise the head of it up, and undo the seat belts. And then we are going to stand there, and stand there, and stand there, until you walk outside and sit on our stretcher. It’s up to you how long that takes, and how much bitching you want to hear from your parents and your wife. When you’re ready, we’ll be outside.”
Then he stands up, turns to me, winks, then walks out.
I’m dumbfounded. I just witnessed a sentinel moment. So, I turn on my heels, and follow Shaq outside.
We barely make it outside before he’s trying to sit on our stretcher.
We’ve been on scene for less than five minutes, and now we’re leaving. On a call that would typically take at least half an hour.
I can’t wait to try that again.