Emergency Responder
By: Lauren Freeman
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the TV show Everwood. I am receiving no money for this short story.
A/N: I went to ER camp, a few months ago, and wanted to write a story about it. Hope you like it!
Emergency Responder
By: Lauren Freeman
Ephram sighed in relief as he realized his first major scenario was finished. Staring down at the large hill in which actors and actresses; pretended to be seriously hart so that he could practice his newfound skills on them, get up and dusted themselves off. Bandages still held tight to immobile arms and legs were quickly given assistance in de-mummification. He was exhausted and they still had one more major emergency to go before the day was done.
He stared at the setting sun, wondering why he had chosen this of all his choices to do on a week break. He really had not known what he was getting himself into when a bomb threat stopped piano lessons at Julieard in New York. He and his classmates were given a list of choices they could do for their impromptu week off, all paid for by the school. Some chose to explore the city and stay in hotel rooms, four to a two bed bedroom. Others went home for a week, some were staying in a hotel getting a certificate in basic first aid. Ephram had already seen the city, and had re-explored during the many weekends off. Although going home for a week just to see Amy sounded enticing, the thought of having to leave her again didn't sit well. He already had his basic first aid AND CPR; so getting it again wasn't something he wanted to do. So he chose the last choice, Emergency Responder camp. The title sounded interesting, and the only thing he new about the course was that it was a certification higher then basic first aid. So being the only thing he hadn't done before he signed his name to the list with three others. Looking back now, the rest must have known something they didn't.
Emergency Responder Camp, a full semester course done in one week, AKA Hell week, AKA Med. school. In six days, he had learned Professional CPR and First Aid. How to use an AED, Oxygen, Back boarding, C-Collars, blood pressure, respiration's, suctioning. How to tube someone with oral and nasal airways. How to use a Bag-Valve-Mask or BVM. Basic anatomy and how to deliver a baby. They were up at seven in the morning and had class until ten at night. Breaks were used to eat, sleep, study and practice. None of them was very good with blood pressure, but they were good enough to pass. The group of five students, two of which were ordinary New Yorkers doing this for work, went inside to there class room. They all sat down and talked about what they did wrong how they could fix it and what they did right. Then the teachers stepped outside to talk to the actors waiting to find out their next part. The students reorganized their medical equipment, put on a fresh pair of gloves and talked about who was going to be led for this scenario.
"Ephram, you haven't been led since the very first task." Amyl claimed, "It's your turn." Ephram groaned, before taking charge.
"Okay more then likely this will be a multi-victim simulation. Eric, you have been doing a great job at stabilizing the head, if it needs to be done, it's yours. Joey your great with bandages if it needs to be done go. Everyone else move quickly but don't rush. No mistakes this time, I don't want to blow up again." Ephram grinned. In one of their last simulations, they had kept the oxygen running while using the AED, Opps. "Remember work as a team, and follow procedure." The sun went down as they all discussed what they were going to do in different situations. Their teachers came back in.
"A call came in, there's been a car accident, multiple victims, that's all we know." Ephram grabbed the heavy backboard and his personal little first aid kit as he led the way out the door. Up a steep hill, they climbed up onto a dirt road. Ephram stopped a little bit away from the situation and assessed the situation. A bike lay on the ground bent up, what looked to be the biker lay underneath a truck. The driver lay over in her seat.
"Is the scene safe?" Ephram called out.
"It is." He teacher called back. Ephram nodded the group all new each other well now and ran in separate directions. Making sure three of his teammates had the biker, Ephram ran over to Cindy who was trying to calm a now hysterical driver down.
"My baby!" She yelled. A red flag went off in Ephrams head. There was no car seat, so Ephram looked down under the seats, under the car over by the guardrail. Then he noticed the back window was open, he made a dash for the bed of the truck where he found an infant laying in the back. He yelled out he had found a third victim and needed help, while jumping into the back of the truck and checking his ABC's. The baby wasn't breathing, he did two rescue breaths. The air went in, so he checked for a pulse. None. Taking a deep breath he began infant CPR, a strange calmness went over him as he followed the steps he had practiced so many times. Cindy climbed into the back of the truck and took over breathing.
"1,2,3,4,5. How's the driver." As the led, he needed to know these things.
"Seems fine, Breath Refused care. Breath Left her with Breath Amyl. Breath. "
"1,2,3,4,5 Okay." Ephram responded. A teacher came up telling them an infant care unit is here you're free to go. Ephram and Cindy jumped out of the truck and walked quickly to the biker where everyone else was working now. Ephram assessed the situation and found they were doing CPR. He grabbed the oxygen and turned it on, then warning the person breathing that he was hooking it up. The breather nodded in relief.
"Cindy you're in charge of the oxygen, remember to turn it off if we use the AED." She nodded before grabbing the heavy tank. Ephram grabbed the AED relived to find that they had already gotten the victim onto a backboard. As they were doing CPR, Ephram placed the pads in the proper spots on the victim's chest and turned the machine on.
"Analyzing heart rhythms, stand clear." The machine spoke. Everyone stopped what he or she were doing and sat back. "Shock advised, press red button."
"Oxygen off!" Ephram called.
"Off!" Cindy called back.
"Everyone clear?" Ephram called.
"Clear," everyone responded.
"Shocking!" Ephram hit the red button after looking to make sure there were no dangers to do so.
"Analyzing heart rhythms, stand clear." They shocked the victim three times before help arrived.
Picking up the scene was the hard part as the adrenaline slowed for the third time that day and they were hitting a major low point. Soon they found themselves back in the classroom for the debriefing. They sighed in relief as they were told that all they had to do tomorrow was take the written test, they would be done by lunch.
Ephram smiled a tied smile as the plane touched down in Denver, Colorado. He was finally home. The thought startled him, where he had come from had once been home, it was the place he had wanted to call home for a long time but had come to realize that home was where family was. Everwood, Colorado had become his new home.
Ephram gave his dad and sister a hug upon seeing them by the giant fountain in the mall part of the airport. Then walked over to Amy and gave her a big kiss.
"Hey Amy." Ephram smiled.
"Hey, how was your summer?" She asked.
"Fun, interesting, tiring." Ephram responded. "All I want to do is go to sleep." Amy gave a fake pout.
"Well you will just have to wait until AFTER dinner." Andy grinned. Ephram smiled. Dinner was great. A welcome home feast not cooked by his dad. Ephram slept soundly glad to be in his own room, where it was quiet and he didn't have to get up in the morning. Unfortunately, after a summer of getting up at six, the longest he could stay asleep was until seven. He groaned when he looked at the clock but new he could not go back to sleep.
"Great." He mumbled as he walked into the bathroom for a quick shower, then down to the kitchen where he started breakfast. As he finished his sister and dad walked in following their noses.
"Hmm, what do we have here." Andy asked sitting down at the table. Ephram shrugged.
"Woke up early, had nothing else to do."
"Well you can have nothing else to do from now on, Ephram. This is great!" Delia stated after taking a bite from her eggs.
"Ha, ha, funny Delia." Ephram smiled while eating his own meal.
"Well I have to go into work today, Delia is going next door, what will you be doing, do you know?" Andy asked his son. Ephram shrugged.
"Probably see Amy, watch some TV...you know." Ephram grinned.
"Ah, I do believe Amy may be at work, so you might want to go out on your own today." Andy smiled. Ephram groaned, but nodded. Andy smiled before saying goodbye, grabbing his lite jacket and walking out the door. Delia helped Ephram with the dishes before walking next-door leaving Ephram alone at last.
It was too quiet. With a sigh, Ephram turned on the radio, but didn't know many of the songs as he had little time to listen to the radio over the summer. So he turned it off and turned on the TV only to find strange summer mini sires on, which he had missed most of anyway. He turned it off and grabbed his wallet and keys before going out, locking the door behind him. He drove down to "Downtown" Everwood where he parked and decided to just see a movie. He never got that far. There was a small crowed gathered on the side of the road. Curiosity got the better of him and he walked over only to find a young girl lying on the ground unconscious. Not finding any dangers, Ephram ran over to her.
"Are any of you her parent?" All he got was 'no's'. "I'm an emergency responder, can everyone please back up." They did, he looked up and saw the grocery store owner in the crowed and pointed at her.
"Mrs. Smith, go call 911." She nodded before running into her store. Ephram's hands shook as put on his gloves and lifted her chin to look, listen and feel. This was no mannequin. No breathing, he quickly grabbed his mast from his key chain and placed it over the child's mouth. Giving two rescue breaths none went in, he retilted her head and tried again, still nothing. She was choking. Moving so that he was straddling her legs, he began to give five abdominal thrusts. He checked he mouth but did not see anything. He gave two more rescue breaths, and then started the process over again. Three more attempts finally brought something up, she still was not breathing, two breathes, he found no pulse. Silently cursing, he began CPR, one hand doing compressions the other holding the child's head. He was on his fifth round when someone ran up.
"I'll take over breathing." Ephram only nodded just doing compressions, counting aloud.
"1,2,3,4,5." Ephram looked up to see it was his father who had taken over breathing. Edna ran over beside him, as he began compressions again.
"She was choking, I managed to get the object out but not before I lost a pulse." Ephram said in-between counting. Edna started an IV, and pushed medication in to the child's veins. "Do we have a AED?" Ephram asked. The store owned nodded before handing in to the boy. Without a word, Edna took over CPR while Ephram cut the child's shirt off and placed the pads on her chest. He turned on the machine.
"Analyzing heart rhythm. Stand Clear."
"Stand clear." Ephram yelled.
"Shock advised. Press red button." Ephram made sure there was nothing dangerous around.
"Shocking, stand clear!" He pressed the red button. Unlike the training machine this gave a real electrical jolt, causing the girl to jump a little.
"Analyzing heart rhythm. Stand clear."
"Stay clear." Ephram stated. The ambulance arrived; Ephram was surprised at who jumped out.
"Cindy, Eric!" Ephram said. "You have a BVM?"
"And more, you okay to keep going?" Cindy asked as she jumped out. Ephram nodded. He grabbed the bag from Eric and pulled out an oral airway, he had it in, in less then ten seconds and had a BVM on within seconds. An EMT Basic came up with the backboard.
"I thought you were working in New York." Ephram said. While bagging.
"We were, but we decided to do an exchange program this is our first day here." Eric responded as he strapped the child in. The Basic hooked the girl up to a heart monitor. They got her onto a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance.
"Hey, if you ever want a job!" Cindy grinned as she jumped into the back of the ambulance.
"And do this everyday? Yeah right." Ephram grinned. He got a laugh.
"Don't be a stranger." Eric said before shutting the back door and jumping into the drivers' seat.
"Yeah, I can just see it now. We get the rest of our team to move down here and all work together again." Ephram said. All he got was Eric rolling his eyes, and shutting drivers' door. With a wave of a hand, they drove off. Ephram watched the ambulance until it disappeared. The familiar feeling of the end of an adrenaline rush could be felt and he couldn't help but yawn. He turned around to see the grocery store worker gathering her AED and helping to clean up. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see his father.
"You did a great job out here today. I'd like to know where you learned all that, though"
"ER camp." Ephram responded. "There was a bomb threat at Julliard towards the beginning and we had a week off. All the other options I had already done, so I went with two others to a camp called Emergency Responder Camp, having no idea what I had just gotten myself into." Ephram grinned.
"So are you thinking about becoming a Doctor, now?" Andy joked.
"No way, man." Ephram shook his head. "I am however thinking about a nap."
For a week, for some forever, Ephram Brown became a hero. Apple and Blueberry pies galore.