Times News
MAGIC VALLEY, Idaho — You’ve been working for 18 hours when the break finally comes — time to check gear, re-stock supplies, grab a snack. Then there’s the call — a single-vehicle rollover on Interstate 84 near Wendell. The driver, not wearing his seat belt, was thrown from his car. He’s alive, but won’t be for long if his battered body keeps bleeding into itself.
You’re a paramedic, and in the frantic minutes to come, your life will be an intense race against the clock. Whether you’re screaming across the blacktop in the back of an ambulance or high above the Magic Valley in a helicopter, every second counts when your patient is in critical condition.
Conflicting forces of utter exhaustion and the sharp, new hit of adrenaline thrash inside your body as you draw near the hospital. At this moment, the last thing you want to see is somebody’s Camry blocking the emergency room entrance.
Congestion at the old Twin Falls hospital’s emergency room entrance raised paramedics’ ire — and blood pressure — as ambulances and other vehicles jockeyed for position, pinned between the brown brick building and the cordoned-off slab of parking lot that operated as an emergency helicopter landing pad.