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Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2023 10:12 am
A child’s piercing scream echoed in the park spurring Pat into rapid action. He instantly turned off of the running path and sprinted across the grass towards the still crying kid, absently noting that he wasn’t the only one racing towards the apparently injured child. As he rapidly approached Pat noted the soccer ball and the older kid, no older than 12, who was doing his best to comfort the little tike, probably around 6 or 7, who was obviously bleeding pretty heavily from his nose. The redhead took an educated guess as he slowed to a stop by the few other adults who had gathered. He figured the two had been kicking the ball back and forth, one good kick to the face… bam! Child crying.
“Excuse me. Pardon me.” He muttered as he wove through the half dozen people who had gathered, all seeming to stand there with no clue what to do. Good thing he knew what to do, he just hoped it was a bloody nose and not anything more serious. Hard ball to the face wasn’t good for a grown adult let alone a kid.
“Hey guys, my name is Pat.” The redhead said as he crouched down by the boys, careful to keep a touch of distance so not to freak the kids out anymore then they already were. "I'm an EMT. Would you like some help?" Even in first aid classes it was taught to get consent first… not everyone wanted a stranger’s help. Most did, but there were always those cases where he couldn’t do squat. Not without that nod of head, or muttered ‘yeah’.
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2023 6:30 am
Of course he was drawn to the cry of a child! What else was he supposed to do? Ignore it?
He was on his way to one of his classes, but it was fine if he was a little late, as long as they were able to help the kid.
Although it seemed as though someone was already there to help them.
“Hey guys, where’re your adults?” he asked the kids, the older of the two pointing to the frantic young woman rushing over from the other side of the grassy area.
“Please don’t call nine one one--” the woman was begging. It wasn’t the first time Glenn had seen the distress of someone who just couldn’t afford the cost of medical assistance. So while Pat was helping the kid, Glenn tried to assure the adults.
“Pat here said he’s an EMT, so he can take a look. I’m Glenn, I’m with the fire department. We can do what we can to help, but we might need more assistance, okay? We’ll figure out what to do once everything’s under control,” he insisted, adjusting the shoulder bag he was wearing so he could show them the Destiny City Fire Department patch he had on it, although it wasn’t technically official, and he had a number of other patches sewn onto his bag as well, from rainbow flags to little potted plants.
“You need any supplies, Pat? I’ve got a small first aid kit with me,” he said as he tried to usher the other adults a few steps back to give Pat room to work.
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Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2023 1:09 pm
As soon as the older boy nodded Pat did the first thing, try to stop the bleeding. A quick check made him pretty sure the nose wasn’t broken, which was great, and made things a bit easier. “What’s your name bud? Can you lean forward slightly, we don’t want you to swallow any of that yucky blood.” He eased the younger boy forward just a bit, tilting his head down even as he absently heard another guy taking charge of the ‘scene’ as it were. “I’m Billy… He’s Tommy.” The older of the two boys murmured as their guardian quietly panicked in the background, muttering something about not calling for further help. Pat smiled at Billy and tipped his head in a ‘come here’ gesture, trusting that the other guy… a firefighter maybe… could handle the rapidly dispersing crowd since nothing ‘exciting’ was happening and the lady who seemed rather young for a mother. Granted he seemed pretty old to be an EMT himself, who was he to judge. “Hey Billy, you up for helping me?” When the older boy nodded, Pat guided the kid to help support Tommy from the side even as Pat continued to hold steady and firm pressure at just the right point on the younger boy’s nose while getting the kid to breathe through his mouth. When Billy asked why Tommy was leaning forward when all the movies show you leaning backwards Pat explained about how it could make Tommy sick and just generally, and calmly, answered both boy’s questions. More Billy’s questions then Tommy’s for obvious reasons since the younger one was more interested in his ruined shirt. The only time he removed his attention from the two kids was when the other guy, Glenn, if he heard right, asked him if Pat needed any supplies. “Gauze, flashlight, and a chemical ice pack if you have it.” The bleeding seemed to be fading when he checked it but since it was still bleeding some it never hurt to try the ice pack trick. The gauze because while the shirt is already trashed no point in ruining it any further if they could prevent it. And the flashlight to check for a concussion or other head injuries, which was the main major worry in the redhead’s mind. Lucky Tommy seemed to be pretty responsive but still, best to check. ((My google references because it's actually more interesting to read then I figured! X, X, X, X))
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2023 8:25 am
Glenn had no problem getting the crowd to disperse and trying to help the young woman calm down.
“It’s okay. Pat’s gonna help them out and we’ll go from there,” he assured her again, then dug into his bag to pass out candies wrapped in rainbow stripes to the kids still trying to crowd around.
“Here, they’re fruit flavored, but make sure you toss your wrappers in the trash can,” he insisted, doing what he could to distract the others. Pat looked like he had everything under control with the injury, thankfully.
And when he was asked for supplies, Glenn snapped his fingers and pointed to Pat with a grin and a wink.
“Got you covered,” he said and pulled out his own first aid kit. Fresh gauze, the ice pack that he went ahead and activated so it could get nice and cold as soon as possible. The flashlight was part of a multitool that also had a pen, ruler, and various other tools that could be used from it, all compacted into one space.
“You’re doing great! Gotta remember to duck,” he said to the kids, lowering his head a bit to indicate not getting hit in the face.
He didn’t crowd, but made sure anyone else still lingering was going back to their normal activities.
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Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2023 2:39 pm
“Here buddy, can you hold this,” Pat took the offered gauze with an appreciative nod to Glenn and got the kiddo, Tommy, to hold a pad of it up to his nose replacing the t-shirt that had been used as a makeshift pad. The ice pack went on the back of the boy’s neck while Pat explained it was to help slow the bleeding. Honestly if he had been dealing with an adult it would be on the nose but the size of it just didn’t work well for a child’s face… he’s seen larger packs before, this one was quite compact, but still. No point in freezing the rest of the kid’s face if all he wanted to do was restrict the blood flow to the nose. The back of the neck was reportedly just as good for that, besides the young boy was still rather flushed and hot so it probably felt good. A check showed the bloody nose had stopped but he still urged Tommy to keep the gauze in place as Pat wiped his bloody… and snotty… hands on the grass before taking the pen light. “Regular MacGyver eh?” He quipped at the other medical professional as he fiddled with the pen until the light turned on. A few flicks of his wrist, some squinting, and a generally unhappy child later Pat sat back and smiled at the young woman who had been hovering close by. “Well I would say Tommy here is a bit sore, but no worse for wear right now. Needs to work on his reflexes some,” The redhead winked at the two boys, “but isn’t showing any signs of a concussion or a broken nose.” He urged the boys to stay seated while he climbed to his feet with a muffled groan, getting old really sucked. He advised the woman to call the boy’s primary care doc for a follow up and if the nose starts to bleed again she had to take him to the ER since there might be a bigger issue that could be addressed right then. Pat glanced down at his dirty hands, and the penlight that now needed cleaning, and sheepishly looked back at Glenn. “Don’t suppose you have some alcohol wipes, do you?” His own first aid kit was fully stocked… but it was back in his truck… on the far side of the park. He didn’t typically run with one unless it was one of his longer treks. Maybe he should reconsider his stance on that considering the events of today.
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Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 9:23 am
“You never know what you might need!” Glenn laughed at the quip, but he was actually quite proud of the multitool. It had gotten him out of a lot of problems. Like forgetting to bring a pen to class.
By the time the kids were getting ready to be released into the wild with their still anxious caregiver, Glenn was already holding out an individual alcohol wipe pack to Pat, and had had some more sanitizer on standby.
“Only because I got hotwings a couple nights ago,” he grinned. That was only partially true. He did get hotwings and saved the extra wipes. But he also had a few more buried somewhere in his first aid kit.
“Thanks for taking point on that, Pat. You’re an EMT for the city? I volunteer at the firehouse closest to the DCU campus,” he gestured vaguely in the direction of campus.
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Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2023 3:26 pm
“Hey, better to stock up on these things when you can, however you can.” Pat returned Glenn’s grin with one of his own as he rapidly wiped down the little multitool and his hands as best he could. His most recent stash was from Chick-fil-A. If it worked it worked. “Here you go, might want to do a more thorough disinfection but that should hold you over until you can.” The redhead stated as he handed back the mostly clean penlight. Purple eyes took in his own blood splattered shirt, drawing a sigh from him. “Guess I wont get to finish my run. No point in causing problems looking like a zombie movie extra.” He lost more articles of clothing that way. “Oh? Yeah, no problem. I’ve dealt with worse several times over, just glad that you carry a kit on you.” Pat shrugged and smiled sheepishly, knowing he really should keep a small first aid kit on him but rarely did so when running. Maybe it was time to bring back the fanny pack if only for instances like this. “Yup, full timer over at Station 10. I’m betting you get a lot of drunk calls volunteering for that station.” The redhead could just imagine how many ‘silly’ calls they would get involving drunk kids and other college antics. He was glad that while his station ran some rather wild calls he didn’t get nearly as many as he expected Glenn did.
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2023 12:51 pm
“If you did finish your run, you could just grunt when you get close to other people and they’ll definitely stay out of your way,” Glenn teased with a grin. Not that he wanted Pat to have to walk around with blood on his shirt, but people got spooked too easily, rather than trying to make sure if Pat was okay and that it wasn’t his blood. Or where he got it from. Hmm, maybe it would be bad. Someone might call the cops.
As for the drunk calls, he laughed.
“I’ve found it’s easier to convince people to tell someone their own age what’s going on than someone who they might look at as an authority figure,” he said with a grin. He didn’t mind helping out the kids on campus. He wanted them to know it was safe to call for help. Someone who might scold them could make them think it’s not safe to call. Not that he expected Pat to be like that, but some others he worked with tended to let him take the lead when it came to getting everyone settled.
“It’s been nice meeting you. I’ll have to keep an eye out for you during calls that get close to overlapping our areas. But if you need anything -- Oh, like candy. Do you need candy? We’ve got a ton at the station from Pride celebrations. Yeah, just let me know. Gotta try to make it to class and see if the professor will forgive me for being late,” he said with a fake grimace.
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Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2023 4:04 pm
Guine And with this Pat is done heart Pat laughed before shaking his head, “Nah. It might be close to Spooky Season but it's not just yet. Maybe I could pull it off in a few weeks… Actually, I wonder if the college is doing a zombie run. That would be the perfect time to perfect the shuffling run style. Pat made a mental note to check to see what kind of themed runs were going to happen this year, if any. They were fun, most of the time. Although he wasn't a big fan of the mud runs, way too much going on with those. Pat was more or less a standard runner. Marathons were the ‘strangest’ types of runs he participated in. Typically. “Fair enough, fair enough.” He completely understood Glenn’s thought process. He still figured that the younger guy got more frat party calls then he ever did. The drunk calls he got were definitely not a bunch of young kids getting piss drunk. Sadly. They would be easier to handle if they were that for sure. “Yeah, likewise. Again thanks for the assist.” The kid had to go, and Pat should be heading out as well if only to go get showered and changed. No point in being a walking biohazard any longer then he needed to be. “I’ll let the others know about the candy offering and I can scrawl a pretty passable doctor’s note if you want. Won't be legible at all so it will be perfect.” He suggested, quickly scribbling out a next to impossible to read note and straight up impossible to read signature. “Got to love their handwriting!” He laughed as he passed the note over, slightly bloody paper and all. “Alright. See you around and good luck with class!” With that Pat headed off towards his car, glad that he had a simple change of gym clothes in the truck. They were a little ripe but they were still better than his currently blood covered outfit. “Fanny pack… got to get a fanny pack.”
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