Crack Whore

Saw a twenty year old with an abscess in her antecubital fossa. She admitted it originated from IV drug abuse. She said she injected Xanax, which I never even knew people injected, but stated that it was her first time injecting anything. I naturally would have seen this as the biggest lie on the face of the planet, but she went on to say "I just don't enjoy it, my drug of choice is smoking crack!" She was very matter of fact and even a little stand offish. She also admitted to prostitution for crack, and in her recent history was infection with gonorrhea, chlamydia, and hepatitis C. I asked her if she ever thought about quitting crack, and she said, "why should I? It doesn't affect me at all, I can do it and not have any problems."

The Old Man and The Slut

In our EM program, we ride on an ambulance for one EMS shift every month. You can see some crazy stuff on these runs, to say the least. Today I rode along with one of our inner city squads. Most of the day was slow. One old man DOA, not much else. Then, we were called to a little run down house in a not so good part of the city. We had been called by the police to take in an eighty-two year old man who had been assaulted by a prostitute, that he had invited into his house. He wasn't hurt very bad, but she had robbed him, and busted up the house. The man was demented, and needed to come in so that social services could obtain a nursing home placement for him. He, however, did not feel that he needed a nursing home. He was rather belligerent, and said that he refused to leave, and that he could take care of himself. Furthermore, he had a little beagle that he was concerned no one would be able to take care of if he left. With much effort we reassured him that the dog would be well taken care of him, and the police firmly showed him to the ambulance. As we were bringing him through the gate of his chain link fence, the dog squeezed out and took off down the street. The cops chased it, but weren't able to catch it, and soon gave up. The old man cried about the dog all the way to the hospital, I'm sure he will never see it again.