Ambulance Ride Along

EMTs ussually have 12 hour shifts. Those 12 hours begin with a check up of the rig (ambulance) making sure all of its shine (lights) are working properly. After the 15 minutes spent in the rig check, the crew of two (driver & navigator) are online on the dispatcher's screen. After receiving the green signal, the crew heads to their assigned post. At this post, there can be down time. This down time can last a quite a while. I experienced 4 hours of it, which isn't a lot. The crew gets lots of reading, talking and sleeping done in this time. Mostly sleeping.

The best part of the job is when that "Priority 1" call from the dispatcher blares from the radio...
Unit 501
you have a 45 year old male GSW left lung with major bleeding
report at scene arrival and standby for PD intervention
Scene is not safe.
Scene priority 1

At this time the driver swears like a trucker and we head to the scene lights and siren. Its these 10 seconds in which the body floods itself with adrenaline and this light headedness comes about as a result of it.

Switching from 4 hours of sleeping to an immediate prep mode for a gang fight scene is one heck of a high.

There is noway i can explain that amazing rush, the closest i can get you is through these videos i took while we were on our way to two diff. priority 1. check out the links below.
Ride 1
Ride 2