Brad and Jodi are starting the EMT program in September at Clackamas Community College and wanted to get some exposure to medical calls before classes start. We have volunteered for a couple of shifts as an observer on Molalla’s ambulance, but each shift has been slow. Jodi showed up for her 3rd and final shift on Friday (6pm to 8am). At 8pm a call toned out for a single motor vehicle crash (MVC) and fire. As the ambulance she was riding in arrived on scene, they were informed that it may be for a dead person in a burning car. Jodi was in the first ambulance that arrived on scene (a few police had arrived moments before), and found one vehicle on its side with the nearest hillside on fire. The EMT checked the driver’s pulse but could not find one. She was a 39 year old female who, it was later discovered, was driving under the influence of alcohol. She swerved off the road, up onto the hill, hit a telephone pole and the tree, and then rolled down the other side of the embankment coming to rest on the vehicle’s side. The engine compartment started on fire and caught the hillside on fire as well. The telephone pole was snapped into multiple pieces and was later removed by the electric company.
Just a few minutes after Jodi’s ambulance arrived, some family members started to show up on scene and reported that there may have been a second passenger. While the engine crew fought the fire, the rest of those on scene quickly grabbed flashlights and searched the embankment up and down both sides of the road. Within a few minutes it was confirmed that the female was the only occupant. After covering the vehicle windows with those yellow emergency blankets, they awaited the arrival of the Medical Examiner and tow truck (the driver was pinned and the car needed to be upright in order to efficiently extract her). While waiting, a police officer approached Jodi’s ambulance crew and said the victim’s mother was on the other side of the caution tape and was having chest pains. They grabbed the medical kit and walked up to where she was sitting in a car. The EMTs and Paramedics on scene confirmed that she was not having any serious heart problems and she returned home with family members. The fire department’s Chaplain was also on scene. His first priority was to comfort the family members, but then he made rounds with each of the fire and medical personnel on scene, making sure each was handling the traumatic experience. Jodi’s ambulance crew was on scene for about 3 hours.
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