As my last day approaches I must admit that I'm becoming more impatient to just get it over with. I'm the last of 4 senior dispatchers to leave in the last 5 months. The 4 of us have about 100 years experience between us. My 24 1/2 years is only the 3rd most years. Last Sunday was the party for the latest person to go and we had a nice time. We had a potluck dinner and several people came into dispatch to say their goodbyes. One of the police sergeants who plays the bagpipes came in a played. The pipes always make me cry. He played several songs and ended with "The Campbell's are Coming". It was really nice but it still made me cry.
As people have been retiring I have started thinking about calls that I have taken over the years. The first neat call that I did was a childbirth shortly after I was on my own. I remember telling the father to assume the catchers position. He did just in time and caught the baby before she fell off the bed. He wanted to name her after me, luckily I was able to talk him out of that. Some of the dumbest calls were just after September 11th and the white powder/anthrax scare. Without a doubt the dumbest one was from one of the two hospitals in town. Caller was one of the nurses and she was concerned about white powder on the floor in the maternity ward locker room where they stored the diapers and baby powder. We sent the Hazmat Team and they swept the floor for them . We can laugh about it now but that was one long and frustrating day for dispatch and the Hazmat team.
I have done more code blue calls than I care to remember. So few of those are ever successful. SIDS deaths are the worst mainly because of all the emotions. Though I have to say that deaths involving old married couples are the saddest, at least for me anymore. It must be so hard to see the person you have lived with for the last 50+ years die.
Anyway I'm ready to go. 32 more days and I'm done with this phase of my working life.
Getting Old is a Pain
9 years ago
