We got to see the Emergency Services folks at the Fair in action again this year – NOT FOR ME. 

It was last Saturday, a seriously crowded day.  YA and I were feeling very lucky to have scored seats on the bench across Al’s to enjoy our malts when suddenly a man about 8 feet from us fell into the street.  Neither of us actually saw why he fell, just the fall itself.  I was just about to set my malt down and go over but immediately there were at least 8 folks surrounding him.  It made me think of a scene from one of my favorite films People Will Talk.  Cary Grant has taken over the lecture hall of another professor and during his talk, Jeanne Crain gets dizzy, faints and falls off her chair into the aisle.  All the other medical students jump up to help.  Cary Grant’s line is “Get back, get back. Quiet down, quiet down. A group of  Cub Scouts would know better than to crowd like this”.  I stayed put. 

I suspected from YA’s rapt expression that we were going to sit there until the situation was resolved, one way or the other.  When I asked her if this was the case, she nodded, not taking her eyes off the scene.  So I settled in. 

One of the people who had jumped in to help immediately was the woman who had been sitting next to me on the bench.  She knelt down next to the guy as they got him sitting up.  You could see her talking to him calmly; she kept a hand on his back the whole time.  She never seemed to lose her composure and when the first (and then second, third and fourth) set of emergency services guys showed up, she was the one communicating with them.  I said to YA “she must be a nurse”.  YA agreed. 

At first we had thought maybe heat stroke but then we saw the guy holding and rubbing his left shoulder – was it a heart attack?  Then YA heard someone say that the guy had landed on his new shoulder – he has just had shoulder replacement a few weeks back.  Ouch.  There were four different sets of emergency folks who came to the scene – it took quite some time to make their way through the crowds, even with lights going. They also were calm and assured; they asked questions, took vitals and eventually they were able to trundle the guy onto one of their gators and whisk him off.  Well, whisk probably isn’t the right word, considering the crowds.

I talked to the woman who had been attending to him and she confirmed that she was indeed a nurse.  I knew it.  Anyway, I told her that I had thought so based on her actions and I thanked her for her service.  Turns out that May 12 is International Nurses’ Day – I’m thinking we should have more than one of those celebrations a year.  So thanks to those of you on the Trail who are nurses or spent your career nursing – seeing one of your legion in action was really great.

Tell me about a nurse who made a difference to you!