Callings by Dave Isay

Author:Dave Isay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2017-04-04T13:46:05+00:00

RECORDED IN CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK, ON SEPTEMBER 26, 2012.

Rich Barham (left) and Nelson Peck.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN ROWAN ALLEN, 51, TALKS WITH HIS FORMER PATIENT BRYAN LINDSAY, 29.

Rowan Allen: A call came in just before my shift ended. I was a brand-new medic, and my first reaction was, Oh man, right before we get off? And then the dispatcher comes back on and says, “Child struck.”

Luckily, we were just a couple blocks away. We pulled up, and I remember seeing your little bicycle with the front wheel twisted up. I saw the van, then I saw you—and it was scary. You had massive injuries to your head and face.

I remember your mother asking me in the ambulance, “Is he going to be all right?” And I didn’t want to tell her anything that would scare her or make her lose control. You had a big dent on your forehead, and so I played it down and said, “Oh, it’s just a little bump on the head.” But to this day, when I start thinking about the details of the accident, I get choked up.

You wouldn’t remember this, but my partners and I would come to the hospital every chance we got to check on you. You had so many wires and tubes, and your head was always bandaged in rolls and rolls of gauze. We didn’t know how you would turn out.

Bryan Lindsay: All I remember is me getting on the bike, and then I remember waking up in the hospital, crying because I was in pain. I had been in a coma for two weeks.

It was second grade, and it was hard to adjust. I remember crying to the doctor, saying, “I don’t want to wear a helmet at school.” He said, “Don’t worry, all the ladies are going to love your helmet.” [Laughter.] But it was the complete opposite. It was torture. Kids would call me “helmet head.” I couldn’t play football or dodgeball; I’d have to sit on the side and watch. I wanted to be normal, like the rest of the kids. But my mom would say, “You’re a strong person. God brought you back for a reason.”

Rowan: Quite a few years later, one day we brought a patient into the hospital, and I heard this lady’s voice. I didn’t know who it was, but it stopped me dead in my tracks, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. So I backed up and looked into this room, and there was this little short nurse with her back to me. It was your mother!

When she turned around and saw me, she jumped up and ran, and there was the two of us, hugging up real tight, just bawling. And everybody is watching us—this nurse and this paramedic in the middle of the emergency room, crying. I mean, it was a scene! [Laughter.]

Bryan: My mom was actually the manager of a bank, but then she went back to school for nursing, because you inspired her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.