Wow, now that's gratitude for you!

So many times before I started this blog I had stories in my mind that I wanted to put down on paper or just find someone to tell about them because they were just so wild! Once in a while you will run a call that just sticks out in your head and you can't forget it...this was one of those calls! It was December of 2009 and we had just had one of the biggest snow storms that Virginia had had in many years. We had almost a foot of snow on the ground and it was bitterly cold outside. It was almost 11:00 at night when we got toned out for a 76 year old male patient that had fallen and was bleeding uncontrollably. My crew and I marked en route to the call which was just minutes from our station. The man's house was on a back road with a lot of hills and we knew that we would have to be careful as our ambulances were not usually driven in this much snow. Thankfully we had the most experienced driver on our crew so I wasn't worried. We got about a mile from the man's house when, despite our driver's best efforts, we slipped off the road and into a snow bank. We tried over and over to drive the unit out, but with no success. Finally, we decided we were going to have to call a tow truck. Even though we were over a mile away from this elderly man's house, it was in the middle of the night, there was a foot of snow on the ground, and it was freezing I wasn't about to just sit and wait for the tow truck with this man bleeding uncontrollably. I grabbed my bag and informed the guys I was with that I felt we needed to walk the remaining distance to this man's house. Our driver decided to wait on the tow truck while me and my partner started up the hill to the man's house. I had not however planned on being out in the snow for more than a few minutes and I was wearing cowboy boots that were soaking up the wet snow more and more with every step that I took. When we finally got there my boots, socks, and feet were soaked and my toes had started turning blue. I ended up having to take my socks and shoes off to get the circulation going again and borrow a pair of socks from this man's wife! That was a new one! We got to the patient who was lying on his back on the floor with a moderate amount of injuries.We knew we were going to have to take him to the hospital and we also knew that we had to have a backboard and more supplies to do so. My partner decided that he would walk back to the ambulance and I would stay there to take care of the patient. When he got back with all the equipment he informed me that the ambulance was now out on the road, but could not come all the way to the house because it had slipped off the road two more times. We finally figured that the only way to get this man to the hospital was to load him into his own pick up truck and drive him down to where the ambulance was sitting. This was not an easy task however. It was now about 1:00 in the morning and it had started to snow again. Our driver walked up the hill to the house and drove the man's truck to the back door. We then carried him out on the snow to the truck. Then came our next string of problems; this man could not walk, he was very big, it was extremely slick, and his truck was high and hard to climb into. I had to get in the truck and wrap my arms under his arms and pull as the two men I was with pushed. The man ended up laying on top of me for the ride down the hill...very uncomfortable, but you do what you have to do. When we got to the unit they opened the door behind me and reached under our patient and pulled me out. We then slid a board under his body so we could lift him out and load him into the back of the ambulance. We were finally on our way...so we thought! Almost to the main road the chains broke on our tires and we had to stop at our station to switch out units. It was now after 2:00 in the morning! When we finally got to the hospital it was almost 3:00 and we were all beyond exhausted! We got the man to the room in the ER told the ER doc what had happened and told the man that we hoped he felt better. As we were about to leave to go start all the paperwork that we had to do before leaving the hospital the doctor turned to the man and said, "Wow I bet you sure are grateful! These people really went above and beyond the call of duty to help you!" His response still blows my mind to this day even though were hear things like this all the time. He said as he laid in his warm bed that we had safely gotten him to,"Why should I be thankful? They had to use my truck to get me out!"