vignette

It happened in the freight elevator. Often the freight was patients being brought in by ambulance. To begin with there were three actors starring in this vignette. A tall young doctor in his white coat, chewing on a toothpick. An older man, who had wheeled in a rusty cagelike structure holding an equally rusty case. And a PT in her white coat. We all heard the sirens from an ambulance at the same time. The MD rushed over to the door to hold it open for whomever was brought in. The ambulance backed up to the emergency door. They rushed to unload a person on a gurney. Their speedy behavior made it obvious that it was an EMERGENCY. The Md dropped his toothpick on the floor and almost bodily threw the man and his rusty equiment out of the elevator. The two attendants and the gurney were safely in and the elevator bagan it's slow rising. The MD had already assessed the case in front of him, reached into his pant's pocket, opened a pocket knife and cut a hole in the victims throat.

It was a hair raising experience. I, the PT, was shaking by the time the elevetor's doors were opened. I had never seen a braver act. What if the man died. Through no fault of the MD who allowed the patient to breathe again. Luckily the man lived and the cause of his problem was probably an allergy of some sort. We didn't know a lot abut allergies then.

You may ask, what was the PT doing in the elevator. I was looking for the man with the rusty equpment. My mother in law had asked me to see if I could find some cigarettes for her. He was so shaken by having been thrown out of the elevator that after he heard what the reason was, he was willing to sell me five packages. And then he filled the machine.