rpcarnell

Stretching reality isn't something I get paid for, but I am getting better at it. I hope I never end up writing a big-stretch of reality like John Travolta and Nicholas Cage trading faces and love handles; it'd be sad (Face-Off, if you didn't see it). Not all third world countries are the same. Some of them are more advanced than others. For example, in here, if you get killed by a bus (happens all the time due to our amazing lack of good traffic laws), they cover your dead body with a sheet, or a box, until the "Vehiculo Funebre", that's our idea of a Coroner Van, arrives. In some countries, people are so used to death, a dead body can be on the floor for God knows how long, and no one will even bother to cover it. I guess we are still sensitive to that kind of thing. A country like Beirut may be different, but I am not sure. There was a case here involving a construction worker that plummeted to his death. The dead body laid on the floor for hours before someone arrived to pick it up. As for the most third world areas of this country, there are no rich pig farmers, no rich cow farmers, sorry, but they'd be mugged by the local gangs. The rich people live among rich people, and the poor live in areas where clean water may be a luxury. In rural areas, they'd put an accident victim in an old car and take him to a clinic. If the accident I described is so simple, how can a paramedic make a mistake that will allow me to file a malpractice suit? Someone already said it: "how was he able to get out of the car if the dashboard was pinning him to his seat?" Moreover, in a paramedic's blog (maybe he was just EMT), he mentions an accident of this nature, and the girl ended up losing her left leg because the dashboard or some part of it passed through her knee. And then there's the famous case of Jaqueline Saburido, where the car burst into flames, and she was trapped in the car and couldn't get out (don't google her if your heart isn't strong enough). Incosistencies are part of fiction. Obviously the incident is fictional and therefore, impossible for me to do anything about it except re-writing it. In the area where I live, there's an intersection nearby. There's a restaurant in this very building, in the first floor. The customers park their cars at a group of empty spaces in the next building, between the intersection and the restaurant. Read the last words, and you'll see the problem. When the drivers come to a stop at the intersection, because of these customer cars, they don't see the incoming cars from the crossing street. The result? Crashes all the time, since drivers cross the intersection without proper visibility. A series of incidents have allowed me to see how paramedics operate in the area. In the US, the restaurant owner would be in trouble for contributing to these accidents, or the traffic department, for not putting a traffic light at the intersection. Think 10 crashes/year. Only two of them have had paramedics interfering. And no one will say much until a speeding car kills a driver, and then there'll be a scandal that will last for a few days. Things around here change only when someone gets killed, it seems. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,224218,00.html The bus caught fire and 18 people got burned to a crisp. Who got arrested? The negligent bus driver who saw the smoke coming out of the engine, and the mechanic who decided to bypass an air conditioner fuse with a wire (every electrician would say: moron). But what about the bank who gave the bus owner the money to buy this old, dilapidated bus from a Mexican company that had already discarded these buses due to safety reasons? What about the bus owner? Lots of heads should've rolled. They didn't. Disorganization is at the very core of third world countries. In order to file a malpractice suit around here, I'd need to pay 10% of the money I think I deserve. Risky business, don't you think? Wisconsin-Panama... A big difference between those two. Well, you need to think of the two magic words: Third World. Can you write a story about scientists discovering anything that can turn the planet into zombies (just an example, I am not into horror much)? The infrastructure of third world countries barely allow people to keep up with current technology. It is hard to believe major discoveries in science and technology will come from a nation like Panama. So I chose Wisconsin for the reason already mentioned. Google Earth helps me see a place where I have never been, and Pocket Road Atlas allows me to see highways and towns and create more realism. I don't have to join a civil engineering forum to create bridges, houses, and buildings just to be more realistic. Although let's face it, I'd end up learning a lot. "Praeter Oriens", from Ramón Varela Morales takes place in NASA, I think, but one of the major characters is from Panama. He also chose the US. The worst thing about all this is that the libraries in Panama are small. Any library in Orlando, Florida (where I lived for like 13 years) has more books. Requesting a book about paramedics/EMTs may be a waste of time. Annoying real-life paramedics in the area with questions about this fictional accident would be a bad idea since, except for Ramon Varela, some guy whose last name is Quintero, there aren't many writers doing research around here. John Saul was lucky not to get into trouble in post-911 New York, when he was taking pics of New York subways for his novel: Manhattan Murder Club. Imagine the kind of looks I'd get from paramedics around here if I started making inquiries about a guy in Wisconsin suffering an accident. I'd rather get a cyber "bug-off" than a real life one.

Well, the character in question wants his son to face three kids bullying him. He thinks every woman wants to date him. He thinks he is the best psychiatrist in the US, and everyone else is mediocre, so, in a perfect world, that's exactly what any EMT should make him do.

Panama doesn't have the cold Wisconsin weather. All I needed was to be a little less lazy and look at older posts. Removing the person's clothes once inside the ambulance to avoid hypothermia is the answer to that. A guy I knew from a chatroom committed suicide with a shotgun, and that's why I chose Wisconsin (a dedication to him). Choosing Panama would've been easier, but if a guy traveling from one small town to another suffered an accident like the one I described around here, a helicopter would be needed to take him to the capital, where the good hospitals are. Either that, or someone would have to take him to a small clinic using a regular car. Not exactly what you need when 6,000 words is the limit for a short story publisher. Thanks for your help!

the only scenario I'm left with is that you're fishing for information in regards to a potential or current legal action in which the actions of an EMS crew are in question for whatever reason. First of all, I am not in the US, where you can file civil suits against everyone for dumb reasons like getting hurt while stepping on a IV Bag (yes, I read that post). I am in Panama, where ambulances are donated by Taiwan, and there are only 10 of them for a city of 800,000 people, and the equipment is probably lacking, so the procedures I have witnessed might be different. Here, they put a cervical collar around your neck. Then they put you on a plastic stretcher, which they use to put you on another stretcher, and they take you to an ambulance. Maybe in the US that may seem primitive. And yes, I am a writer, and you are right. I didn't have to stones to actually say that, since writers are a-dime-a-dozen worldwide, and sometimes people refuse to cooperate with them for fear that they will become too annoying. As an Electrical Engineer, I wouldn't like having writers making questions about electronic equipment all the time. Forgive me for being annoying. You can remove my account if you think I came here to cause trouble.

LOL. Whatever

Forgive my ignorance in advance. I am a newbie in need of professional help. What do you do in this situation? Driver crashes against a tree. His right leg is fractured and a few ribs are broken. He climbs out of the car even though the dashboard shot forward and is pinning him against the steering wheel. It is raining, and since he is unable to walk because of a broken leg, he drags himself close to the road while getting wet. This is Wisconsin, so the rain is cold. I am assuming that the paramedics arriving at the scene will stabilize his right leg first. Then they will use a cervical collar to stabilize the neck. They will do all this while asking him questions just to test his mental faculties. That's what my research says, but it seems dealing with a C-cord injury is the first thing that must be done. I am assuming checking for signs of hypothermia is a must as well. Forgive my ignorance on the subject, but is a Scoop-Stretcher necessary in a case like this?