Tuesday, May 27, 2008

This wouldn't happen in my old town!

So, this last Thursday I work for a friend at the fire department. It was only supposed to be four hours long, how bad could that be? Sure enough at hour 3.5, we get a call for an injured person at the local forest preserve. Upon arrival, we see a couple of guys waving us down saying to follow them. Little did we know we'd be taking a mile long trek to the middle of the forest for their lady friend that hurt her ankle. She and her friends were swinging on a rope over a 20ft deep gorge. As it turns out, she has weak grip strength. In the midst of swinging she let go, landed on her feet, momentum took over and caused her to tumble the rest of the way down. By the time we get there they carried her to the top of the incline. She's shivering because it's just becoming dusk and whining out loud because we're trying to stabilize her ankle. Better still, we get to carry her out on the backboard back the mile long dirt path in the dark, because night has fallen since we've been on this call.
So we get about half way back, avoiding mud holes and rogue branches until, sure enough, I get smacked with a branch in the face (it was dark after all.) Not bad, but it left a scar which has almost since healed. But it all turned well. We get her in the ambulance, give her some laughing gas and get going. I leave an hour and a half later than I was supposed to.
But good deeds are not without some rewards to the karma.
The next morning I go back to work my own shift. A couple of hours into the day an officer for Orland stops by and asks if it's okay to have a kid come by to check out the firehouse with his grandfather. The officer assured us we'd get a kick out of it. I ask "what, is it the mayor's son or something?" He says, "oh no, this is better!"
So the kid and his grandfather get there and we are introduced. Turns out that, as it shows above, this was Jenny McCarthy's son, Evan. Jenny's mother lives locally and this was her step-father that brought the kid in. She was up in the city speaking for an autism cause, which she has been doing since her son was diagnosed about 3 years ago. He did not seem afflicted at all. More like a usual five year old, shy and quiet. Before they left, Evan got his picture taken with me and a co-worker in front of the fire truck. I don't think I'll be getting a copy, but it was nice little brush with fame.

2 comments:

Sarah Satrun said...

Wow. That poor woman. She had every right to whine- ouch! (but that sounded like a stupid thing they were doing. someone was bound to get hurt)Good for you guys for carrying her for a mile! That must have been tough! At first I thought you were going to say that the little boy was her son come to thank you. i thought the pic was of her and her son. lol.

Catherine Satrun said...

Yes, that sounds foolish to be swinging from a rope above a gorge. I doubt she'll do that again. Poor thing! I hope she's feeling better!! :(