My Greatest Challenge

"911, what emergency situation do you wish to report, please?"

"Yes, uhm--I think I need to go to a hospital to be checked out. I was just getting ready for bed, and all of a sudden I found myself waking up, on the floor."

"Do you think you had a heart attack?"

"I'm not sure--I'm not having any chest pain."

"Okay, we will have an ambulance there shortly. Is the door unlocked?"

"No, it's locked. I'll answer the door."

"You might wish to go ahead and unlock it. That way they can get in if they need to."

"Okay, will do."

The rescue personnel recommend a place called the "MAC Center" (Mercy Hospital Ambulatory Care). It is only a couple of miles away. There they can do tests and recommend an appropriate hospital.

As a police scanner listener, I am familiar with the transport procedure used by rescue personnel. What I hear the ambulance personnel say over their radio mike as the ambulance starts moving therefore sounds surreal to me. "We're en route to the MAC center with a forty-eight-year-old male patient, starting mileage is ..." I can't believe that this time, I am the patient Very scary thought.