COAL WAS WEALTH - Franklin B Shift

Today I came into Franklin psyched for the shift. I'm loving this routine. I pulled into the parking lot and was bringing in my gear, when I punched in the code for the back door I was surprised to see that no one was at the table drinking coffee before the shift change. I found out that Captain Goldthwaite was out with an injury and wouldn't be in today, and Jason would be late.  Jon and I started truck checks as normal. Captain Goodearl would be covering Captain Goldthwaite until Jason came in. Jon and I checked E 4 and the rescue. We took the rescue's laptop out of its mount in the cab and brought it to the table where we all played with different programs on it for mapping, HAZMAT, and other things. Then someone called the station reporting an injury from a fall at the Franklin Falls Dam. The dam is huge and because of construction on the high walls there we rolled the Rescue with the ambulance. Deputy Chief LaChapelle left his office to respond with us. I hopped in the rescue with him. We got to the dam and found a simple rolled ankle. Jason had me splint the leg and take vitals, as usual. The injury reminded me of injuries on ski patrol at Blackwater. We got back from that med call and went to the station to finish the rescue's truck check. It has a huge light mast that I got to run with the remote control. Jason also showed me the struts and confined space rescue equipment. I ran out to get some lunch and was finishing eating when we got a med call. This med call didn't involve a critically ill patient and we just provided transport. The call reaffirmed my biggest weakness in EMS is cigarette smoke. This house was drenched in it and it made me feel nauseous. After that we saddled up in Ambulance 2 again and headed to the dam (same one) for a tour of the construction work being done on the high walls by the foreman and Deputy. As were pulling in to the parking lot we got another call for seizure like activity at a nearby address. This was not an ordinary call. One of the most reliable signs of a stroke is facial droop with partial paralysis and we found this immediately upon arrival. From there, it was obvious that this patient needed immediate transport. While the Deputy, Jon, and Jason, were each devoted to different Advanced Life Support care I went outside to the ambulance and brought the cot in. I tried to be as helpful as possible doing extra things because this was an "all hands on deck" situation. As the initial assessment is completed, everyone knows what their job is and like a good hockey play, there's "chemistry" and its very efficient. Loading from the house to the ambulance, and ambulance to the ER, I had to walk alongside the cot to support the patients side that had paralysis. Later I did a documentation narrative (imitating the ones legally required) on the call and had Jason proof it, he said it was pretty good. We went back to the dam after that call, took a tour of the construction, then went downtown to do size up training. I asked Jason and Jon for this in the morning. A size up is your initial impression of the building(s) which is what you base your operations off of. Franklin's downtown neighborhood has a ton of good examples. This was when I learned the long pneumonic, COAL WAS WEALTH. It's pretty long so I won't write the whole thing but COAL stands for Construction, Occupancy, Apparatus, and Life Hazard. Jon and Jason ran through each one for different buildings and I came away with a much better understanding of scene size up. We finished that then headed to Hannafords to get dinner, until we got a med call. It was a lift assist and then we went to Hannafords. After that we went back to the station and Jason cooked pizza on the grill for dinner which was amazing. In the process he was showing off his dough throwing skills and dropped it on the floor, so we had to throw it out. Soon we will do chores and then relax a little before heading to bed. The air conditioning has been cranked in the bunk room all day so it should be a good nights sleep until we get a call.