112

One Hundred and Twelve degrees farenheit. 112. Last I checked cell walls break down around 107, but our caller swears her son's temperature has broken the land heat record. At 1 AM, of course.

THE EMERGENCY

A mother states her son is lethargic with a temperature of 112.

THE ACTION

The bells are loud at this station and I seem to have chosen a bunk directly under the speaker. I wander into my turnout pants and down the slide pole before I completely comprehend the dispatch information.

"Did they say 112?" the Officer asks as we climb in the $450,000 fire engine staffed by 1 highly trained firefighter, 1 highly trained driver, 1 new Officer and yours truly.

"Impossible," I say clicking my seat belt, "107 is as high as you go while alive. Maybe she's reading it upside down?"

Enroute dispatch advises the child is unconscious and they add a Paramedic Supervisor to the run. This town panics when kids are involved. As we arrive at the address we see the standard teenage girl flailing her arms in the street as if the houses weren't numbered in ascending order. Off the engine and bags in hand we're led to the third floor, past a woman screaming a foreign language into the phone and into a back bedroom where I see our young fire child.

Awake. And dressed, shoes and all.

"Is this the boy with the fever?" I asked as the firefighter checked the boy's skin.
"His fever is 112, I had to call you, I don't know what else to do!" Mom is crying to us as young "Danny" is curled up at the edge of the bed asking why my pants look funny.
"These are my fire pants. We brought our fire engine, want to see it?" simply wanting to see if he comprehends the facts in front of him, kind of a level of consciousness test.

"YEAH!" He shouts and is off to the races and down the stairs nearly knocking down the ambulance crew running up the stairs, Pedi bags in hand.
"How much Tylenol have you given him?" was the last question I heard as the ambulance crew pushed us out the door and back in service.
"None" was mom's response.

Danny was excited to see the engine, lights flashing in the early morning hours, even though he should have been fast asleep, tylenol doing its thing on his mild fever.