I've seen it all, we're done here

I thought I had seen it all until today.


Every manner of injury, illness, presentation and patient seen, noted and documented.


Oh universe, I love it when you mess with my mind.


 


THE EMERGENCY


A bicyclist has been hit by a car


 


THE ACTION


Well, not exactly "hit" and not exactly "by a car" but at least there's a bicycle involved.  Units are approaching from all directions downtown and traffic is thick as it is almost 330 on a Friday afternoon.  The bicycle messenger rider is standing, rather clamly, on the sidewalk near a stretch of street with cars inching forward, but none of them stopped.  At least not stopped as much as you'd expect for someone who just hit a bicyclist.


As we approach he's holding his right arm with what appears to be a napkin, likely from the Chinese take out place behind him.


The assessment begins and we're hard pressed to find any injuries consistant with a vehicle versus pedestrian.  We are allowed to get so deep into the assessment before discovering what happened because, as always, our question of "what happened?" is met with a 25 minute slide presentation about how he was following all laws, riding this direction from this place as he always does, blah, blah blah.  I used my patented "skip to the part where it's an emergency" more than once and finally he explained the napkin on the arm.


He got bit.


By a dog.


While on his bike.


I did a quick double take.  On the bike, even crouched over his shoulder is a good 5 feet off the ground.  How did a dog-


And that's when the delivery truck in the far left lane, the one right in front of us hit a pothole, tilted and gently scraped a no parking sign.  Judging by the sign and the scratches on the truck, not to mention the truck not stopping, happens all the time.


The dog was in a car.


It was hard not to stifle the giggles and my partner is a pro at getting the giggles out, so my next question was tough.


"Did you get a look at the dog?"


He suddenly had somewhere to be and rode away before we got his signature on the form, but I imagined him on his hipster bike, riding along in traffic and some dog out for a joyride just sniffing the air decided to see what the City tasted like.


 


That was a first.  And it reminded me that as soon as you think you've seen it all-BAM-sumpin' new.


 



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