The Buffalo Cafe is one of those unique small town places to get breakfast or lunch (and now dinner, I guess). Being a ski town they close when more than a foot of powder falls. Food is great.
This trip got a small table next to the wall out of the way of the main flow of things. Was digging into my Buffalo Pie when I overhead the guys behind me talking about triaging a woman’s throat. Obviously something serious had gone down. Wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear over hash browns, ham and eggs. Started thinking maybe I ought to tell these tourists to knock it off. I thought better of that thinking maybe being friendly might be more to the point.
“You guys, EMTs?” I asked.
“Yeah, right here in Whitefish.” OK, so much for my prejudice about tourists.
“I gotta soft spot for EMTs myself”, I replied.
“You an EMT, too?”
“No, a trauma victim.”
“Oh wow. What happened? Car wreck?”
Well, you probably know where the discussion went from there. They had vaguely heard about it and were very interested in the story especially the part about the IV to the neck and the Trendelenburg position.
Besides all the medical stuff, since this went down at a church, I was able to share about meeting the Murray’s and other things. We spent about 15 minutes talking. They listened very closely and were genuinely interested. Garnered the “free pass to the firehouse” invitation any time I wanted to.
After breakfast had a long talk with my pastor friend. One of the things he mentioned when I told him the story is that the local chaplains (he is one) have been trying for years to have better relationships with the fire department and EMTs. He said my conversation with them had undoubtedly helped open some doors.
