"Can you write a story about what it was like to ride in horse drawn ambulances or use wooden IV needles on your "I was a paramedic before you were born blog"..... So here it goes.
If you think our ambulances ride rough now you should try out the old covered wagons over rough terrain we started with in the beginning. Was not much pavement then. And no air conditioners either. Dusty and dirty all the time. So much for sterility.
And about those IV's. They weren't wood. We uses bamboo shoots. The very ends made good small ones and if you need a larger bore you just cut a larger plant and cut it at an angle. Oh and PETA would have loved us. We used animal intestines for IV tubing.
As for alcohol preps, well we always had some home brewed antiseptic on hand. Corn based of course. It has several uses such as a cleaner and sedative. It could even be used similar to Versed to help people forget about any treatments, used in the right dosage. There was one problem. Some could develop a taste for it.
Spine boards? Well, we did have "pine" boards. No c-collars or CID's though. Just throw you on and away we go. Oh and no cardiac monitors either, remember electricity was still new and not every where.
People still smelled bad then most of the time but you really weren't sure if you smelled the patient or the horses, if you get what I mean.
No lights and sirens either. We had a lantern and if you wanted noise, you grabbed a cat and swung it by the tail (sorry Ms. Luke). That's all we had.
Now I hope that helps some of you to understand how it was way back then. It should help you appreciate how easy we have it now.
Until next time.
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