My brother, Chip, and I had made our very first motorcycle road trip the year before. Now Joe and I had been long time motorcycle riders. We started riding together almost 30 years ago, while in the Army, stationed in Monterey, California. Joe and I had stayed in close contact, in fact, he has always just been considered one of the family...so it was only fitting that Chip and I envite him along for our next road trip to Canada. Chip and I were single at the time and Joe was too...but the month before we were to leave...Joe decides...no Heidi decides...it is time to get married (well, that is the way Joe tells it). So married he gets....off on a honeymoon...and a week after he returns he tells his new bride that he has to go on his planned road trip...with the boys...that she has yet to meet!
Well, Chip and I ride and meet in Colorado, then ride up through the Yellowstone to Missoula, Montana. It is there that we are to meet up with Joe who is riding from Olympia, Washington. What a trip we had before our meeting. Chip and I were riding our bikes and a car pulled into my lane. I dodged the car, missing only by inches, by diving my bike onto the shoulder of the highway, only to watch the car slide sideways off the road, flipping, ejecting a man and small daughter. I watched the two being thrown from the vehicle and shooting up in the air like missles, side by side, only to land in the median of the interstate. I flipped my bike around to see if I could help. As I was a police officer, I was not at all uncomfortable about trying to help and quite aware of the problems in which I was getting involved. Chip had looked in his rear view mirror only to see dust where I once had been. He thought I had crashed and flipped his bike around to go help. He is a paramedic on an Air Life Helicopter in Colorado and this kind of thing is what he does for a living...but this time he thought it was his brother he was coming to aide.
He pulls up and sees me off my bike and heading toward the wreck...He heads to the little girl and the man laying in the median. I run to the overturned car where a woman screams trapped inside. I find a young baby hanging upsidedown, held by the straps of his car seat. I am able to get the baby out as others arrive. I now try to tend to the woman who is bleading heavily from her head, is trapped upsidedown in the vehicle and pinned down with the seats and stearing wheel of the car. I see she has a broken arm and possibly other areas that are broken. I calm her down...tell her that her baby is fine and that my brother who is a paramedic is with her other daughter and her husband. I tell her I am a cop and can tell her with experience that she is ok but must remain calm. I find loose blankets and clothing and pack that around her to try and make her more comfortable as help will soon be on the way. I don't want to move her. I try and sound calm to help calm her...but inside my heart is racing. I hear my brother...he is behind me and calmly says "check her pulse and tell me what you get". I think "thank god he is here...and what in the heck do I check?" The difference between a cop mentality and a paramedic mentality is amazing. I want to run and get there...be it a man with a gun...two fighting...no matter what the danger....and try and settle it.......but when it comes to people in dire need of medical attention....I want to direct traffic! I grap her wrist and hold on....putting my finger on her pulse...and it is racing...but soon realize it is my pulse I am taking with my finger...so I try again and report my results. Chip logs this into his head full of medical concerns and procedures.
In the long run I did fine and when the fire engine and ambulance arrive, I am relieved of my care taking duties. I hear Chip reporting all the info he has gathered, what he deams the immediate concerns are and what he has done to this point. He is calm as a cucumber. Me...well I get calmed down when the State Trooper arrived and we talk the talk we are accustomed too....no smell of alcohol, who was driving in what direction...who are the witnesses and where are they...you know what I am talking about. Well, at the end of it all...I think hey...I have some handywipes on my bike and can use them to clean off all the blood that covers my hands up to my elbows and I will show Chip how together I am by offering him the same. I yell over at Chip to see if he wants to use my handywipes. And that's when I see him pulling off his medical rubber gloves that he had brought with him and taken down to the accident scene. I learned several things that day....some about myself but mostly that I want Chip around if I was ever hurt. And I just can't explain how it feels to be so proud of your brother as you watch him in action...with chaos all around...and as cool as a cucumber managing a scene he has just walked into.
Now...let's see...on to Missoula where we are to meet up with Joe...it only gets better......
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