During your career in the wonderful and exciting world of EMS you will see much more than the average citizen would in a lifetime. You will see people at their worse and at times, at their best. You will go into homes that are so immaculate the residents have you take off your shoes. Then on the other end you will go into homes and actually see the walls move (if you know what I mean). But this is your job, this is what you have decided to do with your life. Personally I can't think of a better way to make a living, after all I did it for thirty years. With all that being said I am not going to talk to you about your job this month. I am not going to tell you how you should do things or how to clean things. This month I am going to talk to you about things you do off the job, a lot of it is probably stuff you don't even think of. Hopefully after you read this month's article it will bring some things to the front of your mind, if they are not there already.

Okay, so you finally are taking that long overdue vacation. Good for you, it's a twelve hour ride and you are more than ready. Now what is the one thing many people forget to do before they leave home. If you said go to the bathroom pat yourself on the back. I am also guilty of this one on many different occasions. As you continue down the highway you see sign after sign guiding you to places for you to relieve yourself. Finally when you can no longer take it you pull off to one of those combination gas station, convenience store, fast food places. After you beg the clerk for the key to the restroom (since you did not make a purchase) you think you are home free and relief is on the way. You quickly put the key in the lock and open the door and WOW. It hits you like a brick, what a smell. Not only does it smell worse than your local waste water treatment plant it is also an unsightly mess. It almost looks like a scene from a horror movie. 

While you are in the process of relieving yourself you see a substance on the toilet, the sink and the floor. You suspect the substance is something from another planet, because it surely is not of this world. As you go to wash your hands you stop short of turning on the water and decide you would rather use the hand sanitizer you have in your car. You turn to the door and as you reach for the handle you stop in fear of what might be on it. You are now trapped, you begin to wonder if you are ever going to get out of this situation. Is this the plan of the space creatures who left their slime all over the place, is this how you are going to be abducted. Your heart starts racing and brain cells are exploding then all of a sudden it comes to you, you now have an escape plan. You take out your trusty Swiss Army knife …….. wait a minute, that was an episode of MacGyver , this is real life. You look around in hopes of finding toilet paper or paper towels but to your surprise you see none. There is only one thing left for you to do, you grab the door handle with your shirt acting as the barrier. You made it, you have escaped from the alien abduction cell.

As you walk back to your car it dawns on you how dirty and violated you feel. You look around and see a hotel, one of those high dollar nice places. So you decide to get a room and a nice hot disinfecting shower, followed by a nice dinner in your room. After your shower you call for room service then lay back on the bed to watch TV while you wait for dinner, still with nothing but your towel on. As you lay there admiring your fantastic hotel room, that you got a discount on because you are EMS you hear a knock on the door. "Room service", finally dinner is here. Now you have positioned the TV so you can see it from the table and placed the remote next to your drink. What a good looking burger, and these steak fries are the bomb. After surfing channel after channel you settle for a boring documentary. Oops, you dropped one of those good fries on the floor but you live by the five second rule. It does apply no matter where you are, right.

Then all of a sudden you don't feel too good. On the TV they are talking about how dirty hotel rooms actually are. It is a report covering those high dollar places, actually it is the one you are staying in. The report goes on to say how basically any body fluid you could possibly think of can be found in the rooms. These fluids are not just found in the bathrooms, but on the floors, walls, curtains, pillows, mattress, phone and yes the remote. What do you think of the five second rule now, pretty nasty isn't it. Did you even know that most hotels only wash the comforters once a week. And what do you think has been found on the remotes, body fluids of all kinds.

Okay, enough is enough it's time to get dressed and get out of Dodge. Still hungry you check out and get back on the road thinking you have left all of what has happened behind you. Not sure of what you want to eat you come across a buffet, you just know something will be there that you like. You get your plate and go through the line, and just as you thought there is plenty of good food. After you finish your fourth plate you head to the restroom As you walk in you see one of the worker's that was on the buffet and your whole ordeal starts all over again. He is walking out of a stall, coughing into his hand and continues out of the door. Much to your surprise he did not stop and wash his hands, he just went straight back to work.

Now you have had all you can stand so you decide to call your trip off and just head home. A nice hot cup of coffee would help get you under way. As you pull into the lot you think nothing could go wrong here, after all this place is open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. This is always a clean place, they are constantly cleaning as they go. There is an ambulance just pulling out of the lot, but you think nothing of it, remember you are off and need your time away from it all. You try to go into the store but are met by an employee who tells you they are closed. This store never closes, just what is going on, this trip just gets better and better. After you identify yourself to the employee as a medic she tells you the story. A customer came in and was apparently upset that his girlfriend was arrested earlier that day. He came in crying and talking out of his head. Next thing you know he was spitting all over the store talking about his infectious disease then has a seizure. She then tells you they closed the store to clean and disinfect everything after the incident.

That was the last straw, you now drive all of the way home. Finally you pull into your driveway and park your car. Home at last, now it is time for a nice hot shower in your own bath room. After your shower you put on a pot of coffee, sit in your favorite chair and start thinking about what will do while you are on leave. You pour your coffee and go outside to get the paper thinking you will catch a movie tomorrow. On your way back from the paper box you find something that was left in your yard by your neighbors dog. You stepped in it and you are barefoot, the perfect ending to a perfect journey. After you clean up you sit back in your chair, drink you coffee and call your Chief to cancel your leave. You go back to work tomorrow; after all you can control most things at work.

I hope that these incidents have brought some things a little more forward. We think of this stuff at work but all too often forget about it when we are off. I am sure many of you have seen similar situations, how did you react to it. Did you ignore it or do something about it. My Wife and I always speak up when we see this type problem. There is a fast food place near our home that we no longer will go to. We were waiting for our food on day and observed the person making the sandwiches pick her teeth and continue working. We filed a complaint and left and have not been back since. What I am trying to say is don't be afraid to speak up, it is not just your safety, but think of the safety of others.