Ambulances

Unit 4 Literature                                       Sac One: Creative Response

Topic Four : Create the story behind one or more of the characters (and events) in one or more of his poems.

Operator Speaks: ‘We got a type 4 cardiac arrest, 33 West St, Normanton. Just off east bound freeway. Over.’

Unit 7: “On our way, over”

Lights. Sirens. Action.
As quick as a heartbeat, we race to the van, hearts rushing, always not knowing what to expect, never fully prepared for death. Speeding through traffic, seeing familiar streets where we have saved lives before. My heart is pumping hot blood through my veins. I can feel it pulsing in my neck and in my ears. I’m sweating as my mind tries to prepare for the possible death creeping closer and closer by the second. We turn corners at break neck speed our sirens screaming out to the world.

I look out of the windscreen and see children strewn on steps and playing on the roads. Mothers coming out of shops. I smell fish and chips and roasting meats as we rush past the market.

Closer.

Closer.

Death is just around the corner. We come screeching to a halt. Before the vehicle stops my door is open and I am running towards the back doors. A woman sobs hysterically and comes rushing over. Panic. Panic. ‘Help him’ she screams. We ignore her as my partner and I grab our medical kits, a defribulator and the stretcher. The woman still sobbing ushers us inside. I can feel death its cold hands reaching out to me. Screaming in my head. Laughing at me. I shiver.

We race into the living room. A man lies half dead on the floor, his body in meltdown. His fingers and toes curled, his eyes loll back in his head. Quick shivers run over his body. ‘Help him’ the woman cries again.
“How long has he been having this seizure?” my partner asks the woman. I notice a mug shattered on the floor. Death is close. ‘I don’t know, I was cooking in the kitchen and I heard the mug smash so I came in…and…and…he was like this, Please... [continues]

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