Chapter
2

Elna and I ran out of the woods and towards the ambulance. As we approached the ambulance the EMTs had put both Niki and Alex lying flat on two stretchers in the same ambulance. Both of them were in neck braces and on spine boards. Alex was screaming and crying. She was terrified and hurting at the same time. I went into full rage mode. Every other word out of my mouth was the F word. I got into the back of the ambulance and said, “What the F are you doing putting her (Alex) on a spine board?” I then grabbed her neck collar and spine board restraints to remove them. The EMTs tried to stop me and told me that they needed to be in place in case she had broken her neck or back. I said, “I sure as hell hope that isn’t the case because you’ve been holding her on your F’ing side without protecting her neck all this time!” They physically tried to stop me from removing the C-collar. I told them to F themselves. They said that they were the ones in charge to which I told them that I was not only her father but that I was also her doctor so that I outranked all of them. They told me their supervisor with Acadian Ambulance was the one in charge, and I told them FU! They can get f’ing Richard Zuschlag on the phone right now, and it wouldn’t make a F’ing difference. The Zuschlag family from Lafayette owns Acadian Ambulance. The EMTs were unable to respond to my rant. They let me take Alex’s C-collar off. By the way, this was very, very stupid of me. The EMTs were right, but I was in a rage and trying to claim some power over my situation. With the C-collar off, Alex stopped crying and screaming and laid still on the stretcher. They closed the doors to the ambulance with me, Niki, Alex, and an EMT in the back. I was focused on Alex but then realized that we were backing up the ambulance and Elna wasn’t in the ambulance. I flung open the back of the ambulance doors and spotted Elna being escorted off by two other EMTs. I screamed, “Elna! Get in here!” The EMTs said, “I’m sorry but only one person can ride in the back of the ambulance” I screamed a global “FU!” to anyone that was listening. I then said, “You idiots have already violated the law by having two patients share the same ambulance! Don’t F’ing tell me what to do! Elna, Get in here!”

 

Elna did come into the ambulance, and the ambulance then moved from the scene of the accident.

 

The EMT in the back was amazingly patient with me. He asked me if he could start an IV on Alex. I said yes. He got it very easily, and she barely moved. By now she was exhausted, and the skull fracture was probably beginning to make her dazed.

 

Niki was laying on the stretcher next to Alex. Niki asked me, “How is Jackson?”

 

I abruptly said, “He’s dead!” At this she busted out in sobbing tears and shouted something like “NO. NO. NO.”  to which I responded with a “Shut the F up! Just shut the F up! It is not time for you to get any attention now. It is time for you to be quiet and let me focus on Alex.”

 

Niki then became as quiet as she could. She had to be hurting. She had taken an airbag to the chest and face and had seatbelt abrasions and burns across her neck and chest.

 

I asked the EMT if I could make a call on his ambulance phone. People didn’t walk around with cell phones in their pockets at this time, but the ambulance had a phone mounted to the wall in the back of the ambulance.

 

The first call that I made was to my mom. I called her in Baton Rouge. She picked up. I’m sure she could hear the siren from the ambulance as we headed to the hospital. I said, “Mom, there’s been a terrible accident, and I need you and dad to come to St. Tammany Hospital right now.” She asked if everyone was ok. I didn’t answer but told her she just needs to come right now. She cried and said is anyone dead? I said, “I’m not going to answer you. Just come to the hospital right now.”

 

The second call that I made was to First Baptist Church. I was crying and believe I spoke to Rebecca Fleming first with a brief overview and asked to speak to Waylon. They put me on what seemed to be eternal hold. Lucy Dykes came on the phone and said, “Eddie, we just got Waylon on the phone. He and Martha are headed to the hospital to be with you now.”

 

(Ok, that’s all I can take for today) By the way, weeks later I apologized to everyone at Acadian Ambulance. My friend Troy was a supervisor in the corporate office. Troy told me that the entire Northshore crew went to counseling after the accident. He framed it as they were heartbroken for me. I think it might have also been because I was crushing their hearts with my anger that day. I wrote the crew that attended the accident a long letter of both thanks and apology.

 

Proverbs 3:5-6 New International Version

 

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
   and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
   and he will make your paths straight.