Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:36:25 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Eugenia Klopsis :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Eugenia+Klopsis istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/brighton-beach-mysteries/63699/ Mon, 1 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST It's 3 a.m., and Bronson and I have just dropped off a patient at Kings County Hospital, otherwise known as "The House of Horrors." I'm washing my hands in an old, filthy sink when a super-handsome young cop in uniform comes in and asks the Emergency Room doctor to fish a wad of balled-up napkin from deep inside his ear. I know what it is: a makeshift earplug used for departmentally unauthorized ad hoc early morning target practice along the Belt Parkway. I smile at the cop as the clueless... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/saved-from-the-fumes/63272/ Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I are enjoying the sunshine at our 10–89, the cross-street location where we're supposed to be if we're not on a job. The radio is mercifully quiet, I've got my feet up on the dashboard, and he's got his face turned toward the sun. But he's so pale that sunbathing is a mistake. "You need sunblock," I say. He smiles but doesn't open his eyes. "Remember when it used to be suntan lotion? And Coppertone had the baby with the dog pulling off her bathing suit?" It's warm, and though it's... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/dressed-in-sunday-best/62301/ Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST It's a dry, sunny day, perfect weather. "And I'm stuck with you," I tell Bronson. "I must be stupid," I sigh, leafing through the Sunday newspaper to see if there's anything even remotely interesting. That's when the dispatcher redeploys us to Downtown Brooklyn; apparently there's a shortage of units in that area. "Great," Bronson grumbles. He didn't get much sleep last night after an argument with his wife. She doesn't like him working weekends any more than I like agreeing to work with him on... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/wishing-for-a-seizure/61333/ Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST The dispatcher calls our unit to back up medics on a cardiac arrest. The dispatcher says it's a 3-month-old baby. "Damn it," Bronson says. I get nervous and read more on the KDT display. Apparently the baby isn't moving or crying. Bronson hits the "63" button indicating we're en route to the assignment, then flies through every intersection while I manipulate the siren. "Jobs involving infants are rarely what the initial assignment is about," he shouts to me, and himself, as he takes a turn too... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bronsons-effect-on-women/60859/ Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST It's a quiet day and during lunch Bronson has been telling me about the argument he had with his wife the previous night. It had something to do with work uniforms, the hamper, and a leftover egg roll. Trapped inside an ambulance with this slob for eight hours, I have a little taste of what his wife must experience. "If I was married to you, I'd fight with you, too," I reassure him, gathering his takeout containers into one giant pile and stuffing them into a bag. "Calgon, take me away."... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/cardiac-call-is-actually-non-affair-of-the-heart/60378/ Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST The call comes in to back up medics on a "cardiac." The KDT indicates that the patient, a 46-year-old female, has no cardiac history but feels that her heart is beating fast. "A panic attack," Bronson says. He and I have been arguing about everything all day, but now I agree. "Probably nothing," I say. We arrive at a sad little frame house in Mill Basin. The door is answered by a frail, elderly woman who ushers us into a tidy living room, where we find her daughter sitting on the couch. She's... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/dealing-with-child-abuse/59931/ Mon, 6 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I are eating fried clam strips from a stall under Deno's Wonder Wheel in Coney Island, discussing the man who tried to snatch a little girl from the boardwalk outside the New York Aquarium a few days ago. "Jail forever," I say. "Let the other inmates fix him." "I don't know how they handle things in your neighborhood," Bronson says, "but in Bay Ridge, a pedophile gets a visit from three Greeks late at night and never comes out of his building again without installing a ramp." I nod... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/everyone-needs-to-vent/59386/ Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST It's a hot Sunday and busy – the typical asthma attacks, heart attacks, sports injuries, and violent crimes. We're sitting near Prospect Park with the air-conditioner on, blasting diesel fumes straight to the hole in the ozone, when a jogger yells at us to shut our engine. We tell him our vehicle would be an oven — not good for asthma or heatstroke patients, both of which we've had this morning. The guy gives us the finger and shouts, "F— you!" "I guess sick people are less important than a... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/mourning-loss-of-a-hero-in-a-half-empty-world/58925/ Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST The fatal shooting of Officer Russel Timoshenko has me so beside myself I can barely concentrate on finishing up the paperwork for the job at hand, an elderly diabetic man we just dropped off at Kings County Hospital, the same place where the young police officer died while doing the often mundane but sometimes heroic job of protecting such helpless members of society. Police officers routinely place themselves squarely in the path of killers, rapists, drug dealers, ex-cons — the violent, the... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/boy-with-the-burns-and-his-smart-mother/58493/ Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I have just left Lutheran Hospital after dropping off a patient, but are sitting in the ambulance for a moment before hitting the available button — it's been a busy day and I want to enjoy my iced tea. I'm jiggling the ice cubes around when someone knocks on the window. I look up and see a Hispanic boy, about 8 years old, sitting on a bicycle with playing cards stuck in the spokes of the tires. I remember doing that as a child and want to tell him, but he's upset, crying and... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/clobbering-an-injury-in-projects/57690/ Mon, 2 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST We finish up a job, Bronson presses the "available" button, and the radio dispatcher immediately hits us with an "injury" in the Cypress Projects, in East New York. "Great," Bronson says, annoyed because it's way out of our area. We enter a filthy project lobby and are assaulted by the stench of urine. The smell is even stronger in the elevator. "Eau de Project," Bronson quips. On the floor of our call, a battered metal apartment door is opened by a young girl of about 14 dressed in... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/birth-of-summer/57255/ Mon, 25 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST It's sunny and dry, with a perfect breeze blowing, when the call comes in for a 26-year-old woman in labor. The KDT indicates her water has broken. We drive quickly. Bronson has delivered only one child, about five years ago. "If I had a catcher's mitt, I could have caught the little girl, it was that simple," he says. He also experienced the birth of his son a couple of months ago. "I'm an expert," he reassures me, not too convincingly. I, on the other hand, have never delivered a baby. My two... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/lost-language-of-crime/56757/ Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST It's a rainy day and I'm curled up in the passenger seat of the ambulance with an Agatha Christie novel when we get a call for a 17-year-old shot inside a fast-food chicken place on Nostrand Avenue. "Crime is crime, it doesn't matter where," Bronson muses. In the novel, "A Holiday for Murder," an old British guy is murdered in a locked room while his family is gathered downstairs in the drawing room. Blood is everywhere. "Yeah but this has class," I say, dog-earing my page and looking up at the... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/petite-whirlwind/56307/ Mon, 11 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST First thing in the morning, we get a call for an "injury." I read on the monitor that it's a 30-year-old female with an injury to her hand in the basement of a private house in Kensington. "Heavy bleeder?" Bronson asks. I scroll down. "Doesn't say." He shrugs, and we take a leisurely drive over to the address given. It's one of those squat, two-story limestones with bay windows that would go for $2 million in Park Slope, but this isn't Park Slope. Kensington is quiet, almost suburban; an un-hip... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/only-thing-that-can-fill-the-void/55820/ Mon, 4 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST We're licking ice creams in front of a grocery store on Cortelyou Road, in Ditmas Park, when the call comes in for an "unconscious." "I hope it's one of the big old Victorian homes," I tell Bronson, as I read the additional information on the KDT mounted on our dashboard, which indicates that a 35-year-old man has passed out on the second floor of a private house. As Bronson speeds down the quiet, leafy streets, I comment on the stately wooden mansions passing by, envisioning ladies lounging on... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/prime-example-of-911-abuse/54375/ Mon, 14 May 2007 00:00:00 EST It's a slow shift, and we're sitting in our ambulance watching "The Sentinel" on Bronson's mini-DVD player, when we get a "respiratory distress" call to an apartment building in Bensonhurst. Bronson moves the DVD player to allow us to read the computer screen behind it. "A 55-year-old female with a history of stomach problems," he says. I toss a piece of popcorn into my mouth and move the DVD player back. "The Sentinel" is a scary old 1970s movie that I adore. "Look," I tell Bronson, pointing... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/mansion-in-ruins/53910/ Mon, 7 May 2007 00:00:00 EST We're driving around Bay Ridge, looking at the houses, when we get a call for a "sick." "I want that one," Bronson says, pointing to the Gingerbread House, a landmark art nouveau Hansel-and-Gretel structure surrounded by mature landscaping. "Too dark," I say, opting for one of the mansions that is tricked out with impressive Christmas lights every winter. I lean over to read the nature of the call on the computer screen: "Forty-year-old male, private house, nothing further." I read out the... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/along-the-path-to-care-a-roadblock-of-egos/53466/ Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST We're leaning against the hood of our ambulance, sun-worshipping, when the call comes in for a CVA-C, a critical stroke. "Critical" means that the patient should be given drugs that, if administered less than two hours after the stroke, may reduce the damage to the point where the patient may fully recover. We hop into the ambulance and fly to a six-story apartment building, but the inside door is locked. The bells are not listed by apartment number but by three-digit codes that correspond to a... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/street-justice/53027/ Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST We're driving around East Flatbush wondering which jerk chicken place to dine at when Bronson remarks that we haven't had any violent jobs lately. "A good gunshot wound or stab or something," he says. The restaurant we choose — a hole in the wall with no sign and no tables or chairs — is just getting its chicken delivery: a man tossing plucked carcasses in loose plastic bags into a heap on the concrete floor. I don't even care that the health inspectors must have been paid off. I point... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bronsons-tears/52539/ Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST On a cold, rainy day that feels more like February than April, we get a call from the police department for a "sick." This can mean anything. I ruminate aloud to Bronson: "It's odd, to drive to a scene you know nothing about." He says nothing. "I never felt comfortable with this," I say. "I like predictability." "Then you're on the wrong planet," he snaps. I think about what a great partner I have as we pull up to an apartment building on Kings Highway, ring the buzzer, and trudge up to the... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/geriatrics-80-pound-kettle-bells/52066/ Mon, 9 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST The weather is too cold for spring, and I actually see a few snowflakes when we get a call for an EDP in Sheepshead Bay. "Imagine that," Bronson says, ignoring the call. "Snowflakes." I read the computer screen: "An 85-year-old male, combative, yelling and throwing things." I read further and note that PD was also called. We arrive at a small wooden house and are let inside by a Russian family: a middle-age couple and their two teenage sons. "It's my father," the man says in heavily accented... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/erring-on-the-side-of-life/51644/ Mon, 2 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Playing "I Spy — Spring" while driving through a grassy stretch of Canarsie, I spot a crocus and Bronson spots two tulips before we get a call to back up medics on a cardiac. We're the first to arrive at the attached brick house with a dented aluminum awning over the porch and three daffodils on the lawn. A woman in her 30s lets us in, telling us her mother isn't breathing. "We lost Dad a few years ago, and ever since then her blood pressure's been a problem," she says. The woman seems... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/rookie-mistake/51190/ Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST On the first really warm day of spring, we're parked with the windows rolled down and our feet up on the dashboard when the call comes in to back up medics on a cardiac arrest in a house at Coney Island. Additional information on the computer screen indicates it's a possible overdose. "A 31-year-old male," I read aloud, scrolling down the screen. "Oh, joy." On the way, we catch a few glimpses of the deserted boardwalk. Its boards are buffed to a gray sheen from the long winter. Only a few old... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/veterans-affairs-2007-03-12/50243/ Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I are sitting inside our warm ambulance drinking hot chocolate on a bone-cracking cold day when the radio beeps us for a respiratory distress job. A 77-year-old man is having trouble breathing. We snap the lids over our hot chocolate, which tastes watery and lousy anyway, and speed over to the four-story walkup in Bensonhurst. We climb up four rickety flights and knock on the door. I hear shuffling inside. It's cold in the hallway, and it takes forever for the man to unlock his door... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/struck-sick-by-sadness/49788/ Mon, 5 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST The call comes in at noon for a "sick" in Bensonhurst, in a large housing complex off Cropsey Avenue along the Belt Parkway, and I get anxious. Most of the calls here are for elderly people, and the simple sadness of the elderly living alone, facing the end of life, bothers me more than all the bloody car accidents, train-track suicides, and falls from rooftops we've handled combined. Bronson does not feel this way. He's never false, and he talks to the patients straightforwardly, not... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/lighting-shop-blackout/49256/ Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST The call comes in for an "intox" at a lighting store in Sunset Park. According to the information on the computer screen mounted between our seats, the patient may be depressed. "Great," I say. "Another EDP." We've already had two today. Although I've been trying to see the humor in people's psychological problems, I just can't. We pull up to the scene, and Bronson says he's been in this lighting store before, looking for lamps for his apartment. "They're very pricey," he says. We see a car... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/breaking-barriers/48464/ Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST It's the end of a 16-hour double shift and I'm not a happy camper as the call comes in for an 80-year-old woman in Midwood who has fallen and can't get up — meaning she can't get to the door to unlock it and we're probably going to have to call the FDNY for additional resources to break down the door, which will take extra time. "I just want to go home," I grumble to Bronson as he puts the truck into gear and heads toward the address, an old, rundown apartment building that probably doesn't... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/on-day-off-a-crisis/47981/ Mon, 5 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST It's a cold, sunny winter day, and, happily, I'm not at work. I switched to a part-time schedule a long time ago because life is too short and I wanted to be a stay-at-home mother. I'm walking with my son, who is now a year and a half old, to a music class a few blocks from where we live. I push his stroller around the corner and see a woman of about 65 stumble from a crookedly parked sedan. "Am-boo-lance!" she shouts. "Pliz, somebody call an am-boo-lance!" Marine Park is a residential Brooklyn... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/love-poisoned/47575/ Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST A call comes in for an "injury." I frown at the computer screen mounted between our seats. "A little more information would be appreciated," I tell it. Down a few lines, I see it mentions a husband and wife in some sort of family dispute. I radio dispatch to confirm that the police department is also responding. I don't want to get cracked over the head with a beer bottle. Bronson complains about the street where the job is. "I always have strange jobs there," he says. "Obese EDPs, old ladies... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/far-from-home-a-hard-fall/47112/ Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST We get a call for a "man off the roof" in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn. He is in a driveway between two houses where renovation work is being done. Bronson doesn't for a minute doubt the legitimacy of this job, and neither do I. It rings too true in this neighborhood buzzing with active real estate sales and frequent home improvement. "Betcha he's an illegal," I say. Sure enough, we find a Mexican day-laborer kneeling on the concrete with his head to the cement. We often see illegal aliens... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/sick-baby-brings-worry-to-all/46696/ Mon, 15 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST A call comes in to back up medics on a small, dead-end street in Sunset Park. It's a pediatric job, a "diff breather." I read the computer screen mounted between our seats. "A 3-month-old baby," I tell Bronson. "Damn it," he says. His wife is due in two weeks, and he's jumpy. He hates pediatric jobs because they remind him of everything that can go wrong with a newborn. I check the computer screen again. I've never heard of the street. Neither has Bronson. I check our map as he starts driving... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/death-as-another-day-in-life/46233/ Mon, 8 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST It's about 4 p.m. when a call comes in for a "male unconscious." The call angers Bronson — not because it might be legitimate, but because such calls usually aren't. They're usually for someone either passed out drunk, or awake and belligerent. Such calls test the patience of emergency workers and, after a few years, can make us feel burned out. "Why do we do this job, anyway?" Bronson asks, and then proceeds to answer his own question: "No reason." He sweeps his hand over the scenic backdrop... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/cultured-cokehead/45329/ Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EST It's 1 a.m. on a chilly night. Bronson and I are sound asleep in the ambulance with the engine running and the heat going when the call comes in for an "MVA with injuries" — a motor vehicle accident on Poly Place and Seventh Avenue, near Poly Prep and the Fort Hamilton Army Base, in Bay Ridge. Bronson and I have often driven around the elite private school's campus during the summer, watching the ducks waddle around by the pond. Now, it's dark. "This school is apparently fabulous," I say... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/army-of-one/44545/ Mon, 4 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I are listening to Christmas tunes on the radio and reading our newspapers — he the real estate section, me the gossip column — when the call comes in for a syncope. I squint and read the computer screen: "A 65-year-old Hispanic male who fainted." We fold our newspapers and respond to a three-story apartment building on a quiet, ugly street in Sunset Park. "This neighborhood needs a visit from the Avon Lady," I say. Bronson looks at the dilapidated structure framed by leafless... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/major-burn-and-island-dreams/44161/ Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I are driving around Surf Avenue in the cold, watching the trash blow along the windswept streets, trying to imagine what this place will look like when it's developed. "I hope the Shooting Gallery will stay," I say. It's where my husband took me on our first date, killing varmints and other Wild West critters with a plastic rifle, popping off fake rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, and saloonkeepers. "I like the Freak Show," Bronson says, pointing to the artsy murals painted on the side... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/artist-of-horror/43822/ Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST While working a night shift, Bronson and I are having Chinese food in Red Hook when we get a call for a "stab" in the projects. We stare at the computer screen mounted between our seats. "A genuine stab?" Bronson says. He wipes off his fingers and drives to the general vicinity. We don't need the exact address, as we see a bunch of police radio mobile patrol cars go flying into the projects. "Follow that car!" I quip. By the time we pull up to the exact building, PD already has the scene taped... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/parenthood-traumas/43349/ Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST "So," I say to Bronson, "it's getting pretty close." His pregnant wife, Rachel, is due in six weeks."Nervous?" He doesn't look up from the paramedic textbook he's studying, meaning he is nervous. "Yikes," I say, and return to the novel I'm reading. Before I can turn the page, we get a call to back up medics for a 19-year-old in cardiac arrest. "I don't buy it," I say. Genuine cardiac arrests are rare in the young. Hearts are strong muscles — the only things that weaken them are congenital... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/halloween-treats-from-an-irish-frankenstein/42963/ Mon, 6 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST Bronson has his nose buried in his paramedic textbook when we're called to back up medics on a "sick" — a 75-year-old woman who fainted but apparently is conscious again. I squint to make sense of the information on the KDT, the computer terminal mounted between our seats, but there's nothing else. Bronson slams his book shut and we drive to a small brick house on a tree-lined street in Marine Park. The leaves are falling and the front yards look idyllic in crimson and gold. Old jack-o-lanterns... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/beating-the-system/42516/ Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST The call comes in for an "unknown condition" in Flatbush. "No further," I tell Bronson, who as usual is driving like a caffeine-fueled madman. He whoops his siren to get through an intersection and some guy in a livery cab gives him the finger. Bronson instinctively goes to flip him the bird, but I grab his hand and hold it down. Bronson always likes to get even. But we're in uniform. "Cool it, Dirty Harry," I say. We pull up to an apartment building that has seen better days. "This place looks... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/customers-fisticuffs-and-korea/42082/ Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I get called for a man injured on 16th Avenue in Bensonhurst. Bronson's too busy driving to check the computer, so I tilt the screen and read the text aloud. "Seventy-eight-year-old male assaulted at the American Legion Hall. No further." As we head over, Bronson tries to figure out what happened. "Probably robbed and thrown to the ground." I stare at him. "That's precisely why you could never be a cop." He takes a turn too quickly and I hold onto the door handle for dear life... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/raisinettes-and-roaches/41620/ Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I are doing an overtime tour on a crisp fall evening. Thankfully, it's pretty quiet. "Gotta sleep," I mumble, bunching up my jacket and resting my head against it. I close my eyes. I open them and see Bronson taking out a portable DVD player and two movies he rented from Blockbuster. "I can never sleep on overnights," he says. Annoyed, I reply: "Apparently, neither can I." The DVDs are a romantic comedy and some cop movie with Cuba Gooding Jr. He attaches the player to one of those... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/living-large/41171/ Mon, 9 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST It's a beautiful Indian summer afternoon when the call comes in for an anaphylaxis — an allergic reaction. Our unit has been asked to back up medics. I tilt the computer screen mounted between our seats to read the job more clearly. Apparently, a 25-year-old male can't breathe and feels as if his throat is closing up. "Interesting," I tell Bronson. "I feel that way whenever I look at you." Bronson doesn't pay me any mind. He's psyched because he has never responded to a real anaphylaxis. The... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/explosive-situation/40739/ Mon, 2 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I are sitting at our 89 (our cross-street location) on a busy day when we haven't had much of a chance to catch our breaths.The shift has flown by and we have 45 minutes left — perfect time for a last job. A job in the last few minutes of the tour would result in overtime — something neither of us is looking for. When we get a call for an unknown condition on Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park, Bronson says, "Hope it's a quickie." Driving down Fifth Avenue, I say, "Doesn't look promising."... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/innocence-lost/40228/ Mon, 25 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST It's an overtime shift, and I'm working with Garrett, a 22-year-old who just started working as an EMT a month ago. He tells me he's hoping to gain some experience in dealing with patients in anticipation of starting medical school next year. It turns out to be a busy morning and Garrett handles himself pretty well on a couple of easy jobs — a teenage female with abdominal pain, and an elderly male with a broken arm. "If your medical skills end up being as good as your bedside manner," I tell... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/park-slope-shooting-gallery/39833/ Mon, 18 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I get a call for an overdose in what, while now ambitiously called Park Slope, is really just Fourth Avenue, a no-man's-land of auto repair shops and flats-fixed places. Supposedly, a 40-year-old male has overdosed on heroin and is in the basement of one of the dingy two-story houses covered in aluminum siding that can be seen nestled between the empty lots. En route, we talk about the 1999 movie "Bringing Out The Dead," which starred Nicolas Cage as a burned-out New York City... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/sad-progress-of-disease/39422/ Mon, 11 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I get a call for a "sick" in a third-floor apartment on Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park. En route, we drive past one edge of Greenwood Cemetery. "I've always wanted to visit," I say, looking at the stone gargoyles. "Me too," Bronson says. "So many places to see in New York that you never do if you're from here." I sigh. "I've never been to the Statue of Liberty." "I've never been to the top of the Empire State Building." He pauses. "I've been to the top of the Twin Towers, though."... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/egg-rolls-a-shady-spot-and-a-snorer/38213/ Mon, 21 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I are deciding what to eat on one of our rare evening shifts. We both hate these tours: the rush hour car accidents, people overeating at dinner and having chest pain, people getting drunk after dinner and getting into fights, sometimes with weapons. It's the worst time frame for glimpsing humanity in any neighborhood, affluent or crumbling. Bronson is thinking aloud. "Cold cuts and potato salad," he is saying as the call comes in for a "priority 1," the most urgent of calls, almost... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bronson-steps-up/37805/ Mon, 14 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST It's nearing the end of our shift, and Bronson is psyched: Today is going to be his first ambulance rotation since starting paramedic school a few months ago. He's going to be riding with paramedics at one of the area hospitals, performing such skills as EKGs and starting IV lines. Meanwhile, I'm disappointed to have to be doing an overtime shift with a new person — Bronson and I had agreed we'd do it together. I hate new partners. They're tedious: the long silences during down-time, working... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/heatstroke/37393/ Mon, 7 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST Technically, I was on vacation during last week's heat wave, spending the week at my mother's place on the shore with my husband and year-old son. That ended when the phone rang and it was Bronson, who sounded frantic as he said he needed the day off to accompany his wife, Rachel, to the doctor for an amniocentesis. No one would work for him, so he called me. Loyal partner that I am, I drove in for the day — the hottest of the year — and have been regretting it ever since. I called him on my... EUGENIA KLOPSIS http://www.nysun.com/new-york/words-fail/37022/ Mon, 31 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST Bronson and I are chatting up a storm on a hot, dry day. Bronson is a great conversationalist because he thinks he knows everything but really doesn't know a thing, so anything he says can be argued in a variety of ways, which appeals to my creative streak, as well as to the devil's advocate in me. I'm telling him why organic farming can never work on a worldwide scale, and he is getting madder and madder. "Breathe," I calmly remind him. The radio comes alive with a Fire Department conditions...