The Ambulance Ride From Hell!

Journal Entry 2/19/05

So yesterday we're sitting there in the hospital and the doctor comes in. My five year old sister, Annah, is being transferred to Mount Sinai which is in Manhattan. We are told she will go by ambulance sometime that day.

So we sit around all day, waiting to go. Eventually the doctor comes in and says we are leaving at seven pm. Mom comes up with Jon. The decision is made that Mom will ride in the ambulance with Annah and Jon and I will follow with Momo driving the Durango. We're ready long before seven and are waiting when they come.

Annah was not happy about being strapped into the stretcher so begins screaming and trying to climb out. They manage to get her down to the ambulance but she climbed out and jumped into Mom's arms. The driver refused to transport her like this so they decided to try sedating her with the medicine that made her sleep before.

So they go into the emergency room with Momo while Jon and I stay in the Durango. It gets cold after a while, and we were worried about Annah, so we go inside. They sedate Annah and Momo and Mom say they are not going to NYC without a nurse since Annah has been given meds. So the hospital calls in Jamie, a PIC-U nurse we know. He has to come from home so it takes a little time to get ready to go again.

Meanwhile Annah takes a nap and wakes up calmer which is good. They take her out to the ambulance and load her and Jamie and the EMT and Mom up. Then the ambulance won't start. The driver had left the lights on and between that, and the cold, the ambulance just wouldn’t work.

Another ambulance comes and jumps ours but Jamie refuses to let Annah ride in the first one because what happens if the ambulance dies again in the Lincoln Tunnel. He is also mad because Annah is outside in the cold for over twenty minutes.

So they transfer everyone to the new ambulance and we finally get going. It’s now after ten pm and we were supposed to leave at seven.

By now the driver is pissed (of course she's the one who left the lights on) and she blows the lights with sirens on in town. Momo follows right behind her even though the lights were red. We did pass some cops but no one tried to stop us.

Once we got on the turnpike, she went 85 but Momo kept up with her. We got stuck in the toll booth (the ambulance had Ez-Pass) but Momo gave the attendant 5.05 (the toll was 3.05) and told her to keep the change because we were following the ambulance. Luckily Jamie had called and given us his cell phone number so we were able to catch back up with some crazy driving and cutting a couple of people off.

We got through the tunnel and managed not to lose them in the toll booth on the other side but once through the driver hit the lights again and tore through the streets.

Momo hit the gas and followed right behind, blowing the lights by leaning on the horn and going through. We could see Jamie and Mom moving around in the back of the ambulance but we couldn't tell what was wrong (it turned out Annah had a bloody nose and was upset). Momo said any cop who tried to stop us was just going to have to keep following us because her baby was in that ambulance and she wasn’t going to stop. We did pass a lot of police cars and one followed us for a few blocks but no one tried to stop us.

Once we got to Mt. Sinai, we parked in the garage on 99th Street and then went to the hospital. We followed a security guard to the elevator and then walked down a long corridor under the street and then up another elevator.

We came into the ward through the employees’ entrance. Jon and I were quickly shuffled outside to the waiting room since siblings are not allowed to stay in the ward. We played Tic Tac Toe and Squares while we waited for our parents. Jon rested for a bit towards the end.

After paying for our parking and getting out of the garage, we drove over to a gas station and then got directions from a police officer. It took so turning and we got lost a couple of times but we finally made it back to our home.

And that’s why I was up until four am this morning!