Open Day

If there ever was a time I was really envious of someone else's job, then last Wednesday has to be it.

There was a family day/medical transport demo at the airport to display our fleet of emergency transport vehicles. There was an ambulance, one of our 3 choppers, and 3 fixed-wing planes. With free mugs, brats and soda. The turnout was bigger than I expected, mainly moms and dads being lugged around by their kids. Prancing about excitedly, wanting to sit in the ambulance or chopper.

And then I came along. While everyone else was taking pictures of their kids, I had MY camera, and asked people to take pictures of ME.

And I was prancing about. The ambulance was pretty well-equipped. Never had the chance to look inside our Malaysian hospital ambulances, but I've worked in the St. John's ambulances before. Which were essentially just vans with 2 stretchers and a siren. These ones had the whole nine yards. Oxygen, intubation kits, ambu-bags, medications to run a code, computer, suture kits and a defibrillator.

The creme de la creme for me, obviously, was the chopper. Strangely enough, all 3 of our choppers have the same name. M*yo 1. Basically, a flying mini ER. Crew of 3, with GPS navigation, night-vision googles. And their oh-so-cool blue flightsuits. The choppers have two large 45-degree blades on the front of the cockpit to guide cables away into 2 cable-cutting mechanisms. For instances when they inadvertently fly into some cables. The pilot tells me he has not yet done this, nor does he completely trust the mechanism, but he's seen it on the promotional video.

The flight crew was truly the envy of most of the men there, fathers and kids alike. And they friggin' knew it. Standing proudly beside their chopper answering questions, they all had this knowing look.

"Yup, I bet you really want my job. Well, too bad. Nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh".

The bastards. And suddenly my job seems stale, boring and normal. It doesn't seem fair that endocrinologists don't get to be on the crew. I mean, who knows, maybe a trauma victim might need an emergency thyroid biopsy? Or cardiac patients with hypothyroidism? After all, they ALL get amiodarone anyways.

Also got to look at our planes. There were 3 total, though I think only one technically belongs to us. Wasn't exactly the cush private jet feel inside the cabin. Instead, I felt a bit claustrophobic. After all, the ventilators and other medical equipment take up space.

4 lucky buggers had their names drawn for a free 20-minute flight around the city. Naturally I was lucky enough to get a place to stay on Mother Earth to take pictures. After all, it's cramped inside. And probably infested with MRSA. So it was good that my name wasn't drawn.

Sigh.

Boys and toys. And I didn't even get a bloody free mug/T-shirt.