ER deli

I saw the Medical Director from one of the city's major trauma centers in my deli. Just the other week my ambulance unit worked with him covering an athletic event in the city. We had brought him an unstable patient with an altered mental status. The patient stabilized and the doc said he would get in touch with us to let us know the final diagnosis. But now, what was Doc doing in my deli?

I was just about to say "hi!" when shyness struck me. What if he has no idea who I am? Will he remember me? I may feel stupid having to explain to him who I am, he must see hundreds of EMTs every week. Also, I looked kind of unkempt wearing the t-shirt that I'd slept in last night, my old sneakers with holes in them (you can see the top of my big toes), and my shorts covered with cat hair, front and back. So I kept my head down, filled my cup with coffee and darted out of there.

This morning I was in the deli again, wearing the same sneakers, shorts, and the t-shirt that I'd slept in, when I heard someone shout out the name of the ambulance unit I belong to. I turned around. It was the doctor - he remembers me! And he knows which unit I'm with. "Heeey, how are you?" the doc said. "Good, good, and you?" I answered, and he said "Did you get any other good calls that evening?" And I said "Yeah, we got a nice cardiac call" and he said "Not from the event I hope?" and I said "No, no it was unrelated, so you're off the hook." And then we small talked about this and that and it turns out that he lives in the neighborhood too.

I totally feel important and cool, like I'm part of New York City's medical community at last. Just sharing a deli with this man gives me bonus points. Totally.