[Editor’s note: The River Reporter welcomes a new feature by Sam Avrett to our monthly health section. Ambulance Chronicles will introduce our readers to the ambulance corps members who respond to medical emergencies in the Upper Delaware River region and the people who need their help in a crisis situation. We salute all of the men and women who volunteer for this important work in our local communities.]

Taking history

“Take a history.” That’s the phrase used by ambulance crews for a series of questions aimed at quickly learning a patient’s history and the context leading to an illness or injury.

A flurry of unseen acronyms guide us, but the questions are conversational. What medicines are you taking? Do you have any allergies? When did you last eat or drink? What were you doing when it happened? Was it sudden or gradual? Did anything make it better or worse? When did it start and how did it feel? Has this happened before?

In just five minutes, you can learn a lot about someone. In every ambulance call, the crew takes up some history. They hear about pain. They hear a story. They witness lives at a point of change.

The older couple, kids now grown and moved away, now facing age as they live in the midst of memories of younger times. A younger person with an injury that even after healing will leave an ache or a scar that they will carry for the rest of their lives. A person heading to hospice. A person unable to live at home any more. An era has passed. Past moments are gone.

The ambulance crew collects history, and history passes as the ambulance leaves. The ambulance call marks an inflection point at which time takes a curve. Nothing will be the same as it was. It never is.