Maybe going postal?

there won't be much restful if any sleep at the station tonight. i wrote Monday about the woman who had a massive stroke. We transported her 78 miles i think, it was a long run there and back. When we got back, a crew from the competing ambulance company was here visiting with our dispatcher. this always aggravates us as we need our sleep, this is our station and that is rude and inconsiderate, the phone alone wakes you up as it may be a distress call but we dispatch several stations so the phone rings all night long.

I got a call at home last night, it was the dispatcher giving me a heads up. someone had broken into the administrator's office and stolen, then shot up all of the morphine that was stored in there. They left a bloody syringe, an empty ampule and a bloody piece of gauze. He was telling me that we were going to get drug tested in the morning. I told him that I would just quit because I take hydrocodone for my knee and all opiates show up the same. I wasn't going to take a test that I knew I would fail and lose my certification.

the second in command called me and told me to drive to Beaumont, almost an hour away and buy some of the stuff that cleans you out and masks it. I told him no, I was drunk and was not driving. He asked me to get my wife to do it and i told him that she doesn't drive due to seizures. That I would simply quit and have another job before I left town. He called the owner then called me back telling me that it was OK, I wouldn't have to take the test.

The funny thing was that my partner asked me if the administrator looked messed up, that his eyes were red and he was slurring. i really hadn't noticed but the day dispatcher and the office staff noticed it too and even asked him about it. He was hanging onto the door frame and weaving. also, he just got off probation for shooting drugs in the back of an ambulance while on duty. ?All fingers were already pointing at him when he called he said that he fell down that night and called an ambulance. They gave him morphine and the hospital gave him dialaudid, a powerful narcotic. But, he wasn't even limping when he finally showed up today.

He at first refused the drug test, then agreed. everyone else had to submit urine, he had to submit urine, blood and take a polygraph. He then hung around the station looking and acting very depressed. There is little doubt in everyone's mind that he did it. He got so stoned, he even left his blood in the office. The doors are glass, who would break in, then take the time to sit there and shoot drugs behind a glass door while we were sleeping in here? Three of us? a real thief would have taken the drugs and left.

So now, he is facing losing everything. I trained him years ago, he knows nothing else. He will lose his job, his career, his home and his truck. Jobs are hard to come by, especially if you have to explain a six year gap in your employment record. The Texas Department of Health will yank his certification, he is still listed in the back of the monthly newsletter. I really wouldn't be surprised if he put a gun in his mouth tonight.

I'd be even less surprised if he came here first and took it out on us. We have the local police on alert as he was not in his right state of mind today and is about to lose everything. We won't be getting any restful sleep tonight, if any.

Why didn't you call me I'd run it out to you

I didn't need it. what I told them was true, I could quit here and be working before I left town. I've been doing this for 18 years now, paramedics are few and far between. The good news is I'm still alive, I don't know about him, this is all he has ever done. But he was busted shooting morphine in the back of an ambulance on duty, then you give him the keys to the narcotics cabinet and complete inventory control?

Well, he is still reporting to work until the test results come in. If they do the more expensive nanogram test he is gone I'm pretty sure. Drug tests can be cheap or expensive, they all will detect the presence of drugs. But what Mobil used to do was cut the sample in half and run it. If you rang the bell for opiates and had a prescription for hydrocodone as I do, they would then send the other half in for the more expensive test. It measures the exact amount of the substance in your system.

Take Vicoden, if you do two a day as prescribed, you will reach then maintain a level of say 200 nanograms in your blood or urine. If you save them and abuse them by taking four at a time then get a test, you might show 850 nanograms proving that you were abusing them. So even though he called an ambulance and got 3-5 milligrams of morphine and 5 of dialaudid at the hospital, if he did shoot up 20-40 milligrams of morphine on top of that, his level will be a lot higher.

We went shopping in Jasper yesterday and I took my wife to eat crawfish right across the street from the station. I dropped in to wash my hands and use their bathroom and one of my friends said they "sent the tests off, that doesn't sound good." so I think they are doing a nanogram count, at least on his.

He showed me his drug test, it came back negative but as a "Diluted Specimen" which means it was either diluted with tap water or internally by drinking a lot of water prior to the test. He actually showed up in a uniform Tuesday in a really good mood because of the negative test. Someone asked him why he was wearing a uniform and he said he had to go to the police station to look over the statements.

When he got there they promptly arrested him, put cuffs on him and charged him with theft and possession of narcotics.

He will lose his certification and probably go to jail. He left a bloody syringe in the office so they have his DNA.

Ohhhh, wow... I replied to your msg before I saw this. Holy batshit. Dadgummit, I hate that this has all happened. Poor kids. This sucks for them.

I think he got stoned and forgot the syringe was in there. There was a bloody gauze also. I hate it for him, I taught Drew and liked him. He was a kid in my eyes and too young for the job, but still liked the guy.