Preserving Memories Over Life
My mother was in a very serious car accident when I was a teen. An old couple was on vacation and weren’t paying attention, drifted into my mother’s lane, and nailed her head on.
They had a four-ton mega-vehicle, whereas my mom was driving a Toyota Tercel (a subcompact car). The other driver had a nosebleed, and his wife was fine. Meanwhile, paramedics needed to cut my mom out of the car with the jaws of life.
Other Driver: *To the paramedics.* “Excuse me!”
Paramedic: “Sir, please wait. We’ve established your injuries are not life-threatening, and we need to cut this woman out of her car.”
Other Driver’s Wife: “We’ve lost our camera.”
Paramedic: *Focusing on cutting my mom out of the car along with his team.*
Other Driver’s Wife: “Excuse me! I said we’ve lost our camera!”
Paramedic: “Ma’am, that is not a priority!”
Other Driver’s Wife: “Well, it is, because it has all our vacation photos on it!”
Paramedic: *Going back to focusing on my mom.*
Other Driver’s Wife: “I said, excuse me—”
Paramedic: “Ma’am! Go away! Cutting a woman out of a car and getting her stabilized for the ambulance ride is more important than your vacation photos! Just be glad you don’t have any serious injuries!”
Other Driver’s Wife: “How rude! What do we pay our taxes for if the emergency services don’t provide a service?”
My mom is a little hazy on the details, but she recalls there being some firemen there at the time (they’re the ones that had the equipment to cut her out of the car), and one of the firemen turned to this woman and said:
Fireman: “Ma’am, do you have a concussion?”
Other Driver’s Wife: “What? No?”
Fireman: *Holds up a heavy piece of equipment.* “Want one?”
She backed off and tried to get her husband to defend her honor, but he saw sense and must have told her to calm down, as they stayed away for the rest of the time it took to get my mom into the ambulance.
She was fine, by the way. The car was a wreck, but she managed to escape with just scrapes and bruises.
