Not as Safe as it Seems
By Audrey W.
“So is that everything?” John Gage asked as he leaned over and looked at the items in the grocery cart.
The dark-haired paramedic and his partner Roy DeSoto were on an errand to buy food for lunch at Station 51, where they were currently on duty. Marco Lopez, an engine crew member assigned with them, was going to be fixing a Mexican style meal. But he’d forgotten about the promise he had made the previous duty to prepare the special food for his shiftmates and hadn’t brought the necessary ingredients to work with him. Thus the paramedics volunteered to get them.
Roy eyed Marco’s list, then glanced in the cart.
“We forgot the ground beef.”
“We did?”
“Uh huh.”
“How could we forget that? Wasn’t it at the top of the list?”
Roy shrugged. “I guess we got ahead of ourselves.”
“Well, let’s go,” Johnny said as he turned the cart and headed in the other direction. Roy followed, still reading over the list to make sure they hadn’t missed anything else.
As he came around the end of the aisle, Johnny noticed a little three-year-old girl standing in the basket part of her mother’s cart. There were only a few food items in with her. Enjoying the ride, the child pressed her belly against the front top edge of the buggy as her mother continued to push it. Suddenly the young woman brought the cart to a stop when she spied a great sale price on bread.
Caught off guard, the child fell forward and teetered on her belly as she tried to regain her balance. Johnny let go of his cart and shot forward as he hollered, “Roy!”
The older paramedic looked from the list in time to see his partner lunge toward the child who was now falling head first. But Gage couldn’t get there before the girl grabbed the bottom of the wire frame of the basket with her small hands. She flipped over and her feet hit the floor, her hands still clutching the cart, arms outstretched.
Roy had rushed over as well and arrived just as Johnny scooped the girl up in his arms when she released her grip.
“Oh my baby!” the stunned mother cried out.
“You okay sweetheart?” Johnny asked, but the child just wailed and reached out for her mother. She appeared to just be scared so he handed her over, where she was hugged tight by the relieved woman.
“Man, that was a close call,” Johnny stated as he and Roy continued on.
“Too close.”
“If she’d come down on her head. . .”
“Tell me about it.”
The two relieved partners were just glad their simple errand hadn’t turned into an unexpected rescue.
This is based on a true incident. A little boy fell out of a cart because his sister stopped it suddenly and he didn’t expect it. I was working and couldn’t get to him in time to stop him from falling. Scared the heck out of me. He too saved himself. *Whew!*
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