Special Delivery

As I've written about in the past, my general philosophy is that if you can get yourself into a car to be driven to the ER, you can get yourself out.  Nine times out of ten, when I'm asked to break my back lifting someone out of the passenger seat, I see the same person skipping out of waiting room once they have their discharge papers in hand.

So it was with my standard level of skepticism that I pushed a stretcher out to the large SUV idling outside the main entrance to the ER to help a gentleman lift his mother.  Instead of opening the side door as expected, however, the son popped open the trunk and revealed a makeshift bed of pillows resting over the folded-down chairs.  Lying atop the cushioning was an older woman covered in blankets, paralyzed from the neck down.  Not your typical mode of transportation for a quadriplegic, but effective nonetheless.

With a few extra set of hands, we managed to hoist the patient onto a draw sheet and slide her easily onto the waiting stretcher.  

Of course, the whole thing would have gone a lot more smoothly if we didn't have to fend off the four cats that accompanied the woman along for the ride.