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It's been a couple of weeks ago that this happened, I wanted to wait and see what a specialist said about the whole thing before I wrote about it. On the 24th of February I was the lead medic on our ambulance here in Watertown. The morning was going slowly and we had just sat down to breakfast. The tones went off for a 2 car head on collision on the west side of town. No big deal, right? I didn't think so either. When we got on scene it was a mess. Two cars on the roadway were cracked up pretty good. I went to the drivers door of the closest car to start triage, I couldnt open the door. I could see blood on the window so I knew the guy was hurt. My partner was with the other car and had called for a second ambulance, basically going off of how bad the cars were. Our rescue truck and chief were just getting on scene as well. I tried the back door, locked, the other back door, locked also. The passenger door window was gone so I leaned in and talked to my patient. He was actually ok, just a cut on the lip. I clicked the door locks and went back to the drivers side. The doors still wouldnt open. I went around the front of the car this time back to the passenger window. As I walked by the passenger front of the car I noticed the battery laying there and didnt pay any attention to it. I took a breath and immediately felt my lungs burning, coughed and took another breath, again my lungs were on fire. I knew what had happened immediately, the battery acid had formed a cloud and I got a good dose of it. I was able to take care of my patient who eventually refused treatment or transport to the hospital. I got back to the station and went to the ER for an exposure. The ER Dr told me I had burned my lungs, gave me nebs to get my sats back up and then sent me home on an inhailer. I went to a specialist yesterday and have to stay on the inhailer and go back in 3 months. You never think of these things on a car accident, especially being on the EMS side of it. We all know about the dangers of our job, the smoke, the fire, things like that. It is a huge reminder about scene safety, even the small things can really hurt us. I am back to work and it seems to be going ok, I get short of breath easier now but the Dr thinks that I should heal up ok. Please, take a second look at scene safety, you can miss things and it only takes another second. Stay Safe, Steve Meyerink Watertown Fire Rescue.
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