Primum non nocere- First, Do No Harm

摘要

IT HAS BEEN A QUIET AND RELATIVELY slow tour. There are two more hours to go on the back end of an 11 p.m.-7 a.m. graveyard shift. It is sometimes hard to work a slow overnight tour and stay sharp. Dispatch breaks the monotony with a "Delta" call for an unconscious/unresponsive male at a nursing home. You snap alert, dust the cobwebs off your partner, start the rig, and hit the lights and sirens. You weave your way through the early dawn traffic. As you approach a major four-lane intersection, it is gridlocked with traffic. You slow down, cross in to oncoming traffic, and take the first lane with caution. Then the second; you look left, right, and left once more. You move to take the next lane. The driver of a truck to your right yields to your approach. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a car appears from behind the stopped truck. You brace for the impending crash. Harm done.