Garfield Lady

So, I'm with a Basic and we get called out for a possible DOS at, of course, 4am. Enroute, we're told that the family is attepting CPR. Get on scene and find the guy on the back porch upstairs. Of course. He couldn't be in the front yard or something. So we start working and have to use a scoop stretcher to carry him through the house, down the stairs, and down to the stretcher.

As we are walking through the house, multiple family members are standing around crying and screaming. Not just talking or wailing, actually SCREAMING. One of the women is repeatedly screaming "Daddy!" then states "I'm going with him! I'm going with him!" and tries to get to the doorway. I told one of the cops that was with us, "Do NOT let her in the ambulance. We do NOT need that on the way to the hospital." She tells me, "Don't worry. Already taken care of" and nods at another officer who is moving to intercept the woman.

We get the guy loaded up and have one firefighter in back and one firefighter in front to drive us the 15 miles to the hospital. As I'm telling the FF up front that we are ready for him to start driving, I hear some yelling outside the back of the ambulance and a thump. I tell the FF to hold up and open the back door and look down toward the street.

At this point, I'm expecting to maybe see family standing there wanting to know what hospital we are going to, PD asking if we needed the patient's name, etc etc.

So, I look down, then look straight up. Eye-level with me is a woman, standing on the back bumper, holding on to the window pane on the other back door, screaming now and praying. It took me a minute to full comprehend that there was really somebody standing on the back bumper of the box. She looks like a very big Garfield cat with those little plastic things on their paws that hold them on to car windows

Me: Ma'am, please get off the bumper. We need to go to the hospital.

Garfield Lady: screaming and praying

Me: Ma'am, get off the ambulance. We need to go.

Garfield Lady: more screaming

Me: Let go of my ambulance! Get off!

Garfield Lady suddenly lets go of the window like somebody just popped the little sucker-things off the paws of one of the stuffed animals. She falls backwards, is caught by a family member, and continues to wail and scream.

So, we get to the hospital and he's still dead. The ER staff had to call for extra security because the dozen family members that showed up were SO hysterical and screaming so much that it was causing issues at the ER.

We ended up leaving right as the doc told the family that they'd pronounced him. We were standing outside the ER, and through TWO sets of doors, we could STILL hear the family scream.

I needed ice cream after that call.