Honolulu Emergency Services Department, EMS

My LCL ligament snapped the minute I stepped into TheBus. «Pop!» Hopping on my one good leg to avoid the excruciating pain, I managed to shove my money into the fare machine and wrangle a transfer from the driver, before clinging onto the bus grip handle for dear life.
The least useful slip of paper, ever. Because, in an hour, I’d be carted off the vehicle by two of Honolulu City and County’s finest paramedics – tough, smart women working for 911’s Emergency Medical Services.
By the time my husband called the City’s bus line – saying that I had boarded in Hawai’i Kai but hurt my calf badly, unable to walk or de-​bus on my own, and that I had been texting him furiously from the seat to which I’d managed to limp over, neither capable of walking back over to the driver 10 feet away from me, nor of shouting out my situation through the loud crowds of rush-​hour commuters – we were in Waikiki.
TheBus supervisor had checked out my leg and decided it better to hail 911, as it would take too long for my husband to get off from work and reach the hotel where the bus was temporarily stopped, and as I couldn’t exit on my own, even if he were to arrive. I wasn’t sure what was wrong exactly; at that point, I couldn’t walk without sharp pain, and felt I’d needed professional help. [Plus, they had to run a business, and the stopped bus – now emptied of passengers – was then a half-​hour behind on the daily transportation schedule, so I get that.]
Thus: the first ambulance ride of my life. Floaty, in pain, and kinda perversely fun. Rolling with the homies, as if above the earth, down the bus steps («there’ll be a slight bump ma’am»: bump!) and up into the hearselike white vehicle with orange trim. Watching the city recede from me backwards, because, duh, I was in head-​first. Woo-​hoo! I felt like a victim character in a TV procedural. Where da crime detective at?
The two EMTs were both women, a haole looking one and a local-​ish one, both in their late 30s to mid 40s. Pleasant and calm, they made professional introductions of themselves, asked me my name, then, step-​by-​step, had me explain what had happened. This querying continued throughout the de-​bussing and the ride to Straub – with them changing the questions slightly – so that by the time we arrived at the emergency room, they had a multiply confirmed narrative that theorized exactly where the injury was and what might’ve been the cause, for the receiving nurses and staff.
They were super careful, checking first to make sure there was no injury to the knee itself, feeling it gingerly and asking questions of what hurt or was uncomfortable. Helped me from my seat up to the cart, giving logistically specific advice on how to move in calm and clear voices, to minimize my anxiety. Took of my shoe and sock, making sure to leave it on the ambulance bed between my feet, so as not to lose it, and asked whether an ice pack would help (it did; they put one below and one to the side of the knee, as I’d advised). Let me keep my bag right next to me, and were as non-​invasive as possible when taking all my vitals (blood sugar, blood pressure, heart rate) and making sure those instruments stayed on properly during the ride. The one that drove made me feel reassured by saying that she was going to leave the bed area, before exiting the back to get around to her seat; the one that accompanied me through our non-​sirened (‘cuz really, it was not a super emergency, though I missed the sexiness of being the source of that classic, urban-​noise opportunity) route, performed her duties while walking/​crouching in the back of the vehicle as it moved, adjusting the equipment and my cold pack, asking me more questions as I’d responded with comfort or pain noises, making me appreciate her balance and dexterity and awareness, like a kind of skateboarder-​nurse.
When they handed me off to the Straub staff, before leaving, they made sure to say goodbye, and one informally told me how the visit would proceed from there, including her informal prognosis of what it might be (best case, tightness of the muscle, and you’ll be back on your feet in a short time; worst, a tear in the ligament).
Overall, super informative, efficient, reassuring, and compassionate – just what this panicked and hurt body needed in that short time. Thank goodness for our city’s EMS!