It had been raining for about two weeks, so the canyons in the city were really wet and had a lot of new grass. We got a call about a girl screaming for help from the bottom of one of those canyons. We rolled out, and when we arrived we did find a girl down there. The paramedics went down and checked her out.

This girl had decided to commit suicide so she brought drugs down there with her and planned to overdose, but on her way down she stepped on a big thorn. It went into her toe and hurt so bad that she screamed for help. That is what got us there. We had to carry down one of those sled-like fiberglass gurneys that you can strap people to. We strapped her in, and then we had to carry her up the side of this canyon. It was all rocky and wet, so it was unstable. On the way up, we slipped and hit the rocks underneath the grass, and both myself and my Engineer tore ligaments and cartilage in our knees. 

After that run, the girl was taken to the hospital where the thorn was pulled out of her foot and she was sent home. Me and the Engineer also went to the hospital and had to have our knees operated on. We were out for about three months each! That’s one time when we ended up with more injuries than the patient did.