Chicken Breath and Helium

I'm back to work or at least I was yesterday. My lungs sound like I'm blowing bubbles through a straw and I'm coughing up enough phlegm to feed a small country; eewwwww, nice thought huh? Ok, yes I'm coughing and yes, my lungs are fluidy but only at the very bottoms so it's not like I'm drowning in my own fluids just yet. But do I feel 10 times better than a few days ago when I had a fever and my remote control arm was too weak to hold said remote control up for more than 10 secs. Can we say dog crap anyone?

So my partner and I run several calls yesterday; not too crazy just steady and serious enough to not feel guilty about earning our paychecks. Well...until we got off shift 2 hours late this morning but I digress. One particular call set off my paramedic humor alarm. We responded to a difficulty breathing call. I walk up and a family member tells me~

"Chicken breath! Her helium no work!"

This was a Hispanic family that barely spoke English and what he was trying to say was:

"She can't breath. Her inhaler didn't work." The chicken breath part is just badly accented English but he actually said helium instead of inhaler. That was a first for me. Never heard anyone call it helium before! LOL! Me being me I made him say it a couple more times just to be sure it really was what I heard before I corrected him. I know I'm evil, hehe!