July/August 2004

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

MEDIC!

Michael Blanding originally wrote a version of this piece for the February 20, 2003 Boston Phoenix, reprinted with permission. For more information about the BALM Squad, visit www.bostoncoop.net/balm, or e-mail bostonmedics@riseup.net. Michael Blanding can be reached at michaelblanding@yahoo.com

Medic treating cameraman Carl Kesser, FTAA protests, Miami, FL, November 20, 2003. Kesser's son reports he was filming a police attack on demonstrators when a police-fired bean bag bullet entered his temple. He now suffers from paralysis on half his face, is considering a lawsuit, and is grateful to the medics who helped him. Photo: www.ftaaimc.org

My first exposure to the world of "street medics" was during a protest of the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement in Quebec City. I was standing in the middle of a plaza with a friend when a canister of pepper spray landed at my feet. Suddenly, my nose and throat were on fire; my eyes clenched tight as I stumbled blindly away. Out of nowhere, a stranger grabbed me and led me behind a wall into fresh air, pried open my eyes and flushed them with cold water, then stayed nearby until I could breathe again. Thankful doesn't even begin to describe my gratitude to whomever helped me that day. Nor am I alone. Street medics, also called "action medics," are a collection of doctors, EMTs, and ordinary civilians who have taken it upon themselves to offer medical care for crowds at progressive rallies and street actions. Since first forming in 1999, they have treated thousands of activists for tear gas and pepper spray burns, baton bruises, and other injuries.

"I'm surprised by how much our red crosses give us an air of authority, inspiring people to ask us for information about everything from the time of the march to the location of the bathrooms. "Sometimes I feel like Ms. Fix-It," says Dr. Eowyn Reike. "People look to us for answers on almost everything." She's only been running as a medic for nine months, though she's been going to demonstrations for longer. "It seemed like the perfect way to combine my formal training and political interests," she explains. "I had taken all these years of training, and it seemed like I could use that to help radical and progressive movements." When Reike first started as a medic, she was struck by the lack of hierarchy in the movement, and the emphasis on listening to what patients want instead of forcing treatments on them. "It was like finally finding a way to deliver health care in a way that I really believed in."

Though some lack formal credentials, many action medics actually see their movement as more rigorous than traditional emergency medicine. "We take it more seriously," asserts Brian Dominick, an EMT and street medic from New York. "They are just teaching you to pass an exam. We go in knowing that we'll be working with people in the streets." That doesn't mean street medics don't value professional paramedics, however.

Over and over the training stressed that our primary job is to get victims to further help, usually by calling 911. "It's not like we are keeping the EMTs at bay and saying, 'We found them first,' " says Dr. Michael Greger of the Boston Area Liberation Medics (aka the BALM Squad), Boston's medic collective. Oftentimes, it's just that EMTs aren't available, since police won't let them beyond their cordon into what they term an "unsecured area."

Police response is always the X-factor for medics, and it runs the gamut from open hostility to active cooperation. Sometimes medics are put in the strange position of mediating between police and protesters, recognized by their special status as "noncombatants." At times, they've been allowed to cross police lines or even enter jail cells to treat wounded activists.

Unique among medical collectives, BALM has also begun expanding its medical work beyond street protests to offer more day-to-day health care to underserved communities. Only a few days after returning from a protest in DC last September, BALM set up a roving clinic to support the citywide janitor strike. "It was great to see how resourceful we could be," says Kelly, who describes treating dozens of men, women, and children in makeshift examining rooms constructed of sheets and duct tape. Instead of tear gas and rubber bullets, Eowyn Reike and the other doctors in the clinic found themselves treating upset stomachs, back pain, and high blood pressure - at times introducing the janitors to new treatments like acupressure and herbal remedies. "It was a way to help people who are denied health care every single day," says Kelly. Currently, the group is organizing health-and-safety training for other progressive groups in the area and looking to reach out to more underserved communities.

As they talk about their plans, it's clear that many medics think of their movement as more than just a way to support protests. In their headier moments, they hold up action medicine as a more egalitarian counter-model to a mainstream health-care system that's becoming increasingly profit-driven. "We're really talking about people-powered medicine," says Ace Allen. "We're much more sensitive about things like informed consent, and about getting everyone's input before deciding on treatment. It really humbles people to be on the same level and work together democratically." On a more gut level, Greger remembers feeling something similar at the end of his first action, when the crowd spontaneously cheered for the medics as they were leaving. "You could see that we were all one big family taking care of each other," he says. "That's what our movement is all about."

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