Medicine: A Hard Day's Night in L. A.

Frantic family members and blinking squad-car lights surrounded Antonio Ramirez. Knocked down by a passing pickup truck, the six-year-old boy screamed in pain as he lay on a curbside patch of grass in a south Los Angeles County barrio. For paramedics Edwin St. Andrew, 27, and Walter Tayenaka, 32, summoned to an "unknown T.C." (traffic collision), the moment was routine yet unnerving. The boy briefly lost consciousness and appeared to have broken bones. They had to move him quickly to a hospital. "You never know about kids," explained St. Andrew. "They seem to be doing well, and suddenly they just drop."

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