Had a few days off due to my hockey schedule, picked up some overtime on the BLS transport... did a call for a 9 yr old heading home from Children's. The transport was across state lines so they needed to make sure that the whole crew was Ohio certified. Child was non-verbal with mental retardation due to trauma received at 5 weeks old. Apparently she was picked up by her legs and thrown several times. She now has daily multiple seizures and has had numerous hip surgeries.... now the enlightening part of all this was her caregiver who rode home with us up front with my partner. The main road off her street was under construction and she had no idea how to tell us to get to her house. What should have taken an hour took us 2 hours. I can hear my partner up front asking this woman, "Are you SURE this is the right road?"... "yes... yep, this looks familiar".... 10 minutes later I hear my partner, "Nope, this isnt the right road... its a dead end!" I think we might have passes the Clampets house somewhere along the way. I get paid by the hour, not the run... I didnt care.
Did a call for a drunky-poo who fell down and go boom. Call came in as a man being drug down the highway. We happened to be calling county for something else and they were asking us if we had seen anything since the area we were at was where this call was coming from. We hadnt. But 2 mins later we were dispatched to head back to the area, the PD had someone. Guy has only been in the country for a week.. no visible signs of trauma, and the only english he can mutter is "Drink Tequila". Apparently him being "drug"... was his buddy who also spoke very little English was the one dragging him OFF the highway. LOL
Did a call for chest pain. Guy self-administered 2 Bayer so he was a step ahead of me.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Tubing
Did a call for a 3yr old on a vent to go to his weekly chemo treatment. Also took him and mom back home a couple of calls later. I would venture to say that most EMS folks would agree that peds patients make us the most apphensive. And its just a matter of exposure. We dont get peds patients a lot so when we do get them, its a really new scenario each time it seems.
Did a call for a stat transfer from one hospital to another due to location of his cardiologist. He was on Heparin and Nitro drips, stable with chest pain still at a 3/10 after multi-doses of morpheine. My partner and I got him loaded and the trip was fine. We talked, yada yada yada... We're pulling into the place, and I'm disconnecting him from my monitor and I notice that his tubing is filled with blood. Not a completely unusal site except for the fact that both of his drips were on pumps. I happen to look down and sure as shit notice about 30cc all over the floor. My partner opens the back doors with this priceless "What'd you DO?" expression on his face. Apparently the tubing had gotten crimped in between the pump and the frame of the cot and had gotten sheared in half. What a mess. There was no way to avoid the wheels of the cot going through the mess.
Later on, my partner was in the back and almost the same thing happened. It was just a saline drip but this time the tubing got all wound up in the wheels and was spliced in half. Jeesh.
Helped another crew with a lift assist. Guy post-mva a week earlier still complaining of neck pain going from TCU to MRI. We see a c-collar just sitting on his bed. No one can tell us if his neck has or has not been cleared. The guy took it off himself because it was uncomfortable. We put it back on him. He wasnt a happy camper to begin with and my partners' "its my way or you're not going with me" presentation was enough to make him sulk. Funny.
Hockey practice went well. I only did drills, didnt stay for the scrimmage. Ankle was killing me and its been tight all day today. We have 3 games this weekend. One Friday and 2 back-to-back on Saturday. Hope we have a good end to the season and stay alive through the play-offs.
Did a call for a stat transfer from one hospital to another due to location of his cardiologist. He was on Heparin and Nitro drips, stable with chest pain still at a 3/10 after multi-doses of morpheine. My partner and I got him loaded and the trip was fine. We talked, yada yada yada... We're pulling into the place, and I'm disconnecting him from my monitor and I notice that his tubing is filled with blood. Not a completely unusal site except for the fact that both of his drips were on pumps. I happen to look down and sure as shit notice about 30cc all over the floor. My partner opens the back doors with this priceless "What'd you DO?" expression on his face. Apparently the tubing had gotten crimped in between the pump and the frame of the cot and had gotten sheared in half. What a mess. There was no way to avoid the wheels of the cot going through the mess.
Later on, my partner was in the back and almost the same thing happened. It was just a saline drip but this time the tubing got all wound up in the wheels and was spliced in half. Jeesh.
Helped another crew with a lift assist. Guy post-mva a week earlier still complaining of neck pain going from TCU to MRI. We see a c-collar just sitting on his bed. No one can tell us if his neck has or has not been cleared. The guy took it off himself because it was uncomfortable. We put it back on him. He wasnt a happy camper to begin with and my partners' "its my way or you're not going with me" presentation was enough to make him sulk. Funny.
Hockey practice went well. I only did drills, didnt stay for the scrimmage. Ankle was killing me and its been tight all day today. We have 3 games this weekend. One Friday and 2 back-to-back on Saturday. Hope we have a good end to the season and stay alive through the play-offs.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Everything's... possible
Got dispatched for a possible full arrest.. enroute are advised CPR is in progress. BLS squad is on scene and disregards us and calls the coroner in. Found out later that the patient had been gone for a good hour or so... I'm guessing chest compresisons might not have been to compliant.
Later we got called out for a CO overdose / possible suicide. We met the squad enroute to the hospital. The only working hyperbaric chamber is across the river so off we go. I seem to be having a run of brain-farts today. Jaws clenched - nope, not doing an ET. Started the Neo and dilating the nares for a NT and WHOA... patient is awake. No oriented.. but not uncon anymore. The word combative just doesn't do her justice. Her first sugar was 38. We had the EMT stick her again.. the other medic I was with had heard something about hypoglycemia coinciding with a CO OD. I had already drawn up the Glucagon and the Narcan was already on board. Her 2nd sugar, not more than 45 seconds later was 199. I need to do some of my own looking into this.
Still have another 15 hours or so before I am off. Have hockey practice tomorrow and while I shouldnt be playing, I miss it way to much to not go... It'll be good to test the ankle out.
In the middle of our ritual poker game on this shift we get called out for an MVA with multiple injuries on the highway. Remember passing by an SUV that looked like it had lost the war but everyone had self-extricated themselves. One refusal, one minor and one kinda of an iffy. Other squad took the minor, I took the other guy. Couldnt remember if he was restrained or not and found out enroute that it was a multi-rollover. He got the full work-up. He had a nice doozy of an abrasion on his shoulder which after putting everything together his shoulder was a contact point with the asphalt mid-rollover. Lucky his head didnt follow.
After tagging him with 2 large bore IV's.. I told him the real medics would be on board soon... we just stayed at a Holiday Inn the night before. He would probably be out of the trauma center within a few hours but with his mechanism, but who knows what's possible these days.
Later we got called out for a CO overdose / possible suicide. We met the squad enroute to the hospital. The only working hyperbaric chamber is across the river so off we go. I seem to be having a run of brain-farts today. Jaws clenched - nope, not doing an ET. Started the Neo and dilating the nares for a NT and WHOA... patient is awake. No oriented.. but not uncon anymore. The word combative just doesn't do her justice. Her first sugar was 38. We had the EMT stick her again.. the other medic I was with had heard something about hypoglycemia coinciding with a CO OD. I had already drawn up the Glucagon and the Narcan was already on board. Her 2nd sugar, not more than 45 seconds later was 199. I need to do some of my own looking into this.
Still have another 15 hours or so before I am off. Have hockey practice tomorrow and while I shouldnt be playing, I miss it way to much to not go... It'll be good to test the ankle out.
In the middle of our ritual poker game on this shift we get called out for an MVA with multiple injuries on the highway. Remember passing by an SUV that looked like it had lost the war but everyone had self-extricated themselves. One refusal, one minor and one kinda of an iffy. Other squad took the minor, I took the other guy. Couldnt remember if he was restrained or not and found out enroute that it was a multi-rollover. He got the full work-up. He had a nice doozy of an abrasion on his shoulder which after putting everything together his shoulder was a contact point with the asphalt mid-rollover. Lucky his head didnt follow.
After tagging him with 2 large bore IV's.. I told him the real medics would be on board soon... we just stayed at a Holiday Inn the night before. He would probably be out of the trauma center within a few hours but with his mechanism, but who knows what's possible these days.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
stand-still
Well once again I have managaed to bring one of the busiest medic units on the street to a screeching halt. Had one call all day and it wasnt even until 2am that we got the call. Ran a bunch of errands and got a decent poker game going with some of the other crews. Got called out for a possible allergic reaction but ended up being the flu. Woman was tach-ing away at 160, vomiting like no tomorrow... she had woken up with chills and uncontrollable shaking.. husband put her in a hot bath... I dont like treating wet patients who you cant tell if they're warm because they're feverish or because they just got out of a hot bath. After we got her into the ER, she was the 20th patient that night who came on with sudden flu-like symptoms.
Am working at the firehouse today and we've been pretty quiet here too... just a few of the standard.. WalMart sheered off a couple of sprinkler heads this afternoon.. a couple of MVA's... nothing noteworthy.
Doing another 24 tomorrow...
Am working at the firehouse today and we've been pretty quiet here too... just a few of the standard.. WalMart sheered off a couple of sprinkler heads this afternoon.. a couple of MVA's... nothing noteworthy.
Doing another 24 tomorrow...
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Such is life....
Its been a little while since I've posted. And a lot has happened. Had to take care of some issues in Florida so I was gone for a week. Stopped off in Atlanta on my way back since just getting through downtown took and hour and half. aahhh... ATL traffic. Uncle Don was as sweet and generous as ever letting me crash at hisplace with short notice. Meet up with some friends for a couple of drinks and had a good time. The next morning rushed home to try and make my hockey game... seems I'm always racing home from Atlant to make a hockey game. LOL. Peels Palace burned to the ground Friday night and had a several good alarms going on in the area all at once.
Worked a 36 starting on Sunday and finished off with breaking my ankle last night right before getting off shift. Such is life. I am hoping the ortho looks at the xrays and sees something else as I really cant afford to be off work for 2 weeks. Not to mention just sitting around doing nothing will drive me insane. I'm saying my prayers that the ortho will see it my way. I can hobble for a bit... According to the ER doc I fractured my calcaneous.. right in the core of the ankle where the tib-fib meets your heel. Its only unbearable when I'm sleeping for some reason. Am hoping I can go back to work SOON.
On Sunday all of runs were noting extraordinary. All of them were out in boo-foo, so transport times were up there, but just basic ALS assessment type of runs. Did a woman with general weakness who had a diabetic hx, a fall that turned into a witnessed seizure, another fall with diff breathing... OT shift on the last part of my 36 was steady but again nothing challenging.
So now begins my time off until otherwise notified. At least tomorrow we have a mandatory protocol review class and Thursday is a UC Air Care Conference.
Worked a 36 starting on Sunday and finished off with breaking my ankle last night right before getting off shift. Such is life. I am hoping the ortho looks at the xrays and sees something else as I really cant afford to be off work for 2 weeks. Not to mention just sitting around doing nothing will drive me insane. I'm saying my prayers that the ortho will see it my way. I can hobble for a bit... According to the ER doc I fractured my calcaneous.. right in the core of the ankle where the tib-fib meets your heel. Its only unbearable when I'm sleeping for some reason. Am hoping I can go back to work SOON.
On Sunday all of runs were noting extraordinary. All of them were out in boo-foo, so transport times were up there, but just basic ALS assessment type of runs. Did a woman with general weakness who had a diabetic hx, a fall that turned into a witnessed seizure, another fall with diff breathing... OT shift on the last part of my 36 was steady but again nothing challenging.
So now begins my time off until otherwise notified. At least tomorrow we have a mandatory protocol review class and Thursday is a UC Air Care Conference.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
