Today was a little different than most..... First off, I worked the day shift in Boston. That in itself is unusual - normally I wouldn't work on a day other than Thursday, but I need the day off this coming Thursday to go to court. I went a week ago Monday because I was subpoenaed to testify against someone who I didn't remember, but that day jury selection only. I'm still trying to figure out why I was requested to appear on that day, but I can't. All I know is that I was re-subpoenaed to go back this coming Thursday.
Yesterday I received a telephone call from the county attorney prosecuting the case, and when he told me some of the details it came back to me - large Sudanese male beats up on his small Manchester-resident girlfriend, who happens to be pregnant with his child. He broke her collar bone and gave her a body full of bruises. We had a hard time locating her because she wasn't at the address we were dispatched to initially, but we did ultimately find her. We treated her and transported her to the hospital at that time.
Until I was subpoenaed I'd put it out of my mind. Then I was reminded of the circumstances of the case, and now I have to deal with it.
Today's Boston shift started out rather interesting in its own right - just outside of the base station property one of our neighbors got beaten by his brother with a baseball bat. The victim's wife and baby son were outside with him when we got there, probably 2 minutes after the shouting and screaming started. Our patient, a 23 year-old male, was pretty wrecked; he had bruising on his rib cage (all the way around) as well as a head injury. We wasted no time getting him out of there as within a minute or two of our arriving two Boston police units pulled up as well as one of Boston EMS's ambulances.
We immobilized our patient, got him on high-flow Oxygen, got IV access, and put him on our cardiac monitor. No arrythmias present other than his being tachycardic in the 130's, equal chest rise and clear lung sounds, non-tender abdomen, and stable extremities. Just lots of discomfort when he took a breath. Considering the beating he took this was understandable.
Afterward we got a visit from one of the Boston supervisors; apparently this is a problem home that they (and the Boston PD) go to on a regular basis. We didn't know about it, and information about places like this doesn't show up on Cataldo Boston's CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) system. I believe it shows up in Somerville, however - perhaps after this it will be filtered over to us as well. And since we're moving to Roslindale from our current Dorchester location over the next 2-4 weeks, it would make sense for us to see it.
More to follow at another posting.
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