I haven't written an EMS related post in a while. The title of this post is indicative of the amount of activity I've been around recently.
The past 5 days have been pretty busy both locally and in the Boston area. Busy enough, in fact, that I can't keep track of a lot of what's been going on, as far as work is concerned. That said, some highlights include:
-- Three cardiac arrests
-- A rollover where the driver extricated himself and ended up being arrested for DUI. I actually felt a little sorry for this character
-- A car into a house. The driver was a diabetic and his blood glucose levels were low, causing him to pass out
-- An interesting case of mental status changes. The patient had both Dementia and Asperger's, and trying to communicate with him was really challenging. Turns out he was profoundly septic
-- A city hit. I don't do many of those; in fact, I think I've done three in five years of working in Boston, and this patient was both sick (dehydration secondary to an infected gall bladder) and stubborn; he wanted nothing to do with us
These are calls I was involved in. There were other incidents that I wasn't involved in that I know of that I can't really talk about, as much as I'd like to.
I have to believe this is indicative of weather changes. It was extremely hot for a few days. Meterologists were calling it a heat wave due to the 90-plus degree temperatures over three or four days. As I write this, however, it is much drier and cooler outside. I am not complaining. Over the next few days more weather changes are coming. And I wouldn't be surprised if the types and number of calls vary over that time.
We'll see. And I'll pay more attention so that I can comment about them.
2 comments:
It always amazes me how something as simple as a UTI can cause profound mental changes in an elderly person.
UTIs and septic shock used to be one of the top non cardiac causes of death in elderly males. I don't know if those stats have changed, but those patients can get septic very quickly.
Walt, I don't have much sympathy for drunk drivers. Very few of them get caught the first time they do it and many are repeat offenders. Especially in MA, which has a reputation of being easy on drunk drivers despite what's written in the law.
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