Some Updates

Additional information on some of the content I posted recently.

The 17 year-old we transported with the head injury ended up being put on a MedFlight helicopter and transferred to Children's Hospital in Boston. He was sent for a stat MRI due to some positive findings for a bleed in a head CT. He remained on the ventilator during the trip. That's all I know about that.

More on the shooting in Franconia. Gregory Floyd, a resident of Dalton (one town west of Franconia on the Vermont border) was the bystander who witnessed the shooting and stepped in to stop Liko Kenney, the person who shot Corporal Bruce McKay. Floyd is a former Marine (just like me - Semper Fidelis) which, at least in my view, makes the actions he took quite understandable. If you've ever been through Recruit Training, served in a combat arms position, or been under fire, then you would understand the drive that caused Floyd to act. Floyd got to McKay's weapon and shot Kenney before he could run McKay over for the second time, which is what he was trying to do when Floyd intervened.

There are many who would say that Gregory Floyd is a terrible person for shooting Liko Kenney. I totally disagree with that - regardless of who he is or who his family is, Liko Kenney did not have the right to open fire on Bruce McKay. He also didn't have the right to run him over multiple times with his car.

In my opinion it makes Floyd's actions not just understandable but heroic as well. Yes, I understand that he shot and killed another person. However, because the person he killed took out a police officer who was trying to do his job, his actions were justified. By virtue of what Floyd did, it's possible that he saved lives, and although it was too late for Bruce McKay, he stopped what could have turned out to be a much worse situation. That is what makes Floyd's actions heroic.

Enough said about that. I'm sure I have just garnered the anger of those who think Gregory Floyd is evil. That's okay; the last time I checked this is still the United States of America and we are all entitled to our opinions.

Yesterday's reverse-24 was extremely busy. I lost count of the number of calls we ran from 7:00AM to 5:00PM, but I want to say it was 7 or 8. Add that to the calls we did Sunday night into Monday morning (either 5 or 6), and that made for a busy 24 hours. The notable one I did yesterday was for a 53 year-old male complaining of bi-lateral arm heaviness. He had just been for a walk with a group of people around park containing playing fields (soccer, a baseball diamond, and I'm not sure what else) when he started not feeling well. Other than being legally blind the patient had no medical history, no allergies, and takes no prescription medication. He was pale and diaphoretic, denied chest pain or pressure, and had cyanosis around his lips. That in itself got my attention; it told me that he's not getting enough oxygen to his extremities or his capillary beds.

Immediately he was placed on oxygen and put onto our stretcher. When we got him aboard our ambulance we got a set of vital signs and put him on our cardiac monitor. He was bradycardic with a heart rate of 54 - another attention getter - so I obtained a 12-lead ECG. All I said to my partner was, "we gotta go - now" because he had ST segment elevation in leads II, III, and aVF with reciprocal changes in lead I and aVL. He also had elevation in V2-V5 with depression in V1.

It was an ugly looking ECG. What was really strange, though, was that he had no chest pain, and the arm pain he was having resolved on the way to the hospital. He still got 325mg of Baby Aspirin, IV access, and continued oxygen and cardiac monitoring. A repeat 12-lead post-symptom resolution was unchanged from the first one. I had transmitted the first ECG to the hospital en route, and when we arrived I showed the second one to the attending ED physician and the cardiologist who was waiting for us when we arrived.

I found out later that he went to the cath lab probably 20 minutes after he came in. I don't know what they found yet, however.

And the saga continues. I am working tonight in Goffstown, so we'll see if anything happens worth talking about.