Didya ever have one?? I did today - my Paramedic student had a better day than I did, I think. It started off at 7:30 this morning being dispatched to the front of one of the better known apartment buildings in the center city area for a fall. When we arrived on scene, there was a group of 4 or 5 people standing around this woman who was on the ground. She appeared to not be conscious or breathing. Sure enough, when we got to her she was indeed neither conscious nor breathing, and she had no pulse. The people that were standing around her had said she'd been to get groceries (there was a cart on the step landing full of plastic shopping bags) when she had "just fallen" when she was trying to open her door. First thing that went through my head was, "and none of you thought to start CPR???"
Mike, my Medic student, got to intubate her (successfully, I might add) and give one of the rounds of frontline cardiac drugs - I got the first round in while he was getting the tube and my partner was starting a second line. Unfortunately, there was electrical activity only - no pulse -and we were unable to defibrillate her. The ED staff called it about 15 minutes after we arrived because they weren't able to affect any changes with their interventions.
Second call was a two-car collision, one car impacting the right front side of another at an intersection and sending it into a traffic light pole. Total of four patients, only one went to the hospital with back pain and questionable loss of consciousness. Total immobilization, complete assessment, we took no chances.
Third was at one of the fine nursing home establishments in our fair city (I say that with my tongue firmly between my teeth) for an 89 year-old woman who, it turns out, had a severe stroke. She had all of the presentation for a stroke when we arrived on scene, and the nursing home had told us she had a blood glucose of 203. When we re-checked it in the ambulance, it was 20! Definitely not good - either their vitals were hours prior to her event happening or their glucometer is way off. In either case, we treated her for the hypoglycemia, as we were supposed to. When I found out her prognosis later on in the day, I suspect it wouldn't have mattered so much in the long run as her MCA or main cerebral artery had a bad bleed which clotted itself off. Unfortunately, it is only a matter of time.
We had two others, a "frequent flyer" with a history of asthma who wanted to be transported, and we helped one of the other crews on a public assist of a very large man.
Now that I'm home, I'm going to unwind myself and try to get a little bit of sleep. It has been a long, busy week. And it doesn't end until Saturday - more then.
3 comments:
Wow, what a week is right. That's pretty sad - the woman with the heart attack. I don't know how you do it. Hey, the Portugese post was interesting..I liked your reply. :) I hope all is well, I understand you had a visit with our mother. She enjoyed that. Talk soon..Jay
I'd say that's "one of those" days, to be sure. I'm living rather vicariously through your various day in the life posts...as a former Navy Corpsman (that was over 20 years ago), it's been a long while since I experienced the life and death dramas you're dealing with daily, but it brings back some interesting memories when I thought I was a young stud who could perform amazing medical feats....all in my mind, of course. It still amazes me that many people, when confronted with a dire emergency, still choose to do nothing....
There are truly days that I wish I were still an ignorant EMT-Basic; I didn't understand the ramifications of my actions and those of others back then as well as I do today. It makes for some good Monday morning quarterbacking, I can say that much.
Post a Comment