Vehicle Vs. Child

This was my first memorable traumatic call I had. I was very new to the department, I'd probably only been on a month or two, hell I wasn't even an EMT yet. But in the interest of getting acquainted with the ambulance and your team you rode with and helped with the heavy lifting so to speak. Our call came in on a beautifully sunny weekend morning, as all calls do of course, the temp was very reasonable and with rather low humidity so naturally I loved it, granted the cool weather did little to cool me off through the course of this call.

Our patient was a little boy maybe 7 or 8 y/o, who had been struck by an SUV while riding one of those little motorized scooters through his neighborhood. It was the usual scenario, kid pulled right out in front of me kind of a thing, which you could tell had really messed with the driver. On our arrival we saw an SUV parked on the rode with the typical mob on their knees around it, right as we came to the vehicle, the first responders were actually dragging the kid from under and boarding him, they had already collared him while under the vehicle. What I found really quite amazing though was the seeing what all the fathers in the neighborhood at done. I can only imagine everyone heard the brakes as the driver attempted to stop and once they saw that a little boy was now trapped underneath they all brought out their floor jacks and lifted the side of the SUV. I keep envisioning that these dads put a NASCAR pit crew to shame as the frantically jacked the vehicle up.

As I exited the ambulance and brought along all the different trauma boxes and peds boxes I was taught to, I stacked them all on top of the cot and wheeled over towards the vehicle. I was met by a frantic teammate, the type that can't hold her shit together when the going gets rough. She unfortunately does a bad job of showing that being a nurse as well as an EMT is a good thing. When she's in her hospital on her turf she can handle things just fine, but put this gal in the field and she's like Yogi running around a picnic basket. She literally throws the boxes off the cot so when can strap him to it and load him in the ambulance. I pick up the boxes and follow the crowd back to the ambulance.

Just as soon as my butt hits the seat the driver hits the gas, hard!. With a scene time of about four minutes we weren't sitting to bad, granted we had a good 15 minute transport ahead of us. We quickly work ourselves into a frenzy, getting vitals and IV's and bandages and everything else that's par for the course. I get an IV setup thrown at me to setup, by the nurse, she's still has the picnic basket syndrome cooking. I set up the line and hang it while handing the end for her to grab, which is when I realise just how fast we are moving and quickly grab the oh shit handles on the ceiling.

The patient was not doing so hot though, he would barely respond to pain and was posturing quite excessively. Looking into his eyes is one of the most memorable moments, one pupils was completely blown and you could plainly see it without even lighting it. I shine the pen light into his left eye and they both start rocking from side to side, (just plain creepy man). A medic made a reference to dolls eyes and it made sense but also gave a clue as to the amount of damage this kids head had suffered. I don't recall his vitals being terrible bad giving the situation, the main injury being his head. He did nothing but rythmically moan the entire ride.

We arrive at the hospital, we've done everything we could do, now it's time for the docs to take over and work their magic. I was amazed at the ER style entrance we were given. Usually we unload our own patients, card ourselves through the doors and down the hall and wait for the charge nurse to get to us and then deliver our patient to a less than patient nurse. This time was a nice change of pace. We backed into our spot, kick open the doors to find the hospital doors being held open, with additional people to unload the cot. Everythings unhooked and ready to roll, we stride down the hall and right into the movie Outbreak, everyone is gowned, gloved and masked up, ready to dive in. We throw this kid to the wolves as it were and my medics give their reports'. In hind sight I so should have stayed to watch them work on this kid, at that time it would have been quite eye opening to see all that they do.

I return to the vacant shell of our ambulance that prior to this call was properly stocked and mostly clean. Wrappers covered every inch on horizontal space. Used alcohol pads, sterile water and 4x4's lay in an emisis basin. Our version of spent shell casing from the battle that was fought. We cleaned mostly in silence.

I didn't know what to feel about this call. I could not come to grips with the fact that it might not have meant anything to me. I don't have children, sure my sisters have kids but I don't have consistent contact with them that would breed any empathy. You could feel the fear in my teammates though, they had kids and through their eyes I could see the thoughts turning in their heads.

I certainly learn a lot. I act very cool under pressure. I actually was praised for that, they said I never wavered and remained calm, did what had to be done and did it quickly. Which being the one who likes to please, I found it a wonderful compliment.

I remember being floored thinking about my perspective of this call. I was really a forth person and did little in the way of patient care, but I was able to watch the this entire story unfold. We truly were a team, individually we might be weak but together we were a solid force to be felted. That day God pushed... and we pushed back.

The Pitfalls of Earning a Paycheck

Do you ever just sit at work and contemplate if jail could really be any worse? Here I sit in my cube, yes I'm only a paid on call EMT and firefighter, and it feels like a jail cell. At least I'd get fed on a regular basis if I were incarcerated, granted I guess I enjoy using the restroom by myself and the nightly comforts of my girlfriend as opposed to the great man-gina.

But damn man the walls are closing in.

Oh, Newbies

On the same topics as the last post I give to you this fantastic story.

Dispatched for a three vehicle accident, one party requesting evaluation. BLS.

No problem, I know the location, have a crew and we're on the road. We arrive to two medics who were nice enough to stop by and check it out. They give me the medic version of "This ain't my rodeo, cowboy," and they take their leave.

I'm left with myself, I will have to drive as the remainder of my crew cannot. I have one EMT currently in medic school and a student accruing clinical hours. The patient, being a nurse herself knew the extent of her possible injuries and had requested an ambulance due to the MOI and the advise of her father, a career firefighter medic himself. Sounded fair enough to me. Now she wasn't a small gal mind you, but not huge either, maybe a pleasant 220. We placed her on the back board after collaring her. She was all situated and strapped in, with a concerned look on her face.

"Ma'am just let us know if we can pad anywhere to make this more comfortable?"

Her response was a first for me.

"I know it's a strange question, but my boobs aren't hanging out are they?"

Now trying not to look at some one's boobs but being asked to look at some one's boobs created a rather uneasy feeling.

"They're big and the cleavage has a tendency to shift, so I just wanted to make sure," she says.

"No ma'am I assure you you're covered up and everything is where it's supposed to be." "If you like we can through a blanket over you in the rig?"

"No, that's fine."

She had a good sense of humor about the whole thing, which was very nice to work with. Even if I had been asked to check her boobs while her dad stood next to me.

In the rig I help out as much as I can before we get on the road, I get a set of vitals as my "partner," god I use this term very loosely too, starts getting her information. The last thing I hear is,

"What medications do you take?"

Her only response is, "I take birth control."

Now I have to stop here and give a little more background info on my so called partner. He is all of like twenty, has the life experiences of a coddled hamster. An only child, no girlfriends that we've ever heard of and maybe been an EMT for a year. He is in medic school and of course has the "But, I'm a medic student attitude." He is just about to learn one of many lessons he still needs to learn. Something real life might have taught him, had he not been such a jack ass for the majority of his life.

His dumb ass response was,

"So you're pregnant?"

I haven't the faintest clue what this poor women, who is a nurse by the way is thinking as I hear this from the front seat.

She responds with, "No, I'm just fat."

I manage to contain my rage at his incompetence and drive to the hospital without incident. We exchange some info with the ED. Newby goes to write the report and I to clean up the rig.

Now for the ride home.

I open with, "Newby, why on god's green earth would you go ask a women on birth control if she is pregnant, are you really that f-ing ignorant? Do you have any idea how dumb you just made your (I'm a medic student-I just studied that-we did this in school) ass look? Not to mention she is completely educated in our chosen field and now probably thinks I'm just as retard as you."

The look he shot back solidified that fact that his mom might have drank a little to much while pregnant with him.

"Well I... I... I heard the word birth and..." as he just trails off.

I retort with,

"Newby I know you have a hard enough time trying to sniff a women's panties must less get into them, so that's out, you don't have sisters, so that's out, but for Christ sake at some point in time didn't you get bored while sitting on the toilet, so bored in fact you might have needed to read something. And maybe, just maybe that something came in the form of a tampon box or a birth control?" "Hell do you even watch TV, I'm pretty sure that they tell not to take if your pregnant or would like to become pregnant."

My tirade last a little longer as I continued to grind his ass.

Now I'm not mean hearted but this kid is one who needs to be knocked down a peg, but for some reason never really gets it.

Good luck in school, junior.

Excuse Me, What Was That?

Random ambulance call for a female with chest pain. Sounded simple enough over the pager. I head toward the station in my usual fashion, jump aboard the big, red, shoebox and hit the lights. Meanwhile another member of our department has so graciously responded to the scene, seeing as he lived quite close. He manages to hit all the important issues as he and the first responding officer give this little lady some much needed oxygen. With traffic not being an issue we pull up in the shoebox and start our ascent to the front door and our awaiting patient. We lock eyes with our firefighter and give him the "what do we have?" look.

He answers, very sheepishly from the patient's side, "She's got STD."

Now being dispatched for chest pain and then getting a patient with "STD" as he put it, amazing struck us odd. So almost in complete unison the entire peanut gallery shot back with,

"WHAT?"

Again, sheepishly, "She's got STD." As if he didn't want the to patient to hear any of this.

Now having no freakin idea why this is important to me I ask,

"But she's supposed to have chest pain?"

His reply, "She does, she's has a history of heart problems, her heart beats really fast sometimes."

I swear you could hear the cogs turning inside every one of our heads, as it became very apparent that the STD was quite possibly SVT.

With a quick conformation from the patient and a nice little 12 lead it was confirmed. And that my friends is just another reason to heckle the rookies. God just when you run out of material for continuously ripping on someone they drop something like this in your lap.

Needless to say, we will ride him like a rented mule until we see fit.

Sexually Active?

I love to tell this story, I only wish it was truly mine. A team member of mine was going through the clinical phase of the paramedic course and had the privilege of stumbling onto this gem. I'll set the stage. Metro EMS service, very urban area, not smart patients. They are called for female with abdominal pain. First question being, "ma'am are you or could you be pregnant?" She answers "no, I couldn't possibly be pregnant." "Well are you sexually active?" After a little thought her response was "No, I mostly just lay there." Priceless.

Nasty Medical Examiners

Ambulance call for a vehicle roll over. The rig is gone before I can slip a leg into my pants as it's Sunday morning. Another ambulance is requested for multiple patients. On that note I finish dressing and start to get a little excited, maybe they'll need an engine. Now extrication is toned out and I'm on the run to the station. I arrived first, which given my proximity to the station is business as usual. As I wait for my crew, a third ambulance is called out. Sweet, this will be a "good" call. With my crew aboard we start out to the big bad grinder. On scene a single SUV has rolled multiple times, with a total of six passengers. Two critical, one minor and two walking wounded. When the request for a tarp came in to cover the vehicle it became very apparent that the sixth and final patient was not going to the hospital. She being an unrestrained passenger sitting in the trunk space of the SUV had bounced around the compartment and suffered massive head injuries no longer conducive to life. She laid somewhat tangled in the backseat, half on the pavement and half still under the over turned vehicle. DOA. The tarp was to cover her until the M.E. could arrive. Keeping the interstate closed the entire time created a lot of rubber neckers and this little girl deserved better than that. The M.E. arrived, maybe not quite enjoying his wake up call on a sunny Sunday morning such as it was. Now I've man-handled a few patients in my time, but this man was slightly more morose than I have ever been. Using the tow truck to lift the vehicle slightly she slipped out very nicely with the M.E. tugging like he was pulling a nasty weed from the garden. Slopping bodily fluids left and right along the way. Into the bag, onto the cot and into a station wagon. This little girl maybe 15 or 16, snuffed out and this chump tosses her around like a piece of meat. Damn man, alright you hate your job, got a phone call at seven on a Sunday morning, missed breakfast, didn't get to bang the wife, whatever. But for Christ's sake try to have an ounce of respect for the dead. The only upside was that she was not outwardly damaged. The family will be able to have a very nice funeral for her, leaving them with a better memory of her than I have.

Brand Spanking New

Yes,
I've jumped on the band wagon! It seemed necessary to document the same old regurgitated crap that everyone else spews. Adding my own smoke and mirrors as needed. Mainly this will consist of my adventures in firefighting and EMS, schooling that never stops and how I seem to never stop complicating my life with both.