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.