(no subject)
Yesterday was long.
Got to the barn at 6:30, checked out the rig and am about to start it up when...oh...lookie here...my ambulance smells like burning rubber. The guy who used it last shift comes over explains he had problems too and took it to the mechanics who just waved it away. All right, so I guess that means we won't be doing any hills in this beast then, right? Um, yeah. I turn the ignition switch, and hold it, and hold it, and hold it. Ah poo. The ambulance won't even start. So, we had to unload everything in the rain, and jump into a really really crap rig that *gasp* ran.
Got a call for a woman who has prophetic dreams, deperssion, was on Haldol and presently is having an anxiety attack. Then was called to the side of the eight lane highway (490) because a semi decided to play around with a very very little car. Fortunately there was no serious injuries...even though I almost beat the trucker driver when I heard he told the victim, "oh, man...the trucker that hit you drove off...that's too bad." Wow, asshole. Oh, and I almost forgot the elderly woman found lying on her back, incontinent, with possible fractured wrist, fractured knee, and a huge goose-egg on her forehead.
Now, these were all fun and games calls. Nothing too rough but definately interesting.
About an hour before shift ends we are dispatched for a call clear across the city. I mean CLEAR ACROSS THE CITY. Like as in the fact it is a 15 minute drive normally and then on top of it apply heavy, heavy rains (the ambulance hydroplaned: fun and scary). We get there find the elderly gent sitting on the couch coughing up blood and tissue. He's having severe problems breathing and the sound of stridor echos throughout the entire house. He is not doing well at all. We load and go with lights and sirens wailing.
Allow me to assure you there is nothing more beautiful or mysterious than watching a good paramedic work. Truly mystifying. Our patient went pure white, cold sweat, lungs filled to top with fluid, eyes rolled back.....and then he started to convulsive.
When we want to scare people into riding in the ambulance instead of signing a refusal of car after a car accident we explain how their slight ailment will lead to seizure, coma, death. Our patient entered stage one of that triangle.
My feelings for Larry bridge are of reverence. In the back of the ambulance I was the go-fer and the set-up girl. He was the artist at work. What he wanted, I got. When he wanted suctioning, I got it. He wanted the Lifepack 10 hooked up and working on our sweaty and hairy patient, I did it. NBR, nebulizer, BVM, alcohol prep, needles, tourniquet, cocktail...and more. Wires, tubing, mist, blood, plastic...it was everywhere around this patient. And Larry worked with unbroken confidence, calmness, and collectedness.
Our patient came back around.
Fluid drifted out of his lungs and his airway was opened. His eyes were alert. He responded with the appropriate movement when asked. His vitals improved. The entire hospital ride he got better.
We run into Strong Memorial Hospital, rush at the trauma bays with doctors, nurses, and students chasing us. The patient is lifted onto a bed, laid flat..........and codes.
He died.
The moment he was laid flat on that bed, the fluid that was pulled out of his lungs by gravity rushed back in drowning him.
CPR began, and doctors started to intubate (put a tube down a person's throat into their lungs). I saw the tool go down through his mouth and into his throat. With frustration, the doctor cries out, "I can't access the airway, it's occluded!". The tool was retracted covered in blood, and tissue...I had never seen a laryngoscope so sullied.
The doctors now had to open the airway surgically, which involved cutting through a tumor that encircled his entire neck.
Through this all, the basic EMT's stood off to the side and watched in horror as this man suffered to live. Shawna had a look of anger and frustration on his face. I don't even know what mask I wore.
The worst part of this was he had a DNR. His son couldn't provide the paper work at the scene and didn't show up to the hospital 'til at least an hour later. That man did not need the worst day of his life to be made even more horrible. He could have escaped it all the second he coded on the hospital bed.
This angers me.
Got to the barn at 6:30, checked out the rig and am about to start it up when...oh...lookie here...my ambulance smells like burning rubber. The guy who used it last shift comes over explains he had problems too and took it to the mechanics who just waved it away. All right, so I guess that means we won't be doing any hills in this beast then, right? Um, yeah. I turn the ignition switch, and hold it, and hold it, and hold it. Ah poo. The ambulance won't even start. So, we had to unload everything in the rain, and jump into a really really crap rig that *gasp* ran.
Got a call for a woman who has prophetic dreams, deperssion, was on Haldol and presently is having an anxiety attack. Then was called to the side of the eight lane highway (490) because a semi decided to play around with a very very little car. Fortunately there was no serious injuries...even though I almost beat the trucker driver when I heard he told the victim, "oh, man...the trucker that hit you drove off...that's too bad." Wow, asshole. Oh, and I almost forgot the elderly woman found lying on her back, incontinent, with possible fractured wrist, fractured knee, and a huge goose-egg on her forehead.
Now, these were all fun and games calls. Nothing too rough but definately interesting.
About an hour before shift ends we are dispatched for a call clear across the city. I mean CLEAR ACROSS THE CITY. Like as in the fact it is a 15 minute drive normally and then on top of it apply heavy, heavy rains (the ambulance hydroplaned: fun and scary). We get there find the elderly gent sitting on the couch coughing up blood and tissue. He's having severe problems breathing and the sound of stridor echos throughout the entire house. He is not doing well at all. We load and go with lights and sirens wailing.
Allow me to assure you there is nothing more beautiful or mysterious than watching a good paramedic work. Truly mystifying. Our patient went pure white, cold sweat, lungs filled to top with fluid, eyes rolled back.....and then he started to convulsive.
When we want to scare people into riding in the ambulance instead of signing a refusal of car after a car accident we explain how their slight ailment will lead to seizure, coma, death. Our patient entered stage one of that triangle.
My feelings for Larry bridge are of reverence. In the back of the ambulance I was the go-fer and the set-up girl. He was the artist at work. What he wanted, I got. When he wanted suctioning, I got it. He wanted the Lifepack 10 hooked up and working on our sweaty and hairy patient, I did it. NBR, nebulizer, BVM, alcohol prep, needles, tourniquet, cocktail...and more. Wires, tubing, mist, blood, plastic...it was everywhere around this patient. And Larry worked with unbroken confidence, calmness, and collectedness.
Our patient came back around.
Fluid drifted out of his lungs and his airway was opened. His eyes were alert. He responded with the appropriate movement when asked. His vitals improved. The entire hospital ride he got better.
We run into Strong Memorial Hospital, rush at the trauma bays with doctors, nurses, and students chasing us. The patient is lifted onto a bed, laid flat..........and codes.
He died.
The moment he was laid flat on that bed, the fluid that was pulled out of his lungs by gravity rushed back in drowning him.
CPR began, and doctors started to intubate (put a tube down a person's throat into their lungs). I saw the tool go down through his mouth and into his throat. With frustration, the doctor cries out, "I can't access the airway, it's occluded!". The tool was retracted covered in blood, and tissue...I had never seen a laryngoscope so sullied.
The doctors now had to open the airway surgically, which involved cutting through a tumor that encircled his entire neck.
Through this all, the basic EMT's stood off to the side and watched in horror as this man suffered to live. Shawna had a look of anger and frustration on his face. I don't even know what mask I wore.
The worst part of this was he had a DNR. His son couldn't provide the paper work at the scene and didn't show up to the hospital 'til at least an hour later. That man did not need the worst day of his life to be made even more horrible. He could have escaped it all the second he coded on the hospital bed.
This angers me.