Santa and socks
all righty well caitlin asked for more EMS stories, so I'll tell you about our big emergency of the night.
We had been posted at the faulkner hospital for coming on 4 hours, with a couple of other trucks. There was nothing to do, no calls, not even any emergencies. My partner and I had just finished our christmas dinner cereal and a bagel, when my partner realized he was outta smokes. Not a big deal, the radio was dead, and there was a 7-11 right around the corner.
We go in and I'm browsing around, doing nothing really, just kinda waiting for my partner to hurry up and get his smokes. The line is shockingly long, even for christmas, and my partner has to wait a solid 10 minutes. Just as he's getting to the cashier a call goes out over the radio
"81, 8 1 on the air?"
Usually emergencies aren't dispatched on this channel, you'd be instructed to go to channel 2, so neither of us worried about it.
"81 8 1 dispatch on the air."
"81 please respond to the bournewood for hypertensive female at 210/110 showing edema x4 with shortness of breath, 3rd floor."
shit. This is bad, thats about 100 points above what a healthy blood pressure should ever be. We both know what this means, she has sudden onset congestive heart failure, she's dying. Neither of us was prepared, we missed the address and the floor. We run out to the truck, my partner pissed about not getting his smokes. We request the info again, in the background we can hear the other dispatchers, calls going out all over the place.
"81 that was the bournewood, 3rd floor, can I show you enroute?"
"81 8 1 roger enroute to the bournewood for the hypertensive"
seconds later the radio crackles again "81 8 1 bad news, there are no ALS units in the area, this one is all yours."
This is even worse news, we don't all the equipment or training to deal with this situation. Across the computer we get even more bad news, the staff has requested the BI, which is alot further away than the faulkner. We can choose to reroute the patient, but that often makes things more difficult for the family, who go to one hospital while granny goes to the other. All too often by the time they get the news she's already passed, and the way this call was going this was not a lucky woman.
"81 dispatch roger, were solo on this flight, you can show us at scene."
The first thing we see is stairs, lots and lots of stairs. I can't believe this but suddenly we both remember the bournewood is for detox patients, everyone walks, its old and doesn't have any elevators. This lady is on the 3rd floor, were gonna be carrying her body down these stairs. My partner grabs the stair chair and I decide we'd better not take any equipment, were better off getting her to the truck before we do anything, even if we have to work her we can't do it in a stair chair.
We rush up the first flight and ring the bell. Every floor is locked from the inside so the patients to escape. The nurse takes her time sauntering over to the door, it takes so long my partner unfolds the stair chair and readies the straps. This is a scoop and screw.
Second floor, same thing. I hate this, everything takes so long. This woman is dying and no one is rushing. She wants to know why we're there, no one told her anything, and apparently out patients medical history is her concern. We push past her, let her complain to fallon, I'd rather get yelled at for insulting a nurse than live with letting a woman die.
Finally, the third floor, the staff is waiting for us. I run to the desk to grab the paperwork, there is ALWAYS paperwork. My partner asks where the patient is. In the bathroom the nurse states calmly. My partner runs to the door as the nurse starts to speak. The door is locked.
Wait, how the hell is the door locked? WHO LOCKED THE DOOR? Were agitated now, someone open the door! From inside the patient yells something that sounds a lot like "Sorry, I'll be right out."
We anxiously wait, in a few minutes the door opens and a mildly overweight woman walks out. We're both in shock, I can't believe she's still breathing, let alone walking.
I turn to the nurse, " we heard her blood pressure was 210/110, what was this called in is?"
"thats right" she says
My partner double checks, it is, not only that, all the other symptoms are present. This woman is a textbook case of congestive heart failure, except without the heart failure. Unbelievably she asks if she can walk down the stairs! "I hate that chair thing" she jokes
We walk her down and make small talk on the way. In the truck, her arms are so swollen that I have to cut her watch off, she can't take her shirt off either, she can't lift her arms up. I cut it off and feel bad, she tells me its her favorite shirt. She's mildly retarded, and doesn't completely understand the situation. Frankly I don't understand the situation. I put her on oxygen and check her lung sounds. I can hear fluid in her lungs, another hallmark of CHF. We fly to the hospital, the patient laughing the whole way. For the few minutes were together she talks about her christmas present this year, she got pink socks.
It was a pretty sobering experience. Here sits a woman, who if she was any more aware of her situation would be hysterical, instead she's focused on the trees and lights. What a strange world we live in. They tell me she's disabled, but in a twisted way, she's been blessed with a christmas that has everything she likes, she got to leave the facility, ride in an ambulance with the lights AND sirens, see all the christmas lights, listen to the christmas music we had on in the truck, meet two new friends, and above all that, today was santa's big day, and he brought her the most amazing christmas socks this world has ever seen.
Merry Christmas
We had been posted at the faulkner hospital for coming on 4 hours, with a couple of other trucks. There was nothing to do, no calls, not even any emergencies. My partner and I had just finished our christmas dinner cereal and a bagel, when my partner realized he was outta smokes. Not a big deal, the radio was dead, and there was a 7-11 right around the corner.
We go in and I'm browsing around, doing nothing really, just kinda waiting for my partner to hurry up and get his smokes. The line is shockingly long, even for christmas, and my partner has to wait a solid 10 minutes. Just as he's getting to the cashier a call goes out over the radio
"81, 8 1 on the air?"
Usually emergencies aren't dispatched on this channel, you'd be instructed to go to channel 2, so neither of us worried about it.
"81 8 1 dispatch on the air."
"81 please respond to the bournewood for hypertensive female at 210/110 showing edema x4 with shortness of breath, 3rd floor."
shit. This is bad, thats about 100 points above what a healthy blood pressure should ever be. We both know what this means, she has sudden onset congestive heart failure, she's dying. Neither of us was prepared, we missed the address and the floor. We run out to the truck, my partner pissed about not getting his smokes. We request the info again, in the background we can hear the other dispatchers, calls going out all over the place.
"81 that was the bournewood, 3rd floor, can I show you enroute?"
"81 8 1 roger enroute to the bournewood for the hypertensive"
seconds later the radio crackles again "81 8 1 bad news, there are no ALS units in the area, this one is all yours."
This is even worse news, we don't all the equipment or training to deal with this situation. Across the computer we get even more bad news, the staff has requested the BI, which is alot further away than the faulkner. We can choose to reroute the patient, but that often makes things more difficult for the family, who go to one hospital while granny goes to the other. All too often by the time they get the news she's already passed, and the way this call was going this was not a lucky woman.
"81 dispatch roger, were solo on this flight, you can show us at scene."
The first thing we see is stairs, lots and lots of stairs. I can't believe this but suddenly we both remember the bournewood is for detox patients, everyone walks, its old and doesn't have any elevators. This lady is on the 3rd floor, were gonna be carrying her body down these stairs. My partner grabs the stair chair and I decide we'd better not take any equipment, were better off getting her to the truck before we do anything, even if we have to work her we can't do it in a stair chair.
We rush up the first flight and ring the bell. Every floor is locked from the inside so the patients to escape. The nurse takes her time sauntering over to the door, it takes so long my partner unfolds the stair chair and readies the straps. This is a scoop and screw.
Second floor, same thing. I hate this, everything takes so long. This woman is dying and no one is rushing. She wants to know why we're there, no one told her anything, and apparently out patients medical history is her concern. We push past her, let her complain to fallon, I'd rather get yelled at for insulting a nurse than live with letting a woman die.
Finally, the third floor, the staff is waiting for us. I run to the desk to grab the paperwork, there is ALWAYS paperwork. My partner asks where the patient is. In the bathroom the nurse states calmly. My partner runs to the door as the nurse starts to speak. The door is locked.
Wait, how the hell is the door locked? WHO LOCKED THE DOOR? Were agitated now, someone open the door! From inside the patient yells something that sounds a lot like "Sorry, I'll be right out."
We anxiously wait, in a few minutes the door opens and a mildly overweight woman walks out. We're both in shock, I can't believe she's still breathing, let alone walking.
I turn to the nurse, " we heard her blood pressure was 210/110, what was this called in is?"
"thats right" she says
My partner double checks, it is, not only that, all the other symptoms are present. This woman is a textbook case of congestive heart failure, except without the heart failure. Unbelievably she asks if she can walk down the stairs! "I hate that chair thing" she jokes
We walk her down and make small talk on the way. In the truck, her arms are so swollen that I have to cut her watch off, she can't take her shirt off either, she can't lift her arms up. I cut it off and feel bad, she tells me its her favorite shirt. She's mildly retarded, and doesn't completely understand the situation. Frankly I don't understand the situation. I put her on oxygen and check her lung sounds. I can hear fluid in her lungs, another hallmark of CHF. We fly to the hospital, the patient laughing the whole way. For the few minutes were together she talks about her christmas present this year, she got pink socks.
It was a pretty sobering experience. Here sits a woman, who if she was any more aware of her situation would be hysterical, instead she's focused on the trees and lights. What a strange world we live in. They tell me she's disabled, but in a twisted way, she's been blessed with a christmas that has everything she likes, she got to leave the facility, ride in an ambulance with the lights AND sirens, see all the christmas lights, listen to the christmas music we had on in the truck, meet two new friends, and above all that, today was santa's big day, and he brought her the most amazing christmas socks this world has ever seen.
Merry Christmas