Emergency Response Team!!
So here I was, dolefully eyeing the clock as the minute hand slowly slid towards the twelve, thinking, "It's only three?? ugh, an hour and a half more of sitting around" - when the phone rings. The secretary had gone out to get the mail, and the nurse had left for home early - leaving the Nurse Practitioner,Gail, and me. I had been instructed to pick up the phone the minute it rang, since apparently Gail hates it when then phone is left to ring for too long. So I dive for the phone, not wanting to irritate my already frazzled-seeming boss, and a voice tells me "ma'am, you are needed at the front gate, a man has fallen, he is bleeding" "front gate? ok, be there in a second" I reply. I go tell my boss that her presence is needed urgently at the front gate, a man has fallen...and he cant' get up or something. (I just can't get those "help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" ads out of my head, even though it's been something like 15 years since I've seen one)
She rushes around to find her EMT bag, her stethescope, and her blood pressure cuff, and says "you want to come along?" I say "sure" and we rush over to the front gate where an older Indian man in his 60s is laying on the hot sidewalk (the weather channel reports the temperature to be 113 degrees - "feels like 107"!) by a curb with his head cradled in a guard's lap and some tissues, SOAKED with blood held over his face. I saw some blood splattered on the concrete and in his shirt, and averted my eyes. Now would not be the best time to faint.
They had a medical kit there, but my boss couldn't find the gloves, so she just starts throwing bandages, tape and saline bags left and right onto the ground, chastising the guards for not having the gloves right on top, properly. (Later, when I was cleaning all of this up, I noticed that they were on top, she just didn't see them). I was standing in back of the guy, not wanting to see whatever gross thing happened to his face, but it turned out he had merely tripped on the curb, but then landed embarassingly enough right on his face, and had most likely fractured his nose, which was bleeding profusely.
He couldn't stand up because he had also hurt his knee so I got to go run for the wheelchair in the health unit, and then three guards lifted the man (after my boss scolded one for trying to lift the 250lb man himself - "you'll hurt your back!! we need at least three men!") and took him to an air conditioned shelter where he waited for his son to pick him up. After that was pretty anticlimactic - I ran again for one of those chemical reaction cold packs, although I had trouble popping the inner bag. Gail procceded to slam it into the bench, wall and the floor, finally getting the inner bag to burst, but also putting a hole in it...oops. The man seemed ok though, besides the broken nose and dusty clothes, which is good.
What an interesting half hour!
She rushes around to find her EMT bag, her stethescope, and her blood pressure cuff, and says "you want to come along?" I say "sure" and we rush over to the front gate where an older Indian man in his 60s is laying on the hot sidewalk (the weather channel reports the temperature to be 113 degrees - "feels like 107"!) by a curb with his head cradled in a guard's lap and some tissues, SOAKED with blood held over his face. I saw some blood splattered on the concrete and in his shirt, and averted my eyes. Now would not be the best time to faint.
They had a medical kit there, but my boss couldn't find the gloves, so she just starts throwing bandages, tape and saline bags left and right onto the ground, chastising the guards for not having the gloves right on top, properly. (Later, when I was cleaning all of this up, I noticed that they were on top, she just didn't see them). I was standing in back of the guy, not wanting to see whatever gross thing happened to his face, but it turned out he had merely tripped on the curb, but then landed embarassingly enough right on his face, and had most likely fractured his nose, which was bleeding profusely.
He couldn't stand up because he had also hurt his knee so I got to go run for the wheelchair in the health unit, and then three guards lifted the man (after my boss scolded one for trying to lift the 250lb man himself - "you'll hurt your back!! we need at least three men!") and took him to an air conditioned shelter where he waited for his son to pick him up. After that was pretty anticlimactic - I ran again for one of those chemical reaction cold packs, although I had trouble popping the inner bag. Gail procceded to slam it into the bench, wall and the floor, finally getting the inner bag to burst, but also putting a hole in it...oops. The man seemed ok though, besides the broken nose and dusty clothes, which is good.
What an interesting half hour!