CPR issues

I still plan to write about those 2 fires and other calls mentioned in my previous entry, but I'm waiting until I get the pictures back so I can put them on here.

However.....

Last shift (I'll be going to work in a few minutes) the first 3 calls were cardiac arrests. Not one of these calls was the patient actually in arrest. In fact, most were sitting up, talking to the other crews when we arrived.

"Start your day with a DOA, Do-daaaa, Do-daaaa, Start your day with a DOA, ode to do-daa-day"

Later that evening, a fourth arrest call was given out. The patient was DOA.

Arriving with the Rescue(ambulance) and engine, I assisted the EMT from the rescue with the jumpbags, monitor, backboard, cot, and everything else we needed. Going into the house with the now-loaded cot, he grabbed a couple items and headed for the room where the patient was. Unfortunately for him, the hallway he tried to go down was actually a floor to ceiling, 10' wide mirror.

The rest of the call was uneventful, PD was onscene a few minutes later and we all went back to the station.

The next morning, every mirror in the station had large warning signs.

WARNING...Behind This Mirror Is A Wall

CAUTION...If You See You're Walking Towards Yourself, STOP!!!

At least he could laugh at himself

Be safe out there

 

stupid connection issues

I had a great entry typed up whan my moden spazzed and I got booted. I'll retype it later, when I calm down.

The basic jist...

I fought 2 fires, ran an assault, crackhead with difficulty breathing, dummy that tried to run from the cops and got smacked, child hit by a car, and a cardiac arrest that was DOA.

I've now fought 3 fires...woohoo! I'll try to figure out how to put up pics when I get them.

A friend lost...a new friend found

For the past 14 or so years, I've had a very close friend. Someone I could talk to, cry to, who would always listen to whatever I had to say. A few days ago, this friend died. She started losing weight and eventually stopped eating and drinking. After many, many years of friendship, I'm sad to announce the death of my cat.

You never really think about how much a pet can become part of the family. My other cat had to be put down the beginning of this year.

I can't remember a time I didn't have a cat. I went a couple days ago and got a new kitten. I would've gotten a slightly older cat, but I want to try to have the cat and my ferret get along.

 

So Frustrating!!!

Well, after 6 days, my internet connection has finally been restored. For the 3rd time...we shall see how long it lasts this time.

I went swimming Tuesday night and for the first time in my life, I think I have swimmer's ear. I bought some "swim-ear" drops and can't use them (they made my ear burn and reduced me to tears). I've already tried home remedies like sleeping on that side with a heat pack under my ear....no relief. I may just be feeling whiny, but I can barely hear out of my left ear, and my balance sucks.

Work is still just as frustrating as ever. My captain is still a very annoying pain in my ass. Me and a friend put in paperwork to swap station assignments. No news on if or when the swap will be honored.

I've been considering a certain swap for a couple months now, but recently decided to act on my decision. When I first decided I wanted to work in public safety, I was unsure about going Fire/EMS or Police. During my car accident a few years ago, I dealt mainly with Fire/EMS due to my injuries. After the accident, I decided to go to the fire side...A choice I'm starting to regret.

I tried to step back and take an unbiased look at the pros and cons of each side...

Fire/EMS : Police

24 hours on, 48 hours off  :   4-10 hour days, 3 days off

Possibility of being sent anywhere county-wide at a moments notice  :  Always working at assigned precinct

Constant need to request training  : Training scheduled regularly

Training off-duty with no pay  :  In-service training on-duty with pay

Assigned from training directly into operations  :  Assigned into operations with an FTO for a few weeks

Fire Stations, Fire Marshall, Arson, TRT, K-9 S&R, Haz-Mat, Airport Crash, Forrestry, Bike Team, SWAT Medics (Medic only)  :  Uniform Patrol, Detective, Arson, SWAT, STAR Team, Motorcycle Patrol, Park Patrol, Bomb Squad, K-9, Air Support, Property/Evidence Unit, Major Crimes, Communications (911), Homeland Security, Code Enforcement, Animal Control

Limited personal protection (pocket knife, medical jump bags, tools from fire truck)  :  Greater level of protection (Bullet-proof vest, pocket knife, ASP baton, OC spray, Beretta 9mm, possible backup sidearm, tactital hand-to-hand training)

Usually welcomed by all in emergency situations  :  Welcomed by some in emergency situations

I'm sure I could continue my list, but I'm going to stop here. I'm not giving up on being a good Firefighter/EMT...I plan to work as a volunteer on some of my off-days to keep all of my certifications up. I'm just tired of spending day 1 at work, day 2 recovering/sleeping, and day 3 getting ready to do it all over again. 

Over & Out until then.....Be Safe

Idiot Alert!!!

Wow, I knew there were some weird people out there. I had the...pleasure(?)...of meeting one of these special people yesterday morning.

05:50... Respond to 789 Somewhere Rd, near the church, on a vehicle accident with injuries.

Approaching the intersection, there is a guy standing on the corner flagging us down. He said the accident was just down the side street on the left.

Pulling up to the scene, there is a single 4-door white vehicle sitting in the grass about 30 ft from the street. Both front doors are open and there are small star-patterned places in the front wind shield, one on each side. There was some blood in the driver's seat, but no one in or near the vehicle.

A few moments later, a male approaches us covered in blood. His nose appeared to be broken and by his stagger and smell, I believe he was also a bit drunk.

Insert PD here...

The guy claims he didn't remember anything, yet strangely was positive that he wasn't driving (remember, no blood in the car anywhere except the driver's seat?).

As we got the guy into the ambulance to check him out, a female walks up and said she was in the accident also. She was wearing a white shirt and white pants. One side of her body was covered in blood, turns out it was all from our driver. She had a small bump on her forehead but refused to let us check her over.

Insert PD Sergeant here....

Since the driver had some head/facial injuries and was not sure what happened during the accident, he needed to be placed on a backboard in case he had some form of spinal injuries. Due to the blood coming from his nose, he wasn't able to tolerate being on his back. We removed the backboard and pulled out the KED. Getting our driver strapped into the KED was not a problem. He was allowed to sit up so he was happy- he was properly immobilized so we were happy.

As my partners were starting an IV, getting the driver set up on O2 and taking another set of vitals, I went to talk to the Officer for a moment. We were just about ready to leave for the hospital and I needed to see if the Officer was going to give the guy's driver's license back or if he was going to have to meet us at the hospital.

At this time the driver starts yelling and screaming at my partner's inside the ambulance (we still had all the rear doors open). I looked at the Officer and made the joke to start shaking his OC so he could spray the guy.

The Officer and Sergeant got out of their cars and went over to the back of the ambulance just in time for the driver to pull the tape off the top of his head (where he was secured into the KED), jump up and start trying to swing at my partners.

He somehow came flying out of the ambulance backwards and both the Officer and Sergeant caught him mid-air and he landed facedown, still in the KED. When the guy first started going nuts, the Sarge called for 1 more unit, 3 or 4 showed up.

Moments after hitting the ground, the guy was under control thanks to police tactics and a wonderful thing known as handcuffs. The guy was placed on his stomach on the backboard and loaded into the ambulance. Still cuffed.

We started the transport and he was still screaming and trying to fight. That is, until I hit some construction and accidently jumped the rear of the ambulance nearly a foot off the ground. I found out the guy came almost 2 feet off the stretcher, and the stretcher even came off the ground. They said after his flight, he was quiet the rest of the ride to the hospital.

At the hospital, he wanted out of the handcuffs and claimed his arm was now broken. The Officer that met us at the hospital let the guy out of the cuffs after warning him against trying to fight. The Officer also wrote the guy 5 tickets and brought a blood-alcohol test kit to be sent off to the state lab.

After DECON, we went back to the station and were 2 1/2 hours late getting off work.

What a day!

Be safe and take care

1 MVC...uh...make that 3 cars

Well, my shift yesterday was somewhat dull. We ran 2 calls and were dispatched but immediatly cancelled on a 3rd. The rest of the shift was quiet...almost too quiet.

The first call was for a MVC on the expressway, motorcycle vs. truck. You get 1 guess as to who won. The truck was cruising with traffic around 65mph. From what I was able to gather onscene, he had to slam on the brakes and the motorcyclist behind him didn't even have a chance to slow down. The motorcycle hit the rear of the truck, launching the rider clear of the bike. He hit the concrete divide and came to rest 10 ft from the bike, his right femur and left humorus broken.

Without ever seeing any x-rays, the bike, or even the patient, I can safely say the helmet saved his life. The majority of the hard shell had scraped away during the accident, protecting the gentleman's skull from the impacts at the same time.

Due to the speeds involved, the fact that our gent was on a motorcycle, and the types of injuries sustained- we ran 10-18 (lights/sirens) to the trauma center.

The other call was a lady that tried to stop her car from rolling downhill. She forgot to put the vehicle in "park" and it somehow rolled over her leg. Her knee was a bit swollen, but she'll be fine.

Now....the main reason I'm writing this entry was a very interesting call...What makes it so interesting?

I was off-duty on my way home from the station when it happened.

It was raining lightly this morning. I had just passed our headquarters when the car ahead of me (about 100 yards thankfully) spun out on the wet road and hit the concrete median backwards. Normally, I would've called it in and kept rolling...But since I witnessed the accident, I decided to stop for a moment and make sure the driver was OK.

Oh....I made sure my car was a good distance past his vehicle in case someone didn't see it in time and hit his car. That way it wouldn't be shoved into my car, hopefully.

The driver was fine, his red Jaguar had moderate rear-end damage. His phone wouldn't connect so I called 911 for him to report the incident.

As I was talking to the dispatcher, a green car spun out and hit the metal guardrail on the opposite side of the expressway. The driver's side doors now smashed, the driver either froze or panicked, flooring the accellerator. Spinning the tires to gain traction, he took off headlong into oncoming traffic and smashed into a gold sedan head-on.

The dispatcher asked what happened (apparently I was yelling WHOA!!) and upgraded the call immediatly once I told her 2 more cars wrecked out.

Once the first police officer made it onscene, I told him that I'd witnessed the entire incident and that it was actually 2 different incidents. He checked on the driver of each vehicle then asked me what happened and which cars were which incident, etc...

About this time, the engine and ambulance arrived. Since I was still in uniform, they came straight to me at first. I told them I wasn't involved and then quickly told them what happened. As they went about checking on the patients, another officer and a Sergeant arrived. I again passed on what I'd seen. After the 3 PD guys joked about having a perfect witness, they took down my information and I was released to go my merry little way.

No one was really hurt from what I was able to gather. The lady in the gold car was choking from the airbag powder. She said her abdomen was hurting some from the seatbelt and her knee was hurting from where she hit it under the dash. The steering wheel was also bent and her sealbelt had locked the retentioner (a built-in feature that retracts the belt up to 6 inches, locking the belt in that position).

I was happy to head home, knowing that although I didn't save any lives, I had a feeling of satisfaction that comes from helping someone get through something difficult. It may sound stupid, but you'd just have to be there to understand it.

Take care and drive safely

good times

Wow, time flies when you're having fun. 

I have become very good friends with a cop from my county. He has even said he considers me as a little sister. He has tried to keep me occupied and keep my mind off the hazards my fiance is facing. I still can't watch the news, every day they talk about another guy from his brigade getting injured or killed. This guy, who I'll call Stumpy, has taken me to Six Flags with a couple other officers...We went to the shooting range together last week. We're going to try to go back to Six Flags again this week.

Work has been, well, work. I'm still stuck on the rescue every shift. Capt is still a big pain in the ass. He asked me a few shifts ago why I didn't try to get my learner's for the Engine. I told him I had no interest in driving a truck I wasn't ever on. He didn't really like it, but I'm not going to lie to him. Why should I get the permit when I hardly know how to operate off the back of the truck?

I've worked a few events on the bike team. We've had a lot of fun for the most part, except for when the Chief decided to come one day as the backup. The pucker factor went up considerably, the whole team was more uptight.

I finally got into and attended the interior search and rescue class at the state fire academy. I have so many bruises and blisters I look like I've been beaten. This morning, my knee was so swollen I could barely walk. I can deal with the blisters, given a big enough band-aid, but when my knee is the size of a grapefruit-I don't think I'd be of much help on the ambulance.

Even though it's been a few weeks since I turned 21, I have yet to try any beer or anything. I'm not really interested in anything like that.

Update on previous entry

Well, I finally managed to cross paths with the Dr. and one of the nurses (who I'm becoming fast friends with). The guy with the GSW to the head is not only still alive...He was extubated (breathing tube was removed) and is talking!!!! They're not sure how much his social skills will be intact, but he is alive and well. I guess that's all that really matters. He will not be a vegetable kept alive by machines for the rest of his days.

I'm going to go celebrate a job well done by me and my partners...

Take care,

PS...I turn 21 in 3 days...Sunday is the big day, and I can't wait!  :-D

Ups-N-Downs

Wow, I knew I'd been procrastinating, but I hadn't realized it'd been nearly a month since my last entry. A lot of things have happened lately, some good-some bad. I've been able to talk to my fiance online about 3 times a week, maybe once a week if I'm lucky on the phone. I've worked a couple events on the bike team and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Station life has once again become hectic. Me and Capt have continued to argue and he really does annoy me. As much as I'd like to ride the engine occasionally, it's nice to be away from him on the rescue. We also had another firemedic assigned to our station, he wasn't kidding when he warned that he was a jinx and a trauma magnet. Since his arrival, we've had a GSW to the head, severe MVC, and 2 different cardiac arrests that turned out to be dead upon our arrival.

The GSW to the head was interesting, PD said the kid was dead when we got there. Looking at the scene for a moment, I noticed the bullet hole in the window, blood and brain matter on the door, and the holes on either side of the kid's head leaking more blood and brain matter. Then the unimaginable happened...He took a breath....You guessed it, agonal respirations, he's not dead yet.

Here we go!

Running to the rescue, I grabbed the engine crew and told them to grab everything off the truck, monitor, suction kit, airway bag, C-collar, backboard, stretcher...everything, we were gonna have to work him.

Once we got the guy loaded, we quickly learned intubation was impossible-his teeth were clenched. Nasal intubation was also out of the question due to the fact that his brains were coming out his nose. The medic alternated between suctioning and using the BVM to help him breathe.

As we left the hospital to go finish DECON on the truck, the Doc was hopeful the kid would possibly pull through. Last I heard, he passed away.

I hope the detectives can bring this one to justice for the kid's family.

 

I'll write more later...One of the DOA's was very interesting, let's just say we had the Haldol drawn up and ready...

Be safe out there, and Happy Belated 4th of July!

PS...10 days until I turn 21!!!!!

Just a couple quick things

Things have been somewhat better lately. I finished my training and am now a certified EMS cyclist. I liked the bikes we use on the team so much I bought one for myself to use at home. I needed a new bike anyways, so why not train at home on the same bike I have at work?

I'm still stuck on the ambulance, but the current rumor is that that might change soon. Some people from my academy class are at stations that don't even have a rescue, others somehow manage to always be on the fire engine. The smart-guys running things have realized that's not really fair to everyone. Besides, 2 classes have come out since mine, they need to ride the rescue as well.

Quick prayer request: One of my really good friends from training went home from work a few days ago to find his home burnt down. He lost everything, he only has the clothes on his back and his kid. Weird to think a firefighter's house would burn down, but it has happened before. It's still unknown if it was accidental or arson, but if it's arson...I hope they catch the little bastard and throw the book at him/her.

I'm going to go on and wrap up this entry, I'm fading fast...I can hear my nice, comfy bed calling out to me.

Take Care

Motivation

I've been thinking a lot about motivation today, and how I don't have much lately. Many things have simply not gone my way lately. I'm getting where I only go to work so I won't get fired, I eat only to survive, I haven't slept good in a month, I cry daily- sometimes for no reason. I'm in a real funk, I just don't want to do anything. Almost every time I start having a good day or enjoying myself, another hipocrit, story-teller, or general asshole will ruin it for me. I need help getting out of this funk, getting rid of some stress, or whatever.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

After 4 or 5 days of rain, it's still nasty outside. I went to work yesterday and my captain decided to wait until after shift change to tell me I was being sent to another station. Then he wanted me to hang around for roll call. If they needed somebody at the other station, that meant someone was having to hang over from the previous shift until I got there. So hanging at my station was keeping someone from going home- I don't want anyone doing that crap to me, and I really don't like doing it to anyone else.

Luckily, the engine and rescue got rung-out on a call, so I high-tailed it out of there.

The shift itself was dull, the station I was at is usually pretty slow. We ran one call that wasn't interesting, but I got a nice little workout from it. The lady was upstairs (of course) and needed to be transported to the hospital. I got the stair-chair and Cap. got the cot from the rescue. I had control of the stair-chair and got the lady down the stairs, the engine's driver was at her feet. She wasn't the smallest of ladies, and, judging by my sore arms and shoulders, maybe I should've accepted offers for help. Then again, no pain-no gain....right???                           Right??????????

We slept almost all night, ran a call around 0300. It was raining cats and dogs and I'd left my raincoat at the station. So, I put my turnout coat and helmet on (already had my bunker pants on) and made the dash for the house. Nothing else worth reporting on that call. We made it back to the station and slept the rest of the night.

Steaks for supper tonight, gonna run to the store with mom in a few minutes.

take care

for Balius

I found this on my department's forum, it is not held by the county and is run by us. Just wanted you to know that others feel your loss and I wish everyone the best in this difficult time.

 

City officials are waiting for answers after a 22-year-old Jacksonville Fire-Rescue recruit died nine days after he collapsed during training.

Karl "Kliff" Kramer collapsed May 19 while undergoing physical training at the department's fire academy.

Kramer died Saturday at Memorial Hospital, where he had been in intensive care since his collapse.

A spokeswoman for the Jacksonville Fire Department would not comment on the specifics of Kramer's death until an autopsy is conducted to determine the cause of his death.

"The training academy continually looks at the way they conduct exercise," spokeswoman Benny Seth said. "They continuously monitor the weather conditions, and those things will continue on as scheduled."

Other fire recruits told Channel 4's Bryan Kelly that the intense training makes everyone in the class close, "like a family."

"He had a real strong personality," Fire-Rescue cadet Mike Blcher said. "Whatever we were doing, he was always light hearted. We'll miss him."

 

Stay safe my brothers

JAWS of life not needed?

Wow, I knew it had been a while since I updated, but I didn't realize just how long it's been. Life's been hectic as usual, and my mind has been in other places and on other things. Life at work has become, well, let's just say it's been more like a job lately.

I went on a training ride a few days ago with the bike team, 10 miles later I could barely walk straight. There's another ride in a couple days, if I can get out of the station for a few hours I'll go. Our big training class is less than 2 weeks away, we'll learn how to ride up and down stairs, jump curbs, weave through pedestrian traffic, and whatever else they decide to cram into our minds.

I ran a pretty bad MVC since the last journal update. I wasn't even dispatched to the call originally. We were finishing up paperwork at a minor MVC when we saw 3 or 4 police cars hauling ass from the precinct towards our station. A few minutes later we went in service and decided to roll on past the station to see if we could find what was going on. My partner called the batallion chief and let him know we had a visual on the scene and would go ahead and respond.

Coming down the street, we saw 2 cars, 2 fire trucks, and 5-6 cop cars. The drivers of both cars were still inside their vehicles, this is 10 minutes after the first unit went onscene. Since we had a third-rider, her and my partner went to the sedan, and I took the SUV.

First of all, the SUV was flipped onto the driver's side, it was also facing the exact same direction as the other car. One of the guys from my station was in the SUV and the patient was standing on her door with her torso between the front seats, looking straight at us. He needed something to cover her with so I grabbed the fire blanket off my truck and brought it to him. By this time, the other rescue was onscene so I went and set up a couple bags of ringers for him. ***Lactated Ringer's is similar to Saline, but is much better for a trauma patient***

Heading to join my partners, I realized this was going to be difficult and take some time. The patient was pinned between the seat and the steering wheel (which was broken), the front tire was pushed so far back, it was nearly under her. To top it all off, you could clearly see the passenger-side airbag had deployed, but not the driver's...My guess is that she was pinned onto the steering wheel faster than the air-bag could deploy.

Looking quickly around, I see my partner hand his turnout coat and helmet to our rider so she could safely hold c-spine from the backseat of the car. It made me think, and I went and got my coat also (I already had my helmet on). Since they managed to get her door open, I ended up using my leg to brace the woman into the car while the Quint crew prepared to start the extrication.

My partner was beside me looking to start an IV and looked up at our captain who was just standing there, "Capt, we need to fly her."

"Uh, well, umm, I don't think so, umm, no."

????????????????????????????????????  The main criteria that would call for a helicopter is prolonged extrication of 15 minutes or more. They were onscene 10 minutes when we got there...WHAT (if anything) are you ThInKiNg?!?!?!? It didn't help any that the patient was somewhat combative.

Turning to the Quint's captain (who is hard to convince that the sky's blue) we asked him, "Do we need a bird? Tell him we need a bird."

He looked straight at our capt "She needs a bird."

Once the batallion chief got onscene, he originally said no bird, barely 5 minutes later he changed his mind. Of course, now the weather has supposedly grounded the helicopters.

Back to the extrication process.... Once everything was set up, the posts were cut and the roof of the car rolled back. Since our rider was not an employee and was not trained in rescue and extrication, I took her place in the back seat. The next step was to roll the dash off the woman and get her out. This was easier said than done. The car was crushed around her and placing the ram where it wouldn't slip was difficult. A few minutes later, the dash was rolled and the woman removed to a backboard.

Once inside the rescue unit, it was an absolute flurry of activity. All her clothes were removed, an IV established (she removed the one that was started in the car), broken bones splinted, and a 3-lead ECG. What showed up on the ECG was amazing. Her ST segment was depressed, indicating she was having an MI or heart attack. Now we've really upped the anty.

She continued to be somewhat combative enroute to the hospital. Since we never did get the helicopter, she got a very quick ride...What we like to joke about as a diesel drip.

At the hospital, we passed her off to the ER staff and would decon the ambulance for a few minutes, then go see how she was doing. The first thing they did was knock her out and get her intubated. At one point when we went inside, her X-rays were back. She had broken her left wrist, right ankle and femur, dislocated her right hip to the rear, and shattered her pelvis in at least 4 places. Moments later, she coded. The hospital staff worked her for 30 minutes before pronouncing her.

It may not have made a difference if she would have been flown in vs. ground transport, but she would've been at the hospital about 12 minutes sooner. From first dispatch to extrication, it took around 35 minutes to get the woman out of her car. Over double the standard based in our protocol that would require a helicopter. All I can do is pray for her family and hope that things will go better next time a call like this comes out.

Take care....

 

Oh, and after this call, it is cemented into my mind that my captain is 100% incompetent as a paramedic. I would not want him to touch me if anything ever happened to me, no matter how severe.

He's gone

As I'm sitting here, I have no clue what to write, but I feel the need to write something. I was able to talk to my fiance early this morning (about 0400) just before he got on a plane. He's going to try to email and call me whenever he can.

The actual deployment ceremony was interesting I guess, I couldn't actually see anything and could barely hear it. The only part I was able to see was the march out. We met up with our soldiers and had about 1 1/2 hours to say our final goodbyes before they went on lockdown. We had a nice meal at Popeye's together. Then said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways.

It's now day 2, and I'll admit it, I'm totally unmotivated to do anything. I ate a bagel, and I'm out of bed and dressed, that's as good as it gets right now.

I am lucky that one of my best friends is home from college for the summer. She knows how I am and has decided she'll keep me occupied and get me out of the house. She bought tickets to Star Wars III and I'll probably go. Living in a 3 bedroom house by myself and her staying with her parents, I've offered to let her move in while she's here. She needs the escape from her parents, and I need the company.

COPS is on now so I'm gonna go laugh at stupid criminals for a while.

Stay safe

Don't Go!!!!

In a few hours I'll be on my way to Ft. Stewart. My fiance is one of many Army National Guardsmen that will be deployed to Iraq this weekend. He'll be gone between 12 and 18 months. It's going to be rough on me, the past few months have been hard, he's been away for training since December. My only relief is that every few months, he will be able to come home for a few days. Not great, but definately better than nothing.

He was home all last week and we spent nearly every waking hour together. We went and got our tattoos (I'll put a picture up some day if I can figure it out), watched some DVDs, went to the circus, and just enjoyed our time together.

I'd better quit writing before I really start to make myself depressed.

Take care and tell someone you care about that you love them, they may already know it, but sometimes, it feels good to hear it again

Arrests and Seizures

Well, big surprise, I’d finished my entry and the dang modem stopped working again for the umpteenth time. Damn thing booted me offline, loosing my entry even though I’d hit save 20 times. I’ve decided to write all my entries in Microsoft word and copy/paste until Comcast fixes the stupid modem.

 

It’s now 0115; I started my entry at 2355 and fought the modem until a couple minutes ago. I better not be charged full price for a piece of crap that only works half the time if at all. UGH!!!

 

And yes, I feel better now. J

 

OK, now I’m getting tired so you’re getting the shorter version of these stories, it’s been a few days so I can’t remember all the details anyway.

 

The pediatric arrest came in early morning. We were toned out for a 3-month old, born 3-months premature, having difficulty breathing, possibly in cardiac arrest. Even experienced medics hate these calls, you can become indifferent or immune to most calls…not so with babies.

 

He warned me that if she was actually in arrest, he’d grab her and bring her to the rescue. On cue, radio gives the update we were all dreading…CPR in progress at this time.

 

Time to kick it into overdrive.

 

The baby being a scary shade of blue, he got her to the rescue as the engine and squad arrived. We intubated her and were instantly greeted with a gush of milk from her lungs. We also managed to start an IV in her hand before starting towards the children’s hospital.

 

On the way, she started trying to breathe on her own so we removed the tube and simply kept her mad by tapping the bottoms of her feet. Just an FYI, if a child is quiet…BE AFRAID!

 

Turns out, the home-care nurse had been feeding her and called for us when her pulse started slowing down. She’d aspirated the milk, but the Dr.’s said she’ll be fine…Thank God.

 

_________________________________________________________

A family member comes home and finds our lady on the floor seizing. He has no idea how long she’s been like this but is quite helpful to us in passing her medical history along once we got there.

 

We had to pin her arm down to start an IV and get a good line running before pushing Diazepam to try and stop the seizing. It worked, for all of 3 minutes. We got her to the rescue and I was in the back with my partner and another medic off the engine, one of the other guys from the engine drove us in.

 

Enroute, we tried to intubate her, but since she was still having seizures her teeth were clenched, making it impossible. So, what’s a medic to do? He shoved the tube right up her nose! The other medic confirmed placement while I held the tube and bagged her (forced oxygen into her lungs), then my partner secured the tube.

 

Later on, we dropped off another patient and I poked my head in the room. The family was surprised to learn I’d helped bring her in, but happy I’d wanted to know how she was doing. She was still having petite mal or small seizures. The hospital had tried to drop her blood pressure to make the seizures stop but it didn’t work. Plans were being made to move her to the ICU. Once her family members learned that we rarely get to see how a patient is doing once we leave the hospital, they said they will try to keep us updated on her progress.

 

I’m just afraid that she was down so long she’ll have permanent brain damage, or worse.

____________________________________________________________

 

As for the neat MVC?

 

A single car crossed the double-yellow and flipped ass-over-teakettle, landing upside-down in some bushes and trees beside the road. The car behind him pulled over to help, having witnessed the whole thing.

 

When we arrived, the driver was sitting in the back of a patrol car. Since he not only failed to answer our questions appropriately, but also met mechanism of injury (MOI), he was immobilized on a long back board.

 

In the rescue, he wanted off the board, then a pillow, then he just wanted us to let him go home…not gonna happen.

 

He really didn’t like the idea of getting an IV and kept pulling away and procrastinating until we threatened that I’d have to stick him again if he made me miss.

 

Skipping ahead a few hours….

 

A nurse gave us an update on his condition after we dropped off our most recent patient. He had two fractured vertebrae in his neck, C4 and C5!

 

This is a perfect example of why everyone that has the slightest neck or back pain gets put on a backboard.

 

Even after getting the IV and having to stay on the board, he still said those 2 little words we rarely hear that mean so much…

 

“Thank You”

lots to do, little time to do it in

The past few days have been hectic to say the least. I'll try to write out the stories when I get more time, but here's a quick synopsis for you...

Pediatric cardiac arrest

High School buddy died from Malaria

Circus performer accident (so much for being off-duty and having a good time)

Seizure patient down unknown amount of time

Wannabe stroke patient

Drive-thru service at 0545 at the station

Captain threatens he can make station life very hard

Fiance home for a few days before shipping off to Iraq

 

As you can see, my plate is a little full at the moment... To top it all off, I'm now assigned to the ambulance for the next 6 months...So much for a "merged department"

uh, capt, look under it....

Nothing much to report about, most of our calls are not worth repeating... With the exception of these 2...

I was assigned to the Engine and we were toned out yesterday for a misc. service request of a vehicle leaking fuel. As we arrive, we see the car is in the dirt, no problem, natural dike, nothing for us to do-we can leave. I'm not sure if it was us being nosy, curious, or what, but we approached the officer and the car. I dropped to my knees to see how badly the gas tank was leaking and burst out laughing.

"uh, Capt, you gotta see this..."

The car had lost control and hit a high embankment. What stopped the car? The rear axle... It caught on the fire hydrant.

At this point, I ought to mention that the hole where the hydrant would normally be, was completely round and intact. The hydrant however, was pushed over at least 12". The very top part of the hydrant had also been sheared off and was found about 10 feet away. We decided to stick around until the tow truck arrived, we were all curious how he would get the car off the hydrant and if the hydrant main was leaking or not.

All's well that ends well, the tow truck was able to move the car easily (considering). As he drove away to move the car so he could secure it to his rig, he sliced a tire on the front of the hydrant... DOH!!!

*****************************************

I think it was a little after midnight when we were toned out for a chest pain. We find our patient anxiously pacing her house. Once we finally got her to sit down and sit still, we ran a 12-lead EKG. Among the 7-8 problems it found, was one that caught everybody's attention... **ACUTE MI**

Load and go time!

She got a diesel drip (very fast ride) to the nearest hospital about 7 miles away. We had to argue with her because she wanted to go to one that would've taken 30-45 minutes to get her to. As she got close to the hospital, she became combative, pulling out both her IVs. The Medic told us when he went back inside to drop off the copy of the PCR, she was being intubated and had already arrested twice. The hospital had planned to fly her to a more specialized hospital, unfortunately, she passed away before they had the opportunity.

When we saw her, she was alert and moving around fine. By the time our ambulance crew left the hospital, she was dead. There's no way to know for sure, but maybe if she would've called us when the pain started 3 hours earlier, she might still be alive.

Take care

Burn, Baby, Burn

Well, after 12 months with my department (6 of which were training) it’s finally happened. I’ve had my proverbial cherry popped. I finally got to go in a working house fire yesterday.

 

The shift started somewhat slow, everybody was hanging around the dayroom, slacking. We finally got moving and I helped wash the engine and check the jump bags. Being in a different reserve engine from last shift, me and the driver went next door to hook into a hydrant and flow some water through to make sure everything was working properly. As we finished up we were dispatched to a house fire in our second-due territory. I was geared-up by the time Capt. made it over to us and got on the engine. Off and running we hauled ass up the street, especially when we heard the initial size-up… “2-story single family dwelling, heavy smoke showing on all sides, this will be a working incident.”

 

As we crested a hill, we could easily see where we were headed. Atop the next hill, all you could see was a huge cloud of dark grey smoke where the street and horizon would normally meet.

 

Onscene, I grabbed a sheetrock puller and went with Capt to Command to get our assignment. “Go around back and give me a better size-up.”

 

As we got back there, someone came out onto the 2nd story deck and said the floor was weak in places and they were out of air. We reported our findings to Command as we grabbed a 24 foot ladder off a nearby engine. As soon as we had it set up, our driver joined us and I went up onto the deck. They passed me a freshly charged hoseline, then followed it up. We went in to get a quick look around and learn from the other crews where the floor was weak, then retrieved our hoseline and started hunting.

 

First attack was on one small corner in a room that we were told to stay tight on the walls in. Next on my list was waiting as another crew tore into a wall in the hallway, then dousing that bit of fire. Capt ran out of air at this point so I passed the nozzle to a friend from another company and we went onto the deck with Capt. Somebody was bringing a full bottle for him so I grabbed the sheetrock puller and me and the driver went back inside.

 

We were now told to go into one of the bedrooms and check the walls on the front of the house, “the fire is in the walls.”

 

I went straight to the front wall (tamping the floor as I went to make sure it would hold me) and moved a small box from under the windows. As soon as I did, flames started shooting a foot or two out of the wall. I had to yell 3 or 4 times before somebody heard me say I needed the hoseline in there. Moments later, the driver came in with the line and knocked it down. We both tore out the wall, putting out hotspots as we found them.

 

When our low-air bells started ringing, we met up with Capt (his bottle was empty again) and went out front to the Air & Light truck for fresh bottles. We ended up dumping some of our gear for a few minutes and grabbing a little Gatorade.

 

A few short minutes later, we geared back up and went back in for some more overhauling, this time on the ground floor. By this point, the smoke fans had been in place for a while and there wasn’t really any smoke in the house. I had the hoseline again. Looking around, I could see why we were told to stay on the walls in the first bedroom, 4 or 5 of the 2x8 floor beams had 3- and 4-foot sections that were gone. The creepy thing was that the bedroom I spent so much time in had a weakened floor. The beam we had been standing one was drooping down 3 inches from the level of the floor.

 

After tearing out the rest of the wallboards and soaking everything down for a few minutes, we went outside and geared down again. Capt went to talk with Command and I went to help reload hose onto one of the engines. I think we were onscene 2 ½ or 3 hours.

 

 

But it doesn’t end there…

 

Later that afternoon, we were dispatched to a car fire across from the mall. The rescue (ambulance, it’s a merged department, they’re both firefighters and our rescues have a place for your gear and 2 extinguishers) was at the edge of our territory and decided to roll by. They beat us there and said they saw the smoke from a mile away- so did we. The engine compartment was fully involved and some bushes had also caught fire.

 

Being on the engine, I had my gear already on so I grabbed the nozzle and started the attack. Meanwhile, the other rookie was getting his gear off the rescue and putting it on. He helped with the car’s hood (fiberglass, think toilet paper in a glass of water) and I put out the passenger’s side and most of the fire around the engine as well as the bushes. Shutting the nozzle off for a moment, we drug the line around to the driver’s side and I passed the nozzle to him. *Hey, I’d want somebody to do it for me, fair is fair* He put out the rest and soaked the dash inside the car. We again took turns soaking it down a few more times before letting the tow truck load the car.

 

We found out that when they first got there, the firemedic put on his coat and helmet and grabbed the ABC extinguisher (there’s a watercan and an ABC/dry chemical on all rescues). Right as he approached the car (from the driver’s side) he started discharging the dry chem… BOOM!!! Front tire blew out. He told us he just kinda said fuck this and backed off to wait on us. He still managed to work the fire, he recently went to FAO/fire apparatus operator class so he got to work the pump. Win-win situation for everyone except the car owner.

 

We got hammered the rest of the shift, finally ate dinner around 2230. I’m not sure how much sleep we got but I can tell you it wasn’t enough. When I got home this morning around 0815, I went straight to bed. I didn’t wake up until 1400.

 

My arms and shoulders are sore from working that house fire, but strangely, I don’t mind. I guess the fact that I had my first fire overrules everything. Either that, or I’m still high on adrenalin, maybe some of both.

 

Until next time, take care and stay safe…

Specialty Teams

In many large departments there are teams formed that specialize in one aspect of our job or another. In most departments, you will have at least Hazmat and Technical Rescue/Heavy Rescue. Depending on the department size and call volume as well as topography and other factors, more teams can be added.

Here in my department we are fortunate enough to have Hazmat, TRT/Heavy Rescue (high/low angle rescue, trench, confined spaces, swift water, extrication, etc...), ARFF/ Airport Rescue Firefighting, K-9 Search and Rescue, SWAT Medics, Wildland, and Bicycle Medics.

(We have approx. 880 FF/EMTs, 153 of which are paramedics. Last year we had around 104,000 responses from our 26 fire stations.)

All speciality teams ask for a 2-year commitment once you're on the team. Very rarely will you find a rookie with the guts to even request to be looked at for a team. There is always an exception to every rule... The Bicycle Medics.

I recently read in our station newsletter that the team was accepting applications, so I sent one in. I received a call the next shift letting me know there would be a meeting the next week and I was invited to attend.

SO....

I did.

 

After talking to the Batt. Chief and getting a run-down of responsibilities, what type of events we work, etc... I (along with a few others) was accepted onto the team.

I'm not really sure how many if any interesting calls I'll have on the bikes, but I'm going to be put through a rough 4-day class in June. I'll have to learn to ride the bike across a 2x6 board, dodge pedestrians and other obstacles, stuff like that. As part of our regular training, I'll have to do practicals on how to respond to certain calls with the limited amount of gear that's carried on the bikes.

Since I'm just an EMT, I'll always be paired with a Paramedic. Not like I mind, all the medics on the team are really nice and great at what they do.

The only funny thing is the bikes (only 7, might be getting 3 more soon) are different sizes... 16, 18, 20, and 22 inch. I'm the shortest one so I get the short bike   LOL. The 16" bike also has a female seat on it (go figure). But, all the bikes are numbered,  and "my" bike is #1.

Take Care

stupid helicopter

More crazy days lately, the past 2 shifts have had some very good calls. I was sent off to another station and ran a car fire, stove fire (out on our arrival), and a car vs. tree collision where the patient damn near amputated his foot in the impact. The next shift I ran a call back in my home territory where a 15 yof (year old female) was shot through-and-through the abdomen by her cousin. That call came out in the late afternoon when the news helicopters were already airborne and in the area. My mom called me later saying she saw our engine on the news. There was also a big bumble-fuck about the local childrens hospital wanting their helicopter to do the transport. They were put on alert by our dispatch center and said they would have a 9 minute ETA. A few minutes later, Radio calls us on the Nextel asking if we want the helicopter, they went airborne and were now 5 minutes away. "Uh, no, tell them thanks but not this time."

A little background will help explain this problem. When the helicopters do the transport, the flight crew usually wants to assess the patient onscene and load them with the rotor blades stopped ("cold load"). This takes valuable time that can not be spared. Any and every patient that is severe enough to need the helicopter does not have the 5-7 minutes to sit there, that's why we, the paramedics and emt's onscene, give them a report in the first place.

I will admit and agree that most lifeflight helicopters are cramped and it looks nearly impossible to get around the patient. I just want to know why they need to shut everything down to reassess the patient when we've already told them everything we could and the patient is packaged and ready to go. If you really need to do another assessment, why can't it be done enroute to the hospital? It may be different elsewhere, but here the only time a helicopter will do a "hot load" is on the interstate, they are afraid if they shut everything down they might not be able to get airborne again.

We don't currently have a protocol for using the choppers, But we've had a few calls lately that have caused the upper brass to look into this problem. While they're at it, it's been said that they will also assign certain locations to be landing zones.

Who knows...maybe it'll help, maybe it won't...at least we can say we tried.

Take care

 

Flirty Old Guy

As promised, here's the call about the flirty guy.

Respond to 2345 Youpickthe Pl for a 56 YOM feeling suicidal.                                     (In the notes on our KDT) family member called, advised he just wants to die, hasn't eaten in 4-5 days

We get there, and his son and daughter meet us. Over the course of the call we learned some underlying problems.They said he used to be on depression meds, but stopped taking them because he thought they were too expensive. The son added he keeps finding empty alcohol bottles, has no idea where the dad's getting them from, but he's been trying to get rid of them all. Apparently he never drank at all until his father died a couple years ago, and has been going downhill since.

Me and my partner go into the man's room and he's laying on the bed. I go to the far side of the bed with the jump bag and my partner stays on the near side. About the time my partner hit his third or fourth question, I had out what I needed to check the guys vitals. Patient is in purple, my partner is green, and I'll be blue.

I'm not going to no damn hospital.

Ok, that's fine. Will you at least let my partner check your vitals?

He looks over, I guess he didn't see me come in.  That's a pretty young lady..... You know I used to be a good-looking young man. If I was younger I would've gone after you.

I just did the nod and smile thing as I checked his vitals. As soon as I was done, the son brought a photo album out to show off a couple pictures of dad as a young man. Not bad I guess, voted best-looking in his class.

Yeah, I was good looking when I was a young man and I would've been after you.

I bet.

I would've been after you and I would've had your tail.

This part of the conversation went on at least a dozen times. By the end of the call, I felt bad for him and his family, but I really wanted to get out of there.

His kids (both older than me) said he hadn't eaten for a week when they "sat there and fed him like a baby." It had been 4-5 days since and he refused to eat anything.

Seeing that he was in need of help (although he was clear he didn't want to go) we went with our only option, call medical control and ask for orders to take him against his will.

My partner made the call. The guy's vital signs were fine, he was alert and answering all our questions correctly, he keeps stating he wants to lay in bed and die, won't eat, etc...

Doc said sorry, no-go. He seems to know what he's doing, try the Sherriff's Office.

So we did, and their psych on-duty? Was off-duty for the night. We managed to get in touch with them and they said to tell the family to call the crisis center in the morning and if needed, call us back.

We passed all the info along to the son and daughter. We also told them that they need to hide any weapons and to get every last drop of alcohol out of the house. When they asked about him possibly going through withdrawls from the alcohol, we told them to call us if he went into seizures. ANY patient that has just had a seizure will not be properly oriented to make transport decisions for a little while after the seizure stops, as long as we get there during that window- his butt is going to the hospital whether he likes it or not.

We left after being onscene over an hour, although I was a little creeped out by the constant flirting, I still wish he would've let us take him. Being that I'm still new, my partner explained what would've happened if the guy let us take him or if we had gotten a green-light to take him. If he agreed to go, we would've called for an engine for manpower. My partner would ride in the back with me (for safety in case he tried something) and someone off the engine would drive us to the hospital. Had we received the orders from medical control, things would have been a little different. We would call for an engine and PD to respond. The guy would be restrained and strapped to a backboard (restraining is done by tying them to a backboard at each ankle and wrist, then they're secured to the backboard with the usual 5 straps). Then transported the same way as above.

**Side note** I worked the next night at a neighboring station as part of the swap time I mentioned in my previous entries. That evening, I heard another call go out to the same location. I don't know what happened, but if/when I find out, I'll update.

Take care and never flirt back (with your patients)   

more crazy days

Life's been hectic at work lately. I had to swap time with a friend to work a big disaster drill. Sleeping in a fire station 2 nights in a row is not recommended. At least I can sleep in my own bed tonight :-)  Both of the guys I joked around a lot with are now gone. One transferred a couple months ago, the other decided he would retire a few days ago. We had a very nice steak lunch at the station for him, his wife and one of his kids. Our Batallion and Deputy Chief came and ate with us, took group pictures, told stories, etc. The nice thing about having the Chiefs there, we were able to go out of service for "training" so we wouldn't have to run calls during the little party. The big party will be the first of next month, we're going to have it at a different station since ours is so small. (Besides, no matter how much you clean a turd, it'll never be more than a shiny piece of shit.)

I do have a good call to write about, but I don't have the time right now. I've got errands to run and things to do. I'll try to post it Saturday.

I will say this much, it was like having my dad trying to flirt with me. *now 'scuse me while I go hurl*

stay safe

nothing much going on

Nothing going on lately, no good calls, nothing too interesting to report about. I was sent to one of the slowest stations in my department last shift. Big suprise, nothing happened- at least not until I got sent back to my home station that night. We got a call 10 minutes before shift change. We finally made it back from the hospital around 0845. I was so happy to get out of there!

take care

Accidents and Arrests

Accidents and Arrests just seemed a fitting title after my shift last week. The first 3 calls were for chest pain, some worse than others.

07:07....respond to ____ for a 28YOF chest pain.

Dull call, ECG was unremarkable. She got her sister to drive her so she wouldn't have to worry about her children.

We ran a few errands and made it back to the station around 09:30 or so (I think).

(A couple minutes later...) Respond to_____ for a 42YOF chest pain. Will be in green SUV in locations parking lot.

 Mom and daughter are in the car, mom's chest was hurting for almost a week and she was waiting until the weekend to get checked out (This all happened Friday) . We move her to the back of the rescue and do another 12-lead ECG. The strip says "biatrial enlargement", but nothing can be confirmed or ruled out without going to the hospital or seeing a specialist. She also was having the pain when she would move a certain way or touch the spot...A sign that the pain could simply be a pulled muscle. She allowed us to call for a BLS or basic transport, ETA about 20 minutes.

We come to find out she has another daughter at the high school a mile away and wants to go pick her up before going in the ambulance. After doing most of our paperwork while waiting on the BLS unit, mom decides she'll go on her own.

"Radio, cancel the basic transport coming to this location."

As my partner is getting the refusals and witness info signed, she wanted to move the car. I'm walking around the unit to see if I can help her get out of  the parking space without having to move the ambulance. I don't know if she slipped, but she sped up and hit the corner of the ambulance. She also managed to hit my elbow and knee, it would've been worse if I hadn't jumped backwards when I did. I was lucky I wasn't really hurt, no bruises, but I was riding high on adrenalin for a few hours.

We went out of service and called for PD and for a Battalion Chief to make reports and take pictures. No damage to the rescue other than a little paint. We had to go back to the station to write letters and do more paperwork, then to the body shop for an estimate. It was after 1330 before we went back in service.

Right as we pull into the station... respond to ___ for a 57YOM chest pain, difficulty breathing. Will be at ___(Insurance provider's office)

Onscene, Dr. gives the guy's complaints...He had a syncopal episode (passed out) at the barber shop, and drove here. He's been diaphoretic (sweaty) and keeps saying his chest hurts. Given 1 nitro spray, 1 81mg asprin, and his last set of vitals were 125/85. They also had a small IV started in one hand and were giving him half saline (.45%).

My partner goes to the guys head and asks the favorite question "How you doing today?"

Meanwhile, we've hooked him up to our monitor and find that he's in second-degree heart block. Very bad sign so we go ahead and put the shock pads on him just in case.

The guy responds "Not so good, my chest feels funny."

Looking away to get his penlight and saying "Let me check your pupils," by the time he turned back-BOOM!! The guy's pupils are dialating, I'm starting to move because I saw him stop breathing...Our guy is now in full cardiac arrest. We started scrambling to get the BVM out and the Dr. was told to start compressions. He does 1, looks around a moment, does 2 more, looks around again, 1 more compression and our patient gasps for air.

We immediatly noticed that he was now in third-degree block and kept trying to brady out (his heart kept slowing down). Switching to pacer mode, we cranked it up to 30mA at 70 bpm (beats per minute) to keep him from arresting again. We got a large-bore IV started and got him loaded, one of the guys from the engine was in back also. I volunteered to drive and was met with a very serious direct order "Don't touch the brakes."

Who knew a reserve truck with 144,000 miles could still do 90mph?!

At the hospital, his underlying pulse was 46 with the pacer making his heartbeat 70. He had been given Morphine enroute to ease the pain from the pacer. Even the hospital had a rough time getting a good capture with their pacer, the timing has to be good and his timing was horrible.

I don't know how he's doing now but he was alive and talking when we left the hospital. They were talking about transferring him to a more specialized hospital, he desperately needed an internal pacemaker.

I've read that cardiac arrests only make up 2% of EMS calls. Most of those patients are in full arrest when we get there and have a poor outlook. This guy was one of the few lucky ones, he not only arrested at his Doctor's office, but the Paramedics, EMT's, and Firefighters were watching and ready.

Take care

It's been a while

Not too much has been going on lately. A couple interesting calls but mostly dumb stuff.

I DO have some very good news. The next class of rookies came out of training, and we got one of them. This may seem asanine or irrevellant to you, but it's not. In fact, it's huge! I am still a rookie, but no longer "the" rookie. I got to pass off some of my chores to him last shift. He took it all in stride, it'll all be easier with both of us working.

Since I haven't had any good calls lately, or posted recently, here's one from a while back.

Every now and then, we get a call where dispatch won't tell us anything other than person down. We can usually get a little more information from the KDT in our trucks. Scrolling down the call info my partner read it aloud "possible 22." (demented person) OK, so this guy could be nuts. We beat the engine crew out of the station and got to the street quickly. Turning onto it and coming down the hill, I saw it.

"Uh, this is gonna be fun..."

"Why?"

"2 PD cars onscene."

OK, nobody said anything about PD even being enroute. Stepping out of the truck we can hear someone screaming. Not an occasional yell, but using every breath to yell. We walk inside to find 3 officers sitting on the patient, his dad holding one of his arms, and his big brother trying to help. We later learned that big bro works for our county PD and was just off-duty.

We learned he started screaming about 15 minutes before PD arrived, it was another 15 minutes until we got there. We tried talking to him but nothing worked. There was no chance he'd taken any drugs, legal or otherwise, he didn't have or do anything that would explain his behavior. So we did the only thing we could- restrained him to a backboard. We tied the soft medical restraints to him, strapped him to the board, and buckled him down for the ride. Dad rode in to the hospital with us.

Once inside the back of the rescue, he quieted down a lot. I don't know if it was getting away from his family that helped or not. He tried to work himself back up enroute, but my partner warned him if he didn't slow his breathing and calm down his head would keep hurting and he'd eventually pass out. Dad thought maybe his girlfriend had broken up with him or something like that. I hate to think all of that happened over a girl, but you never know.

We got him to the ER and unloaded him under the watchful eye of security. They were called to the ER in case we needed help, certainly nice to have another pair of hands. (Security is called down for different types of problems- psych, obese, respiratory diseases, and whenever PD brings one in...to name a few reasons)

We never did find out why he got so upset. We've been on many calls on his street since then, it's tempting to knock on his door to see how he's doing. Sometimes I wish we had a way to follow-up on certain patients, see how they're doing.

Take care 

busy

Life's been a bit hectic lately, I've been sent to other stations the past few shifts and haven't had much free time. I should get back to some resemblance of a normal life soon, and I promise to write more entries when I do.

Until next time....

and who are you?

Not much to write about from last shift, although we did have a third rider from the EMT class at the academy. I kinda felt bad for him, "third rider syndrome" struck.

A couple weeks before taking National Registry, EMT students have to do their clinical rotations, for this class it was 16 hours in the ER and 24 on the box. We only ran 4 calls all shift. One was around 1530, the other 3 stacked on us just as we were sitting down to eat dinner. He had to go on a crash-course of learning how to inhale your food instead of eating it.

At shift change he seemed a little disappointed. We tried to explain about third riders jinxing us to run fewer calls, and that the calls he went on were normal- bs calls (and, no, I don't mean basic service...at least on most of them).

Well, I got a bunch of chores to get done before work tomorrow... Take care

Very Long Shift

I've just now caught up on enough sleep and patience to sit down and write this entry. Saturday was absolutely wild! We had a lovely ice storm roll through starting late Friday night. Luckily, my car is front-wheel drive so navigating icy roads was a little easier for me than it was for others. Salt trucks were struggling to keep 2 lanes flowing traffic in each direction on the expressways, side streets were out of the question. I drove the 30+ miles to the station without ever going over 35mph.

It turns out the off-going shift got hammered as the storm rolled in. There were accidents everywhere and cars abandoned on the side of the roads...some upside down because the tow trucks couldn't get enough traction to flip the car so they could load it.

Being a Saturday and therefore, house day, I put my gear on the engine, checked my SCBA, and went to work cleaning the station. I think it was after 0900 before we got our first call. Now, although we ran 18 calls, most weren't the least bit interesting. Somewhere between 1400 and 1500, the EMS gods decided they would start sending trucks to check out "lines down" and "transformer on fire" type calls. Oh fun. I decided it was too cold out so I put on my bunker pants...Hey, so I'm a wuss, it was 26 out with a wind chill of 16- those pants are warm.

1745    or so...

Power goes out, no problem, we have a generator. We fought the generator for who knows how long. It would start up and run easy, it just wouldn't put out any power... Not good considering the bay doors are power operated. Now, if you have automatic garage doors, you may know about the red cord you can pull that releases the door from the chain, allowing you to manually lift the door- bay doors are very large and extremely heavy. Our only escape was the back door which had a chain that could be used to raise and lower the door...slowly.

Call the Battalion Chief, manufacturer, and maintenance man.

Fast forward a bit to around 2000...

Both engine and rescue were dispatched to an EMS call, rescue got a big jump on us getting out of the station. Keep in mind, the roads are nearly frozen over and, being in a reserve engine, we didn't have snow chains so we had to drive slowly and take our sweet time. All day we had avoided incident going to and from calls, only spun the tires on one or two icy hills.    Yeah, well, that changed. The rescue was already onscene and cancelled us just as we're about to go down this gentle hill to a stop sign. (turn left and the call was 3 or 4 houses away) Right at that very moment, I'm looking to my right, out my window...and suddenly I'm starting to see more of the road ahead of us- including the stop sign and the house across the street.

**If you haven't figured it out, the engine was sliding almost completely sideways down the hill.**

OK, my pucker factor just went WAY UP!!!

Looking back, I guess it was lucky the back of the engine bounced off a tree or something and straightened us out, we also regained enough traction to stop (thank God) without even going through the stop sign.

Those 2 goofballs picked on me for hours after that, but I'd never been in any vehicle and slid sideways, much less a 45,000 lb fire truck!

Somewhere around 2100, the power came back on as the maintenance man was leaving with our generator (whatever problem can only be fixed back at his shop).

For the next few hours, call after call came in. Lines down, EMS calls, tree fell on my car, 103yr old needs ride to hospital because she's cold... We were able to sleep 10-20 minutes between each call. At 0600, we had just made it back to the station and I was waiting for the driver to finish the paperwork so I could go to bed. Apparently I looked the part because the seat man (aka officer on the engine) told me it was OK and to go lay down.

0615...call for a house fire in our neighboring territory.

Keep in mind, I'm so used to either false calls or the fire being out, I waited to packout or put on my SCBA. As we're coming around the corner to get onscene, I see it....There she is, in all her glory, the entire backside of the house was a wall of flames.

Switching gears, I jump across and into the seat that has my SCBA and quickly snap the buckle arounds my waist, snatching the straps to tighten it around my waist and shoulders. Now onscene, I jump off and wait for orders. Moments later I'm told to ""find the nearest hydrant"

Right across the street.

OK, set me up a 5" line.

Can't, we don't have any on this reserve truck.

Dammit, well set up everything you can.

Switching gears again, I grabbed both lines off the back of the engine and rush over to the hydrant. Moving quickly back to the engine to retrieve the hydrant bag. Using the wrench, I had to break the ice off before I could unscrew the caps and make the connections. About this time the next unit shows up and it's driver comes over to help. I pass the wrench to him and, letting him know it's all ready to go, he released me to go find another job to do from my officer.

As the moments pass, more units are arriving and I've completely lost my sense of time...bear with me as everything else is in order (at least).

Both crosslays have already been pulled and are at the front door of the house, and by this time the front of the house is rolling as well. My next assignment was to get another line set up to guard exposures. I managed to get my line in place and the driver just finished hooking it up as Command called for the lines to be charged.

I'm told by my officer to just sit tight until someone comes and gets the line, then he'll make sure and get me "in some heat."

I sat on my line and watched as other crews grabbed the lines at the front door and headed inside. As time passed, Command tried to get the interior crew to back out before part of the roof collapsed but they refused. As I  continued to wait, my officer joined me and directed me to aim for a couple places on the roof that were burning. Shortly after, one of the battalion chief's aides was sent over to me. He told me Command was mad at the crews inside, and, since they won't come out, dump 'em. I'll admit, I was grinning like a cheshire cat as I opened the line and arced the stream up so it would fall into the second-story where the roof had now burned through. I kept it open and moved it around some to get full coverage on my "target."

Soon, the fire was deemed under control and a large fan was placed at the front door to clear out some of the smoke. I continued to stand by with my line (now aimed at the house) until my relief finally came. Unfortunatly, it was in the form of the oncoming shift from my station. I grabbed my facepiece and regulator off the air pack, handing it and the line over, and walked away alongside my officer. Both of us madder than I care to decsribe.

On a normal fire scene, the first crew to arrive does the attack on the fire, second due gets water supply, and so-on. We got shitted on (pardon my french). The county has a heavy rescue team that is great at what they do...I've now decided that they're also a bunch of Jakes that want every fire. They were probably 4th or 5th to arrive and decided to grab the lines and run in, the whole time Command was screaming at them to stop and then to back out because of the roof. These guys may be the best trained in the county for confined spaces, search and rescue, entrapment, and everything else- but they are a haughty bunch of assholes in my opinion. Yes, I'm pissed. We finally got a real fire and I had to sit on a stinking exposure line while they went inside and had all the fun. As I was walking to the unit that was going to take us back to the station, a friend called me over. He had been inside and was covered in ash and whatever else. He asked me what I thought and if I'd been inside.

"Nope, I had to sit on the exposure line the whole time. Since 24 decided to take it over I didn't get to go in at all. Figures, we finally got a real fire down here and I get stuck outside the whole time."

He agreed that it sucked being on that line and offered to make sure I went in on the next one. Funny thing is, 24's crew was standing right behind him and watched from the moment he called me over... They didn't look too happy. I guess I wouldn't be happy either knowing a rookie figured out they would've finally had their first fire if another crew would simply do what they were supposed to.

Oh NO!! anything but that!!

In a few hours another nightmare will come true...

It has nothing to do with work or any of the patients....

It has nothing to do with much of anything....

Curious yet?

How 'bout now?

ok ok......

I have to go out in public

wearing

 

 

a DRESS!!!    nooooooooooooo!!!

sorry, I hate dresses, I'm not a girly girl. The only time I wear a dress or a skirt is when Mom makes me or friends offer money...I earned $30 one day in high school by wearing a skirt.

Before you ask, I'm going to do my damndest to get out of going to this meeting- I don't really want to go anyways. C'mon, who wants to go sit around in a formal gown for 3 hours with a group of back-stabbers you thought were your friends?

NOT ME

 

On a lighter note... I'll be back to work tomorrow and should have some good calls to write about, if not, I've got some from a few weeks ago that are pretty interesting.

Take care

computer problems

Well, after days of going through internet-withdrawls...I'm back!!!! Turns out that some metals shelves downstairs somehow got pushed against a phone jack we don't use and short-circuted the phone line. It sounded like there was another phone picked up, real staticky. I guess there was too much noise because it wouldn't allow my modem to dial in...very bad since this computer's 2 months old.

Other than that, there've been a couple of interesting calls lately, I've been on the rescue the past 4 shifts and am on Liberty day next shift (free day off each month). I need to go talk to one of the Chiefs, I'll probably go meet with him on my day off...Me and a couple other guys have been having a lot of problems with our Cap't lately. It seems I can't even ask a simple yes or no question without him going into a 10-minute tirade on me being "just a ff1 and a rookie, rookie's always get the short end of the stick, especially here."

He also went off asking me if I knew how to drive the engine, or ride seat, and since I'm not a paramedic either there's nothing he can do with me.

**insert me getting madder and turning redder the longer I spoke with him**

"I never said I could drive the engine or ride seat, and I know I'm not a paramedic."

"Well then, what do you want me to do? You tell me what unit I should put you on, what do you want to ride?"

"Cap, all I asked was if there was a pattern to the rescue rotation and if so , what is it? I'm trying to keep track for my own personal benefit and can't seem to find a pattern."

"Do you know how to pump the engine? No. Can you drive the engine? No. Can you ride seat? No.  I can't do anything with you."

"I never said I could drive the engine or make it pump, and I know I can't ride seat...."

"Well then what am I supposed to do with you? You're just a ff1 rookie and I'm not going to treat you the same as everybody else, maybe when you're a ff2 I can use you."

Ohhh, I don't even wanna know how red my face was, but I was about ready to punch his ass!!! He went on for about 10 minutes. While I'm venting let me add that I know I'm a ff1 rookie, I'm also a probie, the last thing I need is him reminding me every shift and rubbing it in. He was mostly going on about things that happened while he was gone for a month, things he really had no idea about. I knew I'd be catching a lot of slack from everybody, gotta break in the new rookie, but this is getting ridiculous. I've had other firefighters from other stations tell me how he used to be really rough on rookies, and then ask if he still made me do 'this, that and the other'. Well, yeah.

I've been in the field all of 2 1/2 months, and, with the exception of my Captain, I'm enjoying it thoroughly. Yeah, we run our tails off some shifts, but we're one of the busiest stations...15 calls for the engine and another 8-12 calls for the rescue is a normal shift. I also love my station and most of my crew, they're a bunch of great guys.... BUT, if some things don't change soon, I'm putting in for a transfer as soon as I'm off probation (when I'm eligible).

Take care.

They'll never learn

I was almost finished with a really good entry, sometimes AOL can just KMA. Grrrr!!!

**I also reached 1000 hits, yaaah**

 

After reading my entry about the value of seatbelts, you'd think I might be able to avoid ejections for a little while...Think again.

Yesterday morning started out with another MVC rollover with ejection, possibly on fire. Luckily there was no fire and everyone was more or less OK. Dad was ejected and, unlike my last bad accident, the van didn't roll over him.

There isn't really much to say about everyone in the van, if they had any injuries, they were minor. Everyone was immobilized and transported as a safety precaution.

Oh, c'mon, you know I'm not going to end it like that!

Mom and Dad were taking the kids to school. As they approached some traffic, Mom tried to start slowing down...Nothing, so she stomps the brakes...Still nothing. I'll give her credit, our quick-thinking Mom tries in a last-ditch effort to stop or at least slow down and hits the emergency brake. The van speeds up! Dodging oncoming traffic, Mom goes off-road, flips, launches Dad airborne, and hits a tree.

We later found out from witnesses that the brakes were smoking as she tried to stop. Looking in the van, we found the accelerator was stuck and on the floor.

Any guesses as to how long until the manufacturer gives them a new vehicle?

Take care 

Death in my family

**2 entries in one day, making up for lost time**

Friday night, I almost spent New Year's in the ER. One of my cats became sick.

My cat Suger has been laying around a lot since Christmas, this isn't normal for her...She usually hides. I came home from work about 8 am and found black, tarry stool. I also found out Suger had stopped eating and drinking. I had to try and get her to drink so I found a 1cc syringe and used some pliers to remove the needle. I filled the syringe with water and squirted some in the cat's mouth and she just didn't have the energy to drink it...she could hardly stand up and felt really skinny. Time to go see a vet.

Saturday morning I picked her up from the emergency pet clinic and took her to a local university that is known for having THE BEST animal clinic. They learned she had a disease called DIC, similar to what humans can get. She had pus in the pleural space (around her lungs) and was also in septic shock. When her blood work came back, the 2 clotting factors they look at were slow, one was twice the normal length of time and the other was so slow their machine couldn't even read it. Not to mention her white blood cells were low.

I tried everything possible to help her, she was given fluids and oxygen, kept warm, and monitored constantly. She even received 2 packs of platelets, but it was in vain. She wasn't stable enough to undergo the anesthesia needed to put in a chest tube...They were having to do a chest tap every 4-5 hours to help her breathe. DIC is nearly 100% fatal in cats. I went this morning when I got off work to say my goodbyes. I swore to continue fighting as long as she did, no matter the cost.

Seeing the condition she was in confirmed my decision from the day before when I was on the phone with the vet...I had to make the hardest decision I think I ever made in my life....euthenasia.

I got to spend a few minutes alone with her, she was so sick I know in my heart it was the right choice but it hurt. As the vet gave her the injection, I told her again how much I loved her as she stopped breathing. They put her in a little coffin and I brought her home. I said a few more goodbyes and buried her. I still keep crying because I wish I could have her back, I wish more could be done to fight the disease but there's nothing else I could have done. At least she isn't suffering any more.

I'll try to get apicture up here later if I can figure it out.

Take care

The Value of a Seatbelt

The shift yesterday was somewhat dull, until about 2030 or so. Call came out in my territory for a MVC with injuries and entrapment. We made it onscene within a couple minutes and blocked all traffic (well, PD tried, but you can't get past a fire engine). It looked bad...There was a thick trail of blood coming from what looked like under the car. I was told to go help a rescue captain check the 2 people that were ejected from the vehicle. One was already covered with a sheet. The other was split open from about the middle of his chest to his underarm, he'd had some type of surgery recently and his stitches had burst open.

"No pulse, no respirations, pupils fixed and dialated...Cover him with the sheet."

**focus on the now** I went over to help with the other 4 patients that were in the SUV. All were relatively unscathed, they were also wearing their seatbelts. The worst (visible) injury was a couple scrapes and what looked like road rash. Each patient was immobilized using a standing takedown (yes, C-spine was maintained first with a collar) and transported to a trauma center.

These kids may not have needed to go, but due to what we call mechanism of injury or MOI, they were going. Any accident will qualify for MOI is it hits any one of multiple criteria: death in the same passenger compartment or intrusion greater than 2 feet, falls of 3x's the patient height, and the list goes on.

Having responded to an MVC with entrapment before, I came off the engine with my turnouts and helmet on. With all the patients safely enroute to the ER, we decided to try and cut the battery cables to make the SUV 'safe'. It took a while. The way the car rolled, the hood was tucked under the side quarterpanels. Since I had my gear on already, I got to start tearing apart the hood. Somebody handed me the Haligan Bar and I started swinging. We fought that stinking hood for probably 10 minutes before getting smart and grabbing the K12 saw. Let's just say it made short work of the fiberglass hood.

As crime scene, medical examiner and the traffic investigator arrived, so did the news media. We had raised the light tower on the engine to illuminate the scene but turned the lights off to try and minimize rubberneckers on the other side of the road.

It was a while before CSU and the traffic investigator were through taking pictures and marking the pavement. Once they finished, the ME came in and loaded the 2 bodies. The poor kid that was previously covered with a sheet looked like his neck was broken, and he'd bled out. The other looked bad as well, but hardly had any external bleeding.

The tow truck driver did some cleaning up and moved the SUV to level ground to try and load it. Meanwhile, I grabbed the booster line off the engine and tried to wash away the blood.

Here's the news article from one of the TV stations that came out, the pictures of the SUV don't show much damage...Most of the damage was on the passenger side of the car, I guess the cameras had to stay on the driver's side of the car so the bodies of the victims wouldn't be shown.

http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=56908

We finally made it back to our station shortly after midnight.