Sunday, April 24, 2005

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!!!

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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

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry your patient did not make it. I can only imagine trying to get her to the other hospital, huh. Take care and be safe.
K