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.
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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.
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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”
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