How a medical call should be

I'm just sitting here, trying to think of something to do at 0200. The cable's out, it's too late to go out, and there's not a lot to do on a weeknight anyway. I've got some stupid movie I've seen 1,000 times playing, and a snoozing kitten curled up behind my knees.

Insomnia is NOT fun!

Sitting here, I've been thinking a lot about how things at work play out sometimes. Usually, there's an element of controlled chaos on critical scenes. We have so many of our people standing in such a small area around the patient that it's nearly impossible to do anything.

I had a call run like clockwork a few shifts ago...It was a beautiful thing.

I was on the Squad at the station when we were toned out with our Rescue crew for a patient having chest pains. Arriving onscene, our patient is sitting on the front lawn, complaining of classic MI or heart attack symptoms.

Here's where everything fell into place perfectly.

I grabbed a set of vitals, blood pressure, pulse, O2 saturation, glucose level, and respirations. Meanwhile, my medic partner (also my Captain) placed the leads and ran a 12-lead EKG.

As I started an IV in the patient's hand, he was given his first spray of Nitro and a dose of Asprin.

My partner gathered more medical information from our patient as I started to re-check his vitals.

<Insert the Rescue arriving onscene here>

The patient was moved to the stretcher and given a 2nd spray of Nitro, then loaded into the Rescue and rushed to the hospital.

Last I heard, he's doing fine.

 

Things just went perfectly. The 2 of us were able to do everything we needed to do without crowding each other or getting in each other's way. We had the patient pretty much packaged and ready to go, all he needed was a ride to the hospital by the time the Rescue showed up. We spent a total of 8 minutes onscene, from the Squad arriving, until the Rescue left the scene with the patient.

It was refreshing to see how a call should be run. I just wish it happened more often. The main problem I believe is that we run so many bull sh*t calls that we become a bit complacent. That, and when you're on your umpteenth call and you've been up almost 24 hours straight, you may get the job done, but what happens to the quality of care?

It's hard, I'll be one of the first to admit it. I've fallen asleep in the front seat of the truck at the hospital. I've run to the hospital lights and siren just so I'd have the lights, noise, and speed to make me focus on my driving and wake me up a bit more. I've teched on BS calls just so I could finish my PCR and doze off enroute to the hospital between rechecks of the paitient's vitals. I even fell asleep standing up at the station once.

24 hour shifts are hard, especially at such a busy station. For those who don't know, all 3 trucks at my station average 15-20 calls each and every shift. There's no rest for the weary and as much as I love what I get to do, I wouldn't wish 24's on anybody.

I think I'm gonna try to crash out....be safe and take care

Insomnia

OK, I can't sleep.

And I just noticed my hit counter dropped back to 0....Dammit, now I have to start all over.

Although that pic was taken from another website, it is of a bunch of my friends. One night at the haunted house after the show, our favorite knucklehead said he wanted to know what the Taser felt like. Well, he got his wish. The guy catching our falling hero is an out-of-state cop...I should mention he pushed the resident genious into the uniformed officer. (We always have one or more uniformed officers as part of our security force)

The dart cartridge was removed and the Taser was functioning more as a stun gun. Before you ask, yes, the officer was laughing his ass off! Then again, so was everybody else, including our hero. Well, maybe he wasn't laughing during the "ride," but he was all smiles afterward (minus these 2 odd-looking marks on his neck).

I bought some new pliers and other things chainmaille related to try out when I have time. Mainly some small wire I want to make a couple pieces of jewelery out of. If it works out, I'll post pics and maybe offer a couple pieces up for sale. It's a great hobby and I'll recommend it to anyone and everyone, but it isn't a very good money-maker. The sheer number of hours it takes to make some pieces, like my shirt, is amazing. It's hard because if you charged for your hours put into something, everything would be way too expensive to sell. I usually double whatever the materials cost is and add a little for labor depending on the size of the item and if it's all one metal.

I think it's finally time for me to crash out...Nite all and be careful

Some catching up to do

OK, I've been meaning to update for a long time, and I've been procrastinating for a long time too. To those that actually read this, my sincere apologies.

To try to make it up to you, I finally figured out how to include a few pictures.

First is a picture of me wearing a piece of chainmaille armor I've been working on for a while now. It's changed a lot since I took that picture, the mock-sleeves are gone and a seam similar to a regular t-shirt is now in place. I'm currently working on lengthening the sleeves to make it a long-sleeved shirt. I might add a hood later. (it depends on how bored I get)

The 2nd and 3rd pics are from a single-car accident from a couple months ago. The driver was travelling up the road when she had a seizure and lost control of her truck. Her car jumped the curb and hit a tree about 5' off the ground, flipping the truck onto it's side. She wasn't really trapped, but because of the way the truck landed, we had to cut out the front windshield and break out the rear windows to get her out.

The 4th pic is of my little kitty-rat, 2 or 3 weeks after I got her. She is curled up in my lap as I type this, purring to her heart's content. The little cow beside her is her favorite toy, she carries it all over the house. It's seen better days, now missing an eye and looking quite tattered.

5th pic is from 1 of 2 fires I went to the first day at my new station assignment. The house was torn down about a week after the fire. First units onscene had trouble initially thanks to the pitbulls roaming the yard. I got there late in the game and didn't get to go inside until the beginning of overhaul. But I did get to flow a little water on a couple small places that tried to flare back up while I was inside.

The last pic is from one of the larger disaster drills I did the beginning of November. I was sitting beside the bus halfway back when the pyrotechnics were set off. It was so much fun! The transit police get credit for trying to remove the victims to a safer location and do some triage. Unfortunately, 50 feet away isn't quite safe enough for a bomb scenario. Our onscene time was terrible, the ambulance crew didn't want to "play along," but at least the hospital crew was amazing!!! Of all the drills I've done, I think that was the best treatment I've had from the hospitals so far.

Many things have happened since my last entry back in October. Of course, I transferred to a new station. Since my station is currently a open plot of land until they rebuild our new building, the Rescue (ambulance) is running out of another station, and the Squad is housed at the busiest house in the county. Being the only other person qualified to ride the Squad, I'm almost always on it. The days where my partner (who happens to be my Captain) is off, or if too many people call out sick, I usually get either bumped over to ride engine or rescue with the rest of the crew I work with at our temporary home, or sent to another station. It's no big deal, I enjoy visiting other stations for the shift. It's kinda like a break, but you get to hang out with other friends outside the hospital and without being onscene of a call.

I have a few more pics from a car fire I ran, but when I had the film developed and put onto CD, most of the pics were shifted on the CD. I'm going to have it fixed tomorrow so I hope to have the other pics up here soon. Now that I've figured out the whole photo thing, I'll try to add pics more often.

That's all the really interesting stuff I have for now without writing about the calls I've been on. But those are for another day and time.

Be safe