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