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