Trauma Assessments

Flashback to paramedic school. All those evaluators being so meticulous about your trauma assessment... It was for good reason.

We were called to an auto ped accident. On arrival we found our patient sitting on the sidewalk totally with it talking to the cops. Walking up to him we see a little laceration on his eyebrow, not bleeding anymore. He was crossing the street on his bike when he got pegged by a car. Alert and oriented, says he feels fine.

We could have blown it off as a whatever call, but intuition and good training led one of those "meticulous" assessments. That assessment revealed unequal pupils, a tender chest, pain along the spine, decreased movement of the lower extremities and a hot belly. (Rigidity and tenderness in the abdomen, suggestive of a bleed.) This patient was a hot return and a trauma team activation. He was on his way to CT when we left.

Do a full trauma assessment, and do it well. Complacency is a killer.

It's the little things

Everyone gets annoyed with mandatory overtime. I was pretty grumpy coming in tonight. I thought to myself, at least it's a night shift, and at least I'm working with a badass EMT.

First call of the night is an unknown medical to the amusement park... Crap. Every time I go there the staff is panicked and something breaks. One of my previous partners calls it the gypsy curse. Maybe this one will be different.

We pull up and the on staff nurse is running to our ambulance. Ah geez.

10 year old female with stiff arms... Ok....? We find her sitting on a bench with a cop coaching her breathing, which is about 40 times a minute. Sure enough, her arms are "stiff" just like they said.

Mom wants her to to in an get checked. She calms her breathing and feels much better. She turn to the police officer that was with her and asks, "can you come with me?" His response, "absolutely." And jumps in the back.

The whole thing just makes you feel good about your job. Not a single responder involved wrote this call off as stupid. Keep it real, and take care of your patients.

And another great sunset tonight...

Burnt.

A week away from vacation... I go in for mandatory overtime tonight. I haven't physically seen my wife for 4 days. I have to stay up a bit longer to keep my vampiric schedule. Last night was a hard night with late calls and sleepy fire department medics.

Short. Choppy. Sentences.

To hell with it, I'm going to bed.

Tonight's episode brought to you by the letter "S"

For sepsis...

That has been or theme this month, little old people battleing systemic infections.

Five people from the same nursing home have been transported with the same sypmtoms in the last few weeks, plus a handful more from other places. Pale dry hot potatoes, the lot of them.

It's always interesting to see which nurses commend grandma's bilateral IVs and which ones are appalled at your brutality.

A picture of the sunset tonight. Gotta appreciate the little things.

Half way done at 00:00

The new day started moments ago and my partner and I are sitting at post with a second cup of 24hr doughnut shop coffee.

I work as a paramedic in the city and volunteer as one at home in the mountains. I plan to post bits in this blog that cross my mind as the wee hours pass by. Hopefully others in the industry have some insight, and those that aren't learn about what we do.

Not a busy night yet by any standards... A little old lady fighting off septic shock and a much younger woman who had a few too many and got lost walking home.

The walls of water falling from the sky and lightning have finally given away to the handful of stars we can see through the city lights. And here we are. Post.