Tonight was my first long-distance transport; a patient with cardiac instability headed out to Albany. It was a fairly complex call; two nurses were escorting, which took the pressure of medical care off of us, but there was more paperwork than normal and it was my first experience with how tangled the ambulance can become when you have an IV setup and an ECG going at the same time.
Time begins to do funny things when you're on a call. At the beginning, it seemed to drag on forever - casually documenting while working through the logistics of the ride. We got underway, and things seemed simple enough - the nurses would take vitals, and I would write them down. About forty minutes in, however, the patient began complaining of left arm pain - a possible sign of cardiac trouble - and the patient began to become paler and diaphoretic. At the same time, our directions to the hospital, with which we were unfamiliar, began to fail us. At this point, ambulance time sped up considerably, and I was stuck in the middle trying to help out the driver while keeping an eye on what was going on in back.
At the end of it all, we came into the hospital lights and sirens ablaze, a firefighter ahead of us to show us the way. Ambulance time had worked out in our favor - the patient wasn't as good as when he left, but stable - and we were able to find our way through the busy city hospital.
Total time? About 3 hours, all of which passed in a moment.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Too Legit to Quit
As of today, the testing process is finally over and I'm a fully certified MA EMT-Basic!
Now, the fun really begins...
Now, the fun really begins...
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Perfect Timing
Tonight held an event familiar to anyone who wears a pager: we drove to a restaurant, ordered, and the moment the food came, the pager goes off: a nursing home transfer. We get up, ask the wait staff to hold our food, and head over.
The call was fairly routine - from the nursing home to the hospital. Had a little trouble with the blood pressure, but worked it out. The patient was visibly frightened - I always feel bad for folks that feel lost and insecure about the three of us coming in to take them off to the hospital, but we're as gentle as possible and the nursing staff was very good in this case.
The only catch came at the end, when my partner comes up to me and says, "Wash your hands extra well. The patient had MRSA."
Just what I've always wanted.
The call was fairly routine - from the nursing home to the hospital. Had a little trouble with the blood pressure, but worked it out. The patient was visibly frightened - I always feel bad for folks that feel lost and insecure about the three of us coming in to take them off to the hospital, but we're as gentle as possible and the nursing staff was very good in this case.
The only catch came at the end, when my partner comes up to me and says, "Wash your hands extra well. The patient had MRSA."
Just what I've always wanted.
Friday, March 9, 2007
The best part of waking up
Sorry for weeks without posting. That's what happens when you work Wednesday nights in a small town - two weeks, literally no calls.
This Wednesday was similarly uneventful up until 5 a.m. when I awoke to the pager out of an otherwise good night's sleep. It was a nursing home call; possible fractured hip. Jumped out of bed, hopped in the Ambulance, and off we went.
One of my favorite part of calls when I'm not the driver is the pre-scene prep work: holding on to the handles on the roof of the ambulance with one hand while it bounces over the rough back roads and shuffling through compartments and cabinets with the other, looking for all the things that might come in handy on the call. I used to feel a little seasick when this happened first thing in the morning, but this particular day I was feeling very awake.
We arrived on scene to find an elderly person on the floor of the nursing home, clearly uncomfortable. After a brief on-scene assessment, we moved him up onto a backboard and from there to the stretcher. I love (some) nursing home calls since very often the patients there, even when they're quite ill, will have the best sense of humor about everything. This was one of those times: as I put the shoulder straps of the stretcher over the patient, he makes a rasping, choking noise. I look over at him like a deer in the headlights, worried that I had done something boneheaded, like tighten one over his neck, only to find him grinning at me mischievously. I smile, and we finish getting him up, covered thoroughly as it was about -2 out, and into the hallway. I'm maneuvering the stretcher and listening to the medical history given by the nurses, and in a minute we're out the door.
In the ambulance, heat is up, patient is shivering. Start oxygen, this helps, warms up, time for vitals. I take out my stethoscope - I use my own for the first time, knowing how poorly I can hear on the rig scopes, especially on older folks - and am surprised that the pulse is loud and clear the moment I touch the scope to the arm. Usually, even on a young, healthy person, I find I can't hear the pulse very well until the cuff is slightly inflated. I take the BP, don't believe the results, take it again, turn to my partner, and ask if he has high blood pressure or if the sweater is interfering. I was right, though; it's up around 175, whereas you and I are probably near 12o.
On the short ride to the hospital, you'd be amazed at how quickly you come to like or dislike a patient. Unless they're totally silent, they're usually very endearing or very troublesome, and this one was one of the best I'd seen. He asked my partner if she was a Signora or a Signorina,
and we all had a laugh. He then turned up and said, "If you can't have fun at this job..." and drew his fingers across his throat, making that same rasping sound as before.
That ride was excellent - I got to radio in to the hospital patient information for the first time, fill out a complete run report, and, best of all, actually feel like I helped someone. There's no better way to wake up than to jump out of bed without laying around procrastinating, get your things together, and go do something exciting right away. Now if only I could feel that way about my day job...
This Wednesday was similarly uneventful up until 5 a.m. when I awoke to the pager out of an otherwise good night's sleep. It was a nursing home call; possible fractured hip. Jumped out of bed, hopped in the Ambulance, and off we went.
One of my favorite part of calls when I'm not the driver is the pre-scene prep work: holding on to the handles on the roof of the ambulance with one hand while it bounces over the rough back roads and shuffling through compartments and cabinets with the other, looking for all the things that might come in handy on the call. I used to feel a little seasick when this happened first thing in the morning, but this particular day I was feeling very awake.
We arrived on scene to find an elderly person on the floor of the nursing home, clearly uncomfortable. After a brief on-scene assessment, we moved him up onto a backboard and from there to the stretcher. I love (some) nursing home calls since very often the patients there, even when they're quite ill, will have the best sense of humor about everything. This was one of those times: as I put the shoulder straps of the stretcher over the patient, he makes a rasping, choking noise. I look over at him like a deer in the headlights, worried that I had done something boneheaded, like tighten one over his neck, only to find him grinning at me mischievously. I smile, and we finish getting him up, covered thoroughly as it was about -2 out, and into the hallway. I'm maneuvering the stretcher and listening to the medical history given by the nurses, and in a minute we're out the door.
In the ambulance, heat is up, patient is shivering. Start oxygen, this helps, warms up, time for vitals. I take out my stethoscope - I use my own for the first time, knowing how poorly I can hear on the rig scopes, especially on older folks - and am surprised that the pulse is loud and clear the moment I touch the scope to the arm. Usually, even on a young, healthy person, I find I can't hear the pulse very well until the cuff is slightly inflated. I take the BP, don't believe the results, take it again, turn to my partner, and ask if he has high blood pressure or if the sweater is interfering. I was right, though; it's up around 175, whereas you and I are probably near 12o.
On the short ride to the hospital, you'd be amazed at how quickly you come to like or dislike a patient. Unless they're totally silent, they're usually very endearing or very troublesome, and this one was one of the best I'd seen. He asked my partner if she was a Signora or a Signorina,
and we all had a laugh. He then turned up and said, "If you can't have fun at this job..." and drew his fingers across his throat, making that same rasping sound as before.
That ride was excellent - I got to radio in to the hospital patient information for the first time, fill out a complete run report, and, best of all, actually feel like I helped someone. There's no better way to wake up than to jump out of bed without laying around procrastinating, get your things together, and go do something exciting right away. Now if only I could feel that way about my day job...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
