The Long Haul

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.