A Work in Progress

I’ve had a series of clinicals leading to not very interesting stories. The other day I did have the weirdest reaction to having an ambulance crew showing up at your place of employment. Apparently, the patients’ co-workers had called the ambulance for her, and must have forgotten to tell. When we walked in, she just started laughing hysterically. It was really bizarre, as if she was on candid camera, or we were throwing her a surprise party. “Surprise, you’ve won an ambulance ride to the hospital of your choice!” She kept giggling and guffawing “You guys!” to her co-workers. It was an amusing and interesting way for someone to deal with stress. The rest of that day turned out to be a day of cancellations. For example, the calls we were sent out on in rapid succession: non-breathing...cancelled, unconscious...cancelled, pedestrian struck...cancelled. I kept getting my hopes up but then, “oh, nevermind.” Patient quote of the week “I take percocet fo’ my toof!” I also had entire...

It's been a while and I’m having to look at my calendar to remember what’s gone on in the last couple of weeks. Should I be concerned? Here follows a mixed bag of events. I’ll start with Easter; traditional, family oriented, candy, desserts, and delicious food abound. We had egg hiding for the big kids and egg finding for the little kids. I think the adults in my family have a silent battle over who can hide a plastic egg in the most ridiculous, precarious, and vexing place. We should have an award for the egg hider who made the egg finder play the “hot and cold game” the longest. Last week some friends and I taught CPR classes at school. It was no doubt the most successful venture in the history of the student EMS organization on campus. We ended up teaching 44 people, more than twice the amount we expected. The money we made counted as Jon and I finally raising the money we ‘borrowed’ from the club to go to London, sweet! I officially applied for my paramedic national re...

This weekend I was a staff member/victim for the EHS departments’ search and rescue class. I took the class 2 years ago, where I learned about search management, deployment of resources, and the like. Every year, there is a weekend trip to Shenandoah national park to put into practice what the students learned throughout the semester. The weekend consists of several mock searches with extrication and tabletop exercises. My year, forever known as the ‘year of the snow’ began with 6” of snow on the ground when we got there, and two more after we got to the campsites, crippling a few tents, including mine. On one hand our searches were easy (footprints) and on the other, terribly wet and cold. Shenandoah is notorious for extremely variable weather and, for some crazy reason, I volunteered to return this year. Thankfully, when we arrived at the park, we were not greeted by snow, rather with lovely warm, sun burn inducing weather. I could hardly believe it was the same place that I ...

Night Work 2: We started the second night in with a febrile seizure that was fixed with clothes off and some ice packs. Then we had a cool motorcycle accident where the patient had apparently performed spectacular acrobatics after losing control and accidentally hitting the throttle. He jumped away from the bike right before it became bike parts and just in time to miss the explosion. When we got there, the sad, burnt out shell of a motorcycle was on the ground with the handlebars and front tire about 20 feet away from the rest of it. It was soundly destroyed. The patient walked away with only minor cuts, amazing. Later I got to experience the consummate Baltimore call. An absolute classic. The call came out as an unconscious person. What I didn’t know at the time was it was at an inner city Baltimore church. As we walked in, the singing, praying, and organ music continued. All of the women had on beautiful dresses topped with intricate hats that very few people could pull of...

So, 30+ hours in the city should yield some interesting calls; shootings, stabbings, calls that are generally violent in nature. That is, of course, if you are not a white cloud like I am. I had the formula right: ALS bun, warm weather, the weekend, and I had just sharpened my trauma shears, but I just ended up with a long string of various types of BS calls peppered with the occasional “good one.” I had so many calls, that I literally have to look back in my paperwork to remember what happened. Day work: What did happen? CHF, HTN, unknown unconscious (patent airway), etc. A man with a fractured femur secondary to a car backing into his motorized wheelchair and knocking it over. Then we had a patient who claimed her boyfriend had assaulted her. The cop interviewed her in the ambulance and it soon became clear that the patient was not a very good liar. “What’s your address? Where can I serve a warrant?” “Um… [gives address]” “That’s not your address, that’s a strip club! Don...