1st real shift, start to finish
Yesterday was my first real shift, with my regular partner, on my regular schedule. Speaking of schedule, mine is pretty crappy, but for a newbie it’s not too bad. My partner, on the other hand, is much cooler than my schedule. Plus, she’ll have some sympathy about it as it’s hers too.
We were on a transfer truck yesterday, like old work, basically just interfacility transfers. We had a call for a guy who had fallen off of a ladder about 25 feet onto his backside. Among other minor injuries, he broke his hip, and needed to be taken to a more specialized hospital. We got him all settled into the bus, only to discover that it wouldn’t start! Crap! Luckily we were still in town and it only took a few minutes for a new one to rescue us.
Once we got rolling the real excitement started, as I got to break the seal on the narcotics box, and give my first drug as a real paramedic. No doubt the guy was in pain, and he was being terribly stoic, but after all the bumps he admitted that it was getting to him. I was dead excited.
When we arrived to the ER, as neither of us had been there before, I had to wander a little to find a human. When I found some and explained our situation, they looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears, even though I had kindly called ahead. Finally, someone noticed we were from out of state, took mercy on me and showed where I had to literally use the PA system to call someone to EMS triage.
“EMS in triage, please. Paging Mr. Herman, Mr. Herman you have a telephone call at the front desk.”
What fun! How weird! Once we got into the room, they were on our patient like white on rice, as if we had just pulled him out from under the ladder.
Oh yeah, to add to my total excitement and bewilderment, we were in Boston. The last time I was there, I was about 3, so it was a pretty new experience. After admiring the Boston EMS huge, car pushing, monster medic units, I drove back; and as we didn’t get lost or killed while I enjoyed the beautiful city and traveled under the skyline through the “big dig,” it was a successful trip.
The last patient of the day was suffering from a hemorrhagic stroke. This was a pretty exciting call as time was of the essence, which is a little more rare on the interfacility side of things. When we arrived, the ER doc pulled me aside and pretty much laid down how critical the patient was and how imperative it was that I watch the blood pressure closely, and that I could go as far as to change the drip settings if I had to. I made my face impassive to my fear and trepidation, and committed to memory or paper his every word.
We got everything switched over successfully, it was more than an hours ride to the next hospital, so I wanted to be sure it was right. The ride was pretty much uneventful, thank God, but I must admit I was a little stressed, pretty tired of taking blood pressures, and keenly aware of the differences between EMS in MD and EMS in NH by the time we arrived.
I drove back to the station feeling quite content with the world.
We were on a transfer truck yesterday, like old work, basically just interfacility transfers. We had a call for a guy who had fallen off of a ladder about 25 feet onto his backside. Among other minor injuries, he broke his hip, and needed to be taken to a more specialized hospital. We got him all settled into the bus, only to discover that it wouldn’t start! Crap! Luckily we were still in town and it only took a few minutes for a new one to rescue us.
Once we got rolling the real excitement started, as I got to break the seal on the narcotics box, and give my first drug as a real paramedic. No doubt the guy was in pain, and he was being terribly stoic, but after all the bumps he admitted that it was getting to him. I was dead excited.
When we arrived to the ER, as neither of us had been there before, I had to wander a little to find a human. When I found some and explained our situation, they looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears, even though I had kindly called ahead. Finally, someone noticed we were from out of state, took mercy on me and showed where I had to literally use the PA system to call someone to EMS triage.
“EMS in triage, please. Paging Mr. Herman, Mr. Herman you have a telephone call at the front desk.”
What fun! How weird! Once we got into the room, they were on our patient like white on rice, as if we had just pulled him out from under the ladder.
Oh yeah, to add to my total excitement and bewilderment, we were in Boston. The last time I was there, I was about 3, so it was a pretty new experience. After admiring the Boston EMS huge, car pushing, monster medic units, I drove back; and as we didn’t get lost or killed while I enjoyed the beautiful city and traveled under the skyline through the “big dig,” it was a successful trip.
The last patient of the day was suffering from a hemorrhagic stroke. This was a pretty exciting call as time was of the essence, which is a little more rare on the interfacility side of things. When we arrived, the ER doc pulled me aside and pretty much laid down how critical the patient was and how imperative it was that I watch the blood pressure closely, and that I could go as far as to change the drip settings if I had to. I made my face impassive to my fear and trepidation, and committed to memory or paper his every word.
We got everything switched over successfully, it was more than an hours ride to the next hospital, so I wanted to be sure it was right. The ride was pretty much uneventful, thank God, but I must admit I was a little stressed, pretty tired of taking blood pressures, and keenly aware of the differences between EMS in MD and EMS in NH by the time we arrived.
I drove back to the station feeling quite content with the world.
Comments
NH Trip in the works for late July or Aug.
Might drop in for pints!!
--maddog
~m