A Work in Progress

There is an trend in EMS that has apparently proven to improve outcomes of cardiac arrest patients.  It is the idea that arrests should be worked where they are found. This reduces the interruptions of CPR especially those taken when getting the patient on a backboard, moving them outside, loading them into the ambulance, etc.  If the arrest is worked in the house or wherever they're found, it will be worked well, efficiently and with out interruption of CPR.  There was a study in Maine where this technique improved patient outcome (or, at least, reuturn of spontaneous circulation).  The patient is worked until they are resuscitated, or they are definitly dead.  The problem the Maine study found was that paramedics were not used to giving families death notifications.  We do have to do them if we are called too late and it is just not practical to resusciate.  In these cases, we have to break the news that the family already knows and in my experience...

"How could we have missed the house?" "Dispatch said they don't have a porch light." "Yeah, but do they have a driveway?" It turned out that they didn't have a driveway.  The ambulance crew and I were on the wrong side of the road at the wrong cluster of buildings.  We did find the house after a few minutes of confusion, and I got to blaze a trail to the house with my 4x4.  It appeared as though the house had been dropped by a twister into the middle of a field.  A very muddy field. There wasn't a porch light because there wasn't a porch to put it on.  I'm not sure how they got to the house because there was no driveway or walk, and there was no mailbox, so I don't understand how the house existed at all. That said, someone knew where this house was because they used it as a place to put all of their trash and crap.  Rather unfortunately, the resident of this mystery house had recently died and we were called. Muddy and confus...

Before you lament  "Oh, resqellie, if only you'd get yourself together and blog again like in the old days!" don't fret.  The blog has suffered due to my apathy, work schedule, and most importantly, because of writing.  Yes, writing has gotten in the way of my writing.  I've been passively working on a non-blog writing project for some time and recently have decided to dedicate myself more to it than blogging.  It's odd that I haven't shared any snippets of it with you blog readers.  It is a work of fiction and somehow I am far more self conscious of it than writing about myself alone.  So, I will probably continue to not share these writings with you, but at least you know the truth.  This other project does take up some time.  The other night, I had a great brainwave and set to putting it on paper.  About three hours later I had written two pages.  Two pages!  I was as shocked as you are.  But, such is the nature of writ...