Hemorrhage? I'll say
The call went out for a hemorrhage. We headed out and the call information came over the radio: "subject shot in the head, conscious, police report the scene is safe" We both did an absolute double take and I searched through the map with a renewed sense of urgency. I located the call, as my partner fired up the roof and hit the gas pedal with purpose.
En route, we called for the status of the nearest helicopter, which was 20 minutes away. Send it. It took us 10 minutes to get on scene, which seemed like an eternity. We arrived to have a cop come up and let us know that indeed someone had shot themselves in the head, and directed us into the middle of a field. This call was getting stranger by the second. We kicked on the four-wheel drive and headed into the muddy unknown.
The police had been called and I'm not sure of the exact order of things, but basically this person was missing and there was a suicide note involved and the police had come to check it out. The cop on scene told us he about gave up looking when he happened to glance into this field and saw our patient sitting there covered in blood. The cop approached him with gun drawn, shouting at him to show his hands when the patient just slumped over. How ironic that he almost got shot again. He called EMS without getting too close, which is why it just came out as a hemorrhage.
So, I got out and found this guy on the long backboard, blood everywhere and a bandage around his head where he had shot himself in the temple. It appeared that it was through and through with an entrance and exit wound. I pried open his eyes and saw that one pupil was blown and the other barely reactive. I asked him his name and he told me. I think that was the weirdest moment ever as I was so shocked that he answered me. We got him on the cot and into the ambulance. He had nothing else wrong with him other than two holes in his head that shouldn't have been there. He answered questions correctly, had pulse motor and sensory in all his extremities, never lost consciousness or had a seizure. By the time the helicopter got on scene we had 2 large IVs in him, on the monitor, a decent blood pressure, and were ready to help them RSI him. The flight crew came in and almost immediately knocked him out and tubed him to protect his airway for the flight. By that time, the patients' eyes began to basically bulge out of his head from what I can only assume was his frontal lobe swelling into his orbital cavity. Ooh, cool! So, we packaged him up, carried him to the aircraft and off he went.
Hopefully, either in the next few days or few months, I'll get an update of some sort. (Waiting for our trauma center to send their update, or see an obituary.) I wouldn't be surprised either way, either he is in a coma of some sort, or an organ donor. I would be surprised if I find out he is alive and well with minimal damage. If anyone can explain to me how you can be shot through the temple with a 0.38 and still talk and seemingly understand, please do.
Ironically the only other call we had before that was for a kid who took some of his moms Rx pain meds in order to...well, in order to get attention. He definitely didn't take enough of anything to do anything to himself other than to get a good nap out. (You call that a suicide attempt?!)
En route, we called for the status of the nearest helicopter, which was 20 minutes away. Send it. It took us 10 minutes to get on scene, which seemed like an eternity. We arrived to have a cop come up and let us know that indeed someone had shot themselves in the head, and directed us into the middle of a field. This call was getting stranger by the second. We kicked on the four-wheel drive and headed into the muddy unknown.
The police had been called and I'm not sure of the exact order of things, but basically this person was missing and there was a suicide note involved and the police had come to check it out. The cop on scene told us he about gave up looking when he happened to glance into this field and saw our patient sitting there covered in blood. The cop approached him with gun drawn, shouting at him to show his hands when the patient just slumped over. How ironic that he almost got shot again. He called EMS without getting too close, which is why it just came out as a hemorrhage.
So, I got out and found this guy on the long backboard, blood everywhere and a bandage around his head where he had shot himself in the temple. It appeared that it was through and through with an entrance and exit wound. I pried open his eyes and saw that one pupil was blown and the other barely reactive. I asked him his name and he told me. I think that was the weirdest moment ever as I was so shocked that he answered me. We got him on the cot and into the ambulance. He had nothing else wrong with him other than two holes in his head that shouldn't have been there. He answered questions correctly, had pulse motor and sensory in all his extremities, never lost consciousness or had a seizure. By the time the helicopter got on scene we had 2 large IVs in him, on the monitor, a decent blood pressure, and were ready to help them RSI him. The flight crew came in and almost immediately knocked him out and tubed him to protect his airway for the flight. By that time, the patients' eyes began to basically bulge out of his head from what I can only assume was his frontal lobe swelling into his orbital cavity. Ooh, cool! So, we packaged him up, carried him to the aircraft and off he went.
Hopefully, either in the next few days or few months, I'll get an update of some sort. (Waiting for our trauma center to send their update, or see an obituary.) I wouldn't be surprised either way, either he is in a coma of some sort, or an organ donor. I would be surprised if I find out he is alive and well with minimal damage. If anyone can explain to me how you can be shot through the temple with a 0.38 and still talk and seemingly understand, please do.
Ironically the only other call we had before that was for a kid who took some of his moms Rx pain meds in order to...well, in order to get attention. He definitely didn't take enough of anything to do anything to himself other than to get a good nap out. (You call that a suicide attempt?!)
Comments