Early morning complaints
It was 3 am we were called for a lady who thought she was having a stroke. She had no signs or symptoms that would indicate that she had anything wrong with her. Except that she called 911 in the middle of the night, which is a disorder that should be in the DSM IV. She certainly didn't have a reasonable answer to my favorite 3am question of "What changed that made you call us now?"
I was riding the actual ambulance, so when my BLS partner took the call, I was super excited to be driving an ambulance again. It's kind of disturbing how long a chase car medic can go without actually driving an ambulance. But I digress.
We dropped her off and the nurse asked her all the same questions that we had. She then asked the patient why she thought she was having a stroke. The patient paused in thought and said, "Well, right now I feel really tired....Like I really want to sleep." I had to leave at that point to stop myself from shouting. "You feel tired because it's 3am and you are awake and in the ER!"
Good Lord, I can't stand time wasters.
I was riding the actual ambulance, so when my BLS partner took the call, I was super excited to be driving an ambulance again. It's kind of disturbing how long a chase car medic can go without actually driving an ambulance. But I digress.
We dropped her off and the nurse asked her all the same questions that we had. She then asked the patient why she thought she was having a stroke. The patient paused in thought and said, "Well, right now I feel really tired....Like I really want to sleep." I had to leave at that point to stop myself from shouting. "You feel tired because it's 3am and you are awake and in the ER!"
Good Lord, I can't stand time wasters.
Comments
We had a guy today who, when we asked why he called an ambulance, said "I'm not breathing."
Incredibly, our control desk had managed to categorise this as a "? Respiratory Arrest" despite the fact that he was TALKING TO THEM!!!