I haven't wrote a blog in like forever and it is well overdue since the last blog I have incurred alot of stress and alot of strain, including lots of crazy calls.
About 2 weeks ago I transported a late 30 year old male who had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer, a few weeks later had a heart attack, now I find myself transporting him to an ICU for monitoring for shortness of breath. Little did I know he wouldn't come home. I heard on the news a few days later he had passed away. Sad, cancer is such a bad thing!
A few days later we transport a 60ish female from the nursing home for some nausea and vomitting earlier in the day. The complaint is that her urine is also smelling strong. My partner and I agree it is probably a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) we were right on when we get the call to return her that was it! The woman also has something I haven't heard of before which we knew when we took her to the hospital. She has an E-coli infection on the skin. Wierd.
Another couple days later run to a local nursing home for shortness of breath. Staff says they heard her when they came in, previous shift didn't notice it. This woman has the "death rattle" according to my partner we move her to the cot and then get her on some oxygen and then switch it to a non rebreather do a 12-lead ekg, and consider some lasix. We just bring her in on an IV and some oxygen. Later we find out she is septic. Chances of survival are slim due to her age, she has fought it over a week and they say she is doing better.
Here is a good one, we run a call for a 40-50's female who is bleeding from the head. We arrive on scene to find the patient sitting at the dining room table with a police officer applying pressure with a wash cloth. The woman has lost alot of blood looking at the blood puddle on the sidewalk outside which we find out is just part of it. My partner later finds some on the front porch area where it appears she has stuck her head through the screen trying to get into the house which isn't hers but a friends. There is blood and vomit all over the front porch area, and her had is hanging in the screen, and her gloves nearby. My partner says there is a blood trail on the house from around the front. She refuses to go to the hospital but we smell alcohol aka ETOH. We are on scene nearly 1 hour trying to convince her to go we call medical control they give us approval to bypass the local facility, because she said she wouldn't go to the local hospital, then she says she ain't going anyplace because God will heal her. One of the police officers asks her who her pastor is she replies "I don't believe in Pastors" Wierd. She is going to bleed to death on us! We are going to have to make her go soon or wait for her to pass out and assume she would go. She says if her son, sees it he will let her go home. One of the police officers goes and picks him up and brings him to the scene, he says she has to go, because it will need stitches. Her and him get into a little argument and yell. She says you know God will heal me. He says ya sure mom. He is upset because she is this drunk and refuses to go to the hospital finally when he tells her she is going. She goes but she isn't exactly happy about it.
We get a call at the local rough house, lol a local bar for a guy who is coughing up blood, we are assuming he drank too much and has some sort of ulcer en route. We run hot to the scene just a minute away. We get a call just as we go en route, from the local police officer, who says we might hurry every chance we get, this is due to a guy on scene who claims to be a national registry EMT-Basic and comes up to him asking him if he has a radio to call for help. He just wanted to reassure him. We get on location to find some people holding C-spine, and a drunk guy on the ground. An onlooker says "He got knocked the F*** out" no one knows who or what did it, report is that he ran his mouth all night in the bar wanting a fight. Looks like he got it a few beers too many later. We place a c-collar on him, log roll him, with the National Registry EMT assisting us even though my partner has told him to leave. This guy has no jurisdiction now we are on scene and he is a liability. We find no problems, we backboard the guy, tape his head to the backboard and my partner the medic takes the call, we do vitals, apply some oxygen and roll cold (without lights and sirens) to the hospital. Appears his nose might be broken he might have a cut in his lip, and the back of his head has a laceration too. We drop him off as he is a bit confused and asks us the same questions over and over, find out a few days later, he is wanted for out of state charges failure to appear. Poor guy, got knocked out and then they called the police department after he was discharged to come get him, they run him in the process and find the warrant. Why would he want to pick a fight knowing that he had a warrant. Then again 100 beers after the fact lol he probably forgot he was a wanted man cause he didn't know he had a court date in another state.
We roll hot (lights and sirens) to a shelter care facility for a 20ish year old guy who has an altered mental status, and shortness of breath. Staff states during evening med pass he refused his inhaler but he has been taking cough syrup. We listen to his lungs, we are figuring some pneumonia. We put him on the cardiac monitor, and put him on some oxygen and run an albuterol neb. I think he might have taken too much cough medicine..........
We get calls from an older lady I mentioned a while ago, she calls just cause she is lonely, she wakes up and has chest pain, and wants to know whether or not she should go to the hospital. She is nervous and who wouldn't be. We are on scene 1 hour, dicussing this and that, mostly trying to get her to get checked, she says she would prefer not to she just wanted her pulse ox measured and blood pressure, she says she gets rid of the pain when she is sitting up. She just needs someone to talk to, is my diagnosis, she lives alone, and is kind of a paranoid person, she talks about making a phone number (her own) available for people with cancer to call and talk to someone anytime because she just feels alone, and she talks about the cost of going to get her chemo, and radiation. She goes 3 times a week. I feel bad for her, but that isn't the main focus, it is her current health. We are working, we have to put aside our personal feelings and cry, or think about it later. We have to encourage her to see the doctor at the hospital whether we take her or she drives herself. She decides she will stay at home.
We run a call for a female in her 80-90's whose caretaker has called, we get the report as a fall, we get there to find a woman in bed, she has a skin tear which is through to the fatty tissue on the arm, she was up and walking around in the room, and hit the dresser drawer which had some of those fancy round jagged handles. Tore her arm open! We c-collar her, backboard her to get her out of this room, and small hallway, and for precautions of her spine. We take her to the ER.
We receive a 911 call for an elderly female with epigastric pain, we arrive on scene where we think the house number should be, a woman comes out and motions us out of her drive, my partner gets out, and she says it isn't her go one, dang, she must have a scanner, she told my partner the addresses on this street are messed up. We down a few houses and there it is, we arrive and find a woman in a chair complaining of stomach pain, feeling like gas, we think cardiac, she tells us she just wants a shot to make it stop, they did that for her at the hospital once, we explain to her we can't just give her a shot, we would need to assess her, she tells us she thought the sweet roll and cheese she had for supper caused her stomach to get upset so she gagged herself, she says this didn't help either, and she had tried 7up too, I was thinking Gallbladder first but that meal wasn't very fatty, or greasy to upset the gallbladder, her family arrives later, and her son is like off the handle when he finds out she gagged herself to try to feel better, this woman has no major medical history, and has had a bout of this a year ago or so, and she takes no medications!!!!!! At 70's that is an accomplishment! We bring the cot to the front door, we are unable to enter the house due to it being one of those newer houses with a porch railing and door in almost an L shape, you enter the porch/steps whatever from the west and the door is facing the south, the porch has a rail along the steps to the corner of the house. Anyways it is tight, so my partner and I walk her to the cot, and cover her, we load her, we put her on the monitor, funny beats, what could this be, she is shivering, it is cold! Well we start and IV and roll to the hospital.
About 2 weeks ago I transported a late 30 year old male who had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer, a few weeks later had a heart attack, now I find myself transporting him to an ICU for monitoring for shortness of breath. Little did I know he wouldn't come home. I heard on the news a few days later he had passed away. Sad, cancer is such a bad thing!
A few days later we transport a 60ish female from the nursing home for some nausea and vomitting earlier in the day. The complaint is that her urine is also smelling strong. My partner and I agree it is probably a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) we were right on when we get the call to return her that was it! The woman also has something I haven't heard of before which we knew when we took her to the hospital. She has an E-coli infection on the skin. Wierd.
Another couple days later run to a local nursing home for shortness of breath. Staff says they heard her when they came in, previous shift didn't notice it. This woman has the "death rattle" according to my partner we move her to the cot and then get her on some oxygen and then switch it to a non rebreather do a 12-lead ekg, and consider some lasix. We just bring her in on an IV and some oxygen. Later we find out she is septic. Chances of survival are slim due to her age, she has fought it over a week and they say she is doing better.
Here is a good one, we run a call for a 40-50's female who is bleeding from the head. We arrive on scene to find the patient sitting at the dining room table with a police officer applying pressure with a wash cloth. The woman has lost alot of blood looking at the blood puddle on the sidewalk outside which we find out is just part of it. My partner later finds some on the front porch area where it appears she has stuck her head through the screen trying to get into the house which isn't hers but a friends. There is blood and vomit all over the front porch area, and her had is hanging in the screen, and her gloves nearby. My partner says there is a blood trail on the house from around the front. She refuses to go to the hospital but we smell alcohol aka ETOH. We are on scene nearly 1 hour trying to convince her to go we call medical control they give us approval to bypass the local facility, because she said she wouldn't go to the local hospital, then she says she ain't going anyplace because God will heal her. One of the police officers asks her who her pastor is she replies "I don't believe in Pastors" Wierd. She is going to bleed to death on us! We are going to have to make her go soon or wait for her to pass out and assume she would go. She says if her son, sees it he will let her go home. One of the police officers goes and picks him up and brings him to the scene, he says she has to go, because it will need stitches. Her and him get into a little argument and yell. She says you know God will heal me. He says ya sure mom. He is upset because she is this drunk and refuses to go to the hospital finally when he tells her she is going. She goes but she isn't exactly happy about it.
We get a call at the local rough house, lol a local bar for a guy who is coughing up blood, we are assuming he drank too much and has some sort of ulcer en route. We run hot to the scene just a minute away. We get a call just as we go en route, from the local police officer, who says we might hurry every chance we get, this is due to a guy on scene who claims to be a national registry EMT-Basic and comes up to him asking him if he has a radio to call for help. He just wanted to reassure him. We get on location to find some people holding C-spine, and a drunk guy on the ground. An onlooker says "He got knocked the F*** out" no one knows who or what did it, report is that he ran his mouth all night in the bar wanting a fight. Looks like he got it a few beers too many later. We place a c-collar on him, log roll him, with the National Registry EMT assisting us even though my partner has told him to leave. This guy has no jurisdiction now we are on scene and he is a liability. We find no problems, we backboard the guy, tape his head to the backboard and my partner the medic takes the call, we do vitals, apply some oxygen and roll cold (without lights and sirens) to the hospital. Appears his nose might be broken he might have a cut in his lip, and the back of his head has a laceration too. We drop him off as he is a bit confused and asks us the same questions over and over, find out a few days later, he is wanted for out of state charges failure to appear. Poor guy, got knocked out and then they called the police department after he was discharged to come get him, they run him in the process and find the warrant. Why would he want to pick a fight knowing that he had a warrant. Then again 100 beers after the fact lol he probably forgot he was a wanted man cause he didn't know he had a court date in another state.
We roll hot (lights and sirens) to a shelter care facility for a 20ish year old guy who has an altered mental status, and shortness of breath. Staff states during evening med pass he refused his inhaler but he has been taking cough syrup. We listen to his lungs, we are figuring some pneumonia. We put him on the cardiac monitor, and put him on some oxygen and run an albuterol neb. I think he might have taken too much cough medicine..........
We get calls from an older lady I mentioned a while ago, she calls just cause she is lonely, she wakes up and has chest pain, and wants to know whether or not she should go to the hospital. She is nervous and who wouldn't be. We are on scene 1 hour, dicussing this and that, mostly trying to get her to get checked, she says she would prefer not to she just wanted her pulse ox measured and blood pressure, she says she gets rid of the pain when she is sitting up. She just needs someone to talk to, is my diagnosis, she lives alone, and is kind of a paranoid person, she talks about making a phone number (her own) available for people with cancer to call and talk to someone anytime because she just feels alone, and she talks about the cost of going to get her chemo, and radiation. She goes 3 times a week. I feel bad for her, but that isn't the main focus, it is her current health. We are working, we have to put aside our personal feelings and cry, or think about it later. We have to encourage her to see the doctor at the hospital whether we take her or she drives herself. She decides she will stay at home.
We run a call for a female in her 80-90's whose caretaker has called, we get the report as a fall, we get there to find a woman in bed, she has a skin tear which is through to the fatty tissue on the arm, she was up and walking around in the room, and hit the dresser drawer which had some of those fancy round jagged handles. Tore her arm open! We c-collar her, backboard her to get her out of this room, and small hallway, and for precautions of her spine. We take her to the ER.
We receive a 911 call for an elderly female with epigastric pain, we arrive on scene where we think the house number should be, a woman comes out and motions us out of her drive, my partner gets out, and she says it isn't her go one, dang, she must have a scanner, she told my partner the addresses on this street are messed up. We down a few houses and there it is, we arrive and find a woman in a chair complaining of stomach pain, feeling like gas, we think cardiac, she tells us she just wants a shot to make it stop, they did that for her at the hospital once, we explain to her we can't just give her a shot, we would need to assess her, she tells us she thought the sweet roll and cheese she had for supper caused her stomach to get upset so she gagged herself, she says this didn't help either, and she had tried 7up too, I was thinking Gallbladder first but that meal wasn't very fatty, or greasy to upset the gallbladder, her family arrives later, and her son is like off the handle when he finds out she gagged herself to try to feel better, this woman has no major medical history, and has had a bout of this a year ago or so, and she takes no medications!!!!!! At 70's that is an accomplishment! We bring the cot to the front door, we are unable to enter the house due to it being one of those newer houses with a porch railing and door in almost an L shape, you enter the porch/steps whatever from the west and the door is facing the south, the porch has a rail along the steps to the corner of the house. Anyways it is tight, so my partner and I walk her to the cot, and cover her, we load her, we put her on the monitor, funny beats, what could this be, she is shivering, it is cold! Well we start and IV and roll to the hospital.