Emergency, it means different things to many people. For some it means someone is hurt or an injury has occurred. To the police, it means they are being shot at, an officer is in trouble, or is in an unstable situation. To firefighters, it means a co-worker is trapped, the building is unstable or run over with fire, or something is wrong. To an EMT, emergency means someone is ill, dead, or in danger of dying. Emergency is something not everyone considers the same way, some people think not finding their car keys is an emergency worth calling 911 for, others think that for the common cold it requires an ambulance, a cat in the tree deserves a fire truck, or they don't get the food they ordered so they call the police. I often think to myself when I hear such stupid calls of a phrase commonly hear, "Innocent until proven guilty," I prefer to title these folks "Stupid until proven otherwise."
I flash back this time to my first few days in EMS, and realize that I can't remember much. I do remember my first code, that is one of the most distant calls I can remember, and it lives on, maybe it was a wakeup call to how my career in EMS was going to be. We get a call for an unresponsive, take into account here that we are an ALS service, and I am a NEW EMT Basic. We arrive on the scene, my partner and I go into a mobile home. We find a male slumped in a recliner, unresponsive no pulse, no respirations, and has strong smell of urine and feces. My partner tells me to go get things, BVM (Bag Valve Mask), Backboard, monitor, I run to the truck, grabbing a few items at a time, realize that I was new to the the truck and didn't know where a lot of stuff was yet. My partner yells at me START COMPRESSIONS, I do that for a while and then he asks for the BVM, "I need it now" he shouts." I show it to him and he says no that isn't the BVM. I had brought in a Non-re-breather Mask. HE said NO A Bag Valve Mask huffing in disgust for my stupid mistake. By this time I was choking, and my eyes watering, not from the fact I was crying, but the fact that I was starting to get sick, I had never seen anyone die, or dead, let alone dealt with the smells this job would include as a bonus. I felt like I should just go home after this call and find another job. My partner asked me for the cot, I am attempting to pull the cot up the front steps of the mobile home by myself, when the police officers arrive on scene and help me into the house with it. I am still gagging and coughing and my eyes watering due to the smell, the fear, and the adrenaline. We get the patient intubated, while en route to the hospital. One of the police officers drives us in, so I can do chest compressions, my first on a real person, and assist the medic. Although I wasn't sure I would be much help considering that I knew where nothing was in the drug box, or truck when he asked for it. We arrive at the hospital and they work it a bit longer, then call it. My partner took it hard, because he didn't get a save, which I guess he took all codes hard. I found out later from his former partner that he took codes hard all the time, and for no reason, he had very few saves in his many years in EMS. The doctor sat down with us, and the nurse and we had a little debrief asking what we could have done different. My partner apologized for yelling at me. I sat there in disbelief, someone had died. I had been part of the effort to try and save them and had failed. I was a failure.
Next morning before we left, at shift change, my partner and another medic went outside, I knew they were talking about me, I was going to get into trouble for not knowing my job, they were going to get me fired. I was worried. I came into work that night and a few hours later found my partner dragging me into a room, in the room I found a dummy, and various EMS supplies layed in the floor. He said I know you trained on the other shift and they might not have trained you, but I am going to train you the way I want you to work with me. So I want to teach you some things. He showed me various items and how they might be used then made me use them on the dummy in is senarios. I enjoyed the help and it was nice of him. He again told me he was sorry about yelling at me. A few months later I ended up with his old partner who had been an intermediate and moved up to paramedic and had got the opposite night shift. He was just a few years older then me and took me under his wing. He was a great teacher. He taught me several things. He was always asking me about medications drip rates, and dosages, whether I knew them or not he was trying to help me. I told him that I had some problems fitting into his shoes since I was filling them with his former partner, he told me that he himself had problems with "Bull" as he gained the nickname for a very good reason. He also told me the time spent outside, was mostly just a smoke, and chewing session. They would smoke and chew tobacco and talk about the night, complain and anything they wanted, just a wake up talk and smoke for the day crew, and a relax and hand off report from the night crew. All along I had been worrying. I went out a few times, I wasn't missing much, they probably just changed the subject while I was out there.
more coming soon....
I flash back this time to my first few days in EMS, and realize that I can't remember much. I do remember my first code, that is one of the most distant calls I can remember, and it lives on, maybe it was a wakeup call to how my career in EMS was going to be. We get a call for an unresponsive, take into account here that we are an ALS service, and I am a NEW EMT Basic. We arrive on the scene, my partner and I go into a mobile home. We find a male slumped in a recliner, unresponsive no pulse, no respirations, and has strong smell of urine and feces. My partner tells me to go get things, BVM (Bag Valve Mask), Backboard, monitor, I run to the truck, grabbing a few items at a time, realize that I was new to the the truck and didn't know where a lot of stuff was yet. My partner yells at me START COMPRESSIONS, I do that for a while and then he asks for the BVM, "I need it now" he shouts." I show it to him and he says no that isn't the BVM. I had brought in a Non-re-breather Mask. HE said NO A Bag Valve Mask huffing in disgust for my stupid mistake. By this time I was choking, and my eyes watering, not from the fact I was crying, but the fact that I was starting to get sick, I had never seen anyone die, or dead, let alone dealt with the smells this job would include as a bonus. I felt like I should just go home after this call and find another job. My partner asked me for the cot, I am attempting to pull the cot up the front steps of the mobile home by myself, when the police officers arrive on scene and help me into the house with it. I am still gagging and coughing and my eyes watering due to the smell, the fear, and the adrenaline. We get the patient intubated, while en route to the hospital. One of the police officers drives us in, so I can do chest compressions, my first on a real person, and assist the medic. Although I wasn't sure I would be much help considering that I knew where nothing was in the drug box, or truck when he asked for it. We arrive at the hospital and they work it a bit longer, then call it. My partner took it hard, because he didn't get a save, which I guess he took all codes hard. I found out later from his former partner that he took codes hard all the time, and for no reason, he had very few saves in his many years in EMS. The doctor sat down with us, and the nurse and we had a little debrief asking what we could have done different. My partner apologized for yelling at me. I sat there in disbelief, someone had died. I had been part of the effort to try and save them and had failed. I was a failure.
Next morning before we left, at shift change, my partner and another medic went outside, I knew they were talking about me, I was going to get into trouble for not knowing my job, they were going to get me fired. I was worried. I came into work that night and a few hours later found my partner dragging me into a room, in the room I found a dummy, and various EMS supplies layed in the floor. He said I know you trained on the other shift and they might not have trained you, but I am going to train you the way I want you to work with me. So I want to teach you some things. He showed me various items and how they might be used then made me use them on the dummy in is senarios. I enjoyed the help and it was nice of him. He again told me he was sorry about yelling at me. A few months later I ended up with his old partner who had been an intermediate and moved up to paramedic and had got the opposite night shift. He was just a few years older then me and took me under his wing. He was a great teacher. He taught me several things. He was always asking me about medications drip rates, and dosages, whether I knew them or not he was trying to help me. I told him that I had some problems fitting into his shoes since I was filling them with his former partner, he told me that he himself had problems with "Bull" as he gained the nickname for a very good reason. He also told me the time spent outside, was mostly just a smoke, and chewing session. They would smoke and chew tobacco and talk about the night, complain and anything they wanted, just a wake up talk and smoke for the day crew, and a relax and hand off report from the night crew. All along I had been worrying. I went out a few times, I wasn't missing much, they probably just changed the subject while I was out there.
more coming soon....