The challenges of emergency calls

I have been playing this fun browser game I thought some might be interested in. It is a simulation of truck driving. site no longer in operation

Yet another day, I find myself backed into a corner, I wanted so badly to write something, although my head is spinning, and I cannot come up with anything! I do my best to try and assemble things I believe someone might actually want to read or care about. In three years, you would think that I could have came up with some really good stories. The problem is remembering them. I can guess that most of them were probably in the nursing home or running crap calls. One night around closing time for the local bars, we are dispatched to one of them. The call comes in as a man down. We respond with lights and sirens, it is only a few minutes from our location. We arrive on location at the same time as the police. While we grab equipment, they get the details. The guy was in the bar mouthing off, and looking for a fight, he is pretty drunk and comes outside, and someone hits him and knocks him down. We find a crowd surrounding the guy, a couple are holding the guy down, and holdi...

One night, myself and my partner were notified by the local police department, that they needed a subject checked out. We arrive at the police station, and find a subject in the holding cell, and a lawyer at the desk outside the cell on the phone. The officer state, he is complaining of hand pain, my partner looks at it, it might have a fracture. He evidentally struck another guy in the head with his fist. He is complaining that the handcuffs are hurting his arms. My partner and I splint it with a SAM splint, after the police release the cuffs. He is being released, anyways the lawyer was bailing him out. The report given to us by the police was that, he was in the bar, and dragging his girl around and talking bad to her. Another man didn't like it and told him to stop. The kid then made a threat to the other older fellow. The older fellow then identified himself as a state patrol officer. The kid then proceeded to hit him in the head and face. I don't know if the ...

ATV's can be dangerous, as I have found out through a few calls. We are dispatched for an ATV accident, we go to the location, which is a few miles from the road. My partner takes off and goes down, while I get the truck turned around and try to get things setup for her. She calls back for me to radio for a helicopter. In just a few minutes she knew we needed a chopper. I called for a chopper telling dispatch to go ahead and dispatch a rescue crew to setup an LZ for us, since the fire department was already on scene with us assisting. The male was riding with a young girl on the back, they had went down into a creek, and then on the way out, the four wheeler front end lifted up, he was able to throw the younger girl off, but he wasn't able to clear himself from the path, as it fell backwards onto him. He was partially in the creek and underneath the large ATV. He was cold, and pale, he looked like he was dead, and his respirations were shallow, all the primary signs of...

Another call I remember well in my memory is my first stabbing. My second partner and I ran hot to the location with the instructions NOT to approach the scene until the sheriff's deputies arrived to clear the scene. We arrived and staged about 2 blocks away from the location. Within seconds it seemed the deputies had cleared the residence, and were calling us in. We enter the residence to find several people upset, they house smelled of alcohol and smoke. There were blood splotches on the carpet. It was like a brownish white carpet, anyways and looks like it needed cleaned. We find the patient sitting on the floor, complaining of shortness of breath, he had been stabbed in the chest on the left side I believe. We got the cot into the house, and boarded and placed the patient onto the cot. We called for a helicopter as the nearest trauma center was 2 hours by ground. We arrived at the LZ and the deputies assisted with clearing the LZ and radioing the chopper with information on the...

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 ca...

I wrote this several days ago, maybe weeks, I am behind putting them up so there might be several days blasted with updates and blogs which are longer. When did I book the trip on this insane train? I was enjoying some computer games when I heard some thunder . Shortly after that it began to rain, I mean POUR! I am hearing radio traffic like crazy, police, city crews, sheriff's department, Department of Transportation, WATER IS EVERYWHERE, and the highways are even impassable and are close to traffic. 1 hour later, I get a call from work, They need me in for a transfer of a critical patient, and we are taking a nurse. I tell them I will do my best to get there. My street has a few places where water is running over the road, I go a few blocks and then find more water. I have never seen this much water standing and moving, at least not here! There is a stress you have to deal with in this situation, you have to worry your vehicle will be carried by the water as you go through the wa...

I have often wondered if someone really told management about what they thought of them in a letter of resignation what it would be like or what it would sound like. I played with this a bit and wrote this about 1 month ago. I put some thought into it, I put myself into the place of one of those employees who gets ticked off by everything and don't care who hears them yelling or ranting about it. So here goes, it is kind of in poem form. Attention Management: Attention Management, I won't be coming back to on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or EVER! Attention Management, I have had enough of your micro management Attention Management, I am not working for the pennies a day anymore! Attention Management, I love the way each year you raise my insurance and cut the benefits Attention Management: I love the way our pay is below the National Average! Attention Management: Just because I don't see you doesn't mean you can't leave a note saying you appreciate ...

Where has time gone? 3 months since my last posting here. I guess time has just been buzzing around. E.M.S. is killing me one day, the next day I love it. I haven't had anything worth really talking about too much lately. Just nursing homes and stuff like that. I did run a call the other day which did get to me a bit, but these calls always do. I heard dispatch, send the fire department to a residential fire, with a subject outside the residence. I figured nothing of it, while I was in the bathroom taking a leak, sure enough the tones dropped. I responded with the typical acknowledgement for them to proceed with the dispatch. We rolled hot. We arrive on scene the fire department has a womean who is breathing but is burned. I hate these calls. She is moaning. We roll towards the hospital and have a firefighter drive us in. Just before we loaded her, I had called the hospital and told them to have us a helicopter on the helipad when we arrived. We ended up leaving our ju...

Started the weekend off right, well I thought. My partner wasn't there, I would be getting the 24 hour shift medic, she had been on a day before and then on call that night, worked this morning, then working tonight because of a schedule fiasco on the bosses part. I start this writing a bit puzzled. I know, what I need to say but I want to hold it in also. I came to work tonight and found a full ER. There you have it, I work hospital based EMS. I found out over the past 2 years that alot of EMS agencies do work hospital based, it keeps their education up, and skills also. I thought I was special all along! I did get one piece of good news, A RIDER! SLAVE! I thought to myself. Just a note, a great song (I'm not a perfect person, I never meant to do those things to you. I found a reason to change who I used to be, a reason to start over new, and the reason is YOU!) Okay that was nice and will fit in later, the song playing as I wrote this, before I came online to type it out of c...

Tonight, I came to work, I intended to have a bit of genious. I know my partner would be sleeping, as she is starting a 24 hour shift backwards, she is starting the first 12 hours at night. I had all intentions again, no joking, to be all insightful, and boasting with insight, WOW such words for 0500 hrs. We have been moderately busy, a febrile seizure here , cough/cold there, irritated eyes, foley displacement, ya we see it all. I am just happyto have a job, where I can do my own thing occassionally. I do enjoy meeting nice people, nurses, elderly, who are friendly, friendly ticket writing state troopers. One thing I will miss if I switch jobs, is the connection to the police, fire, other ems, and other groups. As I am writing this I hear a neighboring area receiving a call from an Inbound ambulance, from the sounds of it the Pt's only doctor is a psych doctor, she has requested admission to their unit, pt was involved in an argument with her boyfriend, she threatened to ki...

It amazes me, idiots get stupid and worse then ever thought before, People who go through life doing their own things not knowing how their actions will affect others, I think to myself at the ER desk as I write a few words someone might never read and could be a warning or prophecy. We laugh we , we cry, we laugh more, we lose sleep, People think their choises are theirs and don't affect others, poor nieve folks! Maybe I should become a philosopher, Why is it that I get a spurt of energy and expertise in my times of tiredness. I have been up several hours probably over 15017 hours. I got up around 0800 yesterday, today I was home maybe 1/2 hour before I was called back for an emergency run, because the primary crew was out on a call. I have been here since then it is noon. I did sleep yesterday afternoon a few hours. I can in starting to feel run down, this job is killing me! I ache, I pop in my shoulders, I pop in my knees and ankles, elbows, I shouldn't be this way at such a...

We haven't done much last few nights, first night of the set of shifts, we do nothing, my partner is sick and manages to grab some sleep. He looks very pale. Next night, we do nothing until after midnight......... Around 0111 we get a 911 call for chest pains, we roll hot to the location, arrive on scene load and do a 12-leak ekg, and I make a field diagnosis, A-FIB, it means her heart will be fast, then slow down a bit, then speed up, makes you have chest pain, some shortness of breath and scares you. It feels like it is coming out of your chest then it slows enough it doesn't feel like it is beating. My partner says yup looks that way, what does the monitor printout say, A-Fib, Right Bundle Branch Block with Rapid Ventricular Response. I am good, but I know you can never trust the reports given by the monitors as they are computers and can make mistakes. My partner starts an IV and we roll into the hospital. FALL We get a call from a shelter care location for a male who ...

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. Anot...

Early in the AM on Friday I was called in for backup, the primary crew had taken the patient out of the local area and to a hospital with a specialty. This is all good and well but I was tired and was sleeping good. Ah well I went in and clocked in for a few hours then went home. That night I went in thinking well I was tired but I wasn't really without sleep. We are called for a 911 call for a male with back pain in a rural area maybe 4-5 miles from our base. Requesting no lights or sirens. It is raining and the roads are crappy in that area. We hit one puddle I swore we had fell into HELL! Then I realized it was still raining, which isn't possible there. We arrive and take in the bag to examine the patient. We find a 40ish male lying in bed complaining of lower back pain due to something stupid. He states he was doing some work outside and went to roll a log end over end instead of pulling it with the tractor and had pulled something in his back. He was in too much pain to do...

We receive a call while the primary crew is out for a patient who is turning blue we run hot and hard! The call is nearly 20 minutes driving the speedlimit, due to the roads, traffic, and construction. The dispatch has sent the fire department because they have first responders. They Sheriff's Dept has a deputy on scene and another en route. We arrive on scene and find them in a confusion and we find ourselves in a screwed up situation. The wife comes to the truck door as CPR is being performed, we are waiting to transport because the Fire Dept has been told by her she doesn't want anything done, but we will still need medical control to okay it. We are doing CPR and bagging the patient when the wife comes up and says "Don't you think that is a waste?" We all look at each other, we all see it in each others eyes.... HMMMMMMMMMM what is up with this. This woman seems awful calm and doesn't really act upset. Seems the guy has been having alot of pain an...

Well thank goodness Christmas is over, sadly I missed it. My schedule had me working Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Which was kind of a shaft of a deal because everyone knows the holidays are crazy for EMS. On Friday I was called in to cover because the crew was going out on a transfer to another facility. So from like 3pm until 10 pm I was awake I quickly found a bed and left my parter awake and in charge of things. I slept about 3-4 hours then was back up again. I went home at around a little after 7AM. Nothing all day Saturday that needed my attention other then sleep. I woke up feeling well and rested. Good thing! Saturday night my partner and I get a call for an unresponsive patient who is breathing, and now alert. OKAY? We arrive on scene to find the location we hoped the patient was with it enough to walk to the cot. I had never been to the residence before and realizing the age of the house I knew from the outside that the halls would be narrow and the patient would hav...

Well I am several days post needing to post another blog. I don't think many are visiting if at all repeating to come back..... I am a bit dry I guess. Or maybe still to new in the EMS game to understand what people read and or like. Last week ran a few calls one of them was a female who woke up and was having trouble swallowing. I wasn't sure what it was all about. We got on location a few minutes later to find a middle aged woman sitting then standing in the kitchen. She appeared to be in no distress, color was good, she was kinda doing a hop around type of thing, she was trying to cough and holding her throat kinda like she wanted the heimlich maneuver but she was talking just fine. She has had a history of some sort of growth in the throat which was removed along with part of the thyroid, in that case she said it felt the same way as now, the mass was pushing her trachea from midline and it still has deviation. We quickly load her onto the cot where she is strapped ...

Well what can I say, the weekend wasn't that bad. Friday had a run to a nursing home for some congestion, not really an emergency and turned out to be nothing the way I understand. I think they just over-reacted. I think it might be part of the nursing home handbook or requirement to at one time or another to be proven to not exactly be the smartest. I have seen some of these nurses do things they think are so right when actually they are really trying and just don't have the tools to accomplish the task. I remember a few months ago a shortness of breath call, the patient has a history of like COPD and Emphezema if I remember right. They have the patient on a non-rebreather mask at 6 Liters. Why? Because the oxygen tank only went that high. The nurse states the patient had refused a breathing treatment, the patient says they didn't. So who do you trust, the nurse who has an education or the patient who is agitated because they can't breathe? Lung sounds are...