Well the one thing I have dreaded the most happened in the early hours of this morning at work. the phone rang at station and I was told we were responding to a cardiac arrest. I got to the car to check the MDT and the job description was 4 month old male, ? cardiac arrest. My heart sunk. I called out to my partner and told her we are going to a kiddie code 2 (our code for cardiac arrest). She didn't believe me until I said a second time and then she just looked at me.
We started responding and asked radio where our IC back-up was coming from....10 mintues away.... we are only 5 minutes from the job. My partner looked at me and said... " S*^!, we are going to be first on scene ". Neither of us had done a paed arrest yet and we are both 'new' in the job (both within 2.5yrs service). We decided enroute that we would start working on the bub, seeing as though neither of us was comfortable with calling a child deceased, decided that we would wait for IC to arrive and let them make the call.
So we get to the address, go inside and find dad doing fairly effective CPR on the child (with instructions being given over the phone by the calltaker). The bub looked pale and was cold to touch. No output was present and was monitored in asystole.
I was on the airway and when putting in an OP airway, the jaw was tight but able to be moved a bit to allow the OP in.
After what felt like an eternity (only 5 minutes) the IC arrived on scene. During this time Police had also arrived and we had given them a quick heads up of what was going on. Once IC was on scene, we all agreed that the bub was deceased and had been for some time. We continued working for another couple of minutes while the IC spoke with the parents and explained what was going on and that we were about to stop resuscitation. The scream from the mother is something that I will not quickly forget.
We stopped resus and I took the gear outside to the truck, which also gave me some time to compose myself before heding back into the house.
After about 10 minutes, we left the scene with Police to handle the job.
Now this bit gets me annoyed......We were sent back to station to clean up and debrief yet 5 minutes after clearing from this job, radio put us on another code 2 in the area. WTF!
Thankfully the duty inspector was listening and over-ruled this decision and sent us back to station to meet him and de-brief. I don't know how I would have gone having to do another code 2 in such a short time frame.
Sorry if this has brought any gremlins back for anyone, just wanted to get it out there.
We started responding and asked radio where our IC back-up was coming from....10 mintues away.... we are only 5 minutes from the job. My partner looked at me and said... " S*^!, we are going to be first on scene ". Neither of us had done a paed arrest yet and we are both 'new' in the job (both within 2.5yrs service). We decided enroute that we would start working on the bub, seeing as though neither of us was comfortable with calling a child deceased, decided that we would wait for IC to arrive and let them make the call.
So we get to the address, go inside and find dad doing fairly effective CPR on the child (with instructions being given over the phone by the calltaker). The bub looked pale and was cold to touch. No output was present and was monitored in asystole.
I was on the airway and when putting in an OP airway, the jaw was tight but able to be moved a bit to allow the OP in.
After what felt like an eternity (only 5 minutes) the IC arrived on scene. During this time Police had also arrived and we had given them a quick heads up of what was going on. Once IC was on scene, we all agreed that the bub was deceased and had been for some time. We continued working for another couple of minutes while the IC spoke with the parents and explained what was going on and that we were about to stop resuscitation. The scream from the mother is something that I will not quickly forget.
We stopped resus and I took the gear outside to the truck, which also gave me some time to compose myself before heding back into the house.
After about 10 minutes, we left the scene with Police to handle the job.
Now this bit gets me annoyed......We were sent back to station to clean up and debrief yet 5 minutes after clearing from this job, radio put us on another code 2 in the area. WTF!
Thankfully the duty inspector was listening and over-ruled this decision and sent us back to station to meet him and de-brief. I don't know how I would have gone having to do another code 2 in such a short time frame.
Sorry if this has brought any gremlins back for anyone, just wanted to get it out there.