# Trauma call!



## titmouse (Dec 22, 2012)

A day before thanksgiving I was volunteering at the local FD and the call for a traumatic accident came in. I got pretty excited about and jumped in the truck right away. So show up at the place which was 4 blocks away from where I live. The call was for a lady that sliced her point finger while carving a turkey:glare: lol so I am standing at the door with the trauma jump kit for a bandaid lol the funniest happened as I was walking away I overheard the lady asking the LT if she was gonna bleed out from the cut.... That was just ridiculous haha


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## Handsome Robb (Dec 22, 2012)

titmouse said:


> A day before thanksgiving I was volunteering at the local FD and the call for a traumatic accident came in. I got pretty excited about and jumped in the truck right away. So show up at the place which was 4 blocks away from where I live. The call was for a lady that sliced her point finger while carving a turkey:glare: lol so I am standing at the door with the trauma jump kit for a bandaid lol the funniest happened as I was walking away I overheard the lady asking the LT if she was gonna bleed out from the cut.... That was just ridiculous haha



Welcome to EMS.

We went code for a stubbed toe that happened yesterday tonight. And transported...

Also, they don't give you any more dispatch information than "traumatic accident"? I'd stage my happy *** until pd cleared the scene or they gave me further, lots of trauma is related to crimes in progress...


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## Anjel (Dec 22, 2012)

For our 911 contract we have to respond code to everything. No matter the complaint. 

We had a call 2 blocks from the ER. A guy had a tooth ache and was on the city bus. He made the bus driver stop, and call 911. 

And our ALS had to transport, because his HR was like 140 and slightly HTN. 

I get mad at stuff like that. At least let us go priority 2.


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## Trashtruck (Dec 22, 2012)

NVRob said:


> Welcome to EMS.
> 
> We went code for a stubbed toe that happened yesterday tonight. And transported...
> 
> Also, they don't give you any more dispatch information than "traumatic accident"? I'd stage my happy *** until pd cleared the scene or they gave me further, lots of trauma is related to crimes in progress...



To the OP. Yes. Welcome to EMS. You will surely go on more frivolous calls. It will blow your mind.

We're lucky if we get an age and sex with our dispatches!!! It's an address and whatever dispatch chooses from the drop down menu(mvc, chest pain, seizure, traumatic injury, etc) Seriously...it's pathetic.


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## hogwiley (Dec 24, 2012)

Wait til you encounter the exact opposite, and get what sounds like a routine BS call, and you walk in on a patient whos barely breathing or totally unresponsive.


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## Handsome Robb (Dec 25, 2012)

Trashtruck said:


> We're lucky if we get an age and sex with our dispatches!!! It's an address and whatever dispatch chooses from the drop down menu(mvc, chest pain, seizure, traumatic injury, etc) Seriously...it's pathetic.



Wow really? We generally wont get age or sex unless it's pertinent. Usually it'll be "Priority 2 for a Traffic Accident, single vehicle into a pole at blah blah blah blah, map page blah, coordinates blah, *rinse and repeat*"

Something like the OP's call would be "Priority 3 (or 2 or 1 if they say it's "severe uncontrollable bleeding") for a traumatic injury, laceration to the finger at blah blah blah, map page blah, coordinates blah, *rinse and repeat*"

I've learned to pay very little attention to what the dispatch is and just start from the top rather than trying to anticipate something. 

Like hogwiley said, lots of times critical sounding calls turn out to be bogus or the priority 3 for a sick person is grandma in a 3AVB at 20 with no blood pressure who's altered and making the "o" face.

Prime example, I had a p3 hemorrhage turn into a working cardiac arrest. 

Me: "what's going on tonight"
Security: "I haven't been to the room yet, sounds like a domestic"
Me: "Right on, thanks man"
AED: "Stand clear, analyzing, no shock advised, continue CPR"
Me and my partner: :wacko: :unsure: "dispatch, can you tell fire we're workin' and to grab our suction...CPR in progress"


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## TheLocalMedic (Dec 26, 2012)

Had a fun one the other night as well.  Went out for a MVA, vehicle into a tree.  As we roll up I can see that it's just a vehicle that slid off the road and into the low hanging branches of a tree on the shoulder, virtually nothing but scratches on the vehicle.  Driver is an old guy standing on the side of the road who waves at us and says his wife is hurt.  WTF, really?  I look again at the car, and still only see some very superficial scratches on the passenger side.  His wife is sitting in the car, screaming her head off about her neck and back and is apparently also terrified of us (with a hx of Alzheimer's).  So we collar and board her, which causes more screams and pop her into the ambulance and take off.  

At this point I'm kind of baffled about why she seems to be hurting so badly, because the mechanism just wasn't there...  but I give her some morphine anyway, which doesn't seem to help her at all.  Actually, what I was really starting to think was that maybe it was all just anxiety at being surrounded by strangers.  Anyhow, we drop her off and head back to quarters... only to get called back to the ER an hour later to transfer her to the trauma center because she has multiple cervical fractures and a T1 fracture.  WHAT THE F--K?  But there wasn't even any freaking damage to the car!!  I still don't know how that happened...:wacko:


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## Handsome Robb (Dec 26, 2012)

TheLocalMedic said:


> Had a fun one the other night as well.  Went out for a MVA, vehicle into a tree.  As we roll up I can see that it's just a vehicle that slid off the road and into the low hanging branches of a tree on the shoulder, virtually nothing but scratches on the vehicle.  Driver is an old guy standing on the side of the road who waves at us and says his wife is hurt.  WTF, really?  I look again at the car, and still only see some very superficial scratches on the passenger side.  His wife is sitting in the car, screaming her head off about her neck and back and is apparently also terrified of us (with a hx of Alzheimer's).  So we collar and board her, which causes more screams and pop her into the ambulance and take off.
> 
> At this point I'm kind of baffled about why she seems to be hurting so badly, because the mechanism just wasn't there...  but I give her some morphine anyway, which doesn't seem to help her at all.  Actually, what I was really starting to think was that maybe it was all just anxiety at being surrounded by strangers.  Anyhow, we drop her off and head back to quarters... only to get called back to the ER an hour later to transfer her to the trauma center because she has multiple cervical fractures and a T1 fracture.  WHAT THE F--K?  But there wasn't even any freaking damage to the car!!  I still don't know how that happened...:wacko:



Previous injury maybe? Any hx of osteoporosis? Sounds like Granny wasn't belted up!


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## Tigger (Dec 26, 2012)

TheLocalMedic said:


> Had a fun one the other night as well.  Went out for a MVA, vehicle into a tree.  As we roll up I can see that it's just a vehicle that slid off the road and into the low hanging branches of a tree on the shoulder, virtually nothing but scratches on the vehicle.  Driver is an old guy standing on the side of the road who waves at us and says his wife is hurt.  WTF, really?  I look again at the car, and still only see some very superficial scratches on the passenger side.  His wife is sitting in the car, screaming her head off about her neck and back and is apparently also terrified of us (with a hx of Alzheimer's).  So we collar and board her, which causes more screams and pop her into the ambulance and take off.
> 
> At this point I'm kind of baffled about why she seems to be hurting so badly, because the mechanism just wasn't there...  but I give her some morphine anyway, which doesn't seem to help her at all.  Actually, what I was really starting to think was that maybe it was all just anxiety at being surrounded by strangers.  Anyhow, we drop her off and head back to quarters... only to get called back to the ER an hour later to transfer her to the trauma center because she has multiple cervical fractures and a T1 fracture.  WHAT THE F--K?  But there wasn't even any freaking damage to the car!!  I still don't know how that happened...:wacko:



A kid from my high school was killed when his car left the road and went into the underbrush and some rocks (landscaping, foot tall maybe) at 25mph. The car did not hit anything especially hard, but his head did in the passenger compartment.


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## TheLocalMedic (Dec 26, 2012)

I'm guessing she had some decent osteoporosis going on... and probably wasn't belted either.


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## titmouse (Dec 30, 2012)

NVRob said:


> Previous injury maybe? Any hx of osteoporosis? Sounds like Granny wasn't belted up!



+1 you beat me to it


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## camau71 (Dec 31, 2012)

Yep, unbelted, bounced into the ceiling.  That would go a long way to explaining those injuries.


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## sirengirl (Jan 2, 2013)

My favorite so far was when I was working as a tech in the ER and I was triaging a patient in her room with the nurse... Didn't come in EMS but I could just see it happening. Conversation went:

Nurse: "So your back is hurting? Is it your lower back?"
Pt: "No, it's, here..." (hand vaguely waves at _lumbar_ spine)
Nurse: :glare:".....And... how bad is it? On a scale of 1-10?"
Pt: "Oh my god, it's a 10!!!!" (with no obvious distress on face)
Nurse: :huh: ".....And when did this start?"
Pt: "About seven years ago, it always hurts."
Nurse: "........So why are you here, now?"

I had to walk out, I was laughing so hard.

Actually, my all-time favorite was for a guy who did actually come in as a straight-back into the ER for chest pain, yelling about how he was having a heart attack (normal color, good resps, no diaphoresis). My four most favorite phrases proceeded to fall out of his mouth in the ER bed:

"Yeah I have chest pain all the time for the past few years...."
"Yeah, I done had a cardiologist look at it, they did a buncha tests and stuff on me and din say they found nuthin..."
"No I don' got no high blood pressure, I take pills for it, and my wife checks it, she's a CNA...."
"I came in today cause it's hurtin up in my neck now too and I done been lookin at symptoms online..."


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## DesertMedic66 (Jan 2, 2013)

Since it was a trauma you did C-Spine and put the patient on high flow O2 right?


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## Anonymous (Jan 3, 2013)

TheLocalMedic said:


> Had a fun one the other night as well.  Went out for a MVA, vehicle into a tree.  As we roll up I can see that it's just a vehicle that slid off the road and into the low hanging branches of a tree on the shoulder, virtually nothing but scratches on the vehicle.  Driver is an old guy standing on the side of the road who waves at us and says his wife is hurt.  WTF, really?  I look again at the car, and still only see some very superficial scratches on the passenger side.  His wife is sitting in the car, screaming her head off about her neck and back and is apparently also terrified of us (with a hx of Alzheimer's).  So we collar and board her, which causes more screams and pop her into the ambulance and take off.
> 
> At this point I'm kind of baffled about why she seems to be hurting so badly, because the mechanism just wasn't there...  but I give her some morphine anyway, which doesn't seem to help her at all.  Actually, what I was really starting to think was that maybe it was all just anxiety at being surrounded by strangers.  Anyhow, we drop her off and head back to quarters... only to get called back to the ER an hour later to transfer her to the trauma center because she has multiple cervical fractures and a T1 fracture.  WHAT THE F--K?  But there wasn't even any freaking damage to the car!!  I still don't know how that happened...:wacko:




sounds like there is a lesson some of the advocates of the evils of c-spine could learn here.


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## throcktharock (Jan 3, 2013)

Anonymous said:


> sounds like there is a lesson some of the advocates of the evils of c-spine could learn here.



What could we learn? Neck pain, unable to follow commands to allow assessment of her neck, altered mental status from dementia, with the possible risk factor from her age. The Nexus and Canadian C-Spine Rules both would indicate c-spine immobilization. Just because some of us are "anti-c-spine" doesn't mean we don't immobilize when it's clearly indicated by physical exam.


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