Amack
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Hey all! Thought I'd christen my first thread with a funny ( slightly embarassing) account of my first instructional practical at EMT school. It was a little over 2 weeks ago, when my class of 40 broke up into groups of 5 or so, to go over the introductory stations( i.e stretcher, taking vitals, first aid, stair chair, board& collar, etc.)
Enter stair chair station. My group consisted of myself (i'm a big dude, so i can lift a fair amount of weight), a much bigger dude, a fairly corpulent woman, and two very slender young ladies. Essentially, the entire station constituted, bringing one of our classmates all the way down a "Z" oriented stair case, and after a brief pause bringing them back up.
So, I volunteered for the free ride first
. Next, I had the bottom rungs while my assigned partner was at the top. All the way down, 60 second breather, all the way up. 120 seconds pass. I'm then selected again to hoist the bigger guy, with another female at the bottom. All the way down. All the way up. Then, for the sake of time (we're only allowed to 45 min at each station) they partner me up for ANOTHER RUN (at this point my arms feel like elastic bands). All the way down. Rest for 60 seconds...........HOWEVER! something wasn't feeling right.....I couldn't seem to control my respirations back to a semi-normal rate. I presume i was at 19-20 per min for like 2 minutes...I started seeing white....snowflakes...and my entire body became incredibly lethargic. I walked outside, and slumped over a U.S. Mail dropbox for support. I was completely drenched in sweat. The next thing i remember was that (since everyone there teaching the stations, was either a medic or basic) I was surrounded by a congregation of EMTs! (At least I was at the right place! lol) I remarkably recovered shortly thereafter, feeling completely fine, as if nothing had happened (minus the sweat drenched clothing). My instructor asked if i wanted an ambulance, and I accepted a ride to the ER, out of nothinng but precautionary measure. Turned out that I was dehydrated, and had suffereed from mild heat exhaustion from the poorly circulated and quite stuffy stairwell! After 2 hours of tanking up on fluids, I returned to class .....Very ironic!
Enter stair chair station. My group consisted of myself (i'm a big dude, so i can lift a fair amount of weight), a much bigger dude, a fairly corpulent woman, and two very slender young ladies. Essentially, the entire station constituted, bringing one of our classmates all the way down a "Z" oriented stair case, and after a brief pause bringing them back up.
So, I volunteered for the free ride first
. Next, I had the bottom rungs while my assigned partner was at the top. All the way down, 60 second breather, all the way up. 120 seconds pass. I'm then selected again to hoist the bigger guy, with another female at the bottom. All the way down. All the way up. Then, for the sake of time (we're only allowed to 45 min at each station) they partner me up for ANOTHER RUN (at this point my arms feel like elastic bands). All the way down. Rest for 60 seconds...........HOWEVER! something wasn't feeling right.....I couldn't seem to control my respirations back to a semi-normal rate. I presume i was at 19-20 per min for like 2 minutes...I started seeing white....snowflakes...and my entire body became incredibly lethargic. I walked outside, and slumped over a U.S. Mail dropbox for support. I was completely drenched in sweat. The next thing i remember was that (since everyone there teaching the stations, was either a medic or basic) I was surrounded by a congregation of EMTs! (At least I was at the right place! lol) I remarkably recovered shortly thereafter, feeling completely fine, as if nothing had happened (minus the sweat drenched clothing). My instructor asked if i wanted an ambulance, and I accepted a ride to the ER, out of nothinng but precautionary measure. Turned out that I was dehydrated, and had suffereed from mild heat exhaustion from the poorly circulated and quite stuffy stairwell! After 2 hours of tanking up on fluids, I returned to class .....Very ironic!