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Well, it has been an absolutely crappy month for us.
Three weeks ago, we were dispatched to a car vs. motorcycle MVA. Car occupants were fine, and were released on scene. The driver of the motorcycle suffered an amputation of his left leg just above the ankle. a C2/C3 fracture, several rib fractures plus numerous other injuries. My patient was his wife, who died about six hours later on the operating table. She had an amputation of the left leg at the knee, and the tib/fib bones were completely vaporized by the accident. She also had a lacerated liver and a verticle shear fracture of the pelvis, but the part the confuses me is that she was awake and talking to us the entire time we were on scence.
On Sunday night, we were dispatched to a car vs. combine MVA. There were six occupants in an extended cab pickup that rear ended a combine at highway speeds (no skid marks = no braking). Male driver was DOA, 4yoM in the center front seat was DOA, adult female in right front seat was critical (vomiting blood on scene with labored/shallow respirations). She was later flown to the level 1 hospital for brain surgery. 15yoF left rear passenger had a possible head injury with unequal pupils. 1yoF infant in rear facing car seat in the back (center) was transported to a level 2 hospital with possible closed head injuries and a ruptured spleen. 18yoF (mother of infant) in the right rear had a spiral femur fx of Rt. leg, Open spiral Radial/Ulna fx, and abdominal rigidity on palpation.
Three weeks ago, we were dispatched to a car vs. motorcycle MVA. Car occupants were fine, and were released on scene. The driver of the motorcycle suffered an amputation of his left leg just above the ankle. a C2/C3 fracture, several rib fractures plus numerous other injuries. My patient was his wife, who died about six hours later on the operating table. She had an amputation of the left leg at the knee, and the tib/fib bones were completely vaporized by the accident. She also had a lacerated liver and a verticle shear fracture of the pelvis, but the part the confuses me is that she was awake and talking to us the entire time we were on scence.
On Sunday night, we were dispatched to a car vs. combine MVA. There were six occupants in an extended cab pickup that rear ended a combine at highway speeds (no skid marks = no braking). Male driver was DOA, 4yoM in the center front seat was DOA, adult female in right front seat was critical (vomiting blood on scene with labored/shallow respirations). She was later flown to the level 1 hospital for brain surgery. 15yoF left rear passenger had a possible head injury with unequal pupils. 1yoF infant in rear facing car seat in the back (center) was transported to a level 2 hospital with possible closed head injuries and a ruptured spleen. 18yoF (mother of infant) in the right rear had a spiral femur fx of Rt. leg, Open spiral Radial/Ulna fx, and abdominal rigidity on palpation.
She didn't like my response that perhaps some of us don't feel like participating and if we had anyone who wanted to, we'd send them their way. I seem to have messed with her "Let's all hold hands, talk about our feelings and they'll all go away" approach to this kind of thing. Why is it the people who become disaster relief social workers and psychologists are always the most annoyingly chipper people you'll ever come across? It just bothers me that you can look at them and tell they've got no clue what the heck their talking about because they've never had to pull a child from a wrecked car, recover a burned body, or had someone die right in front of them- why? Because they're always the upper middle class kids who went to college on their daddy's dime and didn't have to work and now want to make the world a better place. Personally I find people like that amusing in some sick manner. Maybe it's some bizarre manifestation of my PTSD, to find sick amusement in the quirks of mental health professionals, to find some fault in them and focus in on it. I don't know what it is, but I do know this- I'm not a believer in CISD. If it works for you great....but it doesn't work for most people I know. Like I said, this is just my opinion.