So I have been an EMT for about a year now and I arrived on this call today and its been bugging me so what I'm looking for is input any of you out there could give and if you've experienced something like this before.
Got the call (BLS), This was from the ER to a med surg unit in a hospital about 50 miles away. As my partner was getting a report from the nurse, I went in to make patient contact and get a set of vitals. The patient WAS a DNR, diagnosed with lower lobe pneumonia and sepsis, came in with a blood glucose of 600 nearly escaping slipping into a coma. This patient was on a venturi mask on 10 liters, on a 3 lead showing pvc's and the patients pace maker was no longer working correctly. The patient was o2 saturation was good in the high 90's the systolic was in 160's. Pulse rate was adequate in the 70's. Now after informing my partner of this I was told more of the story. The patient did have some cardiac hx, but prior to our arrival the patients pulse had been dipping down into the 30's and 40's. We discussed this with the nurse and we had notified her that we are a BLS unit and although she was a DNR her cardiac issues were alarming. The nurse agreed to send the patient ALS for monitoring and other interventions besides cpr & intubation (obviously) if needed. Also we discussed the almost definite possibility of the patient passing away on the way to the other hospital. I discussed this with one of my dispatchers he agreed. So we left the hospital and on to another run. But the ER supervisor did not agree with the nurse the family or me. To me this was a transport that would result in the patient passing away in an ambulance with no family beside them at 9 at night for no reason besides the supervisor wants a vacant bed. Later on in the day I was talking to the dispatcher that I had previously talked to and he apparently did not hear me when I said DNR because the supervisor had called our company and chewed him out resulting in me getting chewed out. This really irritated me because now I was told I should have just taken the patient if they pass away oh well and keep on driving to my destination. This really is against so many morals in my book and ethically wrong. Even if my dispatcher would have not ignored when I mentioned DNR and told me to take it, I still would have refused. Im not comfortable doing that to another human being and their loved ones. Somehow DNR has translated into your no longer a human.
Am I right or wrong either way I went with instinct what do you feel I should have done emt life?
Got the call (BLS), This was from the ER to a med surg unit in a hospital about 50 miles away. As my partner was getting a report from the nurse, I went in to make patient contact and get a set of vitals. The patient WAS a DNR, diagnosed with lower lobe pneumonia and sepsis, came in with a blood glucose of 600 nearly escaping slipping into a coma. This patient was on a venturi mask on 10 liters, on a 3 lead showing pvc's and the patients pace maker was no longer working correctly. The patient was o2 saturation was good in the high 90's the systolic was in 160's. Pulse rate was adequate in the 70's. Now after informing my partner of this I was told more of the story. The patient did have some cardiac hx, but prior to our arrival the patients pulse had been dipping down into the 30's and 40's. We discussed this with the nurse and we had notified her that we are a BLS unit and although she was a DNR her cardiac issues were alarming. The nurse agreed to send the patient ALS for monitoring and other interventions besides cpr & intubation (obviously) if needed. Also we discussed the almost definite possibility of the patient passing away on the way to the other hospital. I discussed this with one of my dispatchers he agreed. So we left the hospital and on to another run. But the ER supervisor did not agree with the nurse the family or me. To me this was a transport that would result in the patient passing away in an ambulance with no family beside them at 9 at night for no reason besides the supervisor wants a vacant bed. Later on in the day I was talking to the dispatcher that I had previously talked to and he apparently did not hear me when I said DNR because the supervisor had called our company and chewed him out resulting in me getting chewed out. This really irritated me because now I was told I should have just taken the patient if they pass away oh well and keep on driving to my destination. This really is against so many morals in my book and ethically wrong. Even if my dispatcher would have not ignored when I mentioned DNR and told me to take it, I still would have refused. Im not comfortable doing that to another human being and their loved ones. Somehow DNR has translated into your no longer a human.
Am I right or wrong either way I went with instinct what do you feel I should have done emt life?
