aussieemt1980
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I have just completed a 2 day Mental Health First Aid workshop and it reminded me of some of the funny things that I have had to deal with (funny for me, but not for the person I suppose - but at the end of the day, laughter is good!).
Easter a couple of years ago I was doing event EMS at a concert weekend (four days of fun!), and on the friday night, my first call out was for a known MH patient who had forgotten his meds and was starting to have a psychotic episode. Responded under lights, get told off by security as the patient is fearing the police turning up, and transported him into hospital for an assessment, replacement meds and gave him a lift back.
Friday Night: he runs off into the crowd, passer by reports a male who is acting funny and trying to climb a tent pole...
Saturday Morning: security reports a fellow running around without pants on...
Saturday Lunch time: security reports the fellow is asleep...
Saturday Night (oh god, he had fun Saturday Night): Report of a male who is over excited attempting to climb the high tension power lines....
Report of same male falling off after only climbing 1/2 metre...
Report of same male trying it again...
Report of same male giving up and chasing a horse...
Report of same male chasing another horse...
Report of same male adding some impact to a camp fire by putting accelerant on it... (we were also doing fire response this weekend - good fun, especially when intoxicated people come running at you to prevent you from extinguishing the fire - i just hosed them, they complained to security and event organiser - both told them that they deserved it)
Report of same male running through the tent areas screaming that some one is after him...
Report from a friend of the same male that he has now taken his meds after two days of forgetting to...
Sunday Morning: family comes to collect him and he goes home (thank god!) but then comes the report of a missing person, intoxicated people swimming in a dam, and the usual "I have never taken speed before and I think that I am dying" and then examining the "speed tablet" and finding out there was a reason they did not have a big hangover from the night before - they had downed a couple of panadol. Teenagers are so gullible.
Another interesting experience was at another festival when I was a volunteer, I was left there overnight, woken numerous times when people were looking for condoms (its for preventative first aid man - if i have a rubber you wont be delivering my girls baby in the morning...), organisers turned off the generator at 3 am while I was looking after a patient with a laceration to "save energy, the environment and to encourage the sun to rise in its own way" (had to treat by torch light - ironically, the generators were turned back on at sun up), and then the shy male arrives at 8 am when the rest of the crew arrives, announces he has chest pain, has had since 3 am, went to attend but saw that I was busy with another patient, so he settled down in pain for the night "and it just wasnt right man!" and thought he would attend for assessment.
Admits to smoking some of the green weed and we have concern with his chest pain, so we call in the paramedics. Newly trained paramedic turns up, ECG on, calls me over to find out just how much of the green weed he had smoked. Turns out he did smoke a lot - was going for days before the festival, during the festival and the last one was about 15 minutes before attending. He had smoked enough marijuana it gave him cardiac arrythmia. Paramedic mentions that she had read it in a text book but never thought it was possible. I had never heard of it until then.
I have plenty more stories from doing event medical work. Some days are really bad, other days are great and other days are just down right funny. Especially when you are responding to a patient, someone comes right out of nowhere "I Have St Johns training!" looks at the patient and says "what do we do now?" "Here is the collar and cuff sling for the patient with the fractured wrist, is that his bone hanging out??????" and the argument against why a full arm sling and splint would be more appropriate... he got upset when I told him what he had to do with his first aid certification. I will let your imagination run wild on that comment - but it did include getting more experience.
Easter a couple of years ago I was doing event EMS at a concert weekend (four days of fun!), and on the friday night, my first call out was for a known MH patient who had forgotten his meds and was starting to have a psychotic episode. Responded under lights, get told off by security as the patient is fearing the police turning up, and transported him into hospital for an assessment, replacement meds and gave him a lift back.
Friday Night: he runs off into the crowd, passer by reports a male who is acting funny and trying to climb a tent pole...
Saturday Morning: security reports a fellow running around without pants on...
Saturday Lunch time: security reports the fellow is asleep...
Saturday Night (oh god, he had fun Saturday Night): Report of a male who is over excited attempting to climb the high tension power lines....
Report of same male falling off after only climbing 1/2 metre...
Report of same male trying it again...
Report of same male giving up and chasing a horse...
Report of same male chasing another horse...
Report of same male adding some impact to a camp fire by putting accelerant on it... (we were also doing fire response this weekend - good fun, especially when intoxicated people come running at you to prevent you from extinguishing the fire - i just hosed them, they complained to security and event organiser - both told them that they deserved it)
Report of same male running through the tent areas screaming that some one is after him...
Report from a friend of the same male that he has now taken his meds after two days of forgetting to...
Sunday Morning: family comes to collect him and he goes home (thank god!) but then comes the report of a missing person, intoxicated people swimming in a dam, and the usual "I have never taken speed before and I think that I am dying" and then examining the "speed tablet" and finding out there was a reason they did not have a big hangover from the night before - they had downed a couple of panadol. Teenagers are so gullible.
Another interesting experience was at another festival when I was a volunteer, I was left there overnight, woken numerous times when people were looking for condoms (its for preventative first aid man - if i have a rubber you wont be delivering my girls baby in the morning...), organisers turned off the generator at 3 am while I was looking after a patient with a laceration to "save energy, the environment and to encourage the sun to rise in its own way" (had to treat by torch light - ironically, the generators were turned back on at sun up), and then the shy male arrives at 8 am when the rest of the crew arrives, announces he has chest pain, has had since 3 am, went to attend but saw that I was busy with another patient, so he settled down in pain for the night "and it just wasnt right man!" and thought he would attend for assessment.
Admits to smoking some of the green weed and we have concern with his chest pain, so we call in the paramedics. Newly trained paramedic turns up, ECG on, calls me over to find out just how much of the green weed he had smoked. Turns out he did smoke a lot - was going for days before the festival, during the festival and the last one was about 15 minutes before attending. He had smoked enough marijuana it gave him cardiac arrythmia. Paramedic mentions that she had read it in a text book but never thought it was possible. I had never heard of it until then.
I have plenty more stories from doing event medical work. Some days are really bad, other days are great and other days are just down right funny. Especially when you are responding to a patient, someone comes right out of nowhere "I Have St Johns training!" looks at the patient and says "what do we do now?" "Here is the collar and cuff sling for the patient with the fractured wrist, is that his bone hanging out??????" and the argument against why a full arm sling and splint would be more appropriate... he got upset when I told him what he had to do with his first aid certification. I will let your imagination run wild on that comment - but it did include getting more experience.
