First major call

[suziquzi99]

I decided today to go the Assoc. degree (Paramedic). I am so excited!!! You guys may get sick of me before it's over. What was your first major call!

 

[suziquzi99]

Ok, duh. Pushed enter too soon. I meant to say, what was your first major, on the scene, butterflies in your stomach, story to tell your buddies call while you were a probie.

 

[gillysaurus]

2 year old girl in status seizure. She seized for 27 minutes without stopping before they put her under to intubate her. It was really intense, since I was still a student then, and couldn't understand everything that was going on. I was told to just stay out of the way and watch, though I got a kudos for being the only one to remember her name at the ED.

That same night we had a boy shoot himself in the head in front of his girlfriend while they were both high as kites on a cocktail of terrible substances. That hit me so much more, because he was my age and my first DOA.

Haven't had anything that intense since. A whole lot of nursing home emergencies, minor traffic accidents, and folks with DNRs. Woo!

 

[mycrofft]

First save or first "response"?

First save, 14 y/o, picked a kid out of the street knocked unconscious by a bike accident.
First EMS response was a guy in base housing with back pain, chronic, wound up driving self to base hospital.
First code three drive, crew chief said to drive faster and I spun out on polished ice near pedestrians and a gate guard. Was a smoke alarm only:blush:

 

[firecoins]

My first major decision was to move. It was tough because my I had lived in my first home for 9 months.

 

[marineman]

First major call as a first responder came about an hour after I picked up my bag and pager. mid 40's male patient had his skid steer tip forward hauling an oversized log and his head wound up under the bucket and when he fell forward his body came down on the controls. Got to meet everyone involved in any aspect of EMS from the coroner to the flight crew to an ambulance crew and 15+ cops but the skid steer won it outright, didn't even get to use any of my shiny new toys or skills.

 

[mycrofft]

Skid steer

 

[EMERG2011]

Still a Probie!

Still a probie but heres the story I tell everyone - I was doing a ridealong with an ALS unit out in Maryland. Roughly around 21:00 we get a call for a "woman down" in a neighboring county that didn't have any ALS available. We get there, and we find BLS going through the CPR motions on a woman who had the most distended stomach I've ever seen in my life! Turns out she had terminal metastatic stomach cancer. Anyway, we load and go. In the back of the ambu. Theres 3 of us in back, and I'm put in charge of directing the other basic onboard in CPR, and checking the LifePack for electrical activity. After 2 rounds of epi and atropene, I place my finger on her radial artery, and look over at the monitor. Nothing on radial, but on the monitor, a definite V-Fib. We shock her, and I place my fingers back on her radial - and theres a weak, thready but still present pulse!!!

Honestly, one of the best moments of my life was feeling that pulse... Unfortunately, when we got to the hospital, the family was able to produce a valid notorized DNR - and the woman passed away.

 

[FF-EMT Diver]

First major came when I was off duty from my EMS job, I was at home and responded by VFD to a wreck with poss entrapment/ejection, While enroute POV, 911 advised no entrap and partner picked up rescue truck, Got on-scene to find a good friend and another fellow I did not know face down in the ground pulseless/apneic, Both had struck pine trees after being ejected out of a T-top convertible, Both had MAJOR head/Thoracic trauma, My buddy had just gotten the car earlier in the day and wanted to see how fast it would go according to someone he had just left, He passed someone estimated in excess of 120 and his left rear tire blew, Ironically a bulldog that was in the car lived and showed up 3 days later.

 

[emtashleyb]

My first major, I had just gotten my liscense was intering with a paid station in baltimore county ( was a high school program) We had just got a doa where the paramedic made me check to see if he was dead then we got a call to respond to a 3 year old cardiac arrest. We got there he was brought out to us on a backboard by the FD. He was obviosuly in cardiac arrest no pule no respiration pupils fixed and dialted. Mother gave us some bs story about how she had just laid him down didnt know trauma was involved until after the fact. I bagged firefighters and the driver took turns doing compressions. They cut off his clothes revealing multipule bruises. The dad hopped in the back of the wagon screaming which seemed directly at me please dont let him die thats my little buddy I love him so much come on buddy we are going to get you a puppy tommorrow I love you please dont let him die. The paramedic loaded him up with atropine ( I do believe I wasnt so focused on what she was doing after she critisized me for every little thing I did or what I wore this woman has serisouly scarred me for life). They intubated I continued to bag they wroked on him for 30 minutes at the ER until they called it. Turns out the evil sorry excuse for a human being had beaten him and thrown him down the basement stairs twice. Wasnt the first time she hurt him but it was the last. It was very intense for me. I was NOT prepared to see a death of a child no way I could have been but abuse like that it still sticks with me. She got 36 years in jail though and get to be someone b*tch so that gives me some peace on the whole thing as well as the poor boy was suffering and isnt anymore. Very traumatic for me but I am keeping on nothing really major or intense since then

 

[BEorP]

Still a probie but heres the story I tell everyone - I was doing a ridealong with an ALS unit out in Maryland. Roughly around 21:00 we get a call for a "woman down" in a neighboring county that didn't have any ALS available. We get there, and we find BLS going through the CPR motions on a woman who had the most distended stomach I've ever seen in my life! Turns out she had terminal metastatic stomach cancer. Anyway, we load and go. In the back of the ambu. Theres 3 of us in back, and I'm put in charge of directing the other basic onboard in CPR, and checking the LifePack for electrical activity. After 2 rounds of epi and atropene, I place my finger on her radial artery, and look over at the monitor. Nothing on radial, but on the monitor, a definite V-Fib. We shock her, and I place my fingers back on her radial - and theres a weak, thready but still present pulse!!!

Honestly, one of the best moments of my life was feeling that pulse... Unfortunately, when we got to the hospital, the family was able to produce a valid notorized DNR - and the woman passed away.

You check radial pulses in patients in cardiac arrest?

 

[suziquzi99]

My first major, I had just gotten my liscense was intering with a paid station in baltimore county ( was a high school program) We had just got a doa where the paramedic made me check to see if he was dead then we got a call to respond to a 3 year old cardiac arrest. We got there he was brought out to us on a backboard by the FD. He was obviosuly in cardiac arrest no pule no respiration pupils fixed and dialted. Mother gave us some bs story about how she had just laid him down didnt know trauma was involved until after the fact. I bagged firefighters and the driver took turns doing compressions. They cut off his clothes revealing multipule bruises. The dad hopped in the back of the wagon screaming which seemed directly at me please dont let him die thats my little buddy I love him so much come on buddy we are going to get you a puppy tommorrow I love you please dont let him die. The paramedic loaded him up with atropine ( I do believe I wasnt so focused on what she was doing after she critisized me for every little thing I did or what I wore this woman has serisouly scarred me for life). They intubated I continued to bag they wroked on him for 30 minutes at the ER until they called it. Turns out the evil sorry excuse for a human being had beaten him and thrown him down the basement stairs twice. Wasnt the first time she hurt him but it was the last. It was very intense for me. I was NOT prepared to see a death of a child no way I could have been but abuse like that it still sticks with me. She got 36 years in jail though and get to be someone b*tch so that gives me some peace on the whole thing as well as the poor boy was suffering and isnt anymore. Very traumatic for me but I am keeping on nothing really major or intense since then

OMG, how horrible. If there is one thing that concerns me as far as being haunted by what I will see is little children. Especially when the whole event could have not happened b/c of ignorant, demented adults. Even more so with having my own, its heart wrenching to think about. That part will be my biggest challange, I think.

 

[stephenrb81]

My first major was before I started working on an ambulance. I was working as an EMT in a casino and had a man drop at the craps table. Figured it was the regular hypoglycemic episode that made up 90% of my paperwork. Got to him and he didn't have a pulse and no respirations, I sent someone after an AED while I started compressions. He ended up getting buzzed by the AED 3x while we worked him waiting on an ambulance.

Amazing how I had to set up crowd control, not for the on-lookers but the people that were LITERALLY stepping over us to cash-out or get to the table

He survived, sent us a card a month later thanking us

 

[Hal9000]

My first major call was a couple of years ago with a Schwann's truck versus Cadillac on the open highway. The Cadillac had been torn in half and thrown into a tree; everything past the driver seat was gone. The truck driver was ejected but fine. Turns out the car overcorrected and rolled into the other lane before hitting the oncoming traffic. The driver of the Caddy initially seemed OK (Good GCS and no external bleeding.) and I worked with the paramedic (From Richmond actually.) to get her to the hospital. Once there a CRNA took over and we helped out. One pupil blew and her BP started dropping. They let her go at 39/something. The CRNA was never able to intubate because of the amount of blood. Though she had no outward signs, it turned out that she'd gotten a tear in her aorta. Anyway, that was the first death I'd seen.

 

[mycrofft]

BEorP, you forgot to tell us about your first run.

10characters

 

[BossyCow]

Two log trucks. One fully loaded with logs, the other running empty. Head on at about 60MPH. Driver of the empty truck ejected. He survivedTook us about 10 hours to work our way through the wreckage and log debris littering the highway to be able to extricate the body of the driver of the loaded truck. The cab of his truck stopped, but the log load didn't. The logs coming forward rolled his cab into a ball of tinfoil.

 

[EMERG2011]

You check radial pulses in patients in cardiac arrest?

Actually I was tought to, so yes - mainly to make sure that chest compressions are providing an adequate pressure wave to keep the tissue alive. In this situation, I was in the process of checking the compression wave, and then the other basic held off compressions to assess whether or not the heart had started pumping again.

 

[Outbac1]

My medic instructor used to tell us that we would never know what calls we would do when we went to work. He would open a patho book at random and quiz us by saying are you ready to do a call on whatever was on the page. This would end in "Perhaps you need to study more before you go out on the street."

My first call was about an hour into my first OJT shift. A 9mo/m unresponsive, not breathing. The baby lived. Nothing like jumping into the deep end to start things off.

 

[micsaver]

Actually I was tought to, so yes - mainly to make sure that chest compressions are providing an adequate pressure wave to keep the tissue alive. In this situation, I was in the process of checking the compression wave, and then the other basic held off compressions to assess whether or not the heart had started pumping again.

So you don't check the carotid? Is there a benefit to checking the radial in this instance over the carotid? I would think you would pick up a central pulse better than a peripheral one.

 

[BEorP]

Actually I was tought to, so yes - mainly to make sure that chest compressions are providing an adequate pressure wave to keep the tissue alive. In this situation, I was in the process of checking the compression wave, and then the other basic held off compressions to assess whether or not the heart had started pumping again.

You should be checking a carotid pulse in a cardiac arrest patient. What if they had a return of circulation with a pressure of something like 70 mm Hg so you felt no radial but they were very much alive and would have had a carotid pulse? Also, feeling a pulse during compressions means nothing. Even if one is felt it could just be venous. If one is not felt that does not mean that compressions are inadequate.