First trauma!

[Theraphosidae]

Woo! I was not on a ride along and am still a student (no uniform thank goodness, I would have torn that thing off so fast before anyone saw). It was a MVA just a few yards away that resulted in some serious head trauma, and I just happened to be there. It was EXCITING! And I feel kinda bad saying that. I'm not happy someone almost died, but... I'm happy I got to experience it and play a large hand in making sure it was 'almost'. Does that make sense?

I am so much more confident in myself now, everything was automatic, no doubts or questions. ^_^

But I will say... I have been going around telling everyone to wear their seat belts.

 

[Akulahawk]

Woo! I was not on a ride along and am still a student (no uniform thank goodness, I would have torn that thing off so fast before anyone saw). It was a MVA just a few yards away that resulted in some serious head trauma, and I just happened to be there. It was EXCITING! And I feel kinda bad saying that. I'm not happy someone almost died, but... I'm happy I got to experience it and play a large hand in making sure it was 'almost'. Does that make sense?

I am so much more confident in myself now, everything was automatic, no doubts or questions. ^_^

But I will say... I have been going around telling everyone to wear their seat belts.

I hate to say it... but eventually trauma gets "old" and "routine." There's just so much that can be done in the field for trauma victims. You just do what you need to do and go on to the next one. Don't get me wrong, people often come up with some rather interesting ways to damage themselves (accidentally or otherwise) but... we only have a few interventions that we can do, and get them to someone that can do surgery PRN or knows to sit & wait for something to make itself known.

 

[STXmedic]

Agreed. Traumas, at least prehospitally, become fairly monotonous. I'll take a good, complicated medical patient over a polytrauma any day.

OP, glad you got to get your feet wet, though. Reflect back on it and see what you can learn. Crack your book and read up on the different injuries you saw.

 

[Global Emergency Vehicles]

Woo! I was not on a ride along and am still a student (no uniform thank goodness, I would have torn that thing off so fast before anyone saw). It was a MVA just a few yards away that resulted in some serious head trauma, and I just happened to be there. It was EXCITING! And I feel kinda bad saying that. I'm not happy someone almost died, but... I'm happy I got to experience it and play a large hand in making sure it was 'almost'. Does that make sense?

I am so much more confident in myself now, everything was automatic, no doubts or questions. ^_^

But I will say... I have been going around telling everyone to wear their seat belts.

Yea, seat belts are definitely one of those painfully simple, but crucially important, things in life. They often get overlooked by people just being lazy, but they can be the difference between life and death in the fraction of a second.

Glad you were on scene and able to help. And congrats on your first save.

 

[mycrofft]

OP, right on. Akula, right on squared. I always liked seeing my medtechs looking bored and competent instead of excited...kind of like Charlie Watts on drums.

 

[Akulahawk]

OP, right on. Akula, right on squared. I always liked seeing my medtechs looking bored and competent instead of excited...kind of like Charlie Watts on drums.

I did, however, forget to mention that I just might get a bit excited after the fact... "Dude, that was cool...":rofl:

 

[Theraphosidae]

It was a severe evulsion (is that the word?) from half his face/scalp getting torn off from the windshield, and head fracture that showed all sorts of things you aren't supposed to see, and I got to touch it!

I don't think that will EVER get monotone for me. Studied to be a forensic pathologist that specialized in the entomology side of it until I realized how expensive that was! It did startle the heck out of one of the medics. But he also came too just enough once or twice to try and peel everything off his head and startle all of us. He had no clue as to what was going on.

Last I saw in the news he was still alive and recovering. Makes me super happy.

 

[Theraphosidae]

Oh, and I did bust my book out and talk for a long while with my teacher. Everything I did was right as far what could be accomplished with what I had. I learned a lot, so much, from just this one act. It was surprising to me that I knew exactly what to check for as far as ABCs, stability, and what I could do with DCAPBTLS.

 

[Akulahawk]

It was a severe evulsion (is that the word?) from half his face/scalp getting torn off from the windshield, and head fracture that showed all sorts of things you aren't supposed to see, and I got to touch it!

I don't think that will EVER get monotone for me. Studied to be a forensic pathologist that specialized in the entomology side of it until I realized how expensive that was! It did startle the heck out of one of the medics. But he also came too just enough once or twice to try and peel everything off his head and startle all of us. He had no clue as to what was going on.

Last I saw in the news he was still alive and recovering. Makes me super happy.

The word you're looking for is "avulsion" and after you've seen this a few times, it just loses it's "newness" and all you're really left with is just doing your best to stabilize what you can, bandage what you can, and get transport going. Eventually, patients like this will kind of blur together and you'll only remember certain patients. If you actually try to remember your patients longer than you have to, you might become a bit depressed about it all because the stories are often just really sad, kind of wrong place-wrong time kind of stuff.

Your description of the patient is pretty much spot on for someone who has just put their face through the windshield. The brain injury under all that bloody mess is what's causing the patient to not exactly comprehend what's going on and why he can't process things all that well... and also why he was behaving how he was.

Chances are quite good that you did the right things for him because BLS stuff is pretty much all that this patient is going to need while in the field. Sure, he may get some ALS stuff, but for the most part, most of his care is going to be fairly simple/basic EMT stuff.

Please don't misunderstand me in saying this. I'm only cautioning you about things down the road. Being excited about trauma is certainly OK. Just remember that someone has to have a really bad day for you to have an exciting trauma day.

 

[Theraphosidae]

Just remember that someone has to have a really bad day for you to have an exciting trauma day.

^^ This ^^

It's something I understand very well, just like I understood from my pathology studies that someone had to die for me to work in that field. I do take it very seriously and wish bad things like that didn't happen to people. I don't want to have an exciting day, but if that's what happens the goal is to learn from it.

 

[Niesje]

I know how it is. I'm a student, too. I get my blood pumping when I hear the tones, I gey excited about pushing drugs, splinting, MVCs. My preceptors just roll their eyes and call me a squirrel lol. Just enjoy it. Everybody gets more chill about it from what I see. We only get to be newbies once, might as well enjoy it.