How did you feel...First Major Trauma??

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Saytuck99

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I have been an EMT for about a year...Had my first major trauma...motorcycle accident..by the time we arrived there was a medic and I working on the patient..blood everywhere...part of his head caved in...it seemed to me to be complete chaos...within 2 minutes there were 10 providers 10-20 firefighters and they were calling the chopper...I was fine...not nervous/anxious or disturbed by the scene, although saddened by it... but it was my first...I felt out of sorts...like I should have been doing something more..just wondering how everyone else felt on their first major trauma call...
 
My first call was a trauma run. Vehicle roll over. It was awesome. I was hooked.
 
I see you're from LI. My first major trauma call was on LI, too, and I felt pretty much the way you did.
 
Chimpie said:
My first call was a trauma run. Vehicle roll over. It was awesome. I was hooked.
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Don't get me wrong...I love the field...I am also "hooked"...taking a Critical Care (Intermediate) class this year...However, we are all vollies here and so its not something I do 24/7...I think its going to take a longer time to get into a "rhythm" than if I did this as a daily job....just wondering if others felt similarly...
 
i stayed focused on the tasks at hand... getting the patient to the ER alive.. and treating the patient as things presented themselves. (mine was a double shooting) and the call was over before I knew it.

Now, im indifferent to trauma. After working in both Flint, MI and Detroit, MI ive had enough trauma to last me a lifetime.
 
I've actually never had a "major trauma" with body parts missing or anything. My most most major MVC was a t-bone at 40mph but the only injury was a lady with an avulsed right leg.




Yup. White cloud.
 
Guess I'm a black cloud. Way to many deaths, amputations, etc to recall much. I'm sure I probably in my mind said oh ....... but I know I got them to the hospital alive so I must have just let the education kick in and did my job.
 
No major traumas yet...other than a coumadin patient who fell...but he was happily content to tell us nothing hurt in spite of bleeding all over us from very shallow scrapes.

First cardiac arrest, however, I bumbled through and realized I never took a good look at the trauma bag and couldn't find what I needed. Once we got into a rhythm though I was able to focus on the task at hand.
 
UPDATE: Kid died on the Helo ride to the Hospital....

I guess bc even though we were the 1st ambulance on scene, care was already initiated by Department medic and CC...we/I never even got into a rythym on scene...we provided assistance where requested and did not have to transport in our rig so we never assumed care of the patient...I just thought there was more I could/should have done...just followed instructions ..

which I suppose, in hindsight was exactly what I should have been doing...
 
First major trauma, during the call i believe i was not aware exactly how bad the patient truly was.. (I was focused on treating the patient and the injuries, not the patient himself). after the call it hit me how bad the patient truly was. and I started to second guess my self on what I could have done differently. but after talking to my fto about it, he gave me some great advice. when on a call, you react to situations and make split second judgments, you treat the patient with all the knowledge that you have of the situation, and majority of the time, your first reaction/decisions is the correct one.
 
Only major trauma as a fire/EMS explorer was an 18 year old kit auto/bicycle with open skull fracture. Still awake, GCS=15. Really hit home because he was only 2 weeks younger than me.

First call of my first EMT-B clinical was a guy who was hit by a train...the fender hit his head, ejecting brain matter. Body was otherwise intact. Was interesting, definitely a weird first call/way to start off in EMS.

First messy/horrible trauma was a homicide, pt. was shot twice with a 12ga shotgun, in abdomen and right arm which was blown partially off. Pt. arrested in front of us, I remember hosing off the stretcher about six times until the water stopped running red.
 
Congratulations!

...you just crossed the first trip wire without blowing you or anyone else up!

This game is all about building blocks. You run a call, you feel confused, you figure out what you missed, you do a little work to prepare, you run a call, you ask "What happened?", you learn, you adjust, you prepare better, you run a call, it's a complete "WTF?", you screw up, you learn, you prepare better...

Trust me, in about 20 years you won't be wondering, you'll know when you farked up!
 
firetender said:
...you just crossed the first trip wire without blowing you or anyone else up!

This game is all about building blocks. You run a call, you feel confused, you figure out what you missed, you do a little work to prepare, you run a call, you ask "What happened?", you learn, you adjust, you prepare better, you run a call, it's a complete "WTF?", you screw up, you learn, you prepare better...

Trust me, in about 20 years you won't be wondering, you'll know when you farked up!
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I like this comment. I don't have any blocks as a medic yet, just the cement foundation.
 
firetender said:
...you just crossed the first trip wire without blowing you or anyone else up!

This game is all about building blocks. You run a call, you feel confused, you figure out what you missed, you do a little work to prepare, you run a call, you ask "What happened?", you learn, you adjust, you prepare better, you run a call, it's a complete "WTF?", you screw up, you learn, you prepare better...

Trust me, in about 20 years you won't be wondering, you'll know when you farked up!
Click to expand...

Love it! So True.

During one of my rides we ran on a car vs. motorcycle x2. We had the 2nd patient, who had been wearing a helmet and was moderately injured (at a minimum had a clavicle fx). The other pt, his friend, had been transported right before we got on scene. He was not wearing a helmet and was in bad shape... blown pupils and posturing. He almost certainly died eventually. They went to the same hospital.

At the hospital, I held our patient's phone up to his ear (he was c-collared and couldn't lift his arm) as he called his own family, and the other pts daughter and wife to try to let them know they were in the hospital and only got voicemails. He asked me how his buddy was doing.

And that is when the whole reality of "these are real people, just like me" and the sadness of trauma really struck me. I did everything fine on scene, didn't freak out or anything, and it's not like this call haunts me or anything, but I will never forget it.
 
My first trauma as a brand-new EMT-Basic all by myself and my partner was a 1 veh 10-46 over the hill with entrapment and possible ejection because there was a little kid out of the vehicle, up on the road. Got there, the father was REALLY bad off and ended up dying later from what I found out. The little boy climbed out of where the car roof used to be after doing CPR on his dad till he started breathing again, climbed up the hill, stopped a car and got help. I was a little bit "OMG, what do I do???" at first, then got started on treating the patient and was fine. Just do everything you possibly can for the patient. The worst thing that could happen is that the patient dies. In which case it's possible that no matter what was done for the patient, the patient might have died anyway. And don't go back and doubt yourself and second guess yourself too much...do more of constructive criticism on yourself. After a really bad call I'll go back over what I did, thinking, "Yeah I did this and I did that and I did a really good job and remembered to do this or that." Second stage of my thinking is "What else could I have done for this patient, or what could I have done differently?" Don't beat yourself up if you don't do something right away, such as taking a blood sugar or counting respirations, on a bad trauma call. Remember: if the patient isn't breathing or is bleeding to death, you're not going to be able to do anything to help him. Soooooo.... :) Just a few of my thoughts.
 
You will have many more disturbing calls to come. I'm a medic student in a very bad area in which I won't name. In the last few months, I have seen more disturbing crap then I had ever imagined seeing in my life. It's going to happen. The fact that you feel only proves you're human. Best of luck.
 
I looked dumbfounded and said to myself, gee, this wasn't covered in the textbook :D
 
Chimpie said:
My first call was a trauma run. Vehicle roll over. It was awesome. I was hooked.
Click to expand...

Saytuck99 said:
Don't get me wrong...I love the field...I am also "hooked"...taking a Critical Care (Intermediate) class this year...However, we are all vollies here and so its not something I do 24/7...I think its going to take a longer time to get into a "rhythm" than if I did this as a daily job....just wondering if others felt similarly...
Click to expand...

Oh don't worry. I was industrial EMS. This occurred as I was driving down the road one day, probably within a few weeks of passing my MFR. So I guess this wasn't my first 'call', but definitely my first 'action'.
 
Linuss said:
I've actually never had a "major trauma" with body parts missing or anything. My most most major MVC was a t-bone at 40mph but the only injury was a lady with an avulsed right leg.


Yup. White cloud.
Click to expand...

Dang, I thought I was bad. No GSWs? No stabbings? No construction site accidents? Nothing but an avulsed leg?
 
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