Its Memorial Day Weekend!

MedicPrincess

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So how has y'alls weekend been?

Lets see....

Friday, I worked our transfer truck. Took 2 out of counties and 2 locals. Listened to the 911 trucks get their butts handed to them nonstop. Did reports, called it a day. Home by 1900.

Saturday- I worked a 911 truck. And I think I had my rear handed to me at least 5 or 6 times.

Kind of went like this...

1. 0709 Single vehicle rollover at highway speeds. 1 patient. One of our off duty paramedics was first on scene (on her way home from her shift). Found her unconscious, slumpped over the steering wheel. Alert to loud verbal upon our arrival, but not really answering anything. Flew her to a trauma center.

2. 0829 Syncopal Episode. Conscious and alert upon FD's arrival. 1 pt to ER. Drop him off, call available at the ER and immediatly get...

3. 0915 Syncope. Conscious and alert upon our arrival. Didn't know what happened. Last he remembers he was sitting in that chair over there. ETOH onboard. He admitted to 3 beers already. 1 pt to the ER.

4. 1045 Unconscious. Yep, she was unconscious. BP 72 systolic. Had been prescribed Lortab a few days before, but someone "forgot" to tell her not to be drinking with it. ETOH onboard. Friends think she had only had 2 daquiries so far. 1 patient to the ER

5. 1130 Tramautic Injury. Her back was hurting X 2 weeks. Was seen by regular DR, given Darvocet. No BM x 11 days. No complaints other that the back pain. ETOH on board. She drinks wine with every meal. She was on glass #4 when we got there. Wanted to know if she could finish it before we took her. Umm...No. 1 patient to the ER.

6. 1220 Traumatic Injury What do you get when you mix heat, the beach, a BEAUTIFUL day, 12 (yes 12) margaritas since 0800, "just 1" of your friends Darvocets, and a skim board? Well, that would be a really cool looking deformity to the ankle. 1 patient, obvious FX Ankle to the ER.

7. 1310 We got cleared to go to our station. Haul *** there to grab our lunches that we left there when we jumped in for the MVA. Get in station, advise dispatch we were "in station" and that little butthole laughs out loud and says "You THOUGHT you were. Start Charlie response...." If only I could have reached through and punched him right in his nose :rolleyes:

8. Who cares abou the time now...Just let me know when my relief gets in station tomorrow morning at 0700.

9. Possible Traumatic Injury with long fall. One single passerby called 911 to report someone was "pushed, jumped, or fell off the approximatley 13th floor of one of the condos. Bet you can't guess the outcome on that one. Unfounded.

10. MVA w/ entrapment. FD on scene first reports entrapment. Have thier tools out preparing to go to work. Nobodys got C-Spine. Nobodys talking to the driver. Fire hadn't asked. Walk up to passenger side and ask what is hurting if anything. Patient says "Nothing. Those G** D***** firefighters told me to sit right here they'd get my door open for me." Opened the passenger door. Patient climbed out. Patient Refusal (No Injury.) Surprisingly, no ETOH with this one (yet).

11. MVA. 4 cars. One car hits another, and that one another, then the one infront of that one and finally the first one in line. Arrive on scene, everyone is ambulatory, walking around talking with each other and looking at the damage. All total a possible of 19 patients. 2 (from the very first car in line, and last to be hit) complain of SEVERE neck and back pain. Oh please help them, no their arms are starting to feel numb and funny. Full spinal precautions. 2 patients to the ER.

12. MVA. Vehicle vs. Ped. 9 year old boy stepped out in front of an SUV traveling approx. 40 MPH. Can you say SMACK?!!? Launch the helicopter. Fire reports he is CA&O cancel the helio. NO, do not cancel that helio until we get there and decide. Fire repeats to dispatch to cancel the helio. NO, Do NOT cancel that helio. On scene find a 9 y/o who was conscious. But the repetitive questioning and those pupils that were all messed up...oh and the spots on his head where you could obviously tell not only did he hit the highway with his head but he also BOUNCED at least 3 times....bought him his heliocopter ride. Was here visiting, had been in town less than 24 hours. LF reports he has probably taken his last vacation.

13. Back Pain. It just doesn't "feel right" about mid to upper back. Fire with patient contact reports obsurdly normal textbook vitals. 120/82, pulse of 74, sats at 100 on RA, no difficulty breathing. We get there and find a very pale patient who is having obvious SOB, but was only complaining about his back really bothering him for the last hour or so, and the FD's medical bag mysteriously absent. 184/102, pulse of 110, O2 at 84% on RA. Throw some O2 on him, load him. Since I cant do IV's yet, my medic for the day gets the IV, I throw on a 12 lead. As it analyzes and prints I go about getting the Accucheck. Medic says in quite the frantic voice that causes the patient to get visably upset, "get up there and get me to the hospital now. And set them up for a Cardiac Alert and have them have the cath team standing by and tell the family we wont be transporting to the hospital they want and get the names of the FF on scene and call MEDCOM (our shift CPT) and let him know what we have and call my report for me because I am going to be busy and make sure to tell the family not to follow to closely and to obey all the traffic laws but don't go anywhere until I get this second IV." Ummm, okay. 1 patient, pretty decent MI going on to the ER. Cardiologist meets us at the door, looks at the 12 lead, and we go straight to the cath lab. So I guess thats 1 patient to the Cath Lab.

14. Traumatic Injury/Assault. Pregnant female, ETOH onboard. Her BF beat the crap outta her. Got to listen to her tell me how he keeps her tied to a bed when he isn't there and rapes her every night and beats her around every night. 7th pregnancy, 6 live births. And shes not going to bring another child into this world if this stuff isn't going to stop. And how the cops won't help her, they tell her everytime she calls them her injuries are self inflicted. And she sure hopes he doesn't bring any of his guns when he comes looking for her in the ER. 1 patient to the ER, with security at the door. Nursing reports she called him to come and get her to take her back to the shelter (umm, aren't they not susposed to let the abuser know where that place is) because she didn't want to wait the hour the Taxi the hospital was going to pay for had arranged for her. Some people just shouldn't breed.

15. Traumatic Injury/Assault. Poor little hispanic man was beat down by about "30 big dudes." ETOH, yes. In his words...A LOT. Only complaint is the Lac to cheek. 1 patient to ER.

16. MVA. Hit and Run. Rear End style. Patient refused to get out of his car for the FD. Saw us pull up, got out, walked to ambulance. When we stopped, he opened the door, climbed in and sat in the captains chair. Put his seatbelt on. Only complaint, was that seriously misshapen nose that made contact with the steering wheel. Could we hurry up and get him there, he has to get to work. Only "a little" ETOH onboard.

17. Seziures. Or Unconscious. Or Poss Resp. Arrest. Or an Overdose. Who the heck knows. We got all 4 at different times from dispatch, for this same call. Get there and find our patient putting on makeup. She states she did have a seziure and is always tired afterwards. But she was fine now and had a date she needed to get to, and don't worry she hasn't used "the needles" in at least 4 days. 1 patient refusal. Get outta there, there were FLEAS crawling on my hands as I was getting her to sign.

18. MVA w/rollover. Sitting at a light, I sort of laughed and told the medic that SUV there is going to be our 2 am rollover. It was just a rockin back and forth, people loose all over it, loud, the party was definantly on in their vehicle. Light turns green. They floor it as they go into a left hand turn. Get on 2 wheels, then over they go and over again, and one more time just for good measure. Ended up on its side. Bodies on the ground, bodies in the vehicle, and one half in and half out. Medic and I both grab for the radio. I get it first. He says to give it to him and go check on them. Nope, even if I do check on them and find they aren't hurt, he still has to do the clearing through Med Control, so he can get out and go talk to them. 2 ambulances, 1 helicopter, 3 firetrucks, 1 shift commander and too many cops to count (what are they like roaches....they came out of the woodwork on this one) later and we were clear. 6 patients total. 4 to the ER by ground, 2 by air with head/femur/unstable pelvis/chest/unconscious type injuries. Anyone care to guess on their ETOH status?

19. Can I PLEASE go home now? Not before one last Unconscious call. VERY Drunk Diabetic, possibly got a little GHB slipped in her drink, laid out on the front sidewalk of the club. Lots of friends around. She was fine one minute, felt a little sick the next, and was out the next. Blood sugar was 102. Came around just long enough to puke for about 5 minutes straight. We'd had her loaded. She made her first wretching movement and me medic snatched the stretcher out of the ambulance and let her do it on the ground. 1 patient to the ER.

I was scheduled to work 1900-0700 tonight also. The medic on the truck I was to be on took off for the weekend. Shift Commander couldn't find a Paramedic to come in on their day off (are you surprised, Im not!), so I got cancelled. Somehow I think that word had been forgotten. I get to be there at 0700, on a 911 truck. Its the slowest truck in the county, usually only runs 2-3/ 24 hrs. We'll see.
 

MMiz

I put the M in EMTLife
Community Leader
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Princess,

These stories are so much better than the time you worked a code in the hospital. I've never worked such a busy shift, or known someone who has, but my god you were busy!

Keep up the good work. If I had stickers, you'd get one! :)
 

fm_emt

Useless without caffeine
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#10 had me cracking up laughing. :-D

I know that you were likely pissed off on scene, but for the rest of us, it was amusing. :)

My weekend has consisted of grilling up some tomato & basil marinated chicken breasts, scalloped potatoes, and corn.

http://www.pbp.net/~jnichols/images/dinner_20060528.jpg
^^^^ yeah, I took a photo of my dinner.

Also in there were a few trips to various coffee shops and some time at the gun range with the girlfriend and a (computer job) co-worker.

Tomorrow: roving EMS for a concert at a college. Oughta be fun.
 

Wingnut

EMS Junkie
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ROFLMAO!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: All of those cracked me up, No one relays a call quite like you do!!

What a busy shift!!! I show up at a station and all tones stop going off. I doubt that's gonna last long though.

Get some damn rest!
 

Ridryder911

EMS Guru
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Wow .. must not have to do a lot of paperwork and be in very close proximity of calls. It usually takes an average of at least 30-45 minutes for an average call. We average 16-20 responses per truck in a 24 hr period (unfortunately a lot after midnight).

I hope we are not as busy as last yr.

R/r 911
 

emtbuff

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Wow you have been busy!!!

I have been working hospital shifts as a CNA. Saturday wasn't bad I think we had 1 ER visit and dismissed our 1 and only patient in an 8 hour shift. Sunday we had 1 patient when I got there and ended up leaving 2 patients. We also had probley around 9 ERs in my 8 hour shift. It was a busy medipass night. So it could be interesting to see what have tonight for ER and I have a feeling our 2 patients I left last night will probley be gone as they were both doing well with getting fluid off of them.

As for the park I know we had a full camp ground and things didn't seem to be too bad yesterday when we hauled our sound equipment stuff out for church service. Which was a lot of work but wasn't too bad with all the wind that we had. Just glad it wasn't any warmer down in the bottom.

Other than that ambulance has been quite and things at home have been going smoothly for what I have been awake for.:)
 

disassociative

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...

Around here it seems as if Memorial Day is an open call for expirementation with large intravenous doses of cocaine mixed with consumption of mass quantities of alchohol.

It usually takes about 30 minutes of the pt's head ringing and dizziness before he/she realizes something is wrong. Then they expect EMS to come in and make it all better, and we do; knowing that once the patient gets out of the hospital; they are going to go right back and do more cocaine, meth, or whatever they have available.
 

Jon

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Nice stories...

I think most of us have had those calls... but never all of them in the same day... I wanna come do a ride-along with you!
 

emt4life

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Ok, my weekend didn't have that many calls, but our calls take 1 1/2-2hrs easy. But this weekend had quite the events:

-Cabin EXPLOSION! It was literally in shambles and engulfed in flames. Two patients, adult male and female child. Both with 3rd degree burns to hands and feet, with other minor burns. Flew both of them to a burn center.

-Adult male, ETOH, ATV vs. tree at 50mph, you do the math. Flew him out too.


That is just a two of my many calls this weekend, both on the same day, not bad for a brand new medic.
 
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Wingnut

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I only worked on Sunday this weekend and we were slow. We had one afternoon call that was a domestic violence, no visible injuries but she was pregnant, she ended up signing a refusal and had her mom take her. It's a 40 minute trip to the ER from our zone so we were happy about that.

The next call came around 10, we had all just fallen asleep like 5 mins before the call came. Sick pregnant woman we drive out there go to the address and no one there had called 911. Then dispatch calls the caller back and finds out it was the wrong address and it wasn't even in our zone. (they barely spoke english and the first address was 123 23rd Ave NW, second address we got was 123 23rd St SW.) So we head back to our station, and the unit that went out can't find the address, which meant we had to stay up and ready just to make sure the next "correct" address wasn't in our zone. They finally found it and we went back to bed.

Last call was at 3am, came in as pregnant woman with abdominal pain. The husband had actually driven her & the kids to the fire station. Apparently he didn't know his address either. We get on scene and find out it's her 5th pregnancy (has 4 kids) and she's only six weeks pregnant. She was in a lot of pain, bp was showing it too and she was hyperventilating looked a lot like labor. Got her loaded and my medic says step on it. That was my first time going hot figures it had to be at 3am, on horrible roads with tons of construction and a 40 min transport.


We actually lucked out, they had some kind of drag racing thing going on a mile behind us, we really thought it was going to end up being busy. I pretty much spent memorial day sleeping after I got home lol.
 

emtbuff

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Well last night the nurses and I sat around and played games, we had no patients. About 7pm we started getting ERs for a laceration to the leg stitches, broken arm sent on to a large town, kid bitting through her lip from falling off her bike so dermabond it, and another person who is very anxious. So over all a good night once things got rolling, although playing cards was kinda fun.:)
 
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MedicPrincess

MedicPrincess

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MedicStudentJon said:
but never all of them in the same day... I wanna come do a ride-along with you!

Umm...no. Our "normal" day is like this 36 I just came off of. 9 calls total. 1 yesterday at 7 am and that was it for the day. The other 8 were as of 3 am this morning. Hey, I intentionally got myself assigned to the SLOWEST truck in the county for this 36 hour shift.

Normally the trucks in the county average 2 (for the slowest) to 15 (on the busiest) calls in a 24 hour shift. This weekend was just extra special due to the holiday and the annual nationwide gay/lesbian festival.

For the truck I was on on Saturday, average response times for a call within our "district" is 2-3 minutes. Obviously, if we have to respond to a different district it could be longer. But from the station I was at to anywhere in the south end of the county is no more than 15 minute response time.

And most times, from most calls, we can be at the hospital in 5-9 minutes. From the time we call arrival at the hospital, we have 10 minutes to unload the patient and be back in service available for calls. Unless we have a reason, such as Decon, or no beds in the ER. After 10 minutes dispatch begins calling us to find out a status check and how much longer.

Most calls, from time of dispatch to time of availiblity at the ER can be complete in 30-45 minutes. Obviously, there are exceptions though.
 
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Jon

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If you have a 10-minute Transport Complete to Availble, when/how does the charting get done?
 
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MedicPrincess

MedicPrincess

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Charting? You mean like with the patient still in front of us??? Silly boy!

Usually, we can call available at the ER and sit and work on the report there. But there are some days, like the last few that sitting anywhere to do anything other than go from one call to the next was a distant memory.

Seriously, we have patient contact forms that we use to make notes. Also the Lifepaks have the code summary on them. Upon arrival at the hospital, one of us will hit that. That will give us their vitals to record later. Any meds that are given, somone writes it down on whatever they are using to take notes on. Pt demographics are limited to name, dob, SS#. Sometimes we have time for more. Most of the time, the FD is on scene with us and they will gather as much as they can while we are preparing to get enroute. Then FD gives us a copy of their patient contact form. Then the FD's form, our form, the code summary are all paperclipped together and put where the medic can get to them to work on the report later.

Then, we have PDAs. At some point in the shift the goal is to put the report in the PDA. Then at some point get back to station so we can download the PDA onto the PC and complete it.

We always end up with overtime due to completing reports for the shift.
 
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