so I work for one of the local ambulance corps as a paid medic on the overnights 1 shift a week for some extra income. I've been there for 2 years now and it's a nice place to work. Never really had any problems there, usually get your chest pain and resp distress pt's, but no crazy calls. Well yesterday at 9:14 am I get toned out for a resp arrest. I hop into my first responder and head out tot the call. when I arrive at the building, I see a fire truck, about 4 fire chiefs and a ton of firemen in their gear running around the parking lot. As I park my truck, one of the firemen comes running over and starts banging on my window yelling " they're doing CPR inside!" So I get my stuff, hobble into the building (I hurt my knee the week before) and find police officers doing compressions and bagging what appears to be a mid 30 y/o male who is laying next to a huge electrical box. there is blood all over his face and on his arms and what apperas to be electrical burns on his hands. Great, this guy is in arrest now. Unknown downtime, he was found by a coworker on the floor. PD states they got 1 shock off with an AED. Hook the guy up, he's asystole on the LP12. Continue CPR, try to intubate and this is where it gets interesting. As I introduce the blade into the mouth, I see blood in his mouth and ariway, but can't see the cords at all. Look again, and I realize it's cuz everyhting is soooooo swollen. All I can see is pink/bloody tissue but no cords. can't even see the espohagus. The chief of the corp that I work for shows up, he tires to look twice with the same results. End up using the combi-tube which worked great. I teach ems providers how to use it, I never had to put on in before. Very easy for those who were wondering. Anyway, pop in an ej and start with the epi-atropine. No capture on pacing and after the 2nd round we get a few complexes. pt went into PEA for a brief second, then into ventricular standstill. Now for those who never saw this before, it's just P waves marching across the monitor. It's concidered asystole, but it's pretty neat to see. Check it out
So we run this guy in to the hospital and he's pronounced right away, It's a shame what happened to him, but 2 good things did come of the call. A few providers that never got to see or use the combi-tube got to see it used first hand and Almost everyone there didn't know what I was talking about when I was calling the rhythm ventricular standstill, so now a few more als providers now know.
LAst week I was telling someone how I never get any interesting jobs at that side job.... Gotta keep my mouth shut.
So we run this guy in to the hospital and he's pronounced right away, It's a shame what happened to him, but 2 good things did come of the call. A few providers that never got to see or use the combi-tube got to see it used first hand and Almost everyone there didn't know what I was talking about when I was calling the rhythm ventricular standstill, so now a few more als providers now know.
LAst week I was telling someone how I never get any interesting jobs at that side job.... Gotta keep my mouth shut.
