Epi-do
I see dead people
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My most recent shift wasn't overly busy - only three runs - but they each made you want to just stop and shake your head for varying reasons. We spent most of the first half of the shift out of service for annual physicals and dive training. After supper we had our first run of the shift.
We started out with a frequent flier who is a known diabetic. He had been out of his insulin for several days, possibly a week. When I tried to dex him, the only reading the glucometer would give me was "HI". Yes, this guy needed to go to the ER, and I really didn't have a problem taking him since he was legitimately sick. What irked me about the entire situation, however, was that he intentionally did not get his insulin and basically chose to put himself into this situation. He didn't want to go to the ER, saying he would go pick up the insulin in the morning, but he was also altered enough that we couldn't leave him there. (Not that I thought leaving him there was ok to do.) It isn't a matter of being able to afford the insulin (per wife), he just refuses to get it. Bad things happen to plenty of people and they have no control over it. I truly am empathetic for those. The people that chose to make their bed, on the other hand, just really rub me the wrong way.
Our second run that night was another frequent flier. She called because she wanted us to put her into bed. She had absolutely no medical complaints, just has a hard time getting up into her bed by herself. These sort of runs to this particular house are becoming a very regular thing. We know have to document everything in an incident report each time we go to that address so admin can attempt to have something done about the situation.
The final run of the night was a cardiac arrest. Granted, it was the first time AI have been able to shock someone since getting my cert 6 months ago, but it still sucked. The patient was 35, ran 3-5 miles every day, was very healthy/health conscious, and had absolutely no medical history. No recent travel, drug screen was clean, initial blood work showed electrolytes to all be WNL. Needless to say, that run just sucked all the way around.
I think I might have gotten 4 hours of sleep that night and am currently exhausted so now it is off to bed. I just needed to vent a little bit about yesterday.
We started out with a frequent flier who is a known diabetic. He had been out of his insulin for several days, possibly a week. When I tried to dex him, the only reading the glucometer would give me was "HI". Yes, this guy needed to go to the ER, and I really didn't have a problem taking him since he was legitimately sick. What irked me about the entire situation, however, was that he intentionally did not get his insulin and basically chose to put himself into this situation. He didn't want to go to the ER, saying he would go pick up the insulin in the morning, but he was also altered enough that we couldn't leave him there. (Not that I thought leaving him there was ok to do.) It isn't a matter of being able to afford the insulin (per wife), he just refuses to get it. Bad things happen to plenty of people and they have no control over it. I truly am empathetic for those. The people that chose to make their bed, on the other hand, just really rub me the wrong way.
Our second run that night was another frequent flier. She called because she wanted us to put her into bed. She had absolutely no medical complaints, just has a hard time getting up into her bed by herself. These sort of runs to this particular house are becoming a very regular thing. We know have to document everything in an incident report each time we go to that address so admin can attempt to have something done about the situation.
The final run of the night was a cardiac arrest. Granted, it was the first time AI have been able to shock someone since getting my cert 6 months ago, but it still sucked. The patient was 35, ran 3-5 miles every day, was very healthy/health conscious, and had absolutely no medical history. No recent travel, drug screen was clean, initial blood work showed electrolytes to all be WNL. Needless to say, that run just sucked all the way around.
I think I might have gotten 4 hours of sleep that night and am currently exhausted so now it is off to bed. I just needed to vent a little bit about yesterday.
