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I don't have a lot of truly absurd stories. But this fall I got one and I don't think I ever put it up here.
I was driving to work minding my own business on a good sized divided state highway when I noticed probably ten cars pulled over in various states of disarray in the center median. As I put my coffee down I also notice two dead deer lying in the median as well. Now for whatever reason, my service sends an ambulance to non-injury traffic accidents, to include the many car vs. deer accidents we run on this highway. Given that it was about to be shift change, I stopped to confirm that it was in fact non-injury so that I could call the station and cancel the responding crew, which is something that we do all the time.
As I walked over to the bystanders it became apparent that people were freaking out hard. When I asked if anyone was hurt no one said anything comprehensible, just lots of babbling and hands over mouths. Then someone pointed about 10 yards away to an individual lying in the middle of the median covered in blankets and surrounded by more people with shocked expressions. I recognized one of these frantic people as a volunteer from a neighboring fire district and she yelled to me to "get your stethoscope, I can't get a blood pressure." In my under-coffeed state I did not really recognize the absurdness of this request and dutifully returned to my car to retrieve said stethoscope.
When I finally made it to the patient I realized we had a problem. There in front of me is a woman breathing once or twice a minute, trismused, decerbate posturing, and bleeding a fair bit from a massive scalp laceration. So much for getting a blood pressure. Lacking much in the way of equipment, we rolled the patient over to clear the airway, which saw most of the patient's teeth fall out as well. The volunteer then asked if I could try to get a BP again. Errrrr....
I asked the volunteer if she had a BVM and an NPA in her kit and she said "I have no idea" so she then unzipped the bag, turned it upside down, and proceeded to dump the entire contents of the bag into the median. Combing through the contents and brushing some dirt off along the way, I did end up getting an NPA and starting to bag.
At this point I could hear the ambulance and fire approaching and it dawned on me that I still had no idea what was going on. So I looked up, picked the most together looking person, and asked what exactly had happened. More babbling and finally "errraerrra she uh uh uh got hit by a by by a by a a a a uhhhh deer."
Initially I struggled to process this bit of information, as generally speaking person vs. deer incidents do not often result in two clearly dead deer next to the victim. So the best I could come up with was "no way man. You mean like trampled?" To which the bystander replied "no no no the deer it just, it just just, hit."
At this point the ambulance has arrived and my supervisor is coming down the median and he asks what we have. And of course all I can provide is "she got hit by a deer!" which was received with a "wait what?" "Yea, hit by a deer, obvious combative closed head, trismused, the works." So he said fine and went back to the ambulance to get his RSI stuff setup while the rest us of worked on getting her packaged and out of the median. RSI in the ambulance and then I drove us down to a trauma center in the city. Eventually she made a nearly full recovery and I am told lives independently.
And we did eventually figure out what happened, but of course only after giving report at the hospital to a doctor who was about as befuddled as we were.
As it turned out, our patient had hit a fawn and launched it into the median. In a misguided moment of love for animals, the woman got out to check on her victim. Several other people also joined her. Meanwhile, the mama deer returned to the scene and was struck by a pickup truck about seventy feet away. The force of the impact sent the deer rocketing through the air and yup you guessed it, struck the woman about the head at a high rate of speed.
It's not known which impact resulted in the deer's passing...
I was driving to work minding my own business on a good sized divided state highway when I noticed probably ten cars pulled over in various states of disarray in the center median. As I put my coffee down I also notice two dead deer lying in the median as well. Now for whatever reason, my service sends an ambulance to non-injury traffic accidents, to include the many car vs. deer accidents we run on this highway. Given that it was about to be shift change, I stopped to confirm that it was in fact non-injury so that I could call the station and cancel the responding crew, which is something that we do all the time.
As I walked over to the bystanders it became apparent that people were freaking out hard. When I asked if anyone was hurt no one said anything comprehensible, just lots of babbling and hands over mouths. Then someone pointed about 10 yards away to an individual lying in the middle of the median covered in blankets and surrounded by more people with shocked expressions. I recognized one of these frantic people as a volunteer from a neighboring fire district and she yelled to me to "get your stethoscope, I can't get a blood pressure." In my under-coffeed state I did not really recognize the absurdness of this request and dutifully returned to my car to retrieve said stethoscope.
When I finally made it to the patient I realized we had a problem. There in front of me is a woman breathing once or twice a minute, trismused, decerbate posturing, and bleeding a fair bit from a massive scalp laceration. So much for getting a blood pressure. Lacking much in the way of equipment, we rolled the patient over to clear the airway, which saw most of the patient's teeth fall out as well. The volunteer then asked if I could try to get a BP again. Errrrr....
I asked the volunteer if she had a BVM and an NPA in her kit and she said "I have no idea" so she then unzipped the bag, turned it upside down, and proceeded to dump the entire contents of the bag into the median. Combing through the contents and brushing some dirt off along the way, I did end up getting an NPA and starting to bag.
At this point I could hear the ambulance and fire approaching and it dawned on me that I still had no idea what was going on. So I looked up, picked the most together looking person, and asked what exactly had happened. More babbling and finally "errraerrra she uh uh uh got hit by a by by a by a a a a uhhhh deer."
Initially I struggled to process this bit of information, as generally speaking person vs. deer incidents do not often result in two clearly dead deer next to the victim. So the best I could come up with was "no way man. You mean like trampled?" To which the bystander replied "no no no the deer it just, it just just, hit."
At this point the ambulance has arrived and my supervisor is coming down the median and he asks what we have. And of course all I can provide is "she got hit by a deer!" which was received with a "wait what?" "Yea, hit by a deer, obvious combative closed head, trismused, the works." So he said fine and went back to the ambulance to get his RSI stuff setup while the rest us of worked on getting her packaged and out of the median. RSI in the ambulance and then I drove us down to a trauma center in the city. Eventually she made a nearly full recovery and I am told lives independently.
And we did eventually figure out what happened, but of course only after giving report at the hospital to a doctor who was about as befuddled as we were.
As it turned out, our patient had hit a fawn and launched it into the median. In a misguided moment of love for animals, the woman got out to check on her victim. Several other people also joined her. Meanwhile, the mama deer returned to the scene and was struck by a pickup truck about seventy feet away. The force of the impact sent the deer rocketing through the air and yup you guessed it, struck the woman about the head at a high rate of speed.
It's not known which impact resulted in the deer's passing...
