MJordan2121
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Well, I've read this forum for quite some time and I've always read how others mention the difficulty of a bad pediatric call. Well, I got the first of my career. We got a call for a cardiac arrest, unknown age. We had a short arrival time, considering the dense fog that cut our visibility down to 20 yards or so, made it there in 5 minutes. Upon arrival, we threw the bags on the stretcher and was about to dash out when all of a sudden, the mother of a 6 month old runs up screaming that her baby is not breathing and throws the baby into our arms. The baby was pale, cold, and cyanotic. We threw the bags off the stretcher and the infant was placed down and we began to work her. We had a great on-scene time of 10 minutes and that includes an I.O. being started, intubation, CPR, placed on monitor, bagged, etc. Unfortunately, it was just me and my partner, fire did not respond to this particular area. I knew I needed to get to the hospital fast and safely, considering my partner was having to push drugs, bag the pt and do CPR all on his own and I had a hysterical mother hyperventilating in the front seat talking on the cell phone about how her child fell off the bed (I'm thinking head trauma or maybe suffocation and the baby has been down awhile before noticed). Trying to calm her down while doing Priority 1 to the hospital, she passes out in the front seat and her head lands in my lap and her body is slumped inbetween the seats. Finally at the hospital she wakes up and walks to the back of the ambulance and hits the ground hard right in front the doctor. The baby was worked by the ER staff and pronounced twenty minutes later. I only wished the best for this child and we did everything in our capabilities, but I know in EMS you have to learn to deal with difficult situations, such as this. Just wanted to share my first pediatric cardiac arrest story and hope that I don't have to get a call like this in the future, but if so, I feel I would be better prepared.