Your first code

Christmas Eve. Walk in to find ~400lb female slumped over on couch, blue, with eggnog pouring out her mouth. It's been 10 years and I still can't drink that :censored::censored::censored::censored: to this day.
 
Don't remember. Too long ago. Probably too many birthdays and met criteria to end resus.

I'll always remember the first peds arrest. Blunt trauma to the head, long down time, mom was strung out on meth...:(
 
I was the Senior EMT on a volly BLS unit. This time I brought 2 rookies with me. I usually never let more then 1 ride with me. This time it worked in my favor.

We were en route to a welfare check when we were rerouted to red lobster for a code. On arrival we found the guy laying on the ground, with a bunch of people just staring. CPR started, OPA and NPA placed, pt was being ventilated well, we delivered one shock, and had ROSC. Pulse was confirmed. ALS was 20 min out, with the hospital 5 min away. Pt was transported to the hospital and flown to a cardiac center.

While it was my first code, I found myself with 2 rookies and a driver staring at me for orders. It's still clear it my head but feels like it was over before it started. After it was all said and done we ran 3 or 4 more calls before I went home. I slept great that night.

I received word a few weeks later that my pt walked out of the hospital with no neuro deficits.
 
MedicBender said:
We were en route to a welfare check when we were rerouted to red lobster for a code. On arrival we found the guy laying on the ground, with a bunch of people just staring. CPR started, OPA and NPA placed, pt was being ventilated well, we delivered one shock, and had ROSC. Pulse was confirmed. ALS was 20 min out, with the hospital 5 min away. Pt was transported to the hospital and flown to a cardiac center.
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you mean you didn't wait for ALS??? you must not be in California.....

I was 17 and it was an old lady. CPR on a bed doesn't work well, even if you put a CPR board under her. carried her out on the reeves, no shock advised, ACLS didn't help, CPR all the way to the ER, 5 minutes after we got there the ER pronounced her.

When it's a person's time to go, even if you do everything right, even if you have all the necessary help with you, something there isn't a thing you can do to change it.
 
Unfortunately my first code was a 4mo who rolled in her crib and suffocated . I saw the system work fabulously. Bls, als, bls engine all worked hard, just to much down time.

all in all, not a good day
 
My first was a witnessed respiratory arrest...witnessed by our crew, who had just arrived on scene for a "difficulty breathing" call. He collapsed onto the stretcher, and within minutes was in the ambulance with CPR and ACLS being performed. He made it.

I don't remember having any negative effects from it.
 
I remember being very confused as to why we were transporting my first code but that's about it.

I was just finishing the didactic portion of medic school and working as an Intermediate.

He never had ROSC, on scene or in the ER.
 
DrParasite said:
you mean you didn't wait for ALS??? you must not be in California.....
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I've transported patients on a BLS unit to the hospital because ALS was to far out. Seizures, hypoglycemia, and a patient is SVT and I'm in California....

First code was 89 y/o female with known heart problems. Unknown down time. Husband started CPR. We get on scene and take over. 2 IV attempts followed by IO. Intubated, PEA of 18 per minute. Pushed 2 rounds of epi on scene. Transport (15-20 minute transport). Used up all our epi on the rig. Got the the hospital and the doc orders 4 rounds of epi all at once followed by 2 stacked shocks. Pulse back for 2 minutes. Goes back to PEA. Doc worked the patient over for at least 45 minutes at the hospital.

Finally decided to call her. Her chest felt like mush and the ET tube was full of blood.
 
DrParasite said:
you mean you didn't wait for ALS??? you must not be in California.....
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Maryland.

I got the exact speech from a few other people. I felt it was better to get the patient to definitive care then BS on scene waiting for ALS.

We were driving past the red lobster when we got detailed on the call. He was lucky.
 
MedicBender said:
Maryland.

I got the exact speech from a few other people. I felt it was better to get the patient to definitive care then BS on scene waiting for ALS.
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I'd say you did the right thing.
 
MedicBender said:
I felt it was better to get the patient to definitive care then BS on scene waiting for ALS.
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and you were 100% right in doing what you did.
 
My first code was outside a dialysis center while we were waiting for our patient to finish. The driver of a wheelchair van came over to us and said that the guy she was transporting fell out of his chair and was bleeding. Both of us were fresh out of EMT class and figured that this would be a simple trauma. We found a 250+lb double amputee in a heap on the floor. My partner checked pulse, started compressions and I ran to get our AED and O2. We shocked twice before fire and the medics got there. They rotated us in on compressions several times and they called it after about 20 min. We talked about it on the way back, I think my heart was still pounding when I woke up the next morning. The whole experience was very surreal and I learned a few good lessons.
 
My first code was as an EMT student. I rode with the most awesome, hippy, Paramedic you have ever met.
We ran a mid 60's male with chest pain
When in the ambulance she gave the patient a medicine and afterwards he grabbed my hand and said it made him feel funny... And he coded.
Unlike every other medic I had met at that point, she paused and asked me what just happened. I replied that he just coded, she calmly asked what it is that we do next, I meekly asked... Cpr? She replied yes, and why are you waiting?
I visited that gentleman a couple days later, he was eventually discharged to live quite a bit longer. That was the hook, line, and sinker for me - I was going to be a Paramedic, here I am 23 years later... Glad I did.
 
I was working a concert standby and we get a call for a "man down", "CPR in progress" (by security). We get on scene maybe 2 min after and take over CPR. ALS gets there maybe another 3 min after that and shock, epi, and tube the pt. Shortly after that pulses were present and transported. Pt later was discharged.
 
Had my first one in the hospital while doing my basic clinicals. Guy was shocked into Vfib from asytole 8 times in the field and 12 times in the resus room. ROSC occurred and he was admitted to the ICU where he promptly passed.

Did CPR for a while since I was the tallest in the room, bagged, and suctioned. The guy vomited so much beef stew he could not be intubated until 30 minutes into the ED's efforts. It took the hospital suction and a portable unit to get his airway clear and he had SpO2 of like 30 for a while. It was a mess, but a good "first," it took so long that I got to participate in all the BLS aspects.

I will never forget being alone in the room with the family while they said goodbye. I probably should not have been there (got trapped by equipment), but it was very powerful.
 
A post traumatic code popped my cherry. Patient bled out.
 
Tigger said:
What is a post traumatic code?
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when someone goes code post trauma...?

my first was a 60 yr old male at a nursing home. worst nursing home ever! they called 911 supposedly right after he went code but most likely they didn't for a good 5 minutes. they said they would meet us at the front door, then when my partner and I got there, there was no staff to be found. took us 3-4 minutes to find the room!

anyway, partner started compressions and vomit gushed out of his mouth so i got on suction and the medics tubed and i helped set up the EKG.
it was weird, with every compression, the guy's stomach would lurch out like a water bed.

so he had no shockable anything and the medics couldn't get a line started to push epi so they called it.
he had a dent in his chest after from the compressions..

i hear that epi can also be given with a nebulizer? would that have gotten a pulse back? not that it would have mattered since the nursing home waited so long, he would have been brain dead if we did bring him back.
 
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oogemsquagger said:
when someone goes code post trauma...?

my first was a 60 yr old male at a nursing home. worst nursing home ever! they called 911 supposedly right after he went code but most likely they didn't for a good 5 minutes. they said they would meet us at the front door, then when my partner and I got there, there was no staff to be found. took us 3-4 minutes to find the room!
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5 minutes? That's pretty good for a nursing home all things considered. Patients are not monitored 24/7 and unless they are some sort telemetry, the staff is not going to know if a patient just "slips away."

The second code I had was in a nursing home. Got sent for a fall. Show up to find Fire in the room working a code. Guy has dependent lividity in all extremities. Nursing staff insistent that he fell 10 minutes ago and that they were able to help him back into bed, but it was clear that the patient had passed quite some time ago. Red faces all around.
 
Hmm....

Well as a basic student in the ER a lady came in by EMS. They let me do CPR for a couple minutes, but she was already cold, and rigor had set in. Not sure why EMS transported but hey whatever.

While working...

We called for a MVA. Arrived on scene with ALS. 48 y/o female ran her car off the rd. She was slumped over the steering wheel. We ended up breaking a window to get her out.

Got her on the ground. She was still breathing. Then she went into v-fib.

Worked it for 18minutes, when they pushed d50 and narcan one right after another. And then ROSC!

Pt transported, left the hospital 2 weeks later with no neuro deficits.
 
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