Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) This happens all the time. You get called to the nursing home. There is a sign on the patient door that says “Contact Precautions.” The staff tells you you have to wear a mask and a gown to enter, so you put it on. You are told the patient has MRSA…
Month: January 2008
Mobile
What I like about EMS is you never know where you are going to find yourself. Somedays are pretty boring and routine (nursing home calls and fender benders), but then the next moment, you find yourself in an upside down car, or diving head first through an open window of a locked house, or climbing…
ETCO2 with BVM
In my post of yesterday, I wrote the following: While my preceptee prepared the tube, and our crew did CPR, as an experiment I applied a nasal capnography cannula to the patient to see how well we were ventilating with just CPR and bagging. I have heard it suggested that this is an excellent way…
Thoughts on CPR, Compressions, ETCO2 and Codes
I came back from a week off the other day and was greeted with a cardiac arrest on my first call and then another arrest the next day. Both codes were asystole, although we managed to get pulses back briefly on the second one. I had my preceptee with me on both calls. He got…
Life
Clearing out my garage a few months ago, I came across a fifteen year old notebook in which I wrote down my monthly goals. Be a good man. Read 5 books. Work out regularly. Do 30 pushups in a row. Be a good EMT Get 2 Ivs. It was from a different time, a different life. I…
On the Night You Were Born
I stood by the hospital entrance I thought your mother would drive through so she would see me. It was dark and cold and I had to stomp my feet to keep warm. Then I saw her drive by. She didn’t see me, and as she continued toward the parking garage, I ran after her,…