The old man was upstairs in the room in this farmhouse in which he was born. His granddaughter explained that he had Alzheimer’s and would not go easily. She said he had stopped eating and drinking. In the past, they had always been able to get him to eat and drink when he had been…
Month: December 2008
"Funky Troubling Looking" — Right Bundle Branch Block and MI
As I mentioned in a recent post, we have a process for instituting a STEMI alert to, in consultation with an ED doctor, activate the cath lab prehospitally based on clinical assessment and a 12-Lead ECG. The coordinator at the hospital that I transport most of my patients to told me so far EMS is…
That Narcan Shit
What follows first is fiction: “482. Lawrence Street. 2nd Floor, unknown on a one. PD on the way. Advise when you get there.” We were around the corner having just cleared Hartford Hospital. “Shouldn’t we wait for the cops?” I said, as Troy grabbed his house bag and monitor from the side door. “No, it’s shift…
Nursing Home Codes
I did another nursing home code this weekend. We have five nursing homes in our town. Two are very nice and are the final stop in larger retirement communities where residents start off in the own cottages or apartments, move to their own rooms and then go to skilled care before they pass on. The…
Two Jobs: Good and Bad
I’m back at work today on the ambulance after four days working the desk job, reading run forms, working on education presentations, and entering trauma data. There are good and bad things about each job. Here’s a brief run down. Desk job: The Good – I can sleep until 7 in the morning. I don’t…