I have heard many people say “I can’t breathe.” Sometimes the people are full of it, other times they are dying. I have also heard the response line, “You’re talking fine.” I’ve heard EMS say it and I’ve heard police say it. On May 25, 2020 , George Floyd said to officer Derek Chauvin, I…
A Visit
He is an old man with a stooped back, wearing tan work pants and shirt with his name on the right breast and his company’s name on the left. He has gotten out of his old Pontiac, and wearing a face mask, walks toward us as we come out of the dialysis center with an…
Surgical Masks and Aerosolization
COVID-19 is spread primarily in respiratory droplets. Here’s why you need to put a surgical mask on your patients and why we should all be wearing masks ourselves when we are in public. These illustrations come from a study by Vapotherm. COVID-19 Transmission Assessment Report
Shower
The fire department had three of their men in full gowns when we arrived. The patient was up on the fourth floor, unable to walk, they said. They weren’t certain what was wrong with him — he wasn’t answering questions–but he had been shaking and vomiting all morning, and he had just gotten out of…
A Home
A beautiful spring day. The sky is robin’s egg blue. The air smells like fresh cut grass. We cut our sirens on approach, and are driving now through the residential neighborhood. Kids are out on their bikes. There are joggers aplenty. Nearly every house has someone out beautifying their yard. Neighbors talk and laugh with…
Ghost
Death in a Nursing Home We’re called for a child not breathing. The address is a convalescent home. It makes no sense. Then we pull up. There is a car parked askance by the entrance, two front doors and a back door open. The engine still running. In the front lobby two nurses and a…
Rick James, David Crosby and Mike Pence
A large man stands handcuffed, surrounded by six police officers by the side of the road. Nearby two citizens have their iPhones out recording. The man does not mince his words. “I’m going to kill all of you. I hate cops. I’m going to eat you. You’re gonna be in my belly.” It is clear…
Battle Royal
He is naked in the nursing home hallway, rolling over and over. We manage to get a sheet under him and lift him up onto our stretcher. His room air pulse saturation is 74–severely hypoxic. The nurse, who told us he was COVID positive, said he walks around the wing and can hold a normal…
Easter
I worked the city today, and after a slow start, banged out 5 calls, and then they sent us in. Volume is down, plus today, as a holiday, we get double time and a half. I could have stayed at the base and clocked the last three hours, but I wanted to get home to…
See-Saw
The see-saw emotions of this epidemic are unrelenting. The data is looking better. While Hartford continues to increase its hospitalizations, the numbers are slowing and both statewide and downstate, the numbers are going down. While there were another 41 deaths, this number is also starting to slow and be less that what was once feared. …
Rest Day
For the first time, net hospitalizations fell in Connecticut. Still 1,938 people remain hospitalized. Another 50 died. As I’ve mentioned I follow the patients EMS has brought into our hospital who test positive so I can alert EMS for them to check if they had any exposures. For the most part now, it seems they…
Tiger
It’s 12:59 A.M. I have given up on sleep. Fortunately tomorrow is my one day off (I will still go into the office to make my COVID EMS notifications) but I will go in at whatever time I feel like and will only stay for a couple hours. It’s not like I have to get…
A Different Day
I worked twelve hours in the city today. My partner and I lucked out as far as the COVID calls went. I heard a ton of them go out, including a couple of cardiac arrests that sounded like they fit the bill of a person not feeling well for a couple of days with a…
Turn for the Worse
Not the best news today. First off, I learned a friend of mine has been admitted to the hospital after taking a turn for the worst at home. My friend is not on a vent, but requires 100% 02 by nonrebreather mask. It is a reminder that behind each of these case numbers there is…
Aliens
A busy day in the city yesterday. I was in the fly car, which means I listen to the fire radio and dispatch myself to priority one calls. Because the fire department get the calls before our ambulance dispatchers do, a self-dispatched fly car medic helps considerably with the response times. Since I am already…
Hypoxia
Pouring rain and violent wind today in Connecticut. It almost blew our hospital tent off the mountain. I am home now and just finishing up making notifications to EMS services about COVID-positive patients. Curiously, for the first time, one of the notifications was for a patient I was involved with as a paramedic. Normally when…
Easter
I worked the city today, and after a slow start, banged out 5 calls, and then they sent us in. Volume is down, plus today, as a holiday, we get double time and a half. I could have stayed at the base and clocked the last three hours, but I wanted to get home to…
Me and Sponge Bob
SpongeBob torments me in the night. My daughter bursts into my room . “Daddy what are you shouting? What’s wrong?” “Nothing, I’m fine,” I say. “Go back to bed.” With my wife on isolation is another room, only half the bed should be disturbed, but I have torn off the covers, upended the sheets and…
Radio Traffic
“We’re going to need Decon.” “Main Street, use full precautions.” “We have an isolation patient.” “Shortness of breath, fever, just moved here from New York.” “4th Floor apartment, vomiting, fever, use precautions.” “We need resupply, out of gowns.” “Positive screen. Take all precautions.” Patient on corner, just left hospital who wouldn’t test him because they…
Closed Down
A couple weeks ago, they cancelled my daughter’s basketball championships. Her team was in the state semi-finals and had a good shot at winning it all. The championships were going to be in a high school gym where maybe fifty people would come to watch her sixth grade Catholic league team play. The NBA was…