A patient with Alzheimer’s and an unsteady gait falls and has a small bruise on her nose. The doctor wants her evaluated even though there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong. A 21 year old woman at a minimum wage assembly plant feels dizzy and has a headache – a common complaint at this plant….
Routine
Routine. Routine. Routine. Twice in just a couple weeks I have been saved by routine. Here’s what happened this time. First, a little background. The first responders in one of the towns I work in have decided they will no longer respond to lift assists without injury. It was argued to the high-ups that well,…
What Harm?
Four more chapters of the novel Mortal Men are posted at the following site: Mortal Men *** It’s been a typical day in the suburbs. A nursing home rectal bleed, an elderly man from home with pneumonia, a lady with hypertension and a nose bleed, and a call from our most frequent flyer — Hazel,…
Understand
Understand The call is for a sudden death; mother took her last breaths according to the son, and does not wish to be resuscitated. They send us in a non-emergency mode. I tell my partner we should probably be going lights and sirens until we know what is going on. He radios dispatch and they…
Bagdad
We are sent for a man with lung cancer difficulty breathing. Visiting nurse on scene. We’ve been going to this house a lot recently. Small one story house in a lower middle class neighborhood. The grass in the yard is mostly dead, the driveway cracked. The house needs painting. The stink hits you from the…
Too Busy
Writing about the daily life of EMS always creates a tension for me. On one hand I want to write about the nobler aspects of the job, on the other, much of the job is so frustrating you just want to scream. I try to avoid whining so most of the time I ignore it….
Las Vegas
Just a brief post. (Internet access is $7.50 for 15 minutes.) Interesting conference. I just got out of the Capnography class and it was great. I made some notes and will be posting when I return. I was on the EXPO floor yesterday and it was mind-numbing. EMS is such a huge business. So many…
A Life
I recently did a presumption. A sixty-eight year old man found cold and stiff in bed in his one bedroom apartment in an elderly housing complex in town. He died sometime during the night, curled on his side, his head pressed against the pillow, a quilt pulled up to his neck. I couldn’t imagine a…
Hacking
We spent the first three hours of the shift covering a suburban town while their ambulance was on a call. There were reports of gunshots in the city, but when the ambulance got there the supposed victim had fled. Nothing else was going on anywhere, so it wasn’t like we missed a lot. My preceptee…
Who Mash Me Up
I carry a small digital camera in my pocket. I’ve written about it before in New Frontier. It is great for taking mechanism of injury shots – the smashed up car, bent steering wheel, picture of the roof the patient fell off showing the height of the fall. The trauma team loves to see the pictures…
Tickets to the Ball
Yesterday we did a low speed MVA involving a police officer, who we took in for lower back pain. Another officer followed us in his squad car. I don’t know if I am the only one, but I always get paranoid when I am driving to the hospital with a cop on my tail. I…
Dispatchers
I worked yesterday with an EMT with extensive dispatch experience, and as always, it was interesting to hear his perspective on the dispatcher’s job. Sometimes there is a natural antagonism between road crews and dispatchers because the dispatcher is the bear of bad news, but should not neccessarily be shot for it. (Oddly, while working…
Words
Last night I gave my capnography CME. There was about thirty people there. I think it went over okay. It is hard to tell when you are standing up behind a podium and giving a presentation for the first time how well it is being recieved. Our medical control physician thought it was very good…
Size Up
This is a call I did a few months back. I wrote about it then, but didn’t post the story. Part of the reason I didn’t is because while I want to write honestly about being a medic, I have some restrictions. I can’t trash the company I work for or anybody who works for…
Waiting
I go back to work tomorrow morning at six. I last worked the Wednesday overnight in the suburbs, which really wasn’t like working because I slept all night in a bed, and only did one call at five-thirty in the morning, and I didn’t even have to tech that one. I was planning to work…
Patience
Preceptees come in all types, ranging from those who are so smart you have to reread your books at night just to keep up with them to those who think the excuse “well, we didn’t go over that in class” covers them from any need to improve further. I’ve had preceptees for whom, on arriving…
Living Alone
The call is for a man on the ground, not injured just needs help getting up. Been there all night. The front door should be open. The stink hits us when we go in. There he is lying on the floor in a nearly empty house, shit on the rug, shit crusted on his underwear….
Beam Away
We’re on the third floor of an apartment building whose elevator doesn’t work. In the tiny efficiency apartment, layered with dirt, an old skinny man with dreadlocks says he didn’t call us, and why are we bothering him. The man’s body reminds me of a Biafrin child’s it is so emaciated. We’re here because a…
The Line
You’re a paramedic. You’re on your knees. A naked obese patient lies in front of you, their flaccid head in your hands as you try to position their mouth open. Watery vomit flows from between their lips. The monitor shows flat line. Every time your partner does compressions, more warm vomit spews onto your hands….
Troublesome, Unformed Idea
Since I closed down my daily blog I have been trying to increase the number of posts to Street Watch, which I have always thought of as my weekly blog. I am hoping to post at least three or four times a week. Since I will not always be able to write the type of…