Car vs. Semi

A woman in a Sentra pulled out onto a 50 mph street without checking for traffic. She pulled out right in front of a semi truck. The truck driver said he didn't even have time to hit the breaks before they collided. When my paramedic got there, the fire department was already working on extricating the woman for him. She had her 3 month old infant with her, in a car seat, in the front seat. Thankfully, the baby appeared to be fine. A bystander pulled the infant out of the car seat before the fire department got there - FYI, if you ever come across this situation, leave the baby in the car seat. It took over half an hour for the fire department to extricate the mother for my paramedic. They ripped the door off, removed the steering column (which was pointing toward the passenger seat = airbag went off toward the passenger seat), and peeled back part of the roof.

My paramedic went in to assess the situation while they were working on tearing apart the car. The woman was alert, but her injuries were severe. She had deep cuts and crush wounds everywhere. She broke the shin bones on both legs and her femur on one leg. She also had a hip fracture and probable damage to her internal organs. Her femur fracture was so bad that her thigh had swollen to 3 or 4 times its normal size. He started an i.v. on her and had a cop standing nearby hold the bags of fluid in the air while the fire department continued to extricate her.

They got her out, c-spined her as well as the baby, and put them on backboards. The injuries were bad enough that they called for the medical helicopter to transport. (My paramedic didn't get to go on the helicopter; the hospital sends a crew over with it.)

Here's the painful part of the whole situation - with an accident that bad, my paramedic can't give ANY pain medication to the patient! The hospital has to be able to ask her where it hurts to get an accurate assessment.