Spare Uniforms

I always try to have a spare uniform at work just in case I get some undesirable stuff (blood, vomit, etc.) on the one I'm wearing. Today I was waxing my rig and as I squeezed the bottle of wax it exploded. I had wax all over my uniform from neck to boot. I never thought that I would have to change my uniform due to a wax explosion. The wax didn't even work out well for polishing my boots. How frustrating.

Ghosts?

Today we transported a patient from San Pedro Hospital (SPPH) to little company of Mary's Hospital (LCM). We do this quite frequently because SPPH does not have a cathlab for cardiac patients. The only thing that made this call blog worthy was the "visitor" that my patient had last night. Evidently a security guard was walking by my patients room at about 11 at night and happened to see someone standing behind the bed. Since it was well after visiting hours the guard went to the nurses station to tell the nurse. When the nurse entered the room and asked the patient who was in there with him he thought that she was a little nuts. The RN checked the room and found no one. She then tried to check the bathroom but it was locked (interesting since there are no locks on the door). The RN did not believe the patient and had other people ranging from nurses to doctors to priests check out his room. After about 30 minutes the bathroom opened up and no one was ever found. My patient never saw anyone or any thing. The only person to see a "ghost" was the security guard. I heard that he incident even made it into the priests afternoon sermon. I'm sorry I missed that one.

Medicinal Use?

A few days ago my partner and I got to work a standby (that's where we sit around a location for a movie shoot, stunt or other such nonsense) at an r&b concert. It was put on by Microsoft, which was promoting the new Zune, and the State Parks and Recreations department. It was at an park just outside of Chinatown near downtown LA. I don't know what they were expecting but the promoters went a little overboard on the EMS. We had two different BLS providers there plus a private paramedic unit and LAFD showed up with an ALS engine, a Rescue, two bicycle paramedics, and their tactical command post. Of course with all those resources, nothing happened.

Half way through the concert my partner and I were approached by to girls that looked about 18. They asked us if we were firemen. We said no, we were paramedics to which they replied that will work. They then asked us for alcohol. When they found out we had none they asked for a bowl to smoke. As they walked away disappointed I couldn't help but wonder if they wanted the marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Ice Skating Rink

The call came out as a leg injury at the public ice skating rink. When we get there we find an 8 year old boy that was crushed beneath a 300 pound section of rod iron fence that was leaning up against the wall. Bystanders had already pull the section of fence off the kid. The boys upper leg was bent at a point where there are no joints. We place the screaming kid on a back board and then apply the traction splint to the broken femur. We get him into a position that he says is OK and transport. While on our was to the hospital my partner tries to get an IV. The kid screamed more about the needle than he did about his leg. My partner ended up not getting it and decided not to try again. As we wheeled him into the pediatric ER at Harbor UCLA a swarm of MD's come rushing in to see him. One of them told me it had been a slow day so everyone wanted to be in on the femur fracture case. I guess doctors need their excitement too.

Technical Rescue

The call comes out, "station 1, station 3, station 5, station 6, rescue. Battalion 91, truck 91, engine 93, rescue 93, air and lighting, USAR, respond to a man trapped beneath a load of cement."

That's one way to get a paramedic excited. A minute or two later we all learned that the man was not actually trapped. When we got there we found that the man had a several hundred pound slab of concrete that had fallen on his legs. Afraid that more might be coming down on him he crawled under his delivery truck. That is right where we found him. We had to climb under the truck in order to splint his leg and place him in c-spine precautions. I started a line on him and we gave him some morphine. He still complained that it hurt but what can you expect. I love trauma calls.