Never bring a paramedic your woes!

At least not while he is at work. Today, the operation manager at my company, had his fairly new Ford F-350 4x4 pick up stolen from the driveway of his house.To make matters worse there was thousands of dollars worth of equipment (new radios, tools, brush jackets, etc.) in the truck at the time. So as consolation, my partner and I bought our manager a copy of Truck Trader (for those who don't know it's a magazine that has local trucks for sale). We of course thought that this was hilarious but it only got us a dirty look.

Oh well. I think that our manager will someday be able to look back on this and laugh. Someday.

Lullaby

One of the fun things about being a paramedic is that new EMTs look at you like you know everything. This tends to make them the target of a practical joke or two.

In some hospitals (such as Little Company of Mary's in Torrance) a lullaby is played over the PA every time a baby is born. One day I was working with a new EMT who asked me about the music. After the explanation I added that he should hear what they play when they have a person die. It took him about 15 seconds before he realized that I was only joking!

"Full arrest at the park"

We arrive on scene to find the firefighters thumping away on the old mans chest. They've just intubated him and pushed the first round of meds. We quickly load the patient and get going. In the back of the rig I'm bagging the patient, a firefighter is doing compressions and another medic is pushing drugs. The firefighter and I were standing in the back of the unit for better access to the patient which should not have been an issue except that our driver that day was learning how to drive code 3. He was following the squad too close and had to slam on the brakes when the squad turned. He then took a corner at 35 mph. I ended up in the captains chair with a firefighter in my lap. The driver got chewed out for that one.

By the time that we got to the ER our patient had a good strong pulse. Two saves in a row.

"Man having a seizure"

The engine company was the first on seen with this one and quickly let us and the squad responding know that it was a full arrest. Turns out that the 42 year old man was in the bathroom and fell so the family assumed that he was having a seizure when he was really dying. We performed CPR, intubated him, shocked him, and pushed 4 rounds of drugs before we loaded him up. We pushed another two rounds of drugs during transport. I thought for sure that he was a gonner.

In the ER they pushed two more rounds of drugs and got him back! I couldn't believe it. His heart had changed rhythms 5 different times! He had no other medical problems, took no medications, and was in decent physical shape. Makes me wonder if drugs were involved.

"Man down in a parking lot"

We arrived on scene to find a man, face down on the asphalt, having fallen out of his car. He was showing all the classic signs and symptoms of a stroke (ie left sided paralysis, facial droop, unequal pupils) and he was sweating profusely. Torrance FD still does not have 12 lead ECG capability but on their monitor everything looked ok with his heart.

We quickly take cervical spinal precautions and strap him onto a backboard. During transport I do a fast assessment (the patient only spoke Spanish so I took the lead on this one). He was panicked and had a bad headache but that's it, no chest pain or trouble breathing. He has a history of high blood pressure but that all. He is taking no medications.

We wheel him into the ER and drop him in bed 6. The ER tech comes in and does a 12 lead ECG which shoes that our patient is having a heart attack on the backside of his heart. I think to myself, "what a bummer. A stroke and an MI at the same time!" About then the ER doc calls me and the other medic over to him and tells us that this is a once in 20 year call. A patient exhibiting these signs and symptoms together is suffering from a dissecting thoracic aortic aneurysm or in plain English, the largest artery in his body was slowly tearing itself in half.

I know that he was in surgery real fast but I never found out if he made it. If he did I wonder what permanent disabilities he will have.