Christmas Night Tummy Ache

On Christmas we had our families come up to have dinner with us. That night, at just before 0200, we got toned out for abdominal pain. We arrived on scene to find the patient laying in bed. She was a 32 year old female complaining of severe right upper quadrant abdominal pain. She said that the pain started just after she ate dinner and that it radiated to her right shoulder. The patient had been seen in the Hemet Valley Medical Center about four months ago and was diagnosed with gallstones. She was told to make an appointment with her primary care physician which she failed to do. We checked out all her vitals and started a line. I then contacted my base hospital and got an order for 10 milligrams of Morphine. Before I got off the phone MBA showed up so I gave them the order and sent them on their way to Desert Regional. The entire time I was there I kept thinking of my Pop who let his gall bladder burst before going to the ER. Even then, he didn't call 911. Oh well.

Are You Available For Another Medical Aid?

Later in the day after we signed out our plumber, we were toned out for a man that was experiencing pain after a traffic collision. We arrived at the house of our plumber who was now complaining of severe pain on his left side. Captain proceeded to poke the patient in each individual rib until he found the one that was probably broken. He then marked the spot with his pain. While we were waiting for MBA dispatch called us on the radio and asked if we were able to respond to another call. We informed them that we were not and medic engine 121 was dispatched from Yucca Valley. After I had finished with my assessment I had Grant take all of the equipment out to the engine. As soon as MBA showed up I gave them a quick report and let dispatch know that we were available for the new call in our area.

We were dispatched for a possible CVA. When we arrived we found the patient sitting in the back room of his house. The house wreaked of feces, both cat and human. He stated that he was having a bowel movement when he passed out. When he awoke, he was unable to get up. He then spent the next hour calling for his wife who was taking a nap. Once she awoke she was able to move her husband into the back room but she wasn't able to get him to stand. Once we arrived the husband insisted that he was alright and that he just needed help standing. Once we checked him out we helped him stand. He was incredibly unsteady on his feet and we finally were able to talk him into going to the hospital to get checked out.

Plumber Van Goes Down the Drain

A man driving home in his plumber van blew a tire and he lost control. He ended up hitting the center divider and then sliding across the highway only to go nose first over the 20 foot drop into a dry river bed. The van tumbled and rolled eventually landing on its wheels. The man self extricated out the passenger side of the van and climbed up to the embankment. At the time he refused to go to the hospital.

Here are the skid marks going from the center divider to the edge of the highway.


The skid marks headed over the edge.


Here is where the van landed. You can see the divot in the ground (in the foreground) that his tire left.


From this angle the van doesn't seem so bad.



It's starting not to look so good. No airbags were deployed.



The drivers side.



Here is what the driver was looking at when he wrecked.



He was lucky that nothing in back came flying forward to injure him.


Here the tow truck driver is trying to figure out the best way to get the van out of the river bed.

Craig's First Seizure Patient

We got toned out at 2330 for a person having seizures. We arrived on scene to find the patient laying on the ground outside of her house in the arms of her husband. They told us that she has a history of seizures and that she had one tonight. The husband tried to catch her as she fell but she did hit her head. As I questioned her to determine if I needed to put a cervical collar on her she had another seizure. I quickly drew up the Versed but before I could administer it she stopped. Before she came out of this seizure she lapsed into another one. This time I gave her the Versed and stopped the seizure activity. We placed her on a backboard as a precaution since she was not able to answer my questions. We then sent her down the hill to DMRC (Desert Regional Medical Center). The next day Craig took the time to call me and tell me how amazing it was to watch me stop a seizure. He had never been on a seizure call with a paramedic and watched them stop one. He thought that was pretty cool. Every once in a while we paramedics get some respect. It's nice to be elevated above "needle sticking fairy" status once in a while.

My First Interview

Rescuers battle elements to get to injured woman




By Jimmy Biggerstaff
Hi-Desert Star
Published: Saturday, December 20, 2008 1:46 AM CST
MORONGO VALLEY — Emergency responders from several agencies fought rough weather conditions in the snow-covered hills west of Yucca Valley Thursday afternoon to rescue a patient with a broken hip. John Doe, firefighter/paramedic at the Morongo Valley Fire Station related that he received an emergency call a little before 3 p.m. for an 81-year-old female patient with a possible hip fracture on Ben Mar Trail off Hoopa Trail. “We responded with two four-wheel-drive engines and proceeded up the dirt road as far as we could go,” Doe said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “The brush engine got stuck about two miles before the house on the private, unmaintained roads,” Doe continued.

Engine two got stuck in snow and mud about a mile short of the destination. “At that point, my engineer (Eric Griffiths) and I grabbed what equipment we needed and exited the vehicle,” Doe explained.

“Then we hiked the rest of the distance to the residence in the snow up to our knees.”

The uphill hike in the snow took about 20 minutes. Upon arrival, the firefighters determined the patient had a suspected fracture. “We then decided the best way to extricate her from her surroundings would be by helicopter and called for sheriff’s air rescue to lift her out.

“We were given a one hour estimated time of arrival,” Doe said. “At that time we decided to fashion a sled with the residents who were up there, who supplied the firefighters with a four-by-eight-foot sheet of plywood.

“We drilled holes in it and used rope to pull it. We medicated the patient for pain and loaded her up in several blankets and laid her on a cot which we used to move her to the makeshift sled,” Doe said. “My engineer and I began to pull her toward the ambulance, which was about two miles away, maybe a little further.”

With Morongo Basin Ambulance paramedic Melissa Wharssler attending the patient, firefighters began pulling her down the hill on the makeshift litter. About a third of the way to the ambulance, as the sun was setting, the first helicopter showed up.

About the same time, firefighter Grant Grafius joined his colleagues to provide additional manpower.

“We then had the initial chopper come in to look at the area from above to determine the best area to extricate the patient,” Doe said. “Then the second helicopter showed up to perform the actual basket extrication.”

The aircrews informed the ground team they had to land the airships to swap manpower, changing the winch operator from the first to the second helicopter, which took about 20 minutes.

“By now the sun was down, it was dark and the temperature was dropping quickly,” Doe said.

The helicopters returned and the first provided illumination while the second lowered first a doctor and then a rescue litter called a Stokes basket to the ground.

“At that point we loaded the patient into the Stokes basket and strapped her in,” Doe said.

The helicopter lifted the patient up, then lowered a cable that the doctor clipped onto a harness to be winched into the aircraft.

The patient was flown to Loma Linda University.

The firefighters began the return trek down the canyon in the dark, then worked to get their vehicles unstuck. “It was a long call, a very cold call,” Doe concluded.

Meg Foley, general manager of the Morongo Valley Community Services District and Fire Department, described the rescue as, “A well-coordinated effort by several agencies under very adverse conditions. They sure did a good job.”