"You Looked Like an Ass..."

We arrived on scene at one of the local shopping centers to find our patient ion the custody of the police. The 36 year old man had been driving erratically and was being held on suspicion of driving under the influence.  After having been in custody for 20 minutes, with his hands handcuffed behind his back, and with a crowd watching from the local restaurant, this genius decided to make a break for it. I don't know where he was planning on running but he ran straight for the closed grocery store. He got about 30 feet before the cops caught up to him. Most people realize that if the fuzz is chasing you they are going to tackle you. This really sucks when your hands are not available, being cuffed, to cushion the blow of the asphalt on your face. My patient had bruising and abrasions to his face and knee. It was hard to feel bad for the guy. After checking the guy out and bandaging his wounds we sent him to the hospital. Before the patient was transported  the police officer that had apprehended him told him, "You looked like an ass to the general public."

Stupid people = Job security

Down at the 45 Yard Line

Every Saturday during the fall the local Jr High school football field is covered by kids of varying ages playing football. Every year we end up responding to at least one call for an injured player. It could be for a twisted ankle, a concussion or a broken bone. It's a little more interesting than your average call because it's a kid.



A couple of Saturdays back we were toned out to the Jr High for a kid with injuries. When we arrived we found our patient on the 45 yard line surrounded by various adults. As I approached there was one guy that was kneeling at my patients side that gave me adecent report on the kid. Turns out he used to be a paramedic for AMR. The 10 year old would be football star had been blindsided and felt some pain in his neck. By te time that we arrived the patient denied any pain or discomfort at all. We ended up giving him a thorough head to toe exam and found nothing. The dad was there and decided that he would take his son in to get checked out instead of going by ambulance. The kid got a nice ovation as he walked off the field.

Dumpster Fire With Spectators

For some odd reason there are people out there that haven't figured out that if you throw away a hot item (match, cigarette...) without putting it out you can start a fire. We were toned out for a dumpster fire the other day in the parking lot of a shopping center. These are really easy to control because they are in a container and all we have to do is fill that container.

The only real concern is that if the dumpster is next to a building, it can catch the building on fire. Like this:

















Luckily for the local store owners the dumpster was not up against the building. We pulled the bumper line and filled the dumpster about half full of water. While doing this, as you can imagine, we drew a crowd. Why not. I big red engine with flashing lights, smoke, flames, firefighters in turnouts, hoses...it looks interesting. After we had put everything away a couple of kids came walking by the engine with their parents. We quickly grabbed a couple of Jr Firefighter stickers (with our departments name on them) and passed them out.


No sooner had we done this than a minivan pulls up and the older sister helps 4 younger siblings out of the vehicle to come see us and get stickers too. It was more fun passing out stickers than putting out that dumpster fire.

My Streak is Ruined

I have been in EMS for years and managed to avoid something until just recently.

As I walked up the driveway I was met by a middle aged woman that asked me if I was a doctor. I refrained for telling her that she needed a paramedic, not a doctor and just said no. She then informed me that she didn't need the fire department, she needed a doctor. That's why she called 911.

Turns out her neighbor, an 82 year old woman that only speaks Russian, passed out while she was at home. When she came to she threw up. She then felt better and walked over to he neighbors house to seek some help. Luckily for us the neighbor spoke Russian too. While working through the translator I was able to determine that something like this had never happened before. She also said that she had high blood pressure and was taking some over the counter Russian medication. Good luck figuring out what those are. I'm pretty good at puzzles so when the neighbor explained that she was allergic to a red fluid that you put on the skin to clean it I understood that she was talking about Iodine. She denied any medical complaint and was thinking about not going to the hospital. This was about the time that she passed out again. Her head flopped forward and to one side. I was worried about her airway so I quickly jumped in there to hold her head in a neutral position.

When she came around she blew chunks. Despite her earlier mention of this I forgot. She managed to throw up all over my left arm, my watch and into my glove. We're not just talking normal looking vomit. This stuff was stringy like snot. I went years without getting vomit on me in any way shape or form but she got me royally. Not much I could do. I continued to reassess my patient.

About this point AMR showed up. The AMR medic couldn't see my arm because it was behind the other firefighter. She took my report and then I asked if she would take care of the patient while I washed off my arm. Only then did she realize that I was dripping vomit.

As much as I don't like getting thrown up on I can't help but feel bad for my patient. How mortifying would that be throwing up on your firefighter paramedic as he is taking care of you.

HOH

We were recently toned out for a person having trouble breathing. 911 was notified by the medical alarm company. This was the first time that I can remember responding to an actual emergency that had been called in by a medical alarm company. The company had all kinds of useful information like where the spare key was to the house, allergies to medications and her medical history that included COPD and HOH. Although I had never heard of HOH.

When we arrived on scene we found an 88 year old female laying flat in bed complaining of shortness of breath. She said that she awoke in this condition about 10 minutes ago. We sat her up, gave her some oxygen, and listened to her lung sounds. She was wheezing and tight so we gave her a breathing treatment. After a couple of minutes she started feeling and looking a lot better. My captain then asked her about HOH to which she responded, "What?" So he repeated himself a little louder and got a similar response. It was hard to stop from laughing when we realized HOH is Hard of Hearing. We still occasionally joke about that one.