Man Down

It was our second medical aid in 20 minutes. We had just backed the engine into the station when the tones went off. Fortunately at 7 in the morning there's still not much traffic out on the streets. Most of the way through the residential neighborhood we just used our lights but not the siren.

We walked in and were directed to the bathroom. Unlike the guy that this medic found my guy was very much alive.

The previous night by patient went in to use the bathroom. As he was leaving he blacked out and collapsed on the floor. When the elderly gentleman came to he was unable to get himself off the floor. His wife found him the next morning and called us.

The patient had a history of back problems and back surgeries and always felt pain. He said that the pain was worse than normal but still located right at L5 where his previous injury was. We decided to lay him on his side on the backboard because of the pain laying on his back caused. There was no way he was going to tolerate bouncing around in the back of an ambulance like that.

We loaded the man onto the gurney and made sure AMR didn't need anything else. Then we headed back to the station just in time for shift change. It was family time.