She Is Healed

We pulled up and parked in front of one of the local churches. Things seemed a bit hectic for a woman that just passed out. PD was there doing something (what, I don't know) and there were several people from the church outside to direct us.

Inside we found a small knot of people. At the center of the group there was an 18 year old woman sitting on the floor. She was leaning on the legs of a man that couldn't have been much older than her. He had his hands on her head and kept mumbling what I assume were prayers.

I don't like doing assessments in these situations. If I were on an ambulance I would have loaded the patient up without doing much on scene. Unfortunately I didn't have that option. Every time I asked a question at least one person other than my patient answered. It took several requests but I finally got through to them that I needed the patient to answer.

The patient was complaining of trouble breathing. Her respiratory rate was in the mid 30's. She was a little tachycardic but all her other vitals checked out. She had a history of anxiety and had recently been having some stressful events going on at home. She also had tingling to her lips and finger tips. All the classic signs of a panic attack.

We coached her on her breathing. Slow, deep inhales and exhales. To help her relax we got her talking about something totally different. It's amazing how distracting someone can really help them. Finally AMR showed up.

As we stood her up to have her sit on the gurney the man that had been praying (again, an assumption) stood, raised his hands above his head, and loudly proclaimed, "Praise the Lord! Praise the power of prayer! She is healed!"

At that my engineer and I shared a glance. It was the equivalent of an eye roll but sly enough that you wouldn't know it without knowing us. Part of me wonders if they set the entire thing up for a show of faith. Probably not but I wouldn't put it past them.

Hehehe. "She is healed." That saying went on for a while with our crew.