Wannabe Medic Tries To Fly

It was our 4th call in the first 3 hours of the shift. This time we were headed to the local motor cross park for a fall with injuries. Imagine that.

When we arrived on scene we had to hike a couple hundred yards to where our patient was waiting. He was sprawled out with both arms at 90 degree angles from his body with his palms up. He had his right leg bent at the knee with his right foot tucked under his left knee.

I walked up, introduced myself and asked what hurts. While I did this one of my firefighters knelt behind the rider and held his head in place. My patient told me that he had fractured both of his forearms and had a tib/fib fracture of the left leg. He also denied losing consciousness or hitting his head saying that he had braced himself with his arms preventing a head injury.

Since his assessment of his injuries was really good I asked him if he was an EMT. He said that he was and that he was (that is the key word) in his second month of paramedic school.

After doing a quick once over for life threatening injuries I decided that I had time some time to stay on scene and make life a little better for my patient. I had my engineer spike an IV bag for me while I started the line. I wish all my patients had veins that good. About this time AMR showed up and the newly arrived medic tried to chastise me for starting an IV on the broken arm. I had already told him about the patient's injuries so I asked him witch arm should I use? Then I told him that I was starting the IV high on the upper arm so it wouldn't interfere with splinting or any treatment in the hospital. I wanted to say go away and let me treat my patient.

Once the IV was going I gave my Superman impersonating wannabe medic some morphine for which he was very grateful. The AMR crew splinted his arms while my engineer and captain worked on getting his riding boot off of his left foot. After a couple of minutes he was splinted and strapped to a backboard. The MS helped to keep his pain down to a minimum.

The funny thing is the entire time we were there he was, understandably, worried about medic school and his inability to do anything while both arms were in casts. My entire crew and I passed knowing looks while suppressing a chuckle every time he would complain. We knew what he should be worried about was who was going to be wiping his butt for him.

I'd rather break both my legs.

The Candy Man

Engine 51, respond to the Hungry Valley SVRA for a motorcyclist down. With that we were off again. This time we were responding for someone with a leg injury.

When we arrived on scene we found ourselves at the trail-head of one of the more popular rides. A man was there on the ground holding his 15 year old daughter. They had been riding all morning and she had been doing great. She had been handling some tough climbs like a pro. That is until the end of the ride.

When she pulled into the parking area she slowed down a little too much. Gravity took over and the bike landed on her left knee. The lower leg had a little inward rotation to it and she was in a lot of pain.

The rangers at the park had already placed an ice pack on her knee and were getting ready to splint her leg when we pulled up. I did a quick assessment before starting treatment. She didn't hit her head or lose consciousness. She had no history of medical problems, didn't take any medications and didn't take any medication.

I pulled out the IV start kit and assured her that she wanted me to start the IV more than some other medic or worse, a nurse in the ER. Once the IV was in I gave her some morphine. It took a couple of doses of MS to get rid of most of the pain. With that accomplished we finished splinting her leg and loaded her onto AMR's gurney.

That's almost 30 mg of morphine given out in the last couple of weeks. Just call me the Candy Man.