Action (well, for us)

With the students gone on spring break this week I have had more ride time (both as driver and, more importantly, riding in back). Going into this week the plan was to put 60 hours of "on the board" time in with the hopes of seeing some calls. Mon and Tues did not work out that way, but last night and this morning at least got some action.

Last night (11:30 pm-ish): seizures in a male with a history of seizures. Nothing interesting for those of you who run these calls all the time, but this was my first seizure call. Uneventful but I got some patient contact and the call was 45 seconds from our station so it was over quick.

This morning (4:01 AM): Single car rollover MVA. I roll out of bed, slam some clothing on, empty my bladder and start driving to the station. Quickly realize that if I do not slow down I'll be the second call. It has been snowing and the roads went from wet with snow to frozen surface covered in snow. SLICK. As we leave the station we hear them toning out the rescue truck again with no response. We manage to make it first on the scene to find the patient has extricated himself and gotten into his wife's car. She's an RN and claims he is fine. As I'm looking around I want the fire folks here quick as we have NO traffic control and the road is a nasty two-lane with a 55 mph limit. Our medic asks the driver to step out of his wife's car so we can check him out. I hold C-Spine stabilization as the medic works. Thinking of everything I have read I'm mentally going over what I would do and ask the patient and this is sharply different from how things actually go. "By the book" if I was there with just BLS folks I would have collared this guy and done a standing takedown onto a backboard. He was traveling north and ended up with his car in the ditch next to the southbound lane, pointed south, resting on the driver's side door. Damage to front, both sides and rear of vehicle. I figure this counts as "significant mechanism of injury". The medic, who is also an RN, does a mini-neuro exam on the guy and asks him if he lost consciousness. He then asks if he wants treatment. Guy says no. Wife is OK with this call on husbands part (my wife would have HELPED them tie me down :-) ). Looks like real world ALS is very different from BLS by-the-book (which I suppose is the point of ride time). Fire/Rescue arrived 5 min after us and REALLY helped as they shut the road down which made me feel much safer. Law enforcement wasn't there by the time we left. This is rural life...

I'm on until 0600 and then go from 0900 to 0000.

Given the time I can't decide whether to try and sleep some more or fire up the caffeine machine...

DJ