Busy Christmas Time

Turned grades in Monday. The Fall semester of 2004 is officially over for me.

Some family in town for Christmas, then out the door, and then more to replace them. Rapid house cleaning and restocking as we had just a few hours between overnight visitors.

Busy EMS time as well. From Friday to Today I went of every call we had...

Two more MVAs. One involved no significant injuries. The other one, a one car rollover, was much more serious. Patient was trapped in her car and had obvious head injuries and was talking but clearly amnesic (she had a endless cycle of “where am I”, “what happened”, “Who are you?”, “where am I”…). The helicopter landed just as we got her out of the car. Into the back of the rig where I finished packaging her as the flight paramedic and flight nurse did some INTERESTING stuff (I/O line using a new-fangled drill; facilitated intubation, etc.). This was the first time I got to see a positive “halo test” (when you see a ring of cerebral-spinal fluid around a spot of blood). She had an open head injury in the occipital area, and maybe in the R temporal as well. I got to help load her onto the helicopter, which was a great experience, though I couldn’t help but think of that doc on the show “ER” who looses an arm to a copter blade.

Other calls:

Numbness of the Hands – Panic attack, I think.

Stroke: a REAL one. Bad. Patient had a GCS of 12 and showed no improvement while we were with her.

Fire Standby: helped re-hab firefighters and helped calm down a distraught resident who lost everything in the fire. Two hours on scene in the middle of the night…

Difficulty breathing: BLS only (due to personnel – we could have used ALS) – Good chance to hear crackles associated with an upper-respiratory infection.

Injuries from a fall: Went out with a crew of two (a driver with no medical training and me). I missed having the students around as I had to collar and backboard this patient with citizen help.

General Illness: She was indeed generally ill.

The chief asked me today if I wanted to keep a jump kit in my car complete with O2, etc., as well as a mobile radio in addition to my portable. Corps treat, of course. I guess he thinks I can be of some use around here…