Two Long Rides

Things had been very quiet – Days without a call of any kind. Then yesterday…

Two calls I couldn’t go on: a difficulty breathing followed by a full arrest.

Third call of the day – Call comes in as nausea and vomiting. I’m in the middle of something, but the call is close by, the other medic worked a 12 hour shift at his job followed by working the full arrest, and I figure it will be an hour for the call, tops, so off I go. When I get to the station the crew informs me that they got a phone call and that this patient would be going to a hospital about an hour away. They figure they can handle the call BLS (Basic Life Support), but ask if I’ll go to the scene just to be sure. No problem. Upon arrival we find a dialysis patient with altered mental status. Not BLS in my book, so out to the car to turn it off and lock it up. Fairly un-eventful ride to the hospital (it took two sticks to get the IV), but I don’t really know what her problem was (her blood sugar was fine, no stroke symptoms, normal sinus on the monitor, etc.). Between the before and after, I’m out of town for almost three hours…

When I finally get home I am tired and ready to spend some time drooling on myself with my son at my side (my daughter is already on her way to bed). Pager goes off: “ X rescue, DJs ambulance, EMS call in X, two adults with burns from an exploding propane grill”. My first thought: YOUCH. My second thought: Maybe when I fire up the grill I really should follow the directions (on mine you are to light it with the lid up, but it makes such a nice WHOOSH when you light it with the lid down – no more…). Third thought: Maybe I ought to be thinking about driving instead of pain and propane grills. Our first rig goes out of service BLS while I’m on my way to the station. Second rig is me and a driver. We get on scene and there are indeed two pts, one with his head bandaged, face completely covered with gauze. Rescue is pouring sterile saline over his bandages, much to the relief of the patient. The second patient is clearly a BLS patient, and I leave her to the EMTs on scene. A medic with the rescue tells me my patient has second degree burns on this forehead, nose, cheeks and lips. We shuffle crews a bit, and switch to the new ambulance, and we get the patient loaded. Based on the location and severity of his burns, we are off to the nearest burn center, again about an hour away. Upon assessing the patient in the rig, I really think his burns were first degree, but given it was his face, I felt the ride to the burn center was worth it as if he had airway burns and we kept him local his prognosis would have been worse. IV, monitor and an uneventful LONG ride there and back (home hours past my bedtime).

The above serves me right for wishing we’d get a call :-). Be careful with your propane grill…