Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A "good" stroke

I dare say there is such a thing, but those of us in EMS see so many false calls, any "good" call, is simply a truely legit call.

We were toned out for an 80 year old having a stroke. Unfortunately, I work for a very busy department and our ambulance was coming from a great ways away.

We quickly locate the patient and without even touching her, I knew she was stroked out. She's laying on the bed, and her gaze is fixed to the left. As a family member relays her history to my partner, with me interrupting with questions I felt were more pertinent than her birthday and social security number.

She's had TIA's in the past, and had a stroke without any lasting defecit just a month ago. She's normally walking and talking just as good as you or I. The last time anyone spoke to her was last night, and it's around noon now.

As we start getting some vitals out of the way, my heart sank a bit. Her blood pressure was quite low, 88/42. To me, this basically means it's been too long since the onset of symptoms for any treatments to be overly successful. There's a maximum 6 hour window for thrombolitics (if appropriate), and she's most likely surpassed that.

Of course, being only EMT's, all I could do was gain IV access, administer a bit of oxygen, and wait on the ambulance to arrive. Thankfully, they made awesome time and we didn't have to wait long.

I relayed the story, vitals, and our treatments to the medic.

Found after unknown down time, normally ambulatory without assistance, B/P 88/42, pulse 80, sat. 92% on room air- 96% with 3 lpm by nasal cannula. 20 ga INT in the left AC. Fixed left lateral gaze, slightly responsive to verbal.

She didn't really respond to me, just nodded while her partner pushed the stretcher around the bed to us. One of the guys from my truck grabbed the lady's torso while I got her legs, and we moved her to the stretcher (I'd already ensured she was wearing a long nightgown). We put a sheet over her, secured her with the seatbelts, and moved her outside to the ambulance.

After giving the EMT directions to the hospital since he wasn't the least bit familiar with the territory, we returned to service. The last thing I saw of the lady was the medic preparing to start another IV.

I'm not very optimistic, but I hope she's ok.

My good friend and "adopted" dad, was working one of our dispatch channels. Seeing as the call came out as a possible stroke, I sent him a text, something along the lines of "I know you're extremely busy and may not see this till your lunch, but that lady was definately stroked out." He never responded but I could hear how busy he was so it's ok, I understand completely. I just hope he had a moment to pass the news along to the calltaker.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Thoughts on going private

As someone who has dealt with issues and bogus complaints from citizens over any personal opinions posted on the internet, I 100% understand and support anyone who chooses to make their blog private. There's just one tiny thing I have to ask of those of you that make this difficult decision.

If you are willing to add some folks to the approved reader list, PLEASE post your email address in your final post. It's impossible to view it if it was on your sidebar, and there's no way to even access your profile unless we can hunt down a comment of yours on someone else's page.

However, using google reader, or blogger's dashboard (depending on your settings), we can see the final post and grab the address to shoot you an email.


A lot of the people I follow have gone silent, or private lately... With 5150life being the most recent one. All the fun blogs are disappearing.

Monday, April 20, 2009

OMG, fire?! What's that???



In the picture, things look very hazy and kindof blurry, and, well, they were! The fire was out, but there was still a LOT of smoke (I was still on air), and the sprinkler had not been plugged yet.

This morning, we're getting ready at shift change for a class over the new airpacks we're getting soon. As we're walking out to the trucks to head towards the academy, the bell rings.

The call was dispatched as a vehicle fire on the top level of a parking deck near the station. Not quite halfway to the scene, I'm already in all of my gear (minus facepiece), and we get an update that the fire alarm has now gone off.

Onscene, we go down the hill as if we were going to enter the parking deck. The exhaust fans were on and were blowing LOTS of smoke out. As we came into view of the entrance to the parking deck, we observed thick, dark grey, charged smoke coming out of the opening, with the bottom being about waist height. The entrance was to the middle level, and the entire hotel is above the parking deck.

I had a box light (couple million candlewatt power), and could not see my feet once 20 feet inside the opening and up the ramp. I also had the nozzle over my shoulder and thankfully, the car was less than 100' inside. If we would've had to use the standpipe inside the parking deck, the call would have sucked so much worse.

As I was advancing the line, read as, trying to find my way to the car without running into a wall or tripping over a car, a tire blew. Now, if you've ever heard this, it's loud. Move it inside a spacious concrete structure, and it sounds like a gunshot even more. I stopped dead in my tracks for a moment, shrugged it off, and took about 3 more steps when another tire blew. A small part of me wanted to walk out right then. The more reasonable part said, hey, 2 down, 2 to go worst-case.

We finally found the car, and it was definately burning, but not badly since it was parked under a sprinkler that had activated. It probably went off and triggered the fire alarm, we know hotel security/maintenance called it in originally.

I had some fun with the nozzle, putting out the fire around the front wheels. I was sent back to the truck to get a set of irons (haligan and flat-head axe). We used the haligan to pry open the hood enough to stick the end of the nozzle in and douse the engine. I went to the truck again to grab the K-12, the air was too poor for it to run originally. I got a lil saw-time and cut into the hood so we could open it and have better access to the motor.

We finally got the fire out and hammered a wooden wedge into the sprinkler head to nearly stop the water flow.

After picking up all our gear, reloading the hoses used, and everything else, we were on the call 3 hours.

We returned to the station, ate lunch and cleaned up, then went to the 2nd airpack class (2 classes a day). I was sitting between 2 goofballs and laughed my way through the class. Some things I really like about the new packs, some things I don't, and a couple I'm on the fence about. However, I greatly love and respect at least 1 of the guys that tested and recommended these airpacks, so I will give it a fair shot.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Too nice of a day



No calls to relay today. The weather was too beautiful when I got home from work so I cranked up my Harley and turned the wheels for a while. I didn't have anywhere to go or anyone to see either. Just me, my bike, and all the idiots in their cars.

It amazes me just how stupid people can be, you don't notice it as readily when you have 2000lbs of metal and safety systems around you either. When your safety system consists of little more than a helmet, your clothing, and your ability/awareness, you really pick up on things.

Of course, I was always taught to ride like I was invisible because nobody will see me. It's a good thing to remember too. Within the first 5 miles of riding, I had more than one vehicle do something stupid that I was able to avoid. Whether it be changing lanes too close/without looking or tailgating me, the idiots were out in force. I was able to dodge them without incident and put about 50 miles on the bike. Not as much as I'd hoped for, but it was time for rush hour and the weather is supposed to turn nasty tonight.

I hate to admit it, but I'm a bit of a fairweather rider. I don't like to ride if it's below 50 or wet out. I blame my dad for that too, since he's my usual riding partner and part of the reason I love riding. The other one at fault would be my grandad. I remember being really little and having to stay in the sidecar of his Goldwing because I was too small to ride behind him. We used to have a lot of fun cruising the mountain roads.

Anyways, I need to get together with the head of the PD's motorcycle unit someday soon. I've chatted with him many times and he extended the offer of teaching me some of the maneuvers they use. Anything to make me a better rider!

I'm not as good at it on my bike because of the work that was done to it, but I can do a pretty decent slow-ride. I'm getting more comfortable leaning deep in turns, and I've only gotten deep enough to scrape my boards twice (I caught one today making a somewhat quick turn onto the expressway). I've seen a lot of the cone courses PD has to run through, and wow, I really want to be that comfortable with riding.

--Edited to add picture of my bike

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Not much interesting has happened during any one shift lately. There have been calls that I've been procrastinating about writing up.

Went out on a female that attempted suicide by taking a LOT of narcotic pills (the legal/prescribed kind) and chasing them with vodka. She changed her mind and called 911. When we arrived, PD had the note she'd written, and we set to work on getting her loaded onto the stretcher. Quickly got IV access and pushed Narcan to perk her back up some.

Last I heard, they were going to pump her stomach and she'd probably not suffer any physical effects.


A couple days ago, as we're about to make our plates for dinner, we get toned out for a MVC with entrapment.

Here's what we find on arriving to the scene



The van's driver gave a couple different stories, but it looks like she stomped the gas pedal on accident. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. We hung around to watch the tow trucks separate and load the cars. We were mainly curious how they were going to handle the van.

We made it back, ate dinner, and didn't do much of anything the remainder of the shift.