Friday, January 23, 2009

New one by me............

So we get a call in the middle night....Why do most of the ridiculous calls come in the middle of the night? Anyway, we get a call for a POSSIBLE seizure. Most conscious adults can identify a person having a seizure. So we arrive to find our "patient" sitting wide awake and alert on his couch. Even tough Mr. Patient (age 47)answers enough questions to be orientated he indicates that his wife or mommy will be answering all the questions. So wife tells us there was no real seizure, he woke up preaching. So there it is... the call to 911 because an adult was preaching.
Wife tells the 4 paramedics in the room that last time she had to call for preaching the paramedics advised there was nothing wrong and left. Then he (the patient) got worse! Not knowing how the preacher could get worse, I asked for clarification. Surprise! There was no clarification, last time the preaching got worse! Right. You know they wanted to be transported by ambulance to be evaluated in the emergency room for uncontrollable preaching. Of course mommy had to come along to supervise.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Call 911 for.....bus money?

Seizure call at burger king. We arrive and initially have trouble finding anyone who is or was seizing. Then we notice a man in his 30's waving frantically over his head. As we approach I make note that the man is sitting in front of a piping hot whopper meal, supersized. We make contact and since he isn't pointing to anyone else, we ask: Are you the seizure pt? He responds yes. Me: what can we do for you? Him: I had them call you. Me: Ok we are here, what can we do for you? Him: I am fine. Me: Is there any emergent medical complaint that we can help you with? Him: No I am fine, I was wondering if you could take me a couple of miles? Me: no, we don't do that. Him: If you could just give me some bus money I'll be ok. Me: You appear ok now with your 5 dollar whopper meal in front of you. Him: Could you just give me a lift home then? .......................... Thats when we just turned around and walked out.

I love my job
So, last shift was brutal. the second night (48hr shifts) about 3 in the morning we get sent out for a sick call. They never put these calls on the recruiting poster for ems. My partner and I are so tired I think it took us 5-6 mins to get out of the station. We find the low income apts and arrive about the same time as our private ambulance company. We find the one bedroom apt and discover the occupants of apt#49 have converted the living room into a second bedroom, where we find our "pt". We ask the 75 yo woman her chief complaint and medical history. She responds she has no relative medical history but her teeth have been bothering her for over a week now. We ask if there is another complaint that may have justified a call to 911? She responds: no. Ambulance medic advises insurance may not pay for a non emergent complaint. She responds she has medicare / medicaid and she demands the ambulance transport. Ok here ya go, ambulance transport to wait in the waiting room for hours. Congrats.

Question about EMS abusers?

Thursday, January 8, 2009

do you need to be shot in the face?

The call is a GSW. Stand by for PD. Fd gets clear to come on in and all we find is a bunch of cops running around with AR-15s out and a girl on the phone outside the trailer. FD asks the cops about the GSW and they advise they have not found the shooter yet. Fantastic. So glad you advised the scene was secure for EMS. So FD asks the girl on the phone about a gun shot victim. She points to the trailer and says: "I think shes in there". After asking some cops to move off of the steps, we make entry and find a young woman holding a towel to her face. She moves the towel and she is indeed shot in the face. Does not appear to be serious and vital signs are "normal" During the normal course of treatment and questioning she advises she just started using meth a couple of months ago. I couldn't help myself, I asked "So, hows that working out for you?"

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

yes I am a paramedic firefighter

So the call goes out something about a drug over dose. Its 4 in the am and I am not awake. My partner and I respond and find a person down and obviously incapacitated. Unusual for where I work is its not an opiate (heroin) overdose. I call and ask the engine to bring in the suction. I was not aware that the engine had to wake up the driver and now are lost behind some dead end streets and barricades. The LT on the engine asks me to repeat the request (buying time) 3 times while they are touring the outside perimeter of this neighborhood. The patient is still down when the ngine and ambulance arrive. In fact she is down enough to require intubation prior to movement. As I assemble the needed equipment the ambulance driver turns and looks at me, and asks " have you ever tubed anyone before?" I only mummble something about once or twice. Turns out he wanted the tube.