Thursday, October 27, 2005

Clusters of Madness

Wow...We were busy yesterday. I did a shift switch with another medic, so I worked his shift yesterday, so I am off today. Thank god I'm off today I don;t think I could handle anymore people. 11 calls in less than 12 hours. And these people were sick. Actually sick. Well the first call they weren't however it was kinda humorous. I was 3 minutes late for work. I woke up at 0530 and hit the snooze button, what I thought was once, however when the alarm went off again it was 0640 and I had to get dressed and drive to work in 5 minutes, which was doable because the station I was working is two blocks from my house. But I had to pack up my stuff for the shift like I was moving in and get all my shower stuff together. So that took the extra 3minutes I had to spare after I got dressed. SO I get there and immediately get a call ( hurray for bedhead, I need a shower).. MVA...Car vs house....yep he was in the house alright, this particular house has been struck by a vehicle at least three times in the past six months. It's just in a bad place with no protection from the traffic flow. The car he hit first was slung through a fence and came to rest in a driveway, t-boning a parked truck, which had a man in it. We had six patients all of them High School students. And they kept wandering around the scene. I didn't know who I had treated and who I hadn't and then the parents started showing up so that distracted the kids even more. I finally got on the PA in the truck intructing "Anyone involved in the accident who wants treatment get over to the ambulance, NOW!" I finally got them lined up next to the truck and then the police officers started calling them over. I told then "STAY PUT! Don't go anywhere" Then looked at the cop and told him to "Give me just a minute to let me get vitals and information and then you can have them, But as of right now they belong to me."
"Yes'um"
"Thank you"
Damnit. We finished up with that cluster of a call, got back to the station, I got in the shower. Mid shower get a call. Go...Go again...And again...And again x5 more. Total of 11 calls and that was just the first 12 hours. The second half consisted of 5 more. All sick, most of them unconscious. Goddamn, I was happy to get off that truck.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's nice to be busy with the kind of calls that challenge your skills. Do you get to serve nursing homes too? Mr. A.

painter in hiding said...

Yes it's nice to be busy with challenging stuff, But 14 of them...I could have used one "My Baby won't quit crying." or "My Leg's been hurting for two weeks" just one. Because 24 hours of sick sucks.
We do go to the nursing homes when thyecall 911. I work for a third service, so we do only 911, no "non emergent, take Edna to dialysis"

Anonymous said...

I too, work for a third service but there are no private companies to serve the county. We do everything.

painter in hiding said...

I see, we have many private companies so we can just do 911. That is unless someone deciedes that they are not being seen quick enough at the ER and they call for an ambulance from the waiting room.

Anonymous said...

I haven't done a response to the waiting room or a pt's. room in years.

painter in hiding said...

We get ti here alot for some reason. And we generally take them from one waiting room to another, so they can sit and wait for 6 more hours with diffrent sceanery.
It always my favorite, I think I enjoy that more that a combative Psych.

Anonymous said...

We only have one hospital here but we would refuse to transport to another hospital anyway (since they were already in one).