Ok, we all know the saying Paramedics save lives, EMTs save Paramedics. Well, I always tell my EMT, you job is to make Me, your Parmedic, Look Good. Ok, well my EMT, who I had been having problems with for 4 months, did both on our last shift together. We aren't gonna go into why I had problems with them, thats not the story. The story involves a patient that presented with totally random symptoms that turned out to be a big ol' bad CAT 2. So he we go...
Get called to a "sick party" Now this could be anything, this anything turned out to be inconsolable crying. Really. Pt in a mentally handicapped pt, non verbal, who's family calls this the pt's "pain cry". Pt not eating. HX of bowel obstruction. Fever. Ear infection. Tachy at 130. Hypotensive at 90/60s, but pt is also 80lbs soaking wet. BGL at 200. But Pt is compleatly stable. skin is warm/ dry. Pt will focus on you when you speak. I felt perfectly fine putting this pt in the back with an EMT who is also a paramedic student. But then the family wanted the pt trasported to a hospital who is notorious for asking for an IV for even the most mundane of symptoms and this was a borderline BLS/ALS pt. so I said to my EMT partner "I'll ride this in, but I want you to continue to assess as if this was your pt, do a BGL, put pt on monitor, everything but the IV, oh an get a manual BP the monitor been fucking up" SO he does what I say. and as he put pt on monitor I glance up for my seat as I type my report and I see little Normal sinis complexes marching across the screen. little funning looking, but I'mm get up in a minute when we get going and really look at it when i go the start the IV. from where I'm sitting there's a P wave and an upright QRS so we are golden. I go back to typing. Just then my EMT shoves a strip in my face..."Hey!!B!! is that ST elevation?!?"
"Noooo..Thats just a funny lookin...Well fuck me...
I get up and start flipping through the leads on the monitor and get to Lead I and goddamnit if there ain't huge ST Elevation. Well...get em on the 12 lead...we have elveation in leads I, II, aVL, V2, V3,V4. And BIG elevation. And pt had pressure of 90 and can't swallow, so no Nitro, or aspirin so I just placed em on high flow O2 and high flow disel and off we went. Pt didn't like me neither I had to stick em like 6 time for an IV because {the pt} kept trying to bite me.
That just goes to show you paramedics sometimes need them lowly basics.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I understand what you said about the case but I'm curious to know who was driving if you are writing and the EMT is observing the pt.? Or did I miss some detail that is obvious to everyone else? BTW. Good job from the EMT.
We hadn't left the scene yet. As I said, pt was stable and we hadn't discovered the massive MI yet, so we "stayed and played" so I could let the EMT/paramedic student learn him something...and boy did he. After the discovery of the MI He got in the front and drove me and my biting pt to the hospital.
Post a Comment