This week so far

Monday:

Crew mate sick. 9 jobs, 7 on the response car, all before 13.00! 3 chest pains and 3 falls with varying injuries and 1 woman whose carer couldn't wake her up. When I woke the lady she shouted 'I'M NOT GOING TO HOSPITAL!, she was fine and after examining her & doing her obs stayed at home. I then jumped on a truck with a Paramedic who was due on the car. We did 2 more jobs before I went home. He then went on the car til midnight.



Tuesday:

Crew mate still sick. Back on the car but a much quieter morning. Only 4 jobs. Then the same as Monday back on a truck for the remainder of the shift with the same Paramedic. We again did 2 jobs but these were proper jobs. The first was to a 12 year old who was playing football at school and someone went to clear the ball and kicked it at full pelt. Problem was that it connected with this young lad's hand and bent his wrist back. When we get there we are confronted with a sobbing boy with a grossly deformed wrist. It looked like his radius & ulnar were about to pop out of the skin. He was in agony so my crew mate plied him with Entonox while put in a 22g IV and gave him 2.5mg of Morphine. It did the trick. After a brief examination by the DR he went straight to the operating theatre to have it straightened and put back in alignment.

Half an hour til the end of my shift and a cardiac arrest call came in. We thought it was to a 19 year old but it turned out to be an elderly lady. A double EMT crew had just arrived moments before us and starting Basic life support. I cannulated the external jugular vein and started drug therapy while my crew mate intubated. But despite our efforts the lady didn't respond to our treatment so we decided to terminate resuscitation as she was asystolic (flat line on the monitor).

That brings my total of 3 cardiac arrests in as many days!
I did, however, find out that the lady from the second cardiac arrest on Sunday is still on ITU and the staff were thinking about bringing her round to see if she could breathe for herself. I'm doubtful but you never know.