Shift is 1800-0600 (06:00P – 06:00A) I’m riding with Matt Kerger* and Dave Phillips* One EMT and one paramedic. They show me around, we go through the ambulance showing me where everything is. I tell them both just how nervous I am and I just don’t want to get in their way on calls. Matt tells me “You’ll be fine and I promise you, you won’t be in our way.” Dave says “For sure! Don’t be afraid to get involved. Hopefully we’ll have some good calls for you.” The three of us are waiting for our first call of the night as we kick back watching “Two and a Half Men” and I of course brought my homework and 1000 pound EMT book to get some studying in during our down time.
2130 (09:30P) 3 ½ hours pass, Matt has his feet up in the recliner now watching the news while Dave catches some Zzzzz’s in his recliner. The tones sound…”Time to go” they say to me. I throw my stuff in my back pack and we load in the ambulance. Dispatch: “80 year old female at **** nursing home with epistaxis (bloody nose). We arrive at the nursing home to find a kind woman who has been having trouble with constant bloody noses, slight confusion and minor nausea (blood running down the back of the throat into the stomach = upset tummy) Code out was emergent and code back was routine. Transferred care to the hospital.
0100 (01:00A) Dispatch: “32 year old female has drank an 8 oz bottle of hairspray. PD on scene, please stand by.” We run emergent to our destination, a farm house about 10 minutes away on the outskirts of the town south of us. We pull up behind a fire truck about a mile down the road from the house, We’re waiting for a “Code 4” from PD which tells us the scene is safe for us to enter. Code 4 is required being as this Pt is mentally unstable and this may have been a suicide attempt.
PD “Code 4” We move in to a nice farm house and are directed upstairs. We find our Pt sitting on her bed, legs up to her chest, she is tearful. Her small bedroom full of fire fighters, sheriffs, police officers all staring down at her and now us.
Matt approaches her questioning her in a calm and understanding voice, I stand back observing. She is refusing treatment; little does she know she gave up this right due to her unstable state of mind. The Sheriff informs her she either goes with us in the ambulance or she goes with him. She chose us.
We help her to the ambulance. She is crying hysterically and is explaining to us that her mother, whom she lives with, calls her fat and is constantly ridiculing her, yet she is thin and obviously of a fairly healthy weight. Her father is out of the picture and she is also on antidepressants. Matt asks “So why did you drink the hairspray?” She is an alcoholic and it may have just been to get some alcohol however, she is a regular pick up for paramedics and is known by name….she is constantly seen for overdoses and possible suicide attempts, although she continually denies trying to commit suicide.
0300 (03:00A) Dispatch: “PD requesting paramedics at **** Apartments for Pt involved in an altercation and now displaying an altered level of consciousness.” We arrive in a fairly rough side of town at some run down apartments on 11th Avenue which are also connected to a bar. We walk through the dim lit hallway to find a middle age man arguing with a police officer saying “I was protecting myself and my girlfriend!” The girlfriend standing there obviously frightened and had urinated her pants. The man is bloody on his face and without a shirt, he refused treatment and we moved on down the hall.
We turn the corner to find several police officers in this tiny cramped hallway telling other apartment tenants to stay in their apartments. Two men are in cuffs surrounded by police and one man appears to be unconscious on the floor lying in right lateral recumbent position, he’s the patient. All three men are somalian men who had been harassing the girlfriend, her boyfriend stepped in trying to protect her and long story short…the boyfriend kicked the other three men’s asses.
I was somewhat scared despite the fact there were more police there than anyone else so I stood back observing, again. Matt, Dave, fire fighters and other police officers placed the Pt on the back board, the Pt was extremely combative and it took fire fighters lying on top of him to strap him in. The Pt is now screaming obviously not unconscious.
We take him to the ambulance and he suddenly stops screaming, stops moving and closes his eyes. Dave hooks him to the ECG monitor and we see his heart rate suddenly plummeted to 30. An IV was started and Narcan was slowly pushed. Now that the Pt, who has been picked up before by paramedics and is reported to be a spitter, is now passed out I volunteer to take his BP, I am unable to hear it. Only a few minutes pass and the Pt is suddenly awake again and seems to be in stable condition. We arrive at the hospital. The back opens, other paramedics hop on the ambulance and begin making fun of the man for his poor dental hygiene. I am taken back by the amount of unprofessionalism I am witnessing as an EMT student, as a human being.
I loved riding on the ambulance, Matt and Dave were awesome. I do wish however that I wouldn’t have been so scared to touch the Pt’s. Dave told me I did a great job but hopes I get more involved next time. Moral of the story…don’t be afraid to act. Your preceptors, fire fighters and police officers will appreciate your confidence in yourself and they will appreciate the fact that you TRIED, even if you mess up they acknowledge the fact that you tried.
*Names have been changed
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