Dropping Like Flies
I worked at the ambulance company today. Did a return to a nursing home; status post something...I can't quite remember what. I think I have early onset dementia.
We did an emergency call to a nursing home in Deerfield for a "lethargic patient." The patient was alert to painful stimuli (sternal rub) only. We did our normal ALS workup-nothing really we could do. The RN said our patient was in the hospital three days ago for the same thing; the doctor said it was a UTI.
I ran into our other shift rig in the ER. They had just taken a patient out of the same nursing home. Their patient was doing really poorly-they needed to intubate her but they were unsuccessful. I wish I would have gotten that call.
We took another lady out of the same nursing home as soon as we cleared up for "abnormal labs." We took her to a hospital 15 miles away. She didn't want to go, but was eventually convinced. She wouldn't let me touch her-I couldn't get any vital signs but respirations. Good thing the "abnormality" was only increased PTINR and not something more serious that truly needed ALS treatment.
People were dropping like flies at that nursing home. We joked that it must be because an RN decided to actually check on the patients for once. The sad thing is that's probably true.
We also did a call for a femur fracture. The guy was 91 years old and had fallen a week ago. They just took X-rays today and it is fractured. The guy was trying to get ahold of his son-calling multiple times. I asked him if he had managed to finally get ahold of him; he said, "no, the damn thing keeps going to something called automated voicemail...whatever the hell that is...his phone must be broken." Needless to say, the guy was a riot all the way to the hospital, and his son got to the hospital about five minutes after we did.
We also did a tranfer to a psych facility from an ICU for an 18 year old who overdosed on Tylenol-he took 80.
Another long shift...school tomorrow
(back dated)
We did an emergency call to a nursing home in Deerfield for a "lethargic patient." The patient was alert to painful stimuli (sternal rub) only. We did our normal ALS workup-nothing really we could do. The RN said our patient was in the hospital three days ago for the same thing; the doctor said it was a UTI.
I ran into our other shift rig in the ER. They had just taken a patient out of the same nursing home. Their patient was doing really poorly-they needed to intubate her but they were unsuccessful. I wish I would have gotten that call.
We took another lady out of the same nursing home as soon as we cleared up for "abnormal labs." We took her to a hospital 15 miles away. She didn't want to go, but was eventually convinced. She wouldn't let me touch her-I couldn't get any vital signs but respirations. Good thing the "abnormality" was only increased PTINR and not something more serious that truly needed ALS treatment.
People were dropping like flies at that nursing home. We joked that it must be because an RN decided to actually check on the patients for once. The sad thing is that's probably true.
We also did a call for a femur fracture. The guy was 91 years old and had fallen a week ago. They just took X-rays today and it is fractured. The guy was trying to get ahold of his son-calling multiple times. I asked him if he had managed to finally get ahold of him; he said, "no, the damn thing keeps going to something called automated voicemail...whatever the hell that is...his phone must be broken." Needless to say, the guy was a riot all the way to the hospital, and his son got to the hospital about five minutes after we did.
We also did a tranfer to a psych facility from an ICU for an 18 year old who overdosed on Tylenol-he took 80.
Another long shift...school tomorrow
(back dated)
posted by Ambulance Girl at 19:56
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