Stinky Feet
Today was very busy. I am posting this late-as usual on a busy day. It started out rather slow with a transfer to cath lab from a local hospital to one about 13 miles away. Then we did an ALS MRI. This is when things started to turn for the worse. We picked up this girl that was only 20 years old and was going to rule out CVA. She was barely with it, just moaning every once in a while. We got her at 1315. Her MRI wasn't scheduled until 1500. So, we sat and waited (mind you she is on the cardiac monitor this whole time) until 1500 rolled around, and passed. The guy that was in the scanner was so obese that they had to add an extra 10 minutes to his scan to get enough views. The girl had been given valium before we left the hospital so that she would lie still during the test. Her left side was flaccid, but she was constantly moving her right. Needless to say, she didn't last through the scan. Her meds wore off and she wouldn't stop moving. Four hours wasted.
We had a slight lull in the afternoon before we got our asses handed to us. We did countless psych transfers. The first one was a guy that beat up his girlfriend; easy enough. One guy seemed pretty cool...until I got the full story. He had multiple problems including drug abuse and bipolar disorder. Then he decided to tell us that he thinks he has scabies and wondered if they tested him for it at the hospital. We just said, "probably not if you didn't tell them, but they will test you at the new hospital." I felt my skin crawling instantly. Another bad start to the night.
There was another guy in the ER when we left that was a psych. He had been there for quite a while-he was yelling many things, most of which I couldn't understand. His door was shut, and the nurse kindly told us that he was the next one to go. He was in four point restraints and wasn't a little guy, so we told her to request 2 guys-we didn't want any trouble. Yeah, she didn't do that. She also told us that he smelled really bad. I figured she was pulling my string, until she walked into the room with a mask on. Great. Sure enough as soon as we cleared from the previous transport we were sent for him. We heard the nurse receiving report on the psych floor. She told the ER to sedate him. We got there are he did seem a bit quieter. He would have short little outbursts punctuated by long pauses in which all his facial muscles would relax and he would just sit there with his jaw practically resting on his chest. Then he would repeat the cycle. The nurse gave him a "bath," although it didn't seem to help much. I still made my partner drive with the windows down. During the ride he would babble and I could only understand a word for about every 200 he said, such as "cigarettes," "mom," "basketball," and "Sopranos." He was talking a mile a minute. Although I know we shouldn't mess with a patient's mind, it seemed quite harmless. Our dispatcher made some comments to us about the call beforehand when we told her to call another crew because of his aggressiveness and just being a complete whack job. She didn't believe us and laughed it up. So, we dialed dispatch, got her on the line and told the patient that someone wanted to talk to him. He was like, okay then. So I handed him the phone and he was like, "Hey man, what's up?" And a whole lot of words I didn't understand, then "Ohhh...they hung up." The whole time she was still on the line. The best way to describe this guy is to refer to any movie that includes Jim Carey in it, such as "Liar, Liar," "the Truman show," or "Bruce Almighty," when he wigs out and he makes all those funny noises and faces while he is trying with all his might to either form words (Liar, Liar) or messing with others (Bruce Almighty). It took a lot to get through this call, but once it was over with and I didn't have to smell him anymore, I was good to go.
We then continued out the night with several other calls, which I don't remember most of. I do remember running an emergency call in the middle of the night for severe abdominal pain. Instead, when we got on scene the guy's catheter wasn't emptying properly and he was bleeding into the bag. Okay, not so bad. But, since we knew we would be out forever we decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and run it as an emergency call, after all it could be considered "internal bleeding." It was nothing major. We took him back to the nursing home 3 hours later.
We only did a total of eight calls; five after 2200. It was busy and I didn't get any sleep at all. Damn. Another busy day ahead of me. I feel like I haven't slept in days.
(back dated)
We had a slight lull in the afternoon before we got our asses handed to us. We did countless psych transfers. The first one was a guy that beat up his girlfriend; easy enough. One guy seemed pretty cool...until I got the full story. He had multiple problems including drug abuse and bipolar disorder. Then he decided to tell us that he thinks he has scabies and wondered if they tested him for it at the hospital. We just said, "probably not if you didn't tell them, but they will test you at the new hospital." I felt my skin crawling instantly. Another bad start to the night.
There was another guy in the ER when we left that was a psych. He had been there for quite a while-he was yelling many things, most of which I couldn't understand. His door was shut, and the nurse kindly told us that he was the next one to go. He was in four point restraints and wasn't a little guy, so we told her to request 2 guys-we didn't want any trouble. Yeah, she didn't do that. She also told us that he smelled really bad. I figured she was pulling my string, until she walked into the room with a mask on. Great. Sure enough as soon as we cleared from the previous transport we were sent for him. We heard the nurse receiving report on the psych floor. She told the ER to sedate him. We got there are he did seem a bit quieter. He would have short little outbursts punctuated by long pauses in which all his facial muscles would relax and he would just sit there with his jaw practically resting on his chest. Then he would repeat the cycle. The nurse gave him a "bath," although it didn't seem to help much. I still made my partner drive with the windows down. During the ride he would babble and I could only understand a word for about every 200 he said, such as "cigarettes," "mom," "basketball," and "Sopranos." He was talking a mile a minute. Although I know we shouldn't mess with a patient's mind, it seemed quite harmless. Our dispatcher made some comments to us about the call beforehand when we told her to call another crew because of his aggressiveness and just being a complete whack job. She didn't believe us and laughed it up. So, we dialed dispatch, got her on the line and told the patient that someone wanted to talk to him. He was like, okay then. So I handed him the phone and he was like, "Hey man, what's up?" And a whole lot of words I didn't understand, then "Ohhh...they hung up." The whole time she was still on the line. The best way to describe this guy is to refer to any movie that includes Jim Carey in it, such as "Liar, Liar," "the Truman show," or "Bruce Almighty," when he wigs out and he makes all those funny noises and faces while he is trying with all his might to either form words (Liar, Liar) or messing with others (Bruce Almighty). It took a lot to get through this call, but once it was over with and I didn't have to smell him anymore, I was good to go.
We then continued out the night with several other calls, which I don't remember most of. I do remember running an emergency call in the middle of the night for severe abdominal pain. Instead, when we got on scene the guy's catheter wasn't emptying properly and he was bleeding into the bag. Okay, not so bad. But, since we knew we would be out forever we decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and run it as an emergency call, after all it could be considered "internal bleeding." It was nothing major. We took him back to the nursing home 3 hours later.
We only did a total of eight calls; five after 2200. It was busy and I didn't get any sleep at all. Damn. Another busy day ahead of me. I feel like I haven't slept in days.
(back dated)
posted by Ambulance Girl at 21:28
1 Comments:
Great post! The scabies thing takes the cake. Times like these that makes you wish you were in a hazmat suit, or a bubble.
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