Saturday, February 21, 2009

Hopeless

I gave CPR instructions on the phone for the first time last night. Well, not the first time, but this time they worked the code when my crew got there. I was going through my pre-arrival instructions, just like I'm supposed to, but when I got to the ventilations the caller said she couldn't open her sister's mouth, it was stiff. I went back to compressions. For almost 20 minutes she pumped on the chest. No one was able to relieve her. Between sobs, she counted. I was the voice on the other side of the line, supposed to send in the calvary, save the day, and in the meantime be the solution. All I could do was keep telling her to pump the chest. Stopping occasionally to check the mouth. I knew it was futile. I had already given up on this lady. Her sister never gave up though. She kept going. I felt like a fraud telling her that these chest compressions would keep her going until the paramedics got there. I told her these compressions would keep her going. I encouraged her not to give up, when I had already given up. I talked to the crew later, they transported the patient, worked the code...but I couldn't bring myself to ask if they got her back. I didn't want my thoughts to be confirmed. It just seemed...hopeless...

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

So I'm right in the middle of paramedic ride outs again. It's keeping me busy to say the least, but I've been getting some pretty interesting calls so far. But, today pretty much took the cake. Got a call for chest pain, and sitting in the back I even thought, hmm....will this be the big one...I dunno if I'd call it the big one, but we made scene and found a 75yo woman writhing in pain on her bed. Pale, cool, diaphoretic. Popped on some 02 and got a 12....vwala...Right sided inferior infarct. My first thought....holy cow...that's a real STEMI. She had already pre-administered one nitro before our arrival, BP was initially 122/78. We got a line and bolused her. She started puking in the truck so we gave 4mg zofran. Then she had another nitro. Followed by ASA. Followed by another nitro. Pt was in a junctional escape, so HR was between 40-50, so we never got around to morphine for fear it would crash her. We had her to the hospital in 11min from making scene. She was in the ER for 9 min before being moved to the cath lab. That was shweet.