FireMike

This blog has absolutely nothing to do with dieting or training, it has to do with my love of being a paramedic. I had a bad call two nights ago. It was 3am Sunday morning, there was a dense low laying fog over the coastline area, and the area is flooded with tourists for Labor Day weekend. The call was for a single vehicle roll over with individual entrapment. My partner and I were the first on scene, it was dark rural curvey road. A black full sized SUV laid on the passenger side of the vehicle, from the skid marks we were able to tell that the vehicle had begun to go off the road heading southbound, the driver locked the breaks up and over compensated causing the vehicle to do a 180 and roll. The SUV wasn’t stabilized and was on the edge of a 5 ft deep ditch. I looked in threw the windshield and found a female unconscious laying on what would be the passenger side front door. "Ma’am can you hear me?" no response but I can see the woman is breathing, "Ma’am can you hear me?"…. "OMG, what do you want?" the woman became responsive and frantic, a fowl smell of alcohol was lingering thru the vehicle. She began trying to move around inside the vehicle causing it to begin rocking, then as quickly as she regained consciousness, she went unconscious again. I climbed inside the vehicle just as the local fire department was arriving. C-Spine immobilization was my primary concern once inside the vehicle, I could tell the woman had a patent airway. Once inside I assessed compartment damage, as this can aid in anticipating injuries both visable and internal. It appeared the woman was not wearing her seatbelt. The windshield was busted up, but it did not appear that her head struck it as she had no visable markings on her. The fire department began cutting away the roof after getting the vehicle stabilized, when the patient regained consciousness and began fighting with me then again went unconscious. Once the roof was rolled back we were able to get the patient fully immobilized and on the cot. Again she regained consciousness and began fighting us. Now, as I said this was in a rural area, we were 45 mins away from the nearest trauma center by ground and over a hour and half away from the facility this patient really needed to go to. We called for airlink to fly the patient out. Enroute to the landing zone the patient was in and out of consciousness, fighting us when conscious. With the obvious presence of alcohol it made diagnosing what was causing her combativeness. I went ahead and treated for InterCranial Pressure. This is caused by a injury to the brain itself, causing hemmorhaging which begins to build pressure in the cranium depriving the unaffected brain of oxygen, this is a very serious life threat. Air Link had already arrived prior to our arrival at the landing zone, so immediately upon arrival airlink personel came aboard the ambulance for report. I gave report and it was decided to chemically paralyze the patient and intubate her prior to take off. Once the patient was intubated, she was moved to the chopper and lifted out. Earlier today I took a call into the facility this patient was sent to, so prior to clearing up I stopped by the AirLink office to see what further information they had on said patient. I was correct, and my treatment for the ICP based on my understanding of mechanism of injury saved her life. She had a emergent craniotomy shortly after arrival that morning. This is why I moved and took this job, to do what I love and am trained to do. It feels incredible to make a difference in someone’s life you don’t know and have never even seen before the moment they need you. As I said I love what I do for a living and just wanted to share this event. STRENGTH & HONOR

This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 10:51 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.