Halloween Scare!

Day one. First call is for a person who is lethargic. We get there turns out this patient has stage 4 colon cancer and has increased weakness today. She wasn't doing too good so I go for an IV she has a port but we can't access those so I go for a peripheral line and got it and we took her in. Next call was for short of breath we get there and the patient is tripodding (working hard to breath) and she says she has some chest pain we get her in the truck and realize she is v tach with a pulse (most of the time v tach presents pulse less and therefore you are doing CPR trying to get them back) so I get an IV and we give amiodarone in hopes to convert that rhythm but no such luck. The hospital was about to give her some more when we left. We get a call for a transfer for a fractured scapula (shoulder blade) ouch! I'm pretty sure we hit every bump in OKC and this patient was not thrilled! We get a call for a fall. We walk in and the house was filthy dirty. It was terrible. I saw roaches just crawling around I thought to myself we gotta get out of here. Patient only needed help back up on the couch. We were posted in the middle of the city and we get a call up to the north side and so we start booking it. We get to the apt and this patient had passed out twice. The friends stated that after the first time she passed out they thought she had a seizure so they went to take her to the hospital but she passed out again and they decided to call us. The patient had been trying to open a package of spoons and cut her finger and started feeling nauseated. But she really didn't have much wrong with her.

Day two. First call of the day is for neck and back pain from a fall that happened in August and she thought everything was fine finished her medications a week ago and the pain just came sudden today. Not much there. Second call was for a man choking but by the time we got there he was fine and no longer choking. Third call was just a transfer from one hospital to the hospital next door to go directly to cath lab due to having an active MI (heart attack). Fourth call was for short of breath and the patient walked away. So in other words we are going to have to find him and luckily we do. He tells us he broke his arm (so nothing close to short of breath) we keep asking him questions to get the story and he gets mad at us and wants pain meds. We finally figure out he was on a ladder in a tree cutting branches and he fell. Turns out he dislocated his shoulder and elbow. Ouch!! Next call was for a car accident with a road sign. Man I hate when those signs jump out of nowhere. He didn't know what happened or how to answer our questions. We found an insulin needle and assumed he was a diabetic from some abd bruising. His blood sugar was 86 which isn't really low but we started an IV and began to give him sugar to see if that helps and he started talking to us and was no longer confused he says that sometimes he will have a seizure due to low blood sugar and turns out his blood sugar is usually 150-200 so that was low for him. We got his sugar up and he was doing pretty good no injuries from the car accident. Next call was for a fall and we pull up to a lady sitting in front of her trailer home in like 50 degree weather waiting for us because she needed help up. Poor thing.

Day three. First call of the day is for a patient with trouble breathing. She was struggling and went put her on our CPAP machine to help her breathing and at first she found it odd but then she found it helping her. It was good. The next call was for a younger gentleman who was complaining of chest pain so im not really thinking a heart attack because of his age but I still keep it in the back of my head I show up and start asking him questions and we determine it is just anxiety and that he has been drinking and due to other things him drinking alcohol gives him this chest pain. Turns out he had drinking almost the whole Oklahoma river amount in alcohol in hopes that it would kill him. Well I dont think he succeeded but he very well just about killed his liver so that’s one step closer I guess. We got a transfer from one hospital to another for a brain bleed and his patient was not doing too hot, it was kind of sad, but we just drove fast and didn’t do much for her. We get another call for trouble breathing but this time it wasn’t near as serious as the one earlier and he wasn’t really short of breath as much as just not feeling good. There is a nasty bug going around, but who knows. Yet another call for trouble breathing, this one had been diagnosed with pneumonia earlier on in the day but family felt that he needed to go to the hospital so therefore we taxied him on over to the hospital per request. Last call of the night was for a fall and I was thinking oh this wont be bad. Quick and easy way to end the night. Turns out he was an obese man in the smallest bathroom complaining of weakness and could not get up off the bathroom floor. Well he was exceedingly sweaty (not a good sign) and he kept wacking his head on the back of the toilet. I was like sheesh! So fire gets there and I jump on out and let the big guns in to get him out. So the hospital we were going to take him to was about to go on divert (which means they are too busy to take any ambulances) therefore we hurried up and said we are coming and so we didn’t wait for me to get an IV which wasn’t detrimental or anything and he lived right up the street from the hospital so by the time I got the monitor hooked up and all my stuff for the IV ready we were pulling in to the hospital so I hurried up and got the IV and finished taping it down right as we put the truck in park. I got skills ;)

Day four. Friday!! And Halloween!! Our first call is to a doctor’s office for a patient who had an abnormal EKG and chest pain. We get there and the doctor tries to explain what is going on to us. We get a better 12 lead to see what the patients heart is really doing. Our 12 lead did not show any signs of a heart attack but she was throwing PACs (in other words a heartbeat before it should come) so her rhythm was irregular. She was a funny lady didn't think anything was wrong and just wanted to go home. ( therefore probably not a good sign ). Our second call was for a fall. Turned out to be a seizure and he had knocked over a whole china cabinet. Yikes. He wasn't hurt or anything though. Our third call was for a fall and she just needed help up and did not want to go to the hospital. After a few hours of nothing (during trick or treat time) we get a call for a fall and turns out he is the funniest patient I have ever had. He had this huge knot on his head from hitting it on something. The patient did not feel like he needed to go to the hospital to get it checked out but luckily after he saw it he agreed to come with us. He was just so fun and everything he said had me and my medic laughing in the back. (Atleast read this call!!!) The last call of the night has probably been the most intense call I have gotten. The call comes in as trouble breathing so I start thinking okay I know what to do, then dispatch says possible aspiration. I then start thinking well this could be more serious than I thought so we rush in and fire has his spo2 on their monitor reading <50% so im like oh crap lets go so we throw him on our cot run out to the truck while my basic figures out what hospital we can take him to because at first the nurses said one that is 30 min away and honestly he was not going to make it that long. So we get out to the truck and immediately I go for an IV my medic puts on the CPAP (device that helps him breathe) and we try for a 12 lead and the 12 lead is showing a massive STEMI (so not only did he aspirate something into his lungs he is also having a heart attack) so my basic gets out and we start heading to a closer hospital. Mind blowing piece of information here CPAP only works when you are breathing well the patient fails to keep taking his own breath so my medic throws me an ambo bag so I can start controlling his breathing with the bag so I open that up we throw the cot flat I jumped to the head of the cot while my medic climbed over me and she starts doing compressions on this patient and I start getting my stuff ready to intubate this guy and I go in for it and it was just crazy hitting bumps while going code and trying to put a tube through the right hole. I see the hole and shove it in and we go to listen for breath sounds and we don’t hear them, but they are also not in the stomach so we don’t really know where that tube went. The patient was so gunked up in his lungs that possibly could have been there but we weren’t sure so I took it out and we get to the hospital and continue doing CPR while going into the hospital and the doctor goes to intubate the patient and he pulls out his fancy laryngoscope with a camera and just slides the tube on in, man must be nice. But I like the challenge. The hospital worked him for a good 30 minutes and decided it was best to just call it. So my patient ended up dying, but he lived a good long life and is now in a better place. It was a wicked awesome call though!