Smiles and Spikes

As the title suggests, it was an easy going day with a slightly interesting case thrown in. We had

• the 93 year old lady (who looked like 63 and who's mind was even younger) who was feeling unwell, probably due to a mild reaction to some prescription medicine - one of the three medications she was one. And that at 93. Go Girl!
• an elderly patient collapse, again probably due to some reaction to his medication. He would not stop talking en route, all talk and smiles. Makes monitoring conscious levels easy :-)
• a transfer - slightly nutty old chap, but genuinely friendly. Started a great 'grumpy ld men' performance once he was back in his nursing home room with his long time roommate. Good laugh.
• an interesting trauma job: Our patient had tripped and fell out on a field. In the process of falling, as you do, she stuck her hands out to break the fall...unfortunately her hands aimed right to the spot on the ground where a couple of rusty metal spikes happened to be. Said spike then penetrated the top of her hand at wrist level, and came out the other end of the top of the hand, where the fingers are. Ouch. My first penetrating wound, but really not much we could do apart from re-bandage. I was very proud though: I remembered I had my camera with my, and took some pictures for the hospital, one of the wound and one of the metal spike. The nurse seemed appreciative of the added insight.

All in all nothing challenging. I'm sure those jobs will come, they are just unfortunately taking their time.

Run from the Fun!

Imagine yourself wafted away in to the depths of medieval times, 1485 to be precise.

Prince Edmund: They're coming! Run for the hills! 

Baldrick: No, my lord! They're coming from the hills! 

Prince Edmund: Run away from the hills! Run away from the hills! If you see the hills, go the other way! 

- ~ -

Now come back to September 2009, if you wish. It is a Friday night, and poor old diddums here wants some funky action happening in da van (no, not that kind of action, I'm at work, silly).


Priority ones are being sent out to crews north of us, a dime a dozen, and we are on a low priority job. Then again, the familiar silencer, a long beeeeep, gets sent through the radio, telling the crews that a high priority job has just come in, but has not yet been assigned. "This is us, I can feel it" I tell my crewmate...I sense that he is also on the edge of his seat, hoping to get a more exiting job. This job has the potential, I know it.


BINGO!


It's us, we're closest. We light the night with our darkness piercing strobes and oscillating rotators, and part the traffic with the deafening screech of our siren. The engine roars as my crewmate, who is driving tonight, accelerates with full throttle. Water is everywhere, it's pouring from the heavens above, it's below us, our tyres splashing left and right whilst we crash through huge puddles. 


But hold on, this job is a relatively standard one. Chest pain, although our patient is only in her late 30's. Better than a transfer, and you just never know.


The radio comes to life again. There has been an accident on the freeway, a crew is sent out on a one. Hmm, methinks, I wouldn't mind doing something like that. Then another crash on the freeway, another crew is sent out to investigate. Hmm, methinks again. I want to do freeway prangs. One of those jobs turns out to be big, read about it here. And I get stuck travelling the other direction to a relatively 'standard' job. Enter Blackadder from above. Ah well, the patient had genuine chest pain (cardiac or not I do not know), I did my bit, patient felt better en route, and I managed to insert a few bad jokes on the way, so I kept myself amused as well :-)


The other jobs were nothing out of the ordinary, they were:

• Mental health transfer. Patient was quiet, and the nurse was also a cycling enthusiast, great talking to him.
• Regular caller. I had been there before. Patient always claims problems with his heart, and depending on the experience and insight of the calltaker it is either prioritised as chest pain, getting a lights and sirens approach, or as a low priority. This time it was a low priority, so we could finish our dinner. En route I joked to my paramedic that my ECG might even still be hanging on his wall - I printed one off roughly four months ago and stuck it on the wall for other crews to see. And indeed, it was still hanging there. Together with another five print outs. So I added to the collection, patient refused transport, and off we went.
• Some job, got stood down for next job
• Chest pain, read above
• Post assault, brothers fighting. More emotional...well more alcohol than anything else really. Left in care of dad.
• 0430 in the morning, we drive for 17 minutes to a woman who has severe back pain and cannot get out of bed. Why she wanted to get out of bed at such an ungodly hour eluded me. I shall never find out, because we got stood down and so we headed back in to the depot for some more well needed sleep.

That was my third night shift in a row; I swapped shifts with a fellow student colleague of mine. Right now I am awake, going allright - I have reached the stage of "stuff it, who needs sleep anyway". The previous nights were absolutely crackers, no sleep whatsoever, so last night came as a welcome change.

And if you are reading this MP, thanks for the shift swap, I think you owe me one...or at least four hours of working!

second is first

Went Paintballing on Sunday. I was supposed to be working that day, and, to be honest, I was hoping I would not get the day off; I am a big wuss at times, and the thought of little speedy pellets filled with paint hurtling towards my delicate skin with breakneck speed did not sounds like a walk in the park. But it also sounded like heaps of fun, so I did go, and blimey is was good. I had a ball (yes, pun intended).

Back to topic: Arriving at work back for my first day, but the second day of the set of four. As I mentioned before, I like to drive on my first day back, and I erroneously put all my gear on the drivers seat, until my crewmate rocked up, and moved it to the 'hot seat' (hot seat: the attendants seat). Of course, my turn in the back today, duh!

Not much happened that tested me, here is what we did (wait a second whilst I just grab my notepad...Damn, left it at work. Go Go Gadget MEMORY!).

• Check van
• Read email.
• Watch first 20 minutes of reservoir dogs.
• First Call: Patient with lump in groin, relatives could not get patient in to car, so we got patient in to our car.
• Transfer from LittleHospital to BigHospital. Child with respiratory distress. Hospital gave appropriate meds, and kiddiewinks slept throughout transport. Easy.
• Something
• Something else
• Watch last 20 minutes of reservoir dogs.
• Patient collapsed in dentists chair. Patients humour still intact, he states he fainted when he saw the bill.
• Realise I have splitting headache, take panadol
• Back to station, lie down for twenty minutes.
• Night crew arrives to take over. Pack my stuff and leave.
• Home, eat, sleep.

Easiest. Money. Ever.

The phone rings at 0715. Luckily I have a small little female personage that shares the bed in my republic that answered the phone for me.

Turns out it is the rostering department, asking if I were able to pop over to one of the depots to fill in for someone who has booked off sick. "Yep, no problems, be there as soon as possible!". Shower, iron uniform, hop in car, drive to UsualDepot to pick up necessary accessories (epaulettes, name badge, belt, hi-vis vest etc...) and on to OvertimeDepot. It is a beautiful sunny winters day, the traffic is not too bad, so I get to work in good time. I arrive, say hi to my paramedic, he's checked the truck and got everything ready. I do my few re-checks (to be sure, to be sure), and off we go to a transfer that comms have been holding for us: 90+ year young lady, to hospital for some further treatment. Bright old spark, and being admitted to a hospital with mag-bloody-nificent views of the water. She'll enjoy her stay!

On the day went with another transfer and a minor job, In between we saw the RAC Rescue Helicopter (a.k.a. "The Chopper") land outside of hospital. Cool.

Then we took a Neo Natal Transfer job from another crew that had been closer to an emergency call. You see, transfers are usually put down as 'non urgent' (understandably). If you are heading somewhere on a non-urgent call, and an emergency pops up  in your vicinity, you get diverted to the higher prioritized call, and another crew will take over your not as urgent call (or if it is really not that urgent and noone else is around, you do the high priority one, and then get back to your old non-urgent call!).

Neonatal Transfers are interesting. You head over to the Kiddies Hospital, grab a neonatal retrieval cot, and stick it in your ambulance. Don't forget to grab the NETS Team, the Newborn Emergency Transport Service (a good bunch, they are always happy to teach you one or two things along the way). Fully loaded, you go to wherever the sick child is, drop the team off with their cot, wait around for them to do their magic, and then collect the tam, cot and baby to return to the Kiddie Hospital for further treatment. An easy job, as all medical stuff is done by the NETS doc and nurse. All their gear leaves no space for us in the back, so generally the attendant sits in the front too...and that also makes our paperwork much more easier. Plus, these children are usually not on the healthy side - so although the transfer has a low priority, you are contributing much more to the health system by doing these jobs. Better than picking up drunks from the side of the pavement!

And to finish this post off, a bit of a NEE NER stick-tongue-out-at-you moment: All overtime is double time. Plus a bit extra because they called me in the morning on such a short notice. While the money clock was ticking away at double speed, I managed to clean my car, read the paper, do a few transfers, sit down and grab some lunch and generally have a real easy day. This job just gets better and better!