Shit Magnet
Every now and then you go through phases in your career. When I worked for the fire department I was a car accident and dead body magnet. I would work and we'd either get a dead body or a car accident. Or a car accident with a dead body.
Now I am a cardiac shit magnet. Maybe its because of my mother but I can't go through a single shift without at least one cardiac call. Or a call that becomes cardiac.
Last night at about quarter of 8 we get a call for a woman having severe abdominal pain in the right lower quadrant. Blood in the urine, vommitting and sweating. Kidney stones, I mean the walk in we took her out of even saw them on her X Rays. So we run her down to RIH for a work up. She's in a lot of pain but in the back of my bus her pressure is fine, 130/70, pulse of 65, good sats and a decent sugar.
Once at the triage station at RIH we find her BP skyrocketing. Shooting through the roof, pulse dropping. Shes clutching her shoulder so I ask her in Spanish what's going on and she complains that her shoulder is "killing" her and she can hardly breath. "Hey hon," I call all the nurses 'hon' except for Amy, a spicy little vixen over the psych ward who delights in giving me violent EDPs for removal to Butler. "Hey, hon. She just started complaining of CP and SOB, wanna do a 12 lead or you want me to, I don't mind, if you're busy." I wasn't being an ass, RIH was getting slammed but she was cool and said she would do the EKG and I give her a hand because I'm pretty curious.
Once we get a decent read on our little kidney queen we see elevations climbing off the page and punching people in the face, right there in the ER. East Providence had a drunk complaining about how hot it was as our woman couldn't breath. A cop told him to "Shut the fuck up, you tool." As I grab a transport tech and help two nurses start a second, large bore IV. As they run her up to the cath lab I have to explain to her 15 year old son what is going on and where his mom is going.
I bring him over to the EMS room and explain that she's having a heart attack and that they are going to help her. As we were sticking her she told me to tell her son everything so my ass is covered via HIPPA and all that don't talk about the patient stuff.
On the ride to RIH I let him play with the sirens and showed him how everything worked. I let him look through our trauma bag once we get his mother into the ED. Now I have to tell him his mother is having the big one. In broken Spanglish I explain his mom his upstairs, going into to get her heart fixed. He asked what happened so I give him a simplified version of what happened and he asks me to explain what "The wiggles on the page mean." He had came in just as me and the nurse were going "Hot damn" over her EKG. So I explain that each of the different markings represents a different part of the heart and that right now the front and the side of her heart are not doing too well. In my language thats an anterior lateral MI. To him it means that his mother is taken away from him while she gets all sorts of procedures that he doesn't really understand. I grab him a soda and a pastry from the EMS room and wish him luck. I hand him over to the family conselor and try to figgure out where I should go for dinner. Then I realize i already ate and that I should be a good little doobie and go back to satelite and try to lay down for a bit.
But once I get back I get sucked into an episode of Law and Order and a book I just took out from the library on pirates. At least until we get a call for a woman with severe back pain. It turns out to be osteoporsis, but with her in the back we have to by pass a car accident with noone on scene. I radio to dispatch to get a 911 truck to the area before little miss back pain starts screaming. Apparently a nerve got even more pinched and she was in excruciating pain.
Once we get to Miriam, yes Miriam from some little address in Cranston (a long ass ride no matter what) the nurse gives her enough morphine to kill a horse and I try and steal several boxes of large gloves.
Another nurse catches me so I just start humming the Mission Impossible theme very loudly as I spin around her like a master thief. She laughes, calls me an idiot and walks away but I got some nice, textured ribbed for my gripping pleasure Nitrile larges in stylish purple.
Now I am a cardiac shit magnet. Maybe its because of my mother but I can't go through a single shift without at least one cardiac call. Or a call that becomes cardiac.
Last night at about quarter of 8 we get a call for a woman having severe abdominal pain in the right lower quadrant. Blood in the urine, vommitting and sweating. Kidney stones, I mean the walk in we took her out of even saw them on her X Rays. So we run her down to RIH for a work up. She's in a lot of pain but in the back of my bus her pressure is fine, 130/70, pulse of 65, good sats and a decent sugar.
Once at the triage station at RIH we find her BP skyrocketing. Shooting through the roof, pulse dropping. Shes clutching her shoulder so I ask her in Spanish what's going on and she complains that her shoulder is "killing" her and she can hardly breath. "Hey hon," I call all the nurses 'hon' except for Amy, a spicy little vixen over the psych ward who delights in giving me violent EDPs for removal to Butler. "Hey, hon. She just started complaining of CP and SOB, wanna do a 12 lead or you want me to, I don't mind, if you're busy." I wasn't being an ass, RIH was getting slammed but she was cool and said she would do the EKG and I give her a hand because I'm pretty curious.
Once we get a decent read on our little kidney queen we see elevations climbing off the page and punching people in the face, right there in the ER. East Providence had a drunk complaining about how hot it was as our woman couldn't breath. A cop told him to "Shut the fuck up, you tool." As I grab a transport tech and help two nurses start a second, large bore IV. As they run her up to the cath lab I have to explain to her 15 year old son what is going on and where his mom is going.
I bring him over to the EMS room and explain that she's having a heart attack and that they are going to help her. As we were sticking her she told me to tell her son everything so my ass is covered via HIPPA and all that don't talk about the patient stuff.
On the ride to RIH I let him play with the sirens and showed him how everything worked. I let him look through our trauma bag once we get his mother into the ED. Now I have to tell him his mother is having the big one. In broken Spanglish I explain his mom his upstairs, going into to get her heart fixed. He asked what happened so I give him a simplified version of what happened and he asks me to explain what "The wiggles on the page mean." He had came in just as me and the nurse were going "Hot damn" over her EKG. So I explain that each of the different markings represents a different part of the heart and that right now the front and the side of her heart are not doing too well. In my language thats an anterior lateral MI. To him it means that his mother is taken away from him while she gets all sorts of procedures that he doesn't really understand. I grab him a soda and a pastry from the EMS room and wish him luck. I hand him over to the family conselor and try to figgure out where I should go for dinner. Then I realize i already ate and that I should be a good little doobie and go back to satelite and try to lay down for a bit.
But once I get back I get sucked into an episode of Law and Order and a book I just took out from the library on pirates. At least until we get a call for a woman with severe back pain. It turns out to be osteoporsis, but with her in the back we have to by pass a car accident with noone on scene. I radio to dispatch to get a 911 truck to the area before little miss back pain starts screaming. Apparently a nerve got even more pinched and she was in excruciating pain.
Once we get to Miriam, yes Miriam from some little address in Cranston (a long ass ride no matter what) the nurse gives her enough morphine to kill a horse and I try and steal several boxes of large gloves.
Another nurse catches me so I just start humming the Mission Impossible theme very loudly as I spin around her like a master thief. She laughes, calls me an idiot and walks away but I got some nice, textured ribbed for my gripping pleasure Nitrile larges in stylish purple.
posted by Nick Stabile at 9:19 AM
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