NASCAR Detail
Last weekend I made the last minute deceision to extend my 34 hour shift to 52 by picking up a detail at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, for those that don't know its a NASCAR track and they held the Lennox 301 there last Sunday. I figgured it would be a helluva show watching all the drunks and rednecks mingle through the stadium and that I could probably BS my way out into the infield of the track to see the cars go by.
My wife's father worked for a now defunct auto parts company and her childhood was spent going from track to track meeting different race car drivers and such. Because of that, we meet almost weekly at the inlaws to have homemade onion rings and beers and other goodies while we watch NASCAR. At first I wasn't interested in anything but the food but the more I watched and the more I drank the more interesting it became with the drafting and the bumping and what not.
So when my shift at the firehouse ended I put on my uniform shirt, I usually just wear a class C t shirt or poloshirt, and drove over to the racetrack to staff one of the private ambulances that had been rented to provide ALS care to the racegoers and, if need be, the drivers themselves.
I ended up being assigned to Grand Stand Aid with a bunch of medics from somewhere down in Connecticut. Its always interesting working with career private ambulance guys or even career EMS guys for that matter. But the career private people are usually a bit interesting and these guys from CT were no exception, they all wore police style belts with pouches for trauma shears and gloves and window punches, they wore huge MagLite flashlights even though we were in a well lit clinic type aid station.
I wore my Leatherman, a tool I wear whether I am working or not.
The day went pretty well despite the strangeness from Connecticut. We had several walk in patients. A guy in Home Depot racing team sweatpants and an AutoPalace sweatshirt comes in and asks us to rebandage his finger, the top of which is missing from some redneck racing related accident three days earlier. Its clearly infected but he refuses to be transported to the hospital claiming he has no insurance. Despite assurances that it won't matter, he still refuses. A few drunks wander in after falling over. We patch them up, hydrate them and sent them off.
For most of the day I sit outside the clinic on a golf cart and watch the parade of drunk and drunker people stagger by. Because of my badge a few of them think I am a cop and try to act sober when they stumble by which is even more entertaining. My official reason for being there was to staff one of the transporting ambulances at the paramedic level with an EMT from further up in the Lakes Region.
At about noon a call comes in from the middle of the track, because of severe mismanagement of the call by those in a position of power (private ambulances, not fire department or municipal personel) I end up being sent to the infield and spend a good portion of the race there until we are recalled to grandstand aid. I snap a few pictures with my cellphone of the cars whipping by and stand at attention for the cameras while they sing the national anthem and fly F 16 fighter jets over the stadium. Richard Petty zipps by on a tiny motorized scooter and thanks us for our service.
At one point I see a bunch of people in Lennox Tools Team t shirts and remember a friend from college who works for them, her father is Hackman, a guy who cuts apart cars with a Sawzall to demonstrate the reliablity of Lennox blades. I ask them if shes here and they tell me she's up in the suite. I call and leave a message telling her to come down and slum it with the rescue guys.
When we end up back in GSA we see a bunch of patients strewn accross the beds. The three CT guys are trying to start a line on a 15 year old girl with virtually no symptoms other than a headache while a 50 something year old guy sits unattended on a cot with his very nervous daughter. She's nervous for good reason, her father has been complaining of chest pain and nausea. His IV is infiltrated and he's shivering like crazy in the 80 degree weather.
I go over and pop another IV in him, discontinuing the 22 they had running and replacing it with a 16 guage in his Left AC. His daughter tells me he doesn't travel much and that he might have over done it.
I tell the CT guys to get a monitor and do a 12 lead, which takes them several minutes of wide eyed scariness to do. When they finally do, the monitor has no paper in it and the guy assures me "The 12 lead's fine." I take the patient and shoot off to Concord Hospital.
When we get back we are, thankfully, told to stage with the Loudon Fire guys at the TV entrance and I end up sitting there as the rain starts to fall. We get sent to meet Hillsborough County sheriffs deputies with a head injury at the other end of the stadium
On arrival we find several guys in Mass State Police sweatshirts trying to convince their intoxicated buddy that his 4 inch gash that goes to the skull over his left eye is worthy of going to the hospital.
Eventually we convince him, again another uninsured race goer, to seek help. On the way in his pressure drops and he starts projectile vommiting. Zofran calms that down and he becomes rousable only to sternal rubs, and even then minimally. All because he'd been horsing around with his buddies and fell, hitting a rock.
All in all it was a good day, despite dealing with whackers. And come September, I'll probably put in for the detail again.
My wife's father worked for a now defunct auto parts company and her childhood was spent going from track to track meeting different race car drivers and such. Because of that, we meet almost weekly at the inlaws to have homemade onion rings and beers and other goodies while we watch NASCAR. At first I wasn't interested in anything but the food but the more I watched and the more I drank the more interesting it became with the drafting and the bumping and what not.
So when my shift at the firehouse ended I put on my uniform shirt, I usually just wear a class C t shirt or poloshirt, and drove over to the racetrack to staff one of the private ambulances that had been rented to provide ALS care to the racegoers and, if need be, the drivers themselves.
I ended up being assigned to Grand Stand Aid with a bunch of medics from somewhere down in Connecticut. Its always interesting working with career private ambulance guys or even career EMS guys for that matter. But the career private people are usually a bit interesting and these guys from CT were no exception, they all wore police style belts with pouches for trauma shears and gloves and window punches, they wore huge MagLite flashlights even though we were in a well lit clinic type aid station.
I wore my Leatherman, a tool I wear whether I am working or not.
The day went pretty well despite the strangeness from Connecticut. We had several walk in patients. A guy in Home Depot racing team sweatpants and an AutoPalace sweatshirt comes in and asks us to rebandage his finger, the top of which is missing from some redneck racing related accident three days earlier. Its clearly infected but he refuses to be transported to the hospital claiming he has no insurance. Despite assurances that it won't matter, he still refuses. A few drunks wander in after falling over. We patch them up, hydrate them and sent them off.
For most of the day I sit outside the clinic on a golf cart and watch the parade of drunk and drunker people stagger by. Because of my badge a few of them think I am a cop and try to act sober when they stumble by which is even more entertaining. My official reason for being there was to staff one of the transporting ambulances at the paramedic level with an EMT from further up in the Lakes Region.
At about noon a call comes in from the middle of the track, because of severe mismanagement of the call by those in a position of power (private ambulances, not fire department or municipal personel) I end up being sent to the infield and spend a good portion of the race there until we are recalled to grandstand aid. I snap a few pictures with my cellphone of the cars whipping by and stand at attention for the cameras while they sing the national anthem and fly F 16 fighter jets over the stadium. Richard Petty zipps by on a tiny motorized scooter and thanks us for our service.
At one point I see a bunch of people in Lennox Tools Team t shirts and remember a friend from college who works for them, her father is Hackman, a guy who cuts apart cars with a Sawzall to demonstrate the reliablity of Lennox blades. I ask them if shes here and they tell me she's up in the suite. I call and leave a message telling her to come down and slum it with the rescue guys.
When we end up back in GSA we see a bunch of patients strewn accross the beds. The three CT guys are trying to start a line on a 15 year old girl with virtually no symptoms other than a headache while a 50 something year old guy sits unattended on a cot with his very nervous daughter. She's nervous for good reason, her father has been complaining of chest pain and nausea. His IV is infiltrated and he's shivering like crazy in the 80 degree weather.
I go over and pop another IV in him, discontinuing the 22 they had running and replacing it with a 16 guage in his Left AC. His daughter tells me he doesn't travel much and that he might have over done it.
I tell the CT guys to get a monitor and do a 12 lead, which takes them several minutes of wide eyed scariness to do. When they finally do, the monitor has no paper in it and the guy assures me "The 12 lead's fine." I take the patient and shoot off to Concord Hospital.
When we get back we are, thankfully, told to stage with the Loudon Fire guys at the TV entrance and I end up sitting there as the rain starts to fall. We get sent to meet Hillsborough County sheriffs deputies with a head injury at the other end of the stadium
On arrival we find several guys in Mass State Police sweatshirts trying to convince their intoxicated buddy that his 4 inch gash that goes to the skull over his left eye is worthy of going to the hospital.
Eventually we convince him, again another uninsured race goer, to seek help. On the way in his pressure drops and he starts projectile vommiting. Zofran calms that down and he becomes rousable only to sternal rubs, and even then minimally. All because he'd been horsing around with his buddies and fell, hitting a rock.
All in all it was a good day, despite dealing with whackers. And come September, I'll probably put in for the detail again.
posted by Nick Stabile at 8:29 AM
3 Comments:
Sounds like an all around great day!
I hate rolling vomiting boarded patients with two people in the back, it must've sucked by yourself.
It was a great day,actually. I'll work it again next time it comes around, thats for sure. and yes, rolling him by myself on the board and such was not a fun time but he wasn't too heavy.
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