So I got hired on as a volunteer EMT with Ivins earlier this year. Every shift I worked nothing ever happened... I slept all night. That may sound like a good thing, but I wanted something to happen.
After about 12 shifts, I FINALLY got my first call!! I'm at home in my PJ shorts and a t-shirt. The pager starts beeping and I'm so excited! I can't see straight. I run from the kitchen to my room and listening to the pager and getting dressed were so hard to do at the same time. Luckily Christi was there cause she helped me out a lot!
They give me the address and I'm freaking out! How am I gonna find it? The dispatcher repeats the address and states it's the Tri Mart gas station (the only gas station in Ivins by the way). I don't even remember hearing that because I am not functioning from excitement. In the meantime... I still don't have my pants on. Christi reminds me to put my pants on.... I forgot to button them up tho and I just threw on my boots and forgot socks.
I get on scene... and I have beat the ambulance there! All that rush and freaking out and I can't believe I beat the ambulance there. Something I'll always remember. Definitely funny... I wish there would have been a camera on me because it would have been hilarious to watch!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Ewww!
So ever since I decided to blog about all the stories I have, my mind went blank! I seriously can't think of any... I have been asking around people I'm always telling stories to and for some reason everyone remembers this one story... I'm warning you now it's kinda nasty so if you have a weak stomach stop reading.... I really have no idea why people remember this one, but whatever right?
I was working for Dr. Nelson at the time (OB/GYN). This lady came in for what she thought was a cyst in the vaginal area. Well I am in assisting Dr. Nelson thinking we are going to be draining a cyst... Well he takes a look and it is a HUGE ingrown hair! gross! Dr. Nelson just barely touched it to get a sense of how big it was and it POPS right in his face! Dr. Nelson just asks for a paper towel very calmly and proceeds to drain it.
After we walk out of the room Dr. Nelson goes into the other room and scrubs his face for a very long time. I couldn't believe he was as calm as he was the whole time cause pretty sure if that was me I wouldn't have stayed that calm. Dr. Nelson goes on with his day and a couple hours later he comes out of that room just laughing and asks me to come with him... I go in the room and he points out that there is puss all over the wall that was behind him!! Not only had it gotten Dr. Nelson it went about 4 feet behind and was from the ceiling to the floor! Pretty nasty, but made a funny story. :)
I was working for Dr. Nelson at the time (OB/GYN). This lady came in for what she thought was a cyst in the vaginal area. Well I am in assisting Dr. Nelson thinking we are going to be draining a cyst... Well he takes a look and it is a HUGE ingrown hair! gross! Dr. Nelson just barely touched it to get a sense of how big it was and it POPS right in his face! Dr. Nelson just asks for a paper towel very calmly and proceeds to drain it.
After we walk out of the room Dr. Nelson goes into the other room and scrubs his face for a very long time. I couldn't believe he was as calm as he was the whole time cause pretty sure if that was me I wouldn't have stayed that calm. Dr. Nelson goes on with his day and a couple hours later he comes out of that room just laughing and asks me to come with him... I go in the room and he points out that there is puss all over the wall that was behind him!! Not only had it gotten Dr. Nelson it went about 4 feet behind and was from the ceiling to the floor! Pretty nasty, but made a funny story. :)
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Drunk bum!
Ok, so the first post was depressing. I thought I would post a funny one tonight.
So I was doing a ride along with a friend on South West Ambulance in downtown SLC and the page goes of for a man down... aka drunk bum passed out somewhere. We go to the address that was paged out and we can't see anyone anywhere. We look around for like 5 minutes. We even call dispatch and make sure we have the right address. We did....
I look over in the bushes and all I can see is the bottom of a shoe. This guy had passed out in the bushes and was so close to being completely hidden. Had he just pulled his foot back about an inch he would have been golden and gotten a full nights sleep and not gotten woken up by 3 EMTs and 4 cops.
Since I was the only girl all the guys thought it would be funny to "let me deal with him". Thanks guys... So I wake him up and he has NO idea what's going on. Because we got called to him we had to make sure he was medically ok before we could let him go... and as long as he walked away on his own he wouldn't be arrested. I had to get a blood pressure, blood sugar, and ask him questions to make sure he knew who he was and wasn't completely crazy.
This poor old guy had the hardest time standing up he was so drunk. I put the blood pressure cuff on him and started pumping it up... he FREAKED. He said I was trying to kill him it hurt so bad. (all the guys are trying to hold back their laughter in the background at this point) I finally get a blood pressure and one of the EMTs remind me to get his blood sugar... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? he freaked with a blood pressure cuff... how is he going to handle a finger stick? He didn't handle it well. He started cursing at me and saying how horrible a person I was. (at this point all the guys are laughing hysterically in the background). In between telling me how horrible of a person I was he was hitting on me and asking me out on dates....
Finally one of the cops felt bad for throwing me to the wolves and steps up and helps me finish up. I couldn't even get a band aid on the guys finger he was not handling the little poke in his finger very well. I asked him where he was gonna go.. He told me AA meetings. Funniest part was we were less than 50 feet away from an AA meeting house. He made me walk him to the door "to make sure he made it safe". He told me while walking him to AA "because you are so pretty I am going to change my life around so I can marry you"... I got teased the rest of the shift by all the guys about flirting with the drunk bum.
So I was doing a ride along with a friend on South West Ambulance in downtown SLC and the page goes of for a man down... aka drunk bum passed out somewhere. We go to the address that was paged out and we can't see anyone anywhere. We look around for like 5 minutes. We even call dispatch and make sure we have the right address. We did....
I look over in the bushes and all I can see is the bottom of a shoe. This guy had passed out in the bushes and was so close to being completely hidden. Had he just pulled his foot back about an inch he would have been golden and gotten a full nights sleep and not gotten woken up by 3 EMTs and 4 cops.
Since I was the only girl all the guys thought it would be funny to "let me deal with him". Thanks guys... So I wake him up and he has NO idea what's going on. Because we got called to him we had to make sure he was medically ok before we could let him go... and as long as he walked away on his own he wouldn't be arrested. I had to get a blood pressure, blood sugar, and ask him questions to make sure he knew who he was and wasn't completely crazy.
This poor old guy had the hardest time standing up he was so drunk. I put the blood pressure cuff on him and started pumping it up... he FREAKED. He said I was trying to kill him it hurt so bad. (all the guys are trying to hold back their laughter in the background at this point) I finally get a blood pressure and one of the EMTs remind me to get his blood sugar... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? he freaked with a blood pressure cuff... how is he going to handle a finger stick? He didn't handle it well. He started cursing at me and saying how horrible a person I was. (at this point all the guys are laughing hysterically in the background). In between telling me how horrible of a person I was he was hitting on me and asking me out on dates....
Finally one of the cops felt bad for throwing me to the wolves and steps up and helps me finish up. I couldn't even get a band aid on the guys finger he was not handling the little poke in his finger very well. I asked him where he was gonna go.. He told me AA meetings. Funniest part was we were less than 50 feet away from an AA meeting house. He made me walk him to the door "to make sure he made it safe". He told me while walking him to AA "because you are so pretty I am going to change my life around so I can marry you"... I got teased the rest of the shift by all the guys about flirting with the drunk bum.
Monday, August 30, 2010
First EMS call
So I am doing a ride along (you have to have so many hours before you can certify) and I am so excited! It is my first ride along and I want something super exciting to happen. You know... something like a bad car accident, a heart attack, something super bloody... this isn't because I am twisted (ok, well maybe a little), and it's not because I want bad things to happen. My theory is... if something bad is going to happen, which it is, I wanna be the one to be on call and be there to help the people involved.
So, I get to the fire station and am stoked for the day! 2 hours into the shift and still no call. Kinda disappointing, but I got to talk to all the EMTs and hear awesome stories. We are in the middle of making breakfast and the page goes off! YAY!! The call comes across at 0936 as a full cardiac arrest. Awesome! something big for my first call! I was kind of surprised but they didn't state the age of the patient, which most cities they do. Come to find out Salt Lake had stopped stating the age on most calls because statistics show that if a child is involved EMTs drove less careful to get to the scene faster.
Anyway, we show up on scene and go inside to find a 1 month old baby in full cardiac arrest! We walk in and dad is doing CPR on her, I get told to take over chest compressions! AH! So nerve racking! We pretty much pick her up and go straight to the hospital doing CPR the whole way. We get to the ER and so many people are there and take over everything. We had her hooked up to our machine so we couldn't leave the hospital just yet.
FYI... parents had blankets in her crib and a pillow and layed her on her stomach to sleep. All of which you aren't supposed to do, so she suffocated.
Me and the other EMTs are just standing back watching the doctor and nurses work on this 5 pound little girl, who looks so small and helpless. Her heart rate is in the 80's, as an adult that would be great, but with a baby that is horrible. They push meds and try to bump it up... but it is too late. 1047... 1 hour and 11 minutes after the call came in... time of death! That was probably the WORST feeling ever! On the doctors command everyone stops what they are doing and goes about doing what they had dropped when we came in. It's just a nurse, the baby and me. I am completely surprised I haven't lost it completely yet.
Out in the hallway the doctor is talking to mom and dad... I felt like I was invading their privacy because I could hear the whole conversation between them. Mom lost it and I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. I couldn't believe it... here we were supposed to be helping people and the first patient I have doesn't make it.
We head back to the station and I don't even know what to say, so I am silent. The guys at the station were awesome. They sat and talked for a very long time and made me realize that we did everything we possibly could to save that little girl, so I had to forget that we lost her and just move on knowing it was really her time to go. I realize that this isn't the funny/crazy story that people want to hear, but this was a huge story in my EMT world. I realized that no matter how trained you are if it is someones time to go there is absolutely nothing you can do to change the outcome of the situation.
Hopefully the next story I can think of isn't this depressing. I promise most of my stories are awesome!
So, I get to the fire station and am stoked for the day! 2 hours into the shift and still no call. Kinda disappointing, but I got to talk to all the EMTs and hear awesome stories. We are in the middle of making breakfast and the page goes off! YAY!! The call comes across at 0936 as a full cardiac arrest. Awesome! something big for my first call! I was kind of surprised but they didn't state the age of the patient, which most cities they do. Come to find out Salt Lake had stopped stating the age on most calls because statistics show that if a child is involved EMTs drove less careful to get to the scene faster.
Anyway, we show up on scene and go inside to find a 1 month old baby in full cardiac arrest! We walk in and dad is doing CPR on her, I get told to take over chest compressions! AH! So nerve racking! We pretty much pick her up and go straight to the hospital doing CPR the whole way. We get to the ER and so many people are there and take over everything. We had her hooked up to our machine so we couldn't leave the hospital just yet.
FYI... parents had blankets in her crib and a pillow and layed her on her stomach to sleep. All of which you aren't supposed to do, so she suffocated.
Me and the other EMTs are just standing back watching the doctor and nurses work on this 5 pound little girl, who looks so small and helpless. Her heart rate is in the 80's, as an adult that would be great, but with a baby that is horrible. They push meds and try to bump it up... but it is too late. 1047... 1 hour and 11 minutes after the call came in... time of death! That was probably the WORST feeling ever! On the doctors command everyone stops what they are doing and goes about doing what they had dropped when we came in. It's just a nurse, the baby and me. I am completely surprised I haven't lost it completely yet.
Out in the hallway the doctor is talking to mom and dad... I felt like I was invading their privacy because I could hear the whole conversation between them. Mom lost it and I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. I couldn't believe it... here we were supposed to be helping people and the first patient I have doesn't make it.
We head back to the station and I don't even know what to say, so I am silent. The guys at the station were awesome. They sat and talked for a very long time and made me realize that we did everything we possibly could to save that little girl, so I had to forget that we lost her and just move on knowing it was really her time to go. I realize that this isn't the funny/crazy story that people want to hear, but this was a huge story in my EMT world. I realized that no matter how trained you are if it is someones time to go there is absolutely nothing you can do to change the outcome of the situation.
Hopefully the next story I can think of isn't this depressing. I promise most of my stories are awesome!
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