I had a call today at the end of my tour. It was for a 60 yo paramedic (so his wife told us as we walked in). There I was with blinky (who didn't use sirens the entire charlie call - I am biting my tongue).
My hands shook as I did a successful IV (20g when I thought it was 18g - AC, all good... patent and happy) and put the ECG 12 lead on.
He waited from 19:30 last night to 04:30 this morning to call EMS after taking *11* shots of nitro.
Holy crap.
I called for ALS backup in case they could push meds I couldn't. Morphine, that's it because he'd waited too long.
I literally was dripping I was so stressed. That was a first. Paramedics... why do you affect me so?
Here's hoping I don't make others sweaty when I'm a paramedic.
23.6.12
18.6.12
You can pick your nose...
It is a bit of a love/hate relationship with this new ambulance service. I work consistently with two people and when one of them was on vacation, some casuals. So, I am one of 3 full-time people and then there are several casual workers.
One of the FT people is a solid EMT who actually may be starting the same paramedic program as I am hoping to get into and the other is an EMR who failed the EMT twice, is 62 years old, is me x2 weight wise and is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
He blinks one eye at a time and acts like a child. Seriously. You can pick your nose but you can't pick your partners.
On the up side, I feel like this is a solid learning experience. As a BLS service, I am learning how to delegate, run a call and be a big girl on the ambulance (instead of the paramedic's bitch). This past tour saw me running a call with a 79 yo woman who initially had NSR with a 1st degree block (bp 110/79 hr 64) spiral downwards into afib (bp 78/36 hr 38)... all I had to say to my casual partner was "Diesel" and off we tootled with lights/sirens.
I am proud to say that I made solid clinical decisions and we got her to the hospital alive. It's challenging to work rural because you have a 30+ minute ride to the safety of a hospital. She'll likely need a pacemaker but that lovely lady is still alive to hug her grandkids.
YAY!!!
One of the FT people is a solid EMT who actually may be starting the same paramedic program as I am hoping to get into and the other is an EMR who failed the EMT twice, is 62 years old, is me x2 weight wise and is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
He blinks one eye at a time and acts like a child. Seriously. You can pick your nose but you can't pick your partners.
On the up side, I feel like this is a solid learning experience. As a BLS service, I am learning how to delegate, run a call and be a big girl on the ambulance (instead of the paramedic's bitch). This past tour saw me running a call with a 79 yo woman who initially had NSR with a 1st degree block (bp 110/79 hr 64) spiral downwards into afib (bp 78/36 hr 38)... all I had to say to my casual partner was "Diesel" and off we tootled with lights/sirens.
I am proud to say that I made solid clinical decisions and we got her to the hospital alive. It's challenging to work rural because you have a 30+ minute ride to the safety of a hospital. She'll likely need a pacemaker but that lovely lady is still alive to hug her grandkids.
YAY!!!
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