I've been putting this post off because my last shift was probably the scariest and most eye-opening day of my life. Don't worry, I'm not scarred for life or anything like that, although several images do pop into my head from time to time, BUT:
Things people shouldn't have the "pleasure" in experiencing:
1) Seeing someone's skull from a gash in a fight
2) Seeing a 8 inch long piece of muscle coming from someone's elbow.
3) Having to take an hour to clean the ambulance from all the blood
4) Having a 31 year old patient's vitals and level on conscious dwindle and go to nothing in front of your eyes.
5) Be faced with a traumatic situation.
I'm not shaken up anymore from the two calls I had on Thursday, I've been hanging out with Yoni, my cousin, for the weekend and we've had a blast. However, on Thursday night, I had the biggest and longest adrenaline rush in my entire life from the second call.
Call 1: Called into Tel Aviv for domestic violence. Arrived on scene and the patient's, named Ivor, a 27 year old Russian, shorts were completely drenched with blood. If I squeezed the shorts, I bet blood would just pour out. He three large lacerations on his fingers and hands, and a couple minor cuts on his head, but the cuts on his fingers wouldn't stop bleeding until half-way to the hospital. There was a reason why this was scary: 1) He was deported from Canada because he was in jail like 10 times in the last two years. 2) He told me "When we get to the hospital, I'm going to call some friends and we are gonna do a lil 'bang bang' on the ****er who did this to me" and he did a gun-firing motion. His laugh resembled the Joker from Batman, and looked at me with eyes of just pure death.
Call 2: THE CALL. Right when we left the hospital there was another call for domestic violence, but in a very sketchy part of Tel Aviv. Basically, only drug dealers and other shady people go there.
We arrive on scene and there are hundreds of people walking around, and the driver said "Stay in the ambulance" because it could be dangerous with all of those people around. A police officer brings in the patient, a 31 year old Ethiopian whom was also in a fight, but this one was more deadly. His shirt, drenched with blood, his pants have rips everywhere from knife cuts, a huge cut on his forward (showing his skull), and a gigantic bump on the back of his head (later we found out caused internal bleeding in his head), and was unconscious. Although, he wouldn't respond to anything we would say., but would respond to pain.
His pulse was weak and fast, one of the signs for hypovolemic shock, and his hands looked like they went through a meat grinder because they were all torn up. I wrapped a bandage around his head and blood starting seeping through very quickly and the driver ran to the wheel and started driving insanely fast. Faster than the driver for the CPR, than the woman who was going to give birth, just pure insanity.
You honestly can't train for something like this. The adrenaline, the ambulance going at insane speeds, someone's life in your hands, you can practice and practice but being in the moment is a whole other thing. Trying to do the things you practiced in a controlled environment (classroom) and then applying it to a controlled chaos environment is insane.
Anyways, I started to notice blood pouring from his elbow and looked and there was a 4 inch cut right around his elbow, with a long piece of some sort of muscle falling out. This was the scary part, going 120 kilometers/hour (like 60 mph) down city streets and swerving through cars makes it extremely dangerous trying to do anything with the patient. Although I was able to tie a bandage around his elbow, I then did a pain test. Pushed on a couple pressure point areas that anyone would scream at if I did it as hard as I did, and also the sternum rub which will wake the most unconscious person, no reaction at all. I checked his pulse and it was considerably weaker and faster and then it stopped (this was on the brachial artery near the wrist) and then checked the carotid artery (on his neck) and there was NO pulse. This was in a matter of minutes and we were arriving at the hospital right when I felt for his pulse.
I told the driver that there was no pulse and was not responding and he said to start compressions. I did, but about 15 compressions in the patient sorta moved his arm showing that he was still "alive". Arrived at the hospital and three paramedics and hospital personal were waiting and rushed him into the trauma-surgery room. Right when they got him in, he started to seize and have convulsions knocking tons of stuff over.
I left some things out due to the graphic content people don't need to hear about.
After we dropped him off and I walked back to the ambulance, all I could hear was this weird ringing/numbness around my entire body. I was drenched with sweat, my hands were shaking from the adrenaline, and my mind was completely blank, yet moving at amazing speeds. I opened the back of the ambulance and it was utter chaos: half the floor was covered with blood, gauze pads and several bloody bandages were also on the floor, two of the "cubbys" with equipment fell out, an open saline bag was dripping on the seats, there was blood on the stretcher, scraps of paper lying around, and dirty/bloody alcohol pads. It looked like hell.
The only thing that kept me sane was cleaning everything up because it gave me something to focus on. It took a total of one hour to clean everything up. The blood had dried on the floor, and I had to replace everything in the ambulance.
My hands were still shaking from the excitement until we got to the station.
In conclusion, that was the most intense call I have ever had. It tested everything that I have learned so far, and was a call I will never forget.
Until next time,
Yallah bye
No comments:
Post a Comment