Friday, July 10, 2009

First Clinical run

Ok so its no surprise to any by now that I'm taking EMT classes and that I am now in clinicals. Last night was my first night and it was at the trauma hospital. The first few hrs was boring to say the least the patients were discharged within those 3 hrs. very slow night I thought. Of course I didn't want to ask any questions if they were always this slow as to not jinx the nurses cause they really hate it when you do ask. About 12-1 it really started to pick up. I had a 62yr. old complaining of chest pain. Her heart rate was irregular and blood pressure was unstable. It started two days ago and normal treatment was ineffective found out that basically she was having heart attacks for the last two days and was currently having small heart attacks. She wasn't loosing conscious or anything like that just kind of cool for me bad for her. The next patient that I helped with had asthmatic symptoms which was cool cause I can treat that on the truck so I got to help with that. Then all hell literally broke loose for a trauma hospital. The call initially was a male shot in right leg by drive by. Then it was a code 99 call which I found out means the patient had coded and cpr was in progress. The gentleman had a shotgun wound to the left leg and ripped through the bone and femoral artery not good at all. He had basically lost enough blood to make his blood pressure drop cause there was no blood. Had he been maybe five minutes longer on the scene. He would have no died no question. Anyways I got to see the entrance and exit of a major gunshot wound. I did do chest compressions as everybody stepped in to keep his blood pressure up and help keep pressure to the wound. All in all it was a cool night I only felt sick once and I think its because I really hate hearing and seeing people throw up but I will get used to it so I'm not that concerned. I dealt with blood in a high tense situation. Oh and by the way the guy did live they had to actually cut off the leg. I had other cases but I won't bore you with them. They were mostly skill cases for myself to help me learn. Take care.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOWZA! Maybe a slow start, but surely a plethora of interesting and tense situations followed! I guess that's what its all about!

Glad to hear you (and the patients) all survived!

Keep up the good work, and keep on telling us how it goes!

aunt kitty

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you got started like being shot out of a cannon! If that was your first experience then I guess you're going to be in for quite a ride.

So I'm guessing "code 99... patient had coded" is something like a flat liner.

Here's to an exciting new career!

Uncle Dennis

Adam said...

I'd rather lose a leg than die... Sounds like an intense night/job!