Pequena · Monarca

I show up to my ridealong today with Lakeside Fire, Station One, Medic One, and everyone marvels that I'm "Larkin's daughter". Ha.

First call: private residence, chief complaint of bed sores. No biggie call. The lady was totally with it, and we transported her.

Second call: we get dispatched to a private residence, chief complaint of chest pain and shortness of breath. I got to feel cool and diaphoretic skins, which was totally freaky. It felt like putting the back of your hand on an icecream tub with condensation all over it...except this was someone's skin. She was totally sick, and after three rounds of Nitro, we got her to Alvarado and she was having an  AMI as they hooked her up to the EKG. I have the printout to prove it! It was so cool to actually see someone in cardiac compromise.

Third call: Private residence, chief complaint of hypotension. The guy was in hypovolemic shock, he had crappy skins and he had the lowest BP I'd ever taken, 73/50. Pupils were pinpoint at 1mm so we suspected narcotics but found none in his bag of myriad meds. And I mean myriad.The guy was schitzo, depressed, had suffered a stroke, and was hypotensive. More investigation and the medics found out he had vomitted this morning. We asked the patient, who was altered, what his vomit looked like, and he told us 'black'. I looked at the medic, and said, "possible coffee-ground emesis?" and he nodded his head as I suggested he "was digesting blood, possible GI bleed". He was impressed, I could tell, and that was a feel-good moment for me, knowing I could put the peices together. 

Fourth Call: Dispatched as a structure fire. The guys got their turnouts on and everything and it ended up just being smell of electrical burning, and they found the socket and we left.

Fifth Call: Private residence, C/C of anxiety/hyperventilation. I had to coach this 19 yr old male to breathe. He was shivering, he had carpal spasms from poor perfusion. "In through the nose, hold it, out through the mouth...come on buddy, you gotta slow your breathing down for me, you're doing really good, come on, concentrate on slowing that breathing down for me..." You can imagine how fun that is for 4 to 5 minutes in the back of an ambulence, trying to get someone to stop hyperventilating. He was breathing at 40 per minute when we got on scene. I got it down to about 30, but it was still pretty gnarly. He didn't look too good when we transferred care. When we got back to the station, Lance was like, "dude...I took his man card the second we walked in that place." It was funny. The kid was such a pussy.

Sixth Call: Fat lady fell, we picked her up, put her in her chair, and left.

Seventh call: As we're chillin', watching The Bourne Identity, "Medic One, paraglider down..." And I'm like, YES. TRAUMA. Well, turns out it's on the hill and they're going to have to fly the guy out! We get to scene and Mercy air has been dispatched, ETA 6 minutes. We hop in the Sherrif's SUV and essentially off-road up the hill, packing five of us in with trauma bags and boards. We get to the patient, I'm holding IV for the medic as they spine board this guy, who had fallen 30 feet without parachute deployment. The medics suspect lumbar vertebrae compromise so direction is to wait for Mercy Air and not try to off-road this guy down the hill. Sure enough, after three landing attempts (this means I'm holding an IV and me and five medics are huddled down, clutching our helmets, on uneven terrain, beating the rotor wash and the high pressure wind created by the rotor. The medics hot-load (while the engine is going) the patient into the helicopter, which is about 50 feet away from me...and transport him to Mercy trauma. I was stoked, I got to see someone life-flighted out.

14 hours later, I'm spent, but would do it again tomorrow in a heartbeat.