FlightEMS.com

START RANT> “Untold Stories of the ER”

Please, PLEASE for the love of pete, if you decide to do a ‘real life stories’ kind of show about medicine, especially the emergency kind, hire medical consultants!

When is the last time you got a blood pressure of 46/17 PALP? And the flight nurse with the trauma patient who is wearing her helmet IN the emergency room? You can’t hear anything with your helmet on unless it is plugged into the helicopter’s communication system. They have noise canceling which keeps out the aircraft noise (and everything else).

We won’t talk about this massive trauma patient who was rolled in without spinal immobilization (no back board) with the head of the bed up. Or the lack of an attempt at showing body substance isolation (face shields, gloves) during the trauma evaluation which included an arterial (read: SQUIRTING) bleeding.

And please, can you lose the caddy nurses? They annoyed even me.

<End Rant

Today wasn’t much different than yesterday but for some reason I was just plain happy. This is a happiness based in quiet contentment which just oozed into every small thing I experienced today.

I woke up after a very happy dream this morning, completed some steps in a major project for the Army, received multiple phone calls from those I love, and flew a fresh Ortho-Trauma patient. It is such a relief when I get patients I am comfortable caring for. All in all, a very good day.

My orientation experience is on the downhill slide. I am very happy to be almost finished but still have some concerns. Actually, that isn’t quite accurate. I AM SCARED TO DEATH. But, I have been told that is a good thing.

I guess this is not really a post of substance, but I am just plain happy today.

I took a 79 year old lady on her very first flight EVER today. It is amazing how many patients we fly that have never been in the air. I have actually added, “Have you ever flown in a helicopter before?” to my list of assessment questions. The anxiety from knowing they are going to be flying can be a physiological hindrance at times.

You can just imagine what a fear of flying can do to a patient who is in the middle of a massive MI or CVA?

We wrapped her up in blankets; tucked her in with the cables, cords and IVs for the flight. As we were loading our stretcher in, she looked at my physician and asked if we had a pan, just in case she got sick. The doctor thought she was feeling ill because of her physiologic state. She was actually afraid she would be motion sick.

We took off into cold, blue skies. The sun was out making it a great day for flying. The stoic look slowly melted from her face. Her blood pressure and heart rate evened out as she settled into the ride. I left her be, content to watch her vital signs squiggle across my monitor. Prior to take off, I made sure her head was elevated enough to get a glimpse out the window when she was ready.

Eventually she gathered enough courage to open her eyes and look at the ceiling. When she realized that was okay, she ventured a look out the far window. Although it took a few minutes longer, she eventually got up enough courage to lift her shoulders and look through the closest window at the snowy landscape.

In another time and place, I had a patient lean up to look out the window which would change his life.

Today, this sweet lady decided that flying was something she would definitely like to do again.

Maybe not life changing, but it reminded me why I enjoy this so much.