Today I got to spend the day with the Macon County EMS. Before I had gotten there, they had already responded to two calls: a seizure and a drug seeker. Things were slow for the better part of the morning which allowed for some quality trivia TV time (Cash Cab and Family Fued) and some terrible screaming/fighting/bleeping/you are not the father TV (Maury).
We finally got a call a little before 12 noon: 90-something year old female, possible stroke. Off we went, sirens on, gas pedal to the floor. I was riding in the back but could peak to the front to see the speedometer creep up towards 100mph. Not that I want people to get hurt, but that part was a little bit fun! When we arrived, the woman was not very coherent, couldn't speak, and we couldn't get a blood pressure. We gave her some oxygen and started an IV hoping the fluids would increase her BP. No such luck, as we made our way down the mountain her BP was hanging around the 80s/40s and once again we hit the sirens and punched to the hospital.
At the hospital, another paramedic team (12) was getting called to another scene: seizure-like activity. I hopped in their truck and off we went to the Franklin Historical Society. There we found a lady on the ground who had started having a seizure while half way up a flight of stairs and fell down them. She has a history of seizures and knows her medication is not controlling them. She had had 4 witnessed seizures before we got there, and had 3 more as we were working on her to try to start an IV. Paramedics only have certain medications with them and the meds they have to give for seizures can only be given IV, but they couldn't get access, her veins were terrible. Once at the hospital, the doctor ordered a different med (which works better anyway) and they must have gotten the seizures under control. Later in the day, we heard they let her go home calling her episodes "pseudo-seizures." The paramedics and I don't really agree with that call, but its not our decision to make.
Call #3 was to back up Medic 9 that was responding to an elderly lady that had fallen on her face in an apartment parking lot. Her sister had a syncopal episode (passed out) and now also needed attention and transport. The woman apparently got excited playing with her grandchild and fell then her sister, who has a history of low BP, got excited about the fall and her BP bottomed out and she passed out. The sister probably went home this afternoon, the lady with face trauma might have to spend the night.
My last call of the day was helping transport a lady home from the hospital. This woman was brought in earlier in the morning by Medic 12 because her O2 sat (amount of oxygen she was breathing in) was in the 70s. For normal healthy people its in the high 90s; for people with respiratory conditions, they typically qualify for home oxygen when their sats drop into the 80s with walking. This lady's O2 sats are typically in the low 80s because of her size, she weighs over 800 lbs. Yep, two zeros behind that eight. It took all four paramedics from trucks 3 and 12 plus 3 nurses and a nursing student to transfer her to the stretcher. The stretcher and the bed in hospital have been specially purchased for her size. Then at her house, it took the 4 paramedics plus two guys from the fire department that met us there to get her back in her bed at home. That was an experience. Perfectly pleasant lady with what has to be a terrible quality of life and definately some medical problems that would not exist if she was not the size she was. I just don't understand how people let themselves get that big. Gain some weight yes, but 800 lbs, there is no excuse for that.
Overall, a pretty exciting day. They had never had a pharmacy student ride along with them and thought it was pretty cool that I would choose to do that. Hopefully I'll never ride in an ambulance again, but I definately enjoyed the opportunity to see another perspective of healthcare.
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