Running On Empty

“33 year male, RTC, Bike vs metal fence”

Let me start off by telling you how frightfully tired I am at this point in time and how desperate I was for the toilet! I was also thirsty and starving hungry but the last 4 patients hadn’t gone to hospital so for 6 hours I’d been without any of the essentials that human beings require to function! To be fair, it was kind of my own fault. (Totally my fault!) I had volunteered to do overtime without checking my rota. I knew I was on a rest day do just booked it! What I neglected to check, which subsequently caused said tiredness, was that I was on a night shift the night before. I was supposed to finish at 7am. I didn’t. I finished at 8:30am so was in bed by 9am. My overtime shift started at 3pm. Now do you see my problem?! Ooops! The rest of my needs ie: food, drink, rest and a toilet, were not my fault. That’s just what we do! 

Anyway, the reason why I am so frightfully tired now, is that it is 2:30am. I’d was at the end of my 12 hour shift and due to a lack of a rest break we were heading back to station to go home. We were done, finished, finito, terminé, fertig, terminado, call it what you will, we were offski! 

“General broadcast, all mobiles, any unit available for an RTC, motorbike crash, please press priority or go green mobile” 

That wasn’t meant for us, we were no longer on duty and as much as I felt for the motorcyclist, at some point we have to stop! Besides, I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open! I’d be useless in a trauma situation right now! We carried on back to station which was only a 4 mile drive. Oh god I needed the toilet! 

“General broadcast, all mobiles, we are still holding an RTC, motorbike crash, please press priority or go green mobile” 

Not a chance! Sorry! Nature calls! We pulled onto the road where our station was, all our bags were by the back door, paperwork was done with the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed. The station was visible now, 400 meters up the road. 300 meters......200 meters......100 meters......50 meters...... Ahead, blue lights. An ambulance, thank god! I need my bed! I need the toilet! Just as we approached the entrance to our station we were stopped in our tracks by a frantic policeman. 

“Can you come and help us?!”

I’m guessing I had a tired and confused look! There were two ambulances with blue lights on about 30ft away, why are we needed?! We are finished! And I need the toilet! 

“Apparently the men on those ambulances are “fleet support” and have no medical training. They just came across the crash! We have a motorcyclist who’s come off, I think he’s in a pretty bad way.” 

The penny dropped. My heart sunk. This was the job they’d been broadcasting. This is why they need an ambulance. We now had no choice but to help. The toilet was so close! 

We drove over, I jumped out, grabbed a few bags and the collars and went to assess the damage. Well, a motorbike helmet embedded in a metal fence is never a good sign! What was a good sign was the guy was conscious and talking, although he was trying to get up which obviously I didn’t want him to do! Despite my sternest voice and soft use of force and stood up. Unfortunately, the second he put weight onto his foot he dropped to the floor (into my arms) in a heap. 

Due to blood on his shoe, I decided my first port of call would be his ankle. As I rolled his trouser leg up my stomach turned. His foot was facing the wrong way and both bones of his lower leg were protruding from where you’d expect his shin to be. It was gross. By now my crew mate had come over with other bags and was trying to hold his head still. Unfortunately because of how drunk he was, and the fact he had a head injury he wasn’t willing to let is go near his head. 

“Red base, we had a male with a serious open fracture to his left leg, a potentially serious head injury and a very high mechanism impact. We are x-ray (ambo lingo for FINISHED) so could you send a unit to us urgently.” 

“Sorry, we have no units to send.”

Now, the sceptic in me says that even if they had a unit to send, there would be no intention to send it! Why?! Because we were there and would have to convey ourselves due to the condition of the patient! Due to his injuries we would also have to take him to a trauma centre, the nearest being a 25 minute blue light run away. Humpffffff!! 

We got the bed next to him and with the help of the police removed his clothes, got his leg bandaged and immobilised, head injury dressed, cervical collar fitted, pelvic splint applied, got him onto an orthopedic scoop, strapped up and onto the bed. That all took about 10 minutes. We were ready(ish) to go. Until now he had removed the oxygen mask every time it was put on. Just as we were about to roll the bed to the ambulance he went floppy for a split second and then begun fitting. 

It wasn’t just any kind of seizure, it was one of the most violent seizures I’d ever seen. 

“Chuck me my cannula roll” I said as I put a tourniquet round his arm. 

“Red base, our patient is now fitting, we have a long run to the trauma centre, are HEMS available?” 

“Negative, HEMS are busy on another job at the moment.” 

“Rog, this patient may need sedating, what about a Delta Alpha?” (Doctor in a fast car) 

“Standby................ negative, your nearest DA is 25 minutes away, coming from their home. The HEMS desk recommend you just leave now.” 

Thanks for the recommendation! Not sure what we would have done without it! My issue is I had a trauma patient fitting violently on the back of my ambulance with multiple fractures and probably spinal and internal injuries. I didn’t consider him to be stable enough to transport but hey, improvise, adapt and overcome eh?! 

I got a cannula in him and we got him loaded on board the truck. Although the fit hadn’t lasted long enough to give drugs according to the guidelines and although he hadn’t had repeated seizures which the guidelines also say you can give drugs for I decided not to wait. They are guidelines after all and I was happy to justify my actions should they be questioned. Five minutes of an extremely violent seizure post a traumatic head injury was enough for me to try it! And guess what?! It didn’t work. By the time I had decided it hadn’t worked we were well on our way to the hospital. The copper in the back of the ambulance was god send, I needed the extra hands! 

After 27 minutes we arrived at the trauma centre. That was 31 minutes after he had started fitting and I had given all the drugs I could. He was handed over to the waiting trauma team and we went to clear up the bomb site of the ambulance! And what a mess! Now for the paperwork! I hadn’t even started one because all my paperwork was put away at the END OF MY SHIFT! 

So, 45 minutes after arriving we were ready to go. We checked in on our patient who had stopped fitting and was being treated for his multitude of injuries. Maybe he’ll survive, maybe he won’t. It's not that I don't care, it's just I won't find out so I try to move on from it. It's easier that way. Let's call it self preservation! 

We now had a 35 minute drive home! Luckily I wasn’t driving! My adrenaline surge had well and truly ended, my second wind had gone, I was a wreck! 

Had it been safe for me to do that job? Doubtful! Do you think I was in a good mental place to deal with my patient?! Probably not! Should we carry on being expected to perform under these strains?! I’d say no! A fellow blogger, The Broken Paramedic, recently described what is expected of paramedics and what attributes we must have to do our job at times. 

“These carefully selected individuals are capable of superhuman feats of endurance. They do not require rest or nourishment, they can perform efficiently without sleep and can reabsorb their own excreta so access to toilet facilities is not required. They have cat-like reactions, heightened diagnostic powers and physical strength which only improves with fatigue and they can sustain emotional and psychological extremes far beyond normal humans. They are practically indestructible.

This is of course total rubbish”

I left for home just after 5am. I felt like a broken paramedic. Living the dream eh?!