Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Really, Really, Green Charlie Three

The Basics:
Green is stable, Orange not so stable, Red unresponsive.
Charlie is conscious, Uniform is unconscious.
Three is trauma, Five is medical
So Really, Really, Stable ,conscious, trauma
 
Call received from the nursing station to go to the school.
12 year old girl went to open the door with her foot and her nail bent back.
When we get there, she is totally embarrassed by all the attention and really shy.
Someone had already put a band aid on the injury, so what to do?
I know, throw her on the stretcher, hang a 1 litre bag of saline, run the drip set under the blanket, bandage her head in gauze, put the O2 sensor, bp cuff, accutest.... in plain sight, blanket her so that only her eyes are showing and leave lights a flashing.
Once we were under way I peeled back the blanket and was met by a huge grin.
 
Ok, stage two, to pay back nurse that called us, we fly into the emerg parking lot but are met by a new nurse and nearly gave her a cardiac. OOps! Just kidding, where is so and so?
 
Ok, stage three, lets scare the folks. (patient's idea not mine) Problem was, grandma knew me from a past prank and busted us. She tried not to but was grinning so wide that I thought her head would hinge back and fall off.
 
So, seven calls since 0830hrs, now for some food and maybe even a nap.
 

2 comments:

Hillbob said...

That sounds like brilliant fun!
Do you pull stunts like that often?

Jessie said...

Hi Hillary, We try to keep the job fun to balance some of the "unfun" that we run into. In this particular case, we had no choice but to transport the patient, so might as well have some fun with the call.
When we run into a house to treat a parent, sometimes the children are traumatized and we don't have time to talk with them and cheer them up. That's one reason that we like to goof with the kids, to let them know that we aren't always scary. Plus, it was fun.