One Mississippi

I started this blogspot to journal out the thoughts, emotions, and calls from my career. In hopes that someone else can relate. I’m sure in some form or fashion someone could find entertainment in these as well. None the less, they are like my life and job… rather disorderly, random, and chaotic. 

What other way is there to live? In my “I visited a classmate post today” I had a clear train of thought, as I immediately opened up the page and started typing. The emotions were raw and in the moment. The thoughts flowing as quickly as a fire hydrant, and THEN… 

The fire hydrant was opened, completely, all 3 caps removed… one call, then two, then three, then four… it didn’t stop there either. 

For a small town community with a population of less than 10,000 and minimal attractions, the call volume is rather low but then, there are the days. The days where we lose one of our two trucks to another call, a transfer, a structure fire… This. Was. One. Of. THOSE. Days. We hadn’t been busy at all, until we were the only truck to respond. It started with one and continued for 8 hours. We rolled back in around 2AM, as the other truck was returning from the transfer… 

During that time, we dropped that first patient off at the hospital, unsure of whether he’d take the trip “home” that he wanted. Backed into the bay, sat for long enough to get where I got with that post, and then it was ON. What is it called? “Murphy’s Law”… 

Next call was a little old lady who didn’t feel well, waited til 2115 to call for an ambulance? Been on the couch all day! Man… but then, she really seemed to be rather sick. She sat on the couch with her legs hanging off, laid over sideways with her head on a pillow. Didn’t speak much, so her husband did the talking. Said she was the sickest he’d ever seen, said she’d went to the clinic today, said she wasn’t okay… I want her to go to “specific facility”. Sorry sir, we’re the only truck in the county, as of right now she has to go to the closet appropriate… “but I want her to go to…”. This is when I politely asked if he called because he couldn’t drive in the dark, this is where he explains once more that she isn’t okay. Her vitals had been checked and we within normal range. She didn’t have any S&S besides diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. She couldn’t keep the meds down due to such, antibiotics… UTI. Clinic didn’t swab her for the popular Co-Vid and we couldn’t rule out cardiac, which would require the “specific facility”, until we got her to the truck. Therefore we made a deal with the husband to check her out and then decide if a longer distance was appropriate. I explained how protocols work and what our “rules” are. My partner explained how if he needed an ambulance while she was gone, we’d be delayed, the husband then explain how he was going to follow us to the hospital, anyway… so I finally spoke up and explained how if he were to wreck during that time, he’d have to sit there waiting on an ambulance, until we got back… he just wasn’t taking no for an answer and finally said “first come, first serve”. As we went out to the stretcher, we just stopped. We decided that if administration wanted to put us and everyone in the county at risk, for a transfer… we could justify our sick patient not going to the same facility that sends less sick patients out, all the time. We returned with the bed and informed the husband of our decision. He expressed gratitude, we loaded grandma up and rode on. 

While we’re dropping her off, we caught a glimpse of our earlier patient. His BP was still shit, his heart rate was still high. The attending paced back and forth at the doorway stepped out into the hall then returned to pacing, before he caught a glimpse of us watching the team in the room work. He looked at us trying to figure out if we were there for the show or for the patient, when my partner asked “you think he’s going to be okay Doc?”. The young, clean cut, visibly overthinking man replied with a muted excitement, “are y’all the ones who brought him in?” As we nodded, he went full force with a sense of relief, “How was he when y’all found him? What was he doing? How was he presenting?” We answered all the things he needed to know and let him know, we were also confused on the multitude of things this patient had going on. He confirmed that he was grateful for the info and “I don’t know, but he is a sick kid…”, then everyone went about their business. 

We load up the stretcher, grab supper, or a snack as some might call it, and attempted to return to the station. We didn’t make it… rolling into the Main Street of the city,  the tones blast again. I wish I had more information on this patient but at some point my memory got clouded and I was in complete robot mode. I think it was a nursing home patient with blood sugar issues, go figure… either way, it wasn’t exciting enough for me to note any variables about it so I’ll get back to the ones that were…

I’m loading the stretcher back in the truck when guess what!?! Mhmmm. My partner met me in the truck and we rolled again. Informed dispatch, it’d be a minute, as we were leaving the other call and were a county over. This call was for Covid lady. She was a real character. We were never told that she passed out, just that she fell, which made for a real interesting conflict later in the call. As we’re once again rolling in in Main Street, another call drops, I begged for it to be “life threatening”, spoiler alert, it was a frequent flyer that wanted a ride to the hospital, she got mutual aid. Then before we could arrive to “Covid Lady” ANOTHER CALL drops. Just someone wanting a BS check to see if her monitor was wrong. We tagged her green and notified dispatch that the response would be delayed. 

When we arrive at “Covid Lady” we find a side driveway and try to figure out if “that light wasn’t flashing when we pulled up, or was it?”, we dawn the masks and step over the things scattered throughout the back porch. The curtain is open and my partner is scared to go by himself, so we make it to the back door, as I watch for signs of life through the window. One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi… “I still dont see anyone”, I say as he continues to knock loudly and we try to figure out the floor plan… then finally I see her, she walks to the front door and seems really confused when no one is there. That’s when my partner knocks on the window and waves at her. She explains they have Covid, returned from a cruise, were on the upside of things, when this happened. She request us to stand in the hallway, so she can finish getting her sister cleaned up before we proceed… we comply. She returns and continues to explain that her sister started coughing as she was in the bathroom, passed out, now isn’t feeling well… we once again explain the closest appropriate thing, take her vitals, move her to a chair and get her to the front door to transfer to the stretcher. I keep my fingers crossed hoping she doesn’t puke because I can’t. We load her up and she doesn’t say much. When we tell her the destination, she throws her head back and says “ohhhhh God”. Lucky for her she only had Covid… or maybe not so lucky. Whatever. She breathes a little lighter as we enter the truck where the AC is cold. The transport isn’t long and the report is much more interesting, so we’ll jump to that. She’s been positioned in the hospital bed and the nurse known for having an attitude with crews walks in, in her defense, I’ve never had a problem with her. She does her typical “so what’s going on?”, as we walk in the door… and I attempt to start report by saying, “she started coughing and had a syncopal episode…” which is when the patient finds her voice and speaks over me to say “that is not what happened,.. I went in the bathroom to vomit, but the toilet wouldn’t flush, and I didn’t want to throw up in the toilet and not be able to flush it, that’s when the coughing started… but I didn’t pass out”, meanwhile I’m thinking, “so you decided to pass out in the floor and have uncontrollable diarrhea at the same time?, nailed it” because THAT IS what happened, there was proof, I smelled it. Yuck. I let the patient give report of what “actually happened”, I explained what I was told “actually happened” and walked out the door. 

Earlier in the night, while on another call, I’d smelled myself. My deodorant was gone and I smelled like a high school football player in the middle of summer practice. That bothered me. As we returned to the truck, my partner explained he needed a bathroom break… and we needed to restock the truck. So before we continued response to the FSBS patient, we stopped at the station. I fixed my problems, he fixed his and we continued on. 

The sugar problems were due to steroids, my mind was blown at that. She was claustrophobic and didn’t want to go by ambulance, which she really could do without… her family encouraged her to because “she’s got insurance” and “she’ll get to a bed quicker”… they were corrected, she stood on going POV and we appreciated that very much. 

I’m not sure what the past was like but today’s EMS systems are now overrun with abusive patients, selfish people, whom yes, this is “their emergency” but have no regard for other people’s lives and cannot decipher between “their emergency” and a true emergency. Ambulances are a convenience and crews are left to clean up the mess of mismanagement. No doubt, there are times where transfers are definitely necessary and in the case of this night, it was justified, yet a bird would have served the patient more appropriately, but weather… 2 out of our 6 patients, truly needed an ambulance and medical professionals, the others, not so much. That’s less than half that were TRUE emergencies and that’s where the system begins to make sense. 

Don’t get it twisted, I love finding the humor in the “their emergency” calls just as much as the rush from the true emergency calls. I laugh a lot, so that I don’t cry, I like people, but sometimes they’re hard to deal with to. I understand why the burnout is so real for so many and why no one gets in hurry to get to the truck. Is it right? No. Is it the truth, Yes. All in all, I enjoyed the calls, I enjoyed doing what I love and finding the humor in the parts I didn’t enjoy. What I don’t love, is administrations lack of authority to stand up for the citizens we serve. Private transports exist for a reason and there is no reason that your citizens should be robbed of resources to clean up someone else’s mess. But hey, welcome to EMS. 

Cleaning up the mess of others, One call at a time…