A rare occasion such as this....

It is not very often that I get to write about let alone participate in what we in the EMS field call a "Code Save"

But today was a spectacular day......

So as I am enjoying my mid morning snack of Fig Newtons and Mountain Dew, for unlike others in EMS I am a healthy eater *cough* *cough* a call goes out to my buddies car sending him to a "Working One Hundred" or what we commonly refer to as a witnessed arrest. My preceptor and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and called upstairs to let dispatch know we would be "wandering around the area" if they just happened to need a second unit for help. With that we left the bay and meandered towards the location.

Which ironically is actually in a Doctors office that is ATTACHED to the hospital. But they do not like us doing the "George Clooney" (which is the act of riding the rail of the stretcher as it is being pushed into the ER while doing compressions or *ventilating the patient)

*Only corpses and groceries are "Bagged"

So of course we get toned and just happened to be the closest unit for the assist.

So into the doctors office we go with a backboard and a collar bag because the other equipment would not be needed as the other crew should have everything but going in empty handed seemed rude. As we enter the building and walk to the elevator a poor young lady carrying Fed Ex packages is surprised as I stick the backboard into the elevator stopping the door. So she is startled but still has the presence of mid to ask which floor we were going to.

I can only imagine what was going through her mind as three men walked into her elevator and began nonchalantly putting on rubber gloves with no patient in sight. We kept our composure and refrained from making the obvious jokes that would most assuredly come later after the call.

Entering the doctors office one of the nurses at the desk told us "There is already an ambulance here" We thanked her for the info and another staff member explained to her that the more the merrier in these types of situations. So into the room past a very distraught doctor we go. You can hear the AED (Automated Defibrillation Device) chiming "Analyzing Rhythm in 2 Minutes" and we enter the room to find A Paramedic supervisor and her preceptee (A fellow classmate from my paramedic class last year) trying to move the patient on the backboard, attach the monitor, ventilate the patient, start an IV, and get meds ready. So my preceptor began helping them get the patient on the backboard while I opened our bag to get out straps (Which for some reason I brought our bag and it turns out they forgot theirs) and then went to get a brief history and story from the staff. Turns out the guy was there for routine labs and just went unresponsive when he was about to get blood drawn. The staff put the AED on him (Annoying little things but they are the best thing since Pez and I absolutely love them) and it had delivered a shock to the patient TWICE before our first unit arrived with a monitor. So at this time the man is breathing by himself at a rate of about 8 and he has a pulse and a blood pressure. Good Ole Lidocaine. So we "Clooney" him out to the ambulance (Of course the only way out was through a waiting room FULL of patients) and to the ambulance. I am setting up the intubation kit while we are securing him in the back when my partner asks me "Who's Driving?"

Now I have to explain that while I am on the clock I drive, tech etc. But while doing precepting we are not allowed to drive the ambulance. So we run crews of three. One Paramedic, One Preceptee, and one EMT-B to drive. Their driver was in a meeting in another part of the hospital (which explained why they got called to it first because they were already parked there)

"You are dude!" I say to my partner who just laughs and jumps in the front. So I am helping set up a Lidocaine drip, my friend is sitting on my lap trying to get the patient intubated, another medic is trying to get new vitals, and I am ventilating with one hand and trying to get a patch set up with the other.

Thank god we were LITERALLY in the parking lot of the hospital about 500 feet from the ER door.

So we are piling out of the back looking like what Barnum and Bailey envision EMS to be and wheel the patient in and get him transferred over while I magically produce a full history, meds, and his latest Lab results and hand them over to the receiving doctor who looks at me with surprise and a grin.

The patient has a bounding pulse, a strong Blood Pressure, and a stable rhythm. Thats all we could ever ask for.


But wait.......

15 minutes later I go in to the room to grab copies of the paperwork for the report and the man is not only conscious, but he is answering questions. I tell the rest of the guys and they don't believe me. 10 minutes after that he is sitting upright in a hospital bed, talking and he even signs for treatment and HIPPA information. He thanked us. After signing he was told to take it easy and hope he feels better soon.

"Well I could only be worse if I was dead"

"Sir you already were once today"

we walk back to our ambulance and laugh about what the woman in the elevator must have thought and make a few rubber glove jokes

Happy to be of service