Is the Whole Team Here? – כל הצוות פה?

Monday, June-28-10

It’s about 1 something in the morning and I just walked in from my most amazing shift yet. My day began as usual, except this time a little (well a lot) later since my shift was only at 3pm. When I arrived at the station I was pleasantly surprised to see how relaxed and organised it was. Moriel and I were told our driver and once we met him we knew it was going to be a good shift, he just seemed so nice. So we left the main station for the Yafo station, where we were technically stationed for the day (we never did get there) and on our way we got our first call. A chainsaw accident. We’re racing through the traffic and then on the way the way we pass a four car collision! What a start to the shift. With permission from dispatch we pull over to make sure no one is seriously hurt, and once we determined that was the case we were back in the ambulance and off to the chainsaw accident. I’m getting all excited and we are trying to find the address. Hop out of the ambulance check around and nothing. Can’t find it, the address makes no sense and when we call dispatch they cancel the call. Seriously, cancel a chainsaw accident but whatever not my call. Within 5min we get our next call. A transfer. Seriously, after that adrenalin rush that’s the last thing we all wanted but I guess that’s all part of the job. We arrive and discover that this apartment building has no elevator and what floor have we been called to, the top (5th) floor. Great. Upon entering the house we realise that this is not going to be easy. It’s a 83y/o woman who weighs about 250-300lb (115-135kg) and she is not going to be doing 4 flights of stairs anytime soon. We call for another team, and with 5 of us transferring the patient we eventually get down the stairs, drenched in sweat. It’s about 1.5hrs from the beginning to the end of the call, at that point I was really wishing that we had found that chainsaw accident. The next call was bit later, after stopping to fill up our oxygen tank at the station. It was for a little boy who had fell and hit his head. In the end he was fine but what made this call great was seeing all the reactions. The father was tearing up, the patient was continuously crying, and the paramedic was great. A pair of gloves turned into a balloon with a face drawn on and the boy went from tears to laugher in seconds. We took him to the hospital as protocol/precaution and we all left that call smiling and relieved that it wasn’t a true “head trauma” like dispatch had originally read. About now it was about 6hrs into the shift and we were starting to get hungry. Looking for a shawarma place (obviously) we got about our 3rd or was it 4th call, who knows. Dispatch read, unconscious female. Moriel and I both turn and say, “this definitely beats eating”. We go with sirens blaring, arrive in no time, grab the lifepack, ambu bag, and oxygen and begin the assessment. First thing we do (yes, besides safety), check for consciousness. Do the trapezius squeeze and wow a response. Seeming lifeless is now moaning in pain, but it’s a responsive so it’s a good thing. We doing a few vitals and determine her BP is beyond low. She just has a systolic of about 80 and we can’t find a diastolic. Loaded her up and took her to the hospital, definitely suspect drugs are involved in that one. After this we are starving and get our much needed shawarma. Not 3min after finishing eating we get a call—attempted suicide. I cannot believe it, I’m definitely doing more evenings if these are the kinds of calls evening shifts get. We get to the place, are looking around and then dispatch says it’s cancelled. Again, seriously? Our driver can’t believe it, but dispatch confirms. Nothing we can do. Now begins the final and beyond epic call of the evening. We are called to the scene of a fight or what was a fight. The victim is there with his parents and friend standing and talking to the police. Apparently two guys tried to stab him and hit him with a pipe. Anyways, he seemed fine. Completely coherent, talking to the police saying what happened and all that appeared to be injured was a cut above his one ear. We take vital signs as usual and they are normal. We ask if he wants to go to the hospital and he says he will go, because his hearing is not normal, but not with us since he wants to finish with the police first. Okay, there is nothing really for us to do, but before we leave we have to complete some paperwork. As per usual. So we’re just hanging around, getting his phone number, putting the equipment away etc. and all of a sudden his buddy yells HELP ME HELP! The guy has begun seizing and is now totally unresponsive. I can’t believe we were actually about to leave. He is lowered to the ground and the driver and I begin to assess the patient while the other two on our team go for the stretcher. The driver calls for an Air Way and the Ambu so I figure he’s not breathing and we are bound for CPR. I guess he resumed breathing just then and had a pulse so we decided to get him onto the bed and to the hospital asap. Just before driving off our driver yells, “Is the whole team here? – כל הצוות פה?“. That was probably one of the my best moments of the day, that in the middle of all the caos the driver (awesome guy) took a second to make sure his team was good, it was a nice feeling. Now, in the back of the ambulance it is just Moriel, myself, and another volunteer. But we manage. The driver was giving instruction the entire time, but this guy was totally unresponsive, eyes rolled back and all. All the equipment is flying everywhere and I could barely remain upright, kneeling on the floor next to the patient. We inserted an AW (though it didn’t stay in for long), gave oxygen, tried to suction his month a bit, monitored BP, and were always checking for pulse. That was probably the weirdest part for me. I was keeping his AW open and with my fingers checking for pulse. The problem is when practicing on someone there is always a pulse and for me checking knowing there might not be one, and that he could code any minute was defiantly a weird position to be in. We arrived at the hospital, running him in, transferred him over and stepped back. WOW, was all the came to mind. After the emergency team had tended to him we go back in and learned that is was a drug overdose! NO WAY. The guy must have been completely high the entire time talking to us and we had no idea. I’m sure it was a combination of the pipe beating and the drugs, but still! I guess it’s true to never trust a patient.

So that was the end of my night. Looking back I already feel that I have some experience after only three shifts and I’m already finding it addicting. I really enjoyed this shift, especially my team and the calls. At the end we all exchanged numbers and made plans to work together again later on in the week. Although the evening shift made my entire day Mda and really nothing else, I have no complaints-can’t wait for tomorrow’s, this time trying out a different Tel Aviv station, Merkaz.