Our first call was to setup a landing zone for a fly-out. The call came in just as we were sitting down to enjoy lunch. We all managed to get a few bites in though!!
Landing zones are predetermined based on size, location, and hazards. We have a book with all of the necessary information for all landing zones in the area. We communicate certain map information to the flight crew and they are then able to find the information in their corresponding books.
We arrive on scene to a residential house with a big open field on the side and back, and a lake about 400 yards to the rear of the house. We lay out cones to mark out a 100' x 100' area for the helicopter to land. We go through and tell the people fishing at the shore of the lake that they unfortunately have to leave since we will be landing a helicopter in the area. Captain tells me to go to the house and let the homeowner know what we were doing. I walk up and knock on the door but there is no answer. As I am walking around back, a woman comes out on the deck and asks "What is going on here?" I informed her that we would need to use her backyard as a landing zone for a helicopter. Upon hearing this, the woman was extremely excited to be of service and tells us to do and use whatever land we need. We all moved to different areas of the landing zone in order to maintain scene safety and keep the forming groups of spectators at bay.
The patient was a mid-70s woman that had fallen and broke her ankle. While an ankle break isn't a fly-out, in her case, it was a compound break (the bone was no sticking out the side of her ankle) and her foot was turning blue from the lack of blood flow. If she didn't receive the necessary treatment quickly, she would surely lose her foot.
The medic unit arrived on scene, transfered care to the flight crew, and the patient was loaded up into the helicopter. We haven't heard anything else about the call, so we do not know what happened in the end....
We got back to the station and sat down to enjoy our lunch that was now getting cold. Just then, our second call came in. We were going to a call where a 2 year old had accidentally splashed gasoline in his eye. We got to the scene and learned all about what happened from the mother / wife.
Her had her husband had gotten into a fight earlier that day. The husband had been working on an old car (in the driveway), and didn't know what to do with the old gas. He put it inside of a bucket and left it on the top of the driveway. She had told him to do something with it because she didn't want the kids to get into it. At this point, the verbal fight broke out and he left. If only he would have listened....
The mother did the right thing prior to our arrival. She was using a hose to flush out the eye. I took a bottle of sterile water and used it to continue to flush out the child's eye. He was a very well-mannered 2 year old. He just sat there as we poured copious amounts of water into his eye. I was thoroughly impressed. The medics arrived and evaluated the patient and determined that there was no injury or need for further treatment.
A few hours later, we responded to an accident on I-66. A woman had been driving and was cut off by a pickup. Rather than get hit, she swerved to avoid and slammed into the guard rail. When we got on scene, a motorcyclist had stopped and was maintaining c-spine immobilization. I climbed into the back of the car (which was not a sauna) and took over c-spine. I was in full gear (which is what we wear at vehicle accidents), so the back of the car got even hotter as I sat there losing pounds by the minute. We immobilized the patient, who had been complaining of back and neck pain, and transported her to the hospital. This is one of those instances where you HOPE that they bought the rental insurance. It turns out that the car was a rental that she was returning tomorrow in Baltimore. She was catching a flight to Canada, and then at some point returning from Canada to her home in Ireland. And what makes it worse....the pickup truck that caused it all never even stopped!!
No comments:
Post a Comment