It’s Christmas eve. We get called to one of the local nursing homes for rib pain. The room number sounds familiar. As we wheel our stretcher through the lobby, “Good King Wencelous” plays through the speakers. Gently shone the moon that night, thou the frost was cruel. When a poor man came in sight, gathering […]
I haven’t worked since Tuesday. No open shifts, which is rare. I guess a lot of part-timers are home from school and looking to make some Christmas or school money. They get priority on the open shifts. I’ve been spending the week driving my girlfriend’s kids around. I’ve been carrying my pager with me hoping […]
The last post on interfacility transfers sparked quite a number of comments, including several on the “sealed envelope” which plagues us. For those not in EMS, the sealed envelope is what the nurse hands you containing the patient’s medical records. Sometimes “Confidential” is written on it. Sometimes they hand you the sealed envelope “for the […]
No posts until next Tuesday. I’m taking a little vacation. In the meantime I will leave this article I read today. While it is about retirement, I think even if you are in your early twenties it is still something to consider. Every now and then I get opportunities to try something with a little […]
We get called to a nursing home for abdominal pain and possible kidney or gallstones. We find an 88 year old man, alert and oriented, in no pain. The nurse explains he had an unresponsive episode earlier in the day. They did an ultrasound which revealed he had an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, multiple gallstones and […]