Day 6 - Day 1 on the Cruz Verde Norte Ambulancia

This morning Luis picked me up from Gloria's for my first day in the Ambulancia. Whilst waiting for the crews to arrive because someone had locked the ambulance keys inside the vehicle, we went for breakfast across the road, I had three chorizo tacos, which were far larger than expected and certainly filled a void.

When the crews arrived I was introduced to them and showed around the vehicles and the equipment they contained. I was then shown the Paramedico locker room and rest room where they had several beds for when the shift is quiet. Here I met Chris, another FREUC 5 student, but from South Africa who had already been here for two weeks. We got talking and decided to have a look around the local area at the various shops and food stalls whilst we waited for a shout. 

Immediately as we left the hospital the first call came in and surely we jumped in the ambulance for a very fast journey to a pedestrian who had been hit by a car. Upon arrival we found the patient to have pain in the right side of the chest, completing an examination using the acronym FLAPS (Feel, Look, Auscultate, Percuss, Search) I found that the right side most probably had a couple of fractured ribs. The air entry was equal bilaterally and there was no evidence of pneumothorax so the primary port of call for this patient was to check observations (which were all fine) and provide pain relief, which of course meant cannulation. The patient was then transferred to the emergency department where he was then handed over to the doctors for further assessment and treatment.

An hour or so passed before our second call came in, this time a cyclist that had been knocked off his bike. Again rushing to the scene the patient was sat upright with an obvious head injury. He had a deep laceration above the left eye and also a great deal of swelling above the cheek bone and around the eye. After taking observations at the scene, the patient was able to mobilise so after dressing the wound in the back of the ambulance, he was also transferred to the ED for further assessment and wound closure.

Again waiting around for a little while, a call came in, this time for a transfer to one of the other hospitals in the area for surgery. The patient had a fracture to the left tib/fib and was stable.

Myself and Chris decided to have a look at some of the local medical shops to see the price of medical equipment here. Unsurprisingly most was much cheaper, although some items such as stethoscopes and pulse oximeters were roughly the same. One of the stores we visited was more or less like a large Tesco, but instead of food on the shelves, you had supplies such as surgical equipment, sharps bins, cannulas, intravenous fluids and airway management equipment. The store even had some drugs that you could purchase off the shelf that at home would be considered controlled drugs and only available to registered health care professionals. 

After this I decided to get some food in a restaurant, and visit some local shops to buy a few things. I was able to easily communicate with the staff and can definitely say my Spanish has greatly improved since I have been here.