I decided to change over to night shift for the weekend, thinking you were more likely to see the result of violent crime, this turned out not to be the case. We started out the evening by getting some dinner and just as we finished the first call came in, motorcycle vs car. On arrival the only injured person was the rider of the motorcycle, who had dislocated her patella. For the second time here I was tasked with re-locating it before applying a support bandage, the patient was then left on scene. (shown below)
A few hours passed and the next call came in for an elderly female that was "unwell" on arrival, we spoke to the woman, who was complaining of chest pain. After taking initial observations, questioning the patient and auscultating the chest, I decided that it was likely pleurisy with pulmonary embolism. She had previous DVT history, whilst auscultating the chest you could hear the pleural rub and also decreased oxygen saturation and increased heart rate. We applied high flow oxygen and transferred her to the stretcher before rapidly transferring her to the emergency department.
The final patient of the day was to a middle aged woman, again, the family described her as "unwell" however on arrival we found her to be in cardiac arrest. We quickly dragged her to the floor and started compressions whilst another paramedic ran to the ambulance to grab the AED (that now has new batteries that I purchased the other day) and the airway management bag. After intubating and two shocks we managed to get return of spontaneous circulation.
Immediately we transferred the woman to the emergency department where she was stabilized.
The last patient is proof that the funding I have raised so far has made a massive difference. Purchasing new batteries, that without, the patients chance of survival was very low.
Rather than donating the money as such that may get lost in the system, I am going out and purchasing equipment that is essential, however lacking on the ambulances here and adding it to the kit myself. So far I have bought a full set of new batteries for one of the AED's, three sets of magill forceps, and a new sphygmomanometer.
If you would like to help us out, even the smallest contribution is greatly appreciated.
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