(Above, another photo I was sent from yesterday)
Today was pretty average with six calls throughout the day.
The first was outside the city, it was in an area that I could only describe as stereotypical Mexico. Dirt roads, houses made from scrap and horses and donkeys along the street. After about 20 minutes of what can only be described as off road driving, we found the patient at the side of the road, he had pain in the ankle and it was also swollen. We got him on the stretcher and began the long and bumpy journey back to the ED. I cannulated to provide fluids and give some pain relief using the drug "Ketorolaco" (a NSAID and also the primary source of pain relief here) due to the very uncomfortable ride back.
The next call of the day was a RTC, the car (shown in the photo below) hit a concrete barrier at speed, setting the airbags off. Luckily the occupants only sustained minor injuries and were treated and left at the scene.
Soon after arriving back we had a call to a woman experiencing shortness of breath, however on arrival, it was obvious that she was actually experiencing an anxiety attack and hyperventilating. One of the paramedics calmed the woman down before leaving her at the scene.
In the afternoon we received a call to a seizure. Upon arrival I realised that the patient was a 9 month year old baby, and the parents had covered him in blankets. Realising that the child was very hot and suffering from a febrile convulsion, I removed the blankets and the clothes with the exception of the nappy and directed one of the fans towards the child in order cool him gradually. After about half an hour and checking the obs several times, we left him on scene.
The next call was to another child that had hit their head. Using my amazing skills of creating inflatable elephants out of latex gloves, I managed to calm the girl and she allowed me to inspect the wound and clean it with little fuss before transporting her to hospital for suturing.
The final call of the day was as usual, to a "enferma" patient, and as I entered I could already see that the woman was deceased. I checked for a carotid pulse and the body was cold, and as I went to move the arm so that I could listen to the chest for heart sounds, I realised that rigor mortis had already set in. As is required I listened for a minute before confirming that the patient was deceased. At this point the patient was handed over to the police to deal with.
On another note, the fundraising has been going well, so far I have raised £375, which is just shy of 10,000 peso's. I have been asking various of the ambulance crews what equipment they would find useful, and one of the notable items, especially now with COVID-19 is contactless thermometers. They do currently have thermometers on the ambulances, however they are the old mercury filled glass ones, that are really not practical for prehospital use. I plan to get a couple of contactless ones as well as more batteries and various other items that will make their life easier and improve patient treatment.
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