Langely

Wow, just wow. Cannot say exactly how it happened but a person had their leg de-gloved from mid thigh down to the knee and all the way to the bone. For those of you who don't know what degloved is, imagine pulling off a tight fitting glove so it ends up inside out but still on the fingers, that is what happened to the leg. The femoral artery was severed so there was massive blood loss and the MOI caused several other blunt force trauma injuries. Last word was the pt was still in a trauma room at the facility they were flown to. But that was 6 hours ago.

I'd rather read about happy people talking to the guys in the meatwagon.
Sheesh. The guys thought I was nuts the night I got shot. Started the car up drove down to the Cop Shop. Got out walked up to the door picked up the phone "Muskegon Police Department. How can I help you."
Hey guy I just got shot on a Pizza delivery down the road.
Boom I have two guys out there I'm inside like now. About one minute later here come the EMTs. The Fire deptment was across the street. I guess they just grabbed their gear and ran over.
I talked to the police while the emts worked on me. A woman officer asked me why did go to the police station.
Oh I answered I wanted to remember everything and I knew the fire station was across the street.
Don't worry if was a little 25 between the car door and going through my forearm and the 4 layers of clothes it stopped after breaking a rib.
But yeah happy kids are better than dieing one the gurney.

Cool story, good for you.

Didn't do this one but it is the wildest I ever saw. When I got back in country, I got weekend duty which was 48 hours straight duty but gave me a lot of free time during the week. That was the good part. The bad part was weekend duty on a full division fort from the number of casualties was as busy as Nam. Lot's of young men getting hurt every weekend. My involvement in this story was from ER though surgery.

A young soldier after pulling a night shift was going home from the fort one night when a drunk hit his old pickup head on at highway speeds. It killed the drunk instantly but the old 50s model trucks steel frame held up much better than the car did. Even so, the impact drove the solid steering wheel right into the guys abdomen breaking off the wheel and the three spokes two sticking inside the guys stomach and one in his leg.

These were some smart guys. They cut the wheel off leaving the spokes in the guy and transported him in the sitting position they found him, including keeping him upright. They had fluid IVs running in both arms. It was a damn good thing too. The wheel had nicked both the guys aorta and femoral arteries. The surgeon working on the kid was amazed that they got the patient there alive. Had they removed the wheel or even laid him down, he would probably have bled to death in seconds.

The battle was just starting though. That surgeon operated on that guy literally in the sitting up position in a makeshift chair. As he cauterized and sutured, we were literally squeezing whole blood into his body. At one time, there were six hands in that kids body including my own. The kid took 48 units that night which is like almost five complete transfusions. Knowing he was going to take everything we had, we called in the works. Woke a basic training unit up and drained them dry. While a team of guys drew blood from the trainees, another team cross matched donors (another couldn't have done but the medics on the call thought ahead and drew blood knowing he'd be needing blood and after enough 0neg was in him hard to do it right). The surgeon worked all night ending the night passing out exhausted right there in the OR. Miraculously the kid lived.

The two medics both combat vets from Nam were decorated and earned not only the appreciation of the guy and his family but the respect of everyone in our battalion. They also got a week off that didn't count as leave which I think they appreciated the most. The guys amazed everyone with their quick thinking, knowledge, and ability to think ahead.

Those guys were thinking fast that night, I tell you.

Tj

Had a guy who's entire face was degloved after being in a vehicle crash & getting shot out the back window of his truck like a banana .....

GSW to the chest. Terminal cancer pt. .38 to the chest, missed the heart, exited by shoulder blade. He was concious and refusing to go until he was told he had no choice. The muzzle blast kinda layed his man boob open and could see the chest wall and ribs. Ended up getting a chest tube and flown out.

I can share some stories but they are not pretty....

By all means do, those are the best kind.

OK, I'll add one.

Called for child not breathing, got to the trailer park, mom met us at the door with the 2 year old in her arms. Indeed, not breathing, no heart rate. Got heart rate back, intubated, and to ED. long story short, unfortunately, this 2 y/o little girl did not survive, and when the ET (breathing) tube was pulled, there was a big hunk of gum on the end of it.

(Consequently, one of my 3 year old's favorite sayings is: "I can have gum when I'm BIG, right daddy?"... "Right!")

Ok, obviously by the screen name I am not an EMT-B,I, or P, but I get to deal with the interesting stuff you men and women drop off to us in the ER. So here is one that the LEO's will either get a chuckle out of or just shake their heads.

A while back an EMS unit brought in a multiple GSW recipient. We did what we could but Wyatt Earp must have been shooting at this individual. They had 9 holes, 7 in the chest and upper abdomen and 2 in the lower extremities. While going thru the personal effects we came across this individuals bank roll, which was thick, very thick, wrapped on top of it was a probation officers card with the next appointment time written on it. I guess the criminal justice system wasn't able to reform this person, somebody else did though.

And here is something kind of cool.......
Recently at work I started off my shift taking care of a middle aged critically ill adult patient. Due to the nature of this individuals illness they passed away.
Close to the end of my shift I helped take care of another critically ill patient, this time an infant. We were able to stabilize the infant and ship them out to a pediatric facility. While I was saddened by the loss of the first patient, it was exhilarating to be able to play a role in stabilizing the kiddo and seeing them leave in better condition than they came in.

Date, time, genders, ages, and other identifying information left out so as not to violate HIPPA.

Craig

I hate pediatric calls, just flat out hate them....Had to transport a 3 month old with a brain bleed (trauma) to a children's hospital once that's over 110 miles away...Another time we had a person who had a AAA with a blood pressure of 40 over nothing & had to transport them something over 110 miles, had a couple hospitals on alert if we had to divert, but made it to the primary & the person lived....due to having such a low BP.....Sometimes it's good to be a EMT/ "driver" and not a Paramedic....

Always wondered if the baby made it...

I hate pedi traumas as well. I had a two month old a while back that had a TBI (traumatic brain injury), dad did it. The child was shipped off to a pedi facility. I never checked to see if they made it. It was just easier for me to know they were alive when they left, than to find out anything different.

Craig

Dang.....shakes head and walks away.......

One good call was a GSW to the hand (40 cal) & the perp was sucking on a fentanyl lollipop when they wheeled the perp into the ER, was funny seeing a "tough guy" with dozens of prison tats (got shot in a drug buy gone bad) crying like a baby with the GSW However, it was wicked cool examining the GSW & powder burns, how the starring was & the way the flesh pulled/blew back from the impact & the powder burns on the skin...

My fiance is in nursing school, and they do clinicals in a college town hospital. When she was at clinicals, all the nurses were talking about how a patient had come in with a candle shoved up his @$%. He had claimed that he was cleaning his house naked, and fell onto his coffee table. I would note that if it was a small one, you know, one that would fit in an "un-initiated" orifice, then it would probably come right out. This one was likely bigger. I cant fathom what drives people to do that stuff.