I'm here at work now...it's about 3:20pm and it's been a pretty exciting day down here in ol' Glen Echo! During our apparatus check, we got our first call for a person injured after falling. We got to the house and it turned out to be a lady who had fallen after an argument with her husband. She was screaming and moaning the whole time we attended her, so we did our best to package her up and get her going to the hospital as fast as possible. Turns out she had a punctured lung, as well as severe back pain. Good thing we were quick.
The next call was for a person injured on the Capital Crescent Trail. We broke out the ATV we keep at the fire station (know as "the gator") and headed down the trail to find the person. Fortunately, she wasn't too far away from our trail access point. We got her loaded up on the ATV and got her back out to the ambulance. Fortunately, she wasn't hurt too bad; just some cuts and scrapes.
After pulling up to the station, we immediately got another call! This time it was for an unconscious person. We got there and found an elderly lady unconscious on the toilet. We got her on the ground, started giving her some oxygen, and had to suction some mucus out of her throat. We were going to insert an oral airway to help her breath better, but she started to come around as I was inserting it. The medics got there and took over patient care. Turns out she had something called a "venal-vagal episode," where pressure on the vegas nerve near your brain causes you to basically pass out. After the pressure is off, you snap out of it. After she started to come out of it, she was doing a lot better. The medics transported her to the hospital, and we headed back to the station.
After getting back, I took a shower and as soon as I finished up and was dressed, we got another call for a working code. It turned out to be a lady who we had helped several times before. We got there and she had no pulse and was not breathing. We started doing CPR while awaiting arrival from the medics. We didn't get a lot of help from the nurse assistant at the house, unfortunately. After the medics came, we packaged up the lady and got her going to the hospital. We continued CPR enroute, but it didn't look good. We got her to the hospital and the doctors and nursing staff took over. Unfortunately, there was nothing else they could do for her. That's how it is with codes...sometimes you bring them back, and sometimes you don't.
It's about 3:30 right now and we haven't had any calls since then. The engine has been kinda busy today too...service calls, automatic home fire alarms and a car accident. The Glen is jumping! Who knows what the evening and night will bring?
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