All Hands Working

 
My captain for the day (there is currently a vacancy at my station) was in the shower when a call came in for the neighboring district.  I was working in the apparatus bay and didn't hear what the call was for.  The captain came out wrapped in a towel then headed quickly towards his dorm while calling out, "You guys want to go help them out?"  We asked what was going on and he said there was a code blue in the next district over, pretty close to the border.  As a medic, I usually appreciate an extra set of hands so we suited up and headed over to the address.

When we got there the first in engine, an ambulance, and a paramedic supervisor from AMR were on scene.  I kind of figured there wouldn't be any work for us or even room in the house for more people.  We made our way inside to find out if we could help anyway.  CPR was in progress, manually, and the Lucas device was still being set up.  The patient had an OPA in and was being bagged with a BVM.  There was still space in the room so I moved in and took up a position at the drug box and asked if an IV was in progress.  It wasn't but I was down at the patients feet and wasn't in a good place to try for one.  I gave my firefighter the IV bag and he flooded the line while my captain picked up the clipboard and started scribing.  I started setting up for an IO just in case and got some meds ready.  The ambulance medic made one attempt at an IV in the arm but the vein was blown.  I immediately drilled in the IO and started passing meds to the other ambulance medic.  While we were establishing the IO the original engine crew was getting the patient intubated and securing the tube.  We pushed a couple rounds of drugs, shocked the patient two or three times, and packaged him for transport.  I started gathering trash and managing the pile of sharps (IV needles, glucometer lancet, medication vials, etc) as they got the patient on a backboard and out to the ambulance.

I can't believe that we fit all nine emergency personnel and one patient (and one family member who wouldn't leave) in one bedroom and kept all hands busy and productive without getting in eachother's way.  Amazing.

 

I don't know the patient outcome or circumstances leading to the cardiac arrest but, as for me, I got to do an infrequently used skill and the best part of all was I didn't have to do any paperwork.  Success.