I was working with a newly promoted captain who hadn't worked in my district before. Right out of the gate at about 09:00 we got a medical call. It was for a sixty something year old male with abdominal pain. From the smell of the apartment his "medical" marijuana wasn't helping with the pain. He was not in major distress in any case. The ambulance was right on our heels so I pretty much got all the pertinent info and vitals taken care of and that was about it. Once we got him sent off to the hospital, we began discussing amongst ourselves the layout of this apartment complex. It had some pretty unique features and we spent some time planning out what we would do in the event of a fire in different areas of the complex.
We returned to the station, cleaned up the breakfast dishes, and then I got my workout in. Just before lunchtime the structure tones went off and I recognized the address as the same complex from the morning medical call. The report was of black smoke coming from under the door of one of the units. It sounded pretty legit and we had it all planned out from this morning so we were pretty excited. There was no visible smoke when we arrived but you could smell it clearly. It had the distinct smell of a 'pot on the stove'. Now, a 'pot on the stove' doesn't necessarily mean that the kitchen isn't on fire, but it's usually not. The captain and firefighter headed over to the unit with tools and an extinguisher. There was no one home but the apartment manager was on hand with a key which meant they didn't get to break down the door (err...I mean 'have to' break it down). I had my rig angled for an easy hose pull and had the pump running just in case when the captain confirmed 'pot on the stove' and that only smoke removal was needed.
This meant that the IC could keep the truck on scene for positive pressure ventilation and release the balance of the assignment. It was a great dry run for us though, and really shows the importance of preplanning.
There was one minor medical issue from a neighbor who had hurt his arm hopping over the back fence to open the unit's patio slider. I'm not sure if he was making sure no one was home or just letting smoke out. In any case he refused service. We talked for a bit with the neighbors and the apartment manager and passed out fire helmets to the kids (and some of the adults). One of the neighbors brought out a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies and gave it to the truck guys. For as much ice cream and desserts there are at some firehouses it's funny to watch guys try so hard to get rid of sweets. The truck guys passed the bag off to the second engine who then stuffed it into the jacket of my firefighter who wound up giving it back to the truck guys. When the other crews had left and I was putting my gear away I found the bag of cookies sitting in my jumpseat on the engine. Sneaky bastards.
The afternoon was spent catching up with the new captain and studying up on building construction. We also went out on a medical alarm called in by a remote monitoring company - you know - I've fallen and I can't get up. Turns out that's exactly what it was. Our patient didn't have any medical issues he just couldn't get back up from the toilet to his wheelchair. The firefighter and I each took an arm and helped him to his feet and hoisted his pants up for him and got him situated in his wheelchair again. We wheeled him out to the living room and repeated the process to get him set up in his recliner in front of the tv. Some people find the lift assist thing a pain but sometimes they are the best calls because the folks just need a hand and are usually very grateful and friendly. Often those are the people we get to chat with and joke with and learn more about because we're not treating an emergency situation.
A little before dinner time we got toned out for another medical call. The dispatch was for a 'sick person'. Can't get much more vague than that so I really had no idea what we were going on. When we arrived we were met by a young Asian woman who led us to the kitchen where the family had apparently just sat down to dinner. Still sitting at the table and looking distressed was an elderly man who was Cantonese speaking only and wasn't saying anything anyway. The language barrier and the fact that the family didn't know anything about his medical history or meds or pretty much anything about him made the assessment a little challenging. Most of his meds (that we found anyway) were cardiac drugs and I got enough info to determine that he might be having chest pain. He was quite hypotensive and bradycardic. I had my firefighter spike an IV bag and we were about to move him to the floor when the ambulance showed up and we decided to just move him straight to the gurney and treat him in the ambulance. When we picked him up he began dry heaving and I thought for sure he was going to puke on us. The good news was the nausea led credence to my diagnosis of a cardiac issue. The ambulance requested a rider (a fire medic to ride along in case the patient codes en route). As I hopped in the ambulance the medic was telling his partner that he was going to have to go for an EJ (that's an IV in the external jugular vein in the neck). That's usually a last resort if there is no peripheral access. I looked at the patients arm and even without a tourniquet on I could see a vein worth trying for. I told him to hold off and let me try first. I squeezed in beside the gurney, slapped a tourniquet on his arm, and slid the catheter into the vein. With the patients legs up and some fluids going in his pressure and pulse rate improved. The ambulance medic decided he was comfortable without the rider and I got to go back to my engine and home to the station.
We picked up Thai food for dinner and settled down with a DVD I had brought in on adventure travel by motorcycle. We had one more medical call that night for a man with back pain and constipation as well as one more lift assist which came in around midnight (this time from the floor to the bed, a little bit tougher). After that we went to bed and slept until 7a.m. Then it was time to get up and start day two of the 48 hour tour. Like I said, it wasn't very dramatic, but it was a good day and pretty typical of a lot of our shifts.
P.S. - Just to continue with the day in the life theme:
I went home after a quieter day two on the job and arrived home about 09:30. I normally have four days off after a two day tour but I was scheduled to work overtime on the last day of my four. I was looking forward to my 72 hours off before 72 hours back on. After putting kids to bed that night I got a phone call at about 8:30 pm. It was work saying that an engineer at Station 51 had gone home sick and they had to mando me back in for the rest of the shift. I made the mistake of answering the phone so there was no getting out of it. Fortunately my gear was all packed in my car already in anticipation of my overtime shift. I was out the door in about 5 minutes and on my way back to work.
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