We pulled up to the house and I put on my hat (more on that later) and started donning my gloves. We grabbed the gear and headed to the front door. It was dark and there was no porch light on. As we got to the walkway we saw a woman moving around on the porch. She had apparently squeezed out the barely open front door and was attempting to clear a path. The entire porch was covered in trash and random things I couldn't even begin to make out. So much so that the front door was blocked - from the outside. Which begged the question: how long has it been that way and how do they get in and out of the house? Or do they?
She shoved some things aside and we were able to make entry. The inside of the house was no different. No surprise. It was a total hoarder house.
Of course the difference between this house and the one above is that in the picture above you can actually see. The house we went into was super dark.
The only light came from a single battery powered lantern.
The lady who had cleared the porch so we could get in mumbled something about the power being off at the moment but it was clear that it had been off for quite some time.
Now back to the hat. I wear a lighted ball cap on all medical calls in case I need both hands and can't hold a flashlight at the same time. My firefighter has teased me that I'm one of only three people in the department who bought this hat when it was approved as an official uniform item. But I love that hat and it has served me well on numerous occasions and he had to admit on this call it was bad ass and the perfect tool.
With the light from my hat I made my way to the couch where an elderly woman sat near a man in his fifties who looked in his seventies. He was wearing a hospital gown and was slumped over sideways with his head under the couch cushion. I lifted the cushion and started to ask him questions while my crew tried to move some of the detritus so we would have a prayer of getting him out and to the ambulance.
I was surprised to find him alert and oriented. He knew he had had a seizure and said it had been a long time since he had one and that he was taking his meds. I got a quick set of vitals on him and asked my firefighter to grab the glucometer for me. He was oriented but I still check a blood sugar as standard precaution after a seizure. I was just getting the sugar when he stopped responding to me. I noticed his head was turned and he was staring off into space. I knew he was about to seize again. I was able to get the fingerstick covered up so he didn't bleed all over me and the glucometer put away just before the seizure began in earnest. I asked for an IV to be flooded and for my firefighter to pass me a start kit. I got the tourniquet on while he was seizing but fortunately he stopped in time for me to attempt the IV. The first vein rolled around on me but with my cap light shining down on his arm I was able to get a vein on the top of his wrist and had a solid line when the ambulance arrived. Which is when he started to seize again. The crew was setting up to administer versed when the seizure stopped and we decided to take the opportunity to get him out of there and to the ambulance and treat him there.
There was no way to bring the gurney or a stairchair or any equipment into the house so we just had to grab him off the couch and do a sit pick carry out to the gurney on the front lawn. The ambulance crew said they didn't need a rider and would give the versed in the back of the ambulance en route. So we cleared and went back to the stations.
The patient would get the treatment he needed and hopefully an adjustment to his meds to keep him from more frequent seizures. The living conditions however are another story. We can only report it to the proper agencies and hope they get some outreach assistance. There is no question that if there's ever a fire in that place we will be pulling dead bodies out of there.
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