We responded out to the same address twice in the same day for a "lift assist". The 80-something year old female who lives there has very little use of her legs and gets around in a motorized wheelchair. She can usually get herself from the bed to the commode by her bed and back as well as into her wheelchair and back. Today her feet slipped out from under her while trying to get to her chair and she slid off the bed to the floor. She lives with a couple of forty-something year old males, at least one of whom I believe is related to her. The other gentleman has a bad back and cannot assist in lifting her and it truly is more than a one man job. So, we go out and help her up and into her wheelchair.
The first time we went out there the woman was quite embarrassed and apologetic. We assured her that it was no problem and we were glad to help. The second time we went out she was just despondent over the situation and crying (not from pain but from frustration at her situation and inability to handle it without calling us). This time it took a bit more talking and reassuring on our part. I hope we left her feeling a little better about the situation and that there is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of. I hope she understands that this is indeed one of the things we are here to do and that we will gladly help whenever needed.
The second situation of that shift came in the form of a very upset 17 year old girl. The call came in as a report of a 17 year old female with difficulty breathing. When we arrived we were told the girl had asthma and they had given her albuterol (which would have been fine if this had actually been an asthma attack). The girl was on the couch crying and hyperventilating and complaining of chest pain, headache, and low back pain. We went immediately into calm and reassure mode and set to work getting her to slow her breathing down and relax. I listened to her lungs and they were clear, definitely not asthma. I never even found out why she was upset but spent a good twenty minutes holding her hand, supporting her back and coaching her breathing until she slowed down enough to talk in full sentences again.
Once she was able to talk normally I asked some of our standard medical history questions and found out she also has a history of stress induced ulcers (at seventeen). I wasn't about to get into what had triggered this whole episode and risk her getting worked up again so I avoided that whole line of questioning. We were in an upstairs unit and when we tried to get the girl to stand she felt too weak so the firefighter and I picked her up and carried her to the ambulance gurney downstairs.
Now, I'll admit, our whole crew was probably picturing the scene from Airplane where Leslie Nielsen was slapping the hysterical woman while a line of passengers waited with a variety of weapons for their turn, but we never showed it.
She was still upset when we loaded her onto the gurney and embarrassed to be seen like that by the neighbors but she was breathing at a much more reasonable rate and her hands had stopped tingling. It was definitely going to take a lot longer for that headache to go away but she'd be OK.
Of course the next day, I got to wrestle in the street with a combative bicyclist who had been hit by a car and was seriously altered and fighting us, so I guess it all balances out.
No comments:
Post a Comment