This day started off a little differently for my quiet little district. We responded to an auto accident pretty close to the station and not expecting much. When we pulled up to the scene we saw that the accident involved a moving van and a small passenger car with significant front end damage and the elderly driver still in the driver's seat. I went to the driver while the rest of my crew checked on the guy with the moving van.
My patient was 90 years old, seatbelted and with his air bags deployed. He claimed no injuries but did say his right arm was a little numb. This was a bit odd because the impact was to the front right side of the car and there was no passenger intrusion and really nothing for him to hit his arm on at all. So I was thinking it might be medical. He had no other deficits, passed the stroke test, didn't need spinal immobilization...but still couldn't move his right arm.
He had a small dog with him in the passenger seat who must have been thrown into or under the dash. He lay dazed on the seat with a bloody nose and some irregular breathing.
The truck crew decided to take the dog out of the car and over to the side of the road. They put his leash on him and a firefighter stayed with him on the sidewalk. Our ambulance was delayed and taking a long time so we tried to get the patient out of the car as well but he was having difficulty with the car being so low, his numb arm, and a little hip pain so we decided to leave him there until the ambulance arrived, ten minutes later.
It was at this time that the dog's concussion wore off. Suddenly the firefighter yelled, "Hey!" "Hey somebody get something. He's biting me and he's gonna get out of this leash." The dog was awake and alert and unhappy now. This big firefighter was holding the dog's leash from the very tip and trying to steer clear of this little angry weiner dog. It was actually pretty funny.
They wound up wrapping the dog in a tarp and putting him in the back of a cop car. We got the patient sent off to the hospital and a family member picked up the dog. I'd be interested to know what happened to both of them but we didn't see the ambulance crew again that day.
The next bit of weirdness came when we had to respond to another district for an injury in the Walmart parking lot. That always promises to be interesting. The last time I went there it was for a tennis racket fight (http://myworkinglifeinthefd.blogspot.com/2013/05/tennis-anyone-or-people-of-walmart.html). En route we got the update that it was for a woman struck by a shopping cart. "Gentlemen! Call your lawyers!"
When we arrived we found the woman in the parking lot next to about 6 carts pushed together. She was with security and a store employee filling out a report. I asked what happened and she said the carts rolled over her foot and bumped her knee. Okaaaayyyy.
"Did you get knocked down or hit your head or anything?"
"No."
So I examined her knee which showed no signs of injury whatsoever and asked if she wanted an ambulance. She answered no without hesitation. As we gathered our gear to go and fill out her AMA paperwork she started getting worked up with the report writing employee ( who did exactly the right thing and just smiled and agreed with everything she said). The "patient" was going off on how dangerous these carts were and that isn't the right "protocol for this" (?), and that she could have been "terminally injured". We got her to sign the release and got the hell out of there without another word. Until we got in the rig of course and all began quoting, "She could have been terminally injured."
We got to end our day with a welfare check on a woman who hadn't been seen in three weeks or more. When we arrived the cops were already there and led us to the back yard. All the doors and windows were locked but there was a set of double doors with clear glass insets leading from the back yard to the kitchen. It smelled bad already and my firefighter pointed out flies around the eave vent. This was a baaaad sign.
When we got to the door in the backyard we could see a dog lying dead on the kitchen floor and feces all over the place. We went to grab forcible entry tools of the rig and to get masks on. If you ever see firefighters return to the engine just to put on a mask, I guarantee it's not going to be pleasant. We forced the back door open and everyone took a deep breath and headed into the house. There were a few yips from another small dog in the house somewhere but then silence. We made our way to a back bedroom trying only to breathe through our mouths and even then only as little as possible. We found her in the bedroom with obvious signs of death I won't go into. Suffice it to say we didn't have to confirm it with our monitor. We turned and left.
Someone would have to go look for that other dog I guess but we weren't about to go crawling around in there to do it right then. We turned the scene over to the cops and got back on the rig. And, of course, being the gallows humor firemen that we are, we commented that it had been a bad day for dogs in our district. To which I added, "Yep. Now,
that woman was 'terminally injured."
