Ambulances

Hi,

An interesting week in A&E, the most exciting part being a few days with the ambulance service with the paramedics. 

A&E had some interesting cases, some sad cases and some relatively dull cases. The interesting included someone whose pacemaker was giving the wrong signals, a road traffic accident where a cyclist had been hit by a car, who had then run off (leading to us trying to balance the clinical needs of the patient with the police wanting to question them ASAP to catch the car driver), and someone who had dislocated their shoulder (which I got to put back in, something I hadn't done before). Several of the sad cases involved people coming into A&E and dying of problems like cardiac arrests, and one was a patient who liked to 'fake' seizures to get her into hospital. There are always lots of less interesting cases, and people who come into A&E who should have gone to their GP instead, but I am still really enjoying this placement.

The most exciting part of the week, as I said before, was a few days on am ambulance with a paramedic and a technician. Driving around on blue lights and everyone getting out of your way is very exciting! The saddest case that we saw was a man who had started feeling really breathless and confused while in a supermarket, and the cashier had called 999. He has a strange heart rhythm, which we initially thought was SVT, but was actually fast AF. He was very worried about his car parking ticket running out as we took him on blue lights to the hospital, and I spent the time reassuring him. We arrived, and 10 minutes later he arrested and, despite 40 minutes of resuscitation being attempted, he died. Despite him appearing relatively well in the ambulance, where his main worry was his car, he just died - and we still have no idea why. He didn't seem to have any signs of a heart attack, so we were wondering if it could be a PE. I found it quite upsetting, and I don't think that feeling a bit travel sick from bouncing around in the back of the ambulance at high speed with no windows helped things. We saw a number of other patients including a man who had been found in a very 'compromising' position, who tried to tell us that he had been attacked in his home, though it looked as though the problem had been caused by some kind of strange sex game. 

SVT: regular, fast 






AF can be fast and look similar to SVT, but will be irregular rather than regular in rhythm





While on call with the ambulance guys, I also went into a school full of primary school children and spent some time showing them around the ambulance with the paramedic, letting them turn on the lights and sirens etc. We were still 'on call' whilst doing that, but didn't have any interruptions. I think the point of it was to try and make sure kids are not scared of ambulances if they need to come into hospital, and think they look 'cool' instead! After some of the sadder patients before the school, I didn't really feel in the mood to be very cheerful and upbeat (which you need when talking to children), but it was a nice distraction. 

Seeing a few days in the life of a paramedic was interesting though, as despite there being some interesting things, there is also a lot of calls that they attend that they certainly shouldn't need to; a lot of people misusing the 999 number.

Quite an emotional week, but busy and interesting. My last week next week, then graduation, a little holiday and I start working as a doctor!