“Engine 51, Medic 143, you’re responding for a 1 year old unconsciousness and not breathing. PD is also en route.”
Thus begins the latest post by a new blogger to MDB, a firefighter/paramedic working in California.
The blog is a fascinating account of the life of a firefighter/paramedic, from rolling in the middle of the night on calls where an elderly woman is spending her last moments of mortality to lighter fare where the subjects get what’s coming to them.
The experiences, even the big ones, are typically recounted in a very matter of fact way, from the unresolved end of the 1-year-old’s episode to this resolution about the elderly woman:
“We followed the ACLS protocol without success. The patient went from a ventricular PEA into asystole. After 30 minutes resuscitation efforts were terminated.
“90 minutes after the tones went I found myself back in bed, slowly drifting back to sleep….but not before turning off my alarm.”
Because of the nature of his job, he maintains anonymity for himself as well as his department. He also maintains the privacy of his patients by not revealing their personal information and by changing minor details of the calls he goes on. I knew him briefly when I lived in California, before he took up his chosen profession. He’s a 34-year-old who is married and has three young children. Not surprisingly, he serves as his ward’s emergency preparedness coordinator.
Welcome Firefighter/Paramedic to the MDB blog.
