Dispatched, 17 yo female, severe head/earache

[mcdonl]

Pain and Suffering....

OK, please remember.... my only experience is having ready the first 10 chapters of the orange book and gone on a few dozen call's as a FF Assist....

I would consider mental anguish a part of the suffering. Given that, if the right call is to leave the bug in her ear would the best thing to do be to get her comfortable, transport and NOT tell the poor kid she has a cockroach in her ear?

I am assuming that no one knew this until the EMT looked in a saw it. Having pain is bad enough, but a 17 year old with a cockroach in her ear is just going to freak her out. I have teenage daughter, that much I DO know!

 

[tcemsr3]

I would monitor vitals, transport in position of comfort and have mom try to calm her down, nice smooth ride to ed and let the dr do the rest!

 

[mcdonl]

Thats what I figured. I talked to a couple of guys on our department and they said the same. They said they may say something it causing an infection, but not tell them what.

 

[WTEngel]

I have never seen a roach or other insect successfully removed using hemostats or something similar. They always tend to destroy the insect and pull it into pieces. Add in the factor that you are in the back of a moving ambulance, and I don't recommend sticking anything into the patient's ear.

The preferred method for getting an insect out of someone's ear is irrigation. Warm water with castille soap added, along with an 18 or 16 g catheter from an IV attached to a 60 cc syringe is a good set up to irrigate the ear. proceed with irrigation, and watch the insect float out...

The other benefit of irrigation is that you will most likely get the entire bug out, and not have bits and pieces remaining in the ear canal.

This would be done in the hospital, not in the back of an ambulance. There is no reason to take the insect out before it is looked at by a physician, NP or PA.