Going along some of the themes lately with the Golden Hour, treat on scene and release or determining which patients need an ambulance, here is another situation that is being reviewed in public. The additional attachments and comments are rather interesting also.
http://www.islandpacket.com/trauma/story/749484.html
Questions surround paramedics' response to head trauma victim
By RENEE DUDLEY
http://www.islandpacket.com/trauma/story/749484.html
http://www.islandpacket.com/trauma/story/749484.html
Questions surround paramedics' response to head trauma victim
By RENEE DUDLEY
At 9:31 p.m. the night before Halloween, a Beaufort County ambulance rolled up to a house in greater Bluffton. Two paramedics, responding to a 911 call about a severely beaten man with a head injury, got out.
Inside the house on the living room floor lay Brian Lanese, 33, bleeding profusely from the right side of his forehead, speaking incoherently and behaving combatively -- often signs of severe head trauma.
What happened in the next 20 minutes has raised questions -- not only about the two paramedics' actions, but also about how the county's Emergency Medical Services handles trauma cases:
The paramedics brought no medical equipment inside with them -- no stretcher, backboard, cervical collar or oxygen, according to Tracy Lanese and the Hoffmans. The county's "EMS Standing Orders" for trauma patients recommend that "immobilization equipment and any necessary supplies should be taken to the patient on initial approach" so time isn't wasted if they're needed later.
http://www.islandpacket.com/trauma/story/749484.html