Saint Patty's Day....A Day I will never forget!!

[divinewind_007]

Never really cared about Saint Patty's Day..just another day. Well...thats all changed now. Now...saint pattys is a day i will never forget.

Went to work at 7am that morning. Was really a boring day. Didn't make one run all day. I knew something was going to happen that night...it had been too quiet. I would never have guessed it would have been like it was.

I had just finshed watching the Predators beat the dallas stars when the call came in. 10-46....wreck with injuries. Plus the vehicle was on fire. We go in route....and the call in crews were being called in. We knew there would be no other ambulances for at least 15 mins. Deputy gets on scene and reports 3 patients....all 3 ejected. I got on the radio and got Vanderbilt Lifeflight inroute and put a second chopper on standby. We had a 3 minute response time....then it got hairy....WE ARRIVED!!!!

Scene Layout:

Patient # 1 laying in middle of road face down.

Vehicle was lying 30 yards to the left of patient #1.

Patient # 2 laying 15 feet from vehicle.

Patient # 3 laying 20 yards farther up from vehicle.


Now for what happened.

I get out of truck and go to patient # 1 and Partner goes to # 2.

I checked for a pulse but there was none. I also noticed there was brain matter oozing out of his skull. Obvious DOA....nothing we could do for him.

I then run up to patient 3. Took his pulse but again there was none. This one had a hole in his head big enough for my hand to fit through. crap...another DOA.

I run to my partner....at least his is alive. But now there is another problem. Patient # 2 is 15 feet away from a buring vehicle....i have never seen one burn like this. Flames were shooting 20 foot in the air...it was just like the movies. We had to move him fast.....it was getting hot quick. We get him on the spine board and move him as fast as we can. Unfortunately i took some mild burns to the back...but i will live. We put him in the truck and go to work. Start Large Bore IV's and patch the holes. This guy is awake but he's obviously got a head injury. He is 23 but is telling us he is 15. Not a good sign. At least he is not fighting us. Chopper is 30 mins out so we make a mad dash to the ER. Balls to the wall...its a race against time now!!!! Blood pressure is dropping.....crap. Fortunately we get it stablized. Chopper finnaly gets there and he gets a quick trip to Nashville.
Now 2 DOA's, one alive but hurt bad....and mild burns to my back makes for a bad night. BUT IT GETS WORSE!!!!! How you might ask?

Patient # 1 was only 15.
Patient # 2 was 16.

I couldnt tell when i was checking them on the scene....they were both facedown and i just checked for a pulse and moved on.

So i guess yuns wanna know what happened to cause this whole disaster. These 3 were apparently at a party when they left and headed home. They reportedly were traveling at a high rate of speed when they tried to pass a car in a curve and lost it. They had been drinking. They are being buried today. One is in the funeral home across from us over here. So many people. He will be buried in about a hour. The other one is being stuck in the ground as i write this. Patient # 2 has since been released. He had a concussion and a few internal injuries but nothing major. He was the driver....23 year old now facing 2 vehicular homicide charges.

 

[Stevo]

now that's a real bad call divinewind_007

~S~

 

[Chimpie]

Is your town big? Small?

 

[divinewind_007]

its a small town. average about 3 per day normally. We run a 24 hour truck and a 12 hour truck...and the 12 hour truck pulls call at night. we also have a 3rd truck we can call people in to fill if needed. For this county it maxed our capabilities. All county agencies are all on one frequency. Fire, EMS, SO, City Police, Rescue Squad, and First Responders all on one frequency....it was a nightmare. Our local hospital only has 3 beds in the ER. It is basically a band aid station. We maxed there capabilities too. Luckily we have good Air Ambulance Coverage. 3 choppers are within 15-20 min response time and a 4th is 25-30 minutes away. Unfortunately this night fog had grounded 2 of the choppers and one was already on a run. Vandy Lifeflight got to us in about 33mins. It was rough night. We had planned a Mock DUI drill next week for the highschool. It has been cancelled. They are bringing in some speakers from MADD and some counselors now. To this county this was a major disaster. It pushed the emergency services to their limits. Luckily nothing else happened during this time

 

[Airwaygoddess]

I'm so sorry, my thoughts are with you.....-_-

 

[Epi-do]

That was quite a call! What a tragedy for all parties involved.

 

[Tincanfireman]

Wow, that's a rough one; I hope you got to talk to someone afterwards to vent a little. Sounds like you did absolutely everything by the book and the best you could, even though the outcome wasn't the best. My thoughts are with you guys.

 

[Stevo]

it was a nightmare

10-4 Tincan...

the cisd team are in the nightmare biz divinewind_007 , i hope they can come to your town and help you guys vent/heal

you know, no matter how long or hard one has run in ems, it helps to sit down with your mates and express how much it all can suck on those calls...

~S~

 

[wolfwyndd]

You beat me to it Stevo. I was going to suggest calling the CISD team for this call.

 

[divinewind_007]

10-4 Tincan...

the cisd team are in the nightmare biz divinewind_007 , i hope they can come to your town and help you guys vent/heal

you know, no matter how long or hard one has run in ems, it helps to sit down with your mates and express how much it all can suck on those calls...

~S~

thanks for the concern. yea....the cisd teams are great. i think everyone is doing pretty well now. we all talked for a few hours afterwards while we were filling out the paperwork, plus our next shift we all sit down for a while. I think we got it out of our system. I felt sorry for the ER nurse that night. She was new up there. It was her first night by herself in the ER and we bring her that. BTW....u can tell it is a small hospital when you only have one ER Nurse on duty. They called some more in to relive her but she took it pretty hard. I talked to her some last night since she was back on shift and she said she was doing alot better now. We are just really wishing the county will put up the money to get some real dispatchers and some more frequencies...it sucked.

 

[Ridryder911]

Talk to your crews and if you have more problems seek a professional counselor. CISD is a joke and should be avoided, it has been noted it may be more harmful than helpful. That is why government funding and promotion of such has been down graded in the past 5-10 years. Another one of those programs that "everyone assumed" it was helpful and good, without prior research and studies.


Be sure to seek those with professional education in psychology not those that attend a few week end seminars in CISD and promote "group therapy" without formal education and license in psychology.

http://www.jems.com/columnists/bledsoe/articles/15303/

R/r 911

 

[Medic's Wife]

Wow, that is very messed up. Sorry you had such a bad call.

I've never heard of Livingston, but you can't be too far from my neck of the woods, because my hubby makes lots of trips to Vanderbilt, Centenial, and Baptist.....

 

[divinewind_007]

this actually happened up in celina...clay county TN. i work in livingston too...which is overton county. they are up on the TN/KY line around dale hollow lake. Thats about midway between nashville and knoxville. where are yuns at?

 

[Medic's Wife]

We live about an hour south of Nashville, but hubby works in Franklin County in East TN. Poor guy has to transfer to Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and sometimes even Huntsville, AL. Thank goodness for mileage pay!