Superbowl Sunday

Yesterday, as a company we broke our own record...we ran more calls in one day than ever before. Before 1800 we had run over 200 calls in the Los Angeles County area. There was nothing particularly special about the day other than the fact that we assumed everyone would rather stay home and watch the NE Patriots lose their 18-0 winning streak to the NY Giants...apparently not. My day started out with me getting split up from my regular partner...which made everyone at my station frustrated and out of sorts. (We are a tight knit team.) We ran a total of about 15 calls in 24 hours (not bad you might think, but don't forget that we spent time hanging out on street corners covering low-staffed areas while waiting of other units to clear in between calls.) We were low on staffing to begin with. Honestly, who wants to pick up overtime on the best TV commercial day of the year? Our calls ranged from a 15mo boy pulling a cup of coffee on himself causing minor burns to his chest, to difficulty breathing, chest pain, seizures, near syncopal episodes, DOAs to anxiety attacks. There are only two stories I will relay in detail today...

DOA...
I had just finished cleaning up the gurney in the hospital ER after dropping off a patient and was on my way to make a much needed "pit stop" when my dispatch supervisor contacted me on the Nextel. "Can any of the units there clear?" He asked. I assured him that my unit could clear in about three minutes. "No", he said. "I need someone now!...I have a full arrest one block over from the hospital...can someone clear?" "I can take it" I answered..."give it to me..." As I hurried out of the ER grabbing my partner on the way out, one of the other crew members came after me...at first I thought he was trying to jump the call...but he just wanted me to take his ride-along for the experience. We grabbed the ride along and jumped in the rig, quickly backed up and lit up as we exited the parking lot. As we pulled up onscene less than 30 seconds later, the dispatcher attempted to reassign us to a chest pain call, but I quickly informed him that we were already onscene with LACoFD, so he changed his mind. We followed the captain into the gated apartment complex (most of them are gated in Inglewood), and attempted to locate the apartment. We waited for the elevator to come, and were met by an older woman who was obviously under a great deal of stress. We attempted to squeeze the gurney into the tiny elevator with the woman, the captain and all 3 of us...it didn't fit. We dropped the gurney outside the elevator and rode up to the floor, the anxious woman tellings us that "he wasn't breathing, he threw up and wet himself...!" As we made our way into the apartment whose walls were covered with various knickknacks, pictures and odd collections of key chains...I couldn't help but feel I had been here before. (Maybe I had, but I never could recall what run it was...) We walked into the bedroom to find an older man lying on the bed in nothing but his underwear...his skin almost the same color as the cloth. It was quickly determined that he had passed on, at least some hours ago as rigor mortis and dependant lividity had set in. We had the ride-along move to that side of the bed as the paramedic on the engine performed the necessary steps to declare someone in the field. He patiently pointed out the obvious signs of death and let the ride-along feel how stiff he was and let him see what "fixed and dilated" pupils look like. During this assessment the woman waited in the living room as the room and hallways was too crowded for her to squeeze in and see what was going on. I followed the captain out to the living room. He calmly proceeded to get some information regarding the patient as she told him that "she was calm now." She was doing everything she could to be helpful to us, asking if we needed his list of medications, telling us his medical problems, etc. The captain asked for her relationship to the dead man. "His common-law wife." was her answer. She told us that she was scared when she saw he wasn't breathing, but "knew he was in the best hands." A handsome, young police officer looked on as the captain told her we were doing everything we could (which at this point was declare death...he had been down too long for CPR to have any affect). I couldn't help but noticing that she was ready to go, follow us to the hospital with her purse slung over her shoulder. Little did she know at this point that we would not be taking her husband anywhere and that his next destination wasn't going to be a hospital bed...rather it would be a morgue. The captain told us we could cancel so we grabbed our equipment and quietly left the apartment. On the way down we met the paramedics who would attach a monitor and verify "asystole" and complete the procedures for determining death in the field. I am not sure at what point the woman figured out or was told that her husband was gone...we were already on our way to more work.

CO
Me and my partner were en route to the ER with a patient complaining of I forget what when we heard another unit dispatched to a 3 person full-arrest. The first thing that came to my mind was a murder-suicide. The second thing that came to mind was CO poisoning. With the weather being colder, people tend to use inappropriate forms of heating to warm their home such as outdoor grills and the like...also faulty furnaces can leak CO into the air creating a potentially deadly atmosphere in the home. As it ended up...CO was a contributing factor. Two adult victims were declared dead at the scene and a 12 yo F was transported to a nearby specialty hospital for possible CO poisoning. Two young people lost their parents last night.

After 24 hours of work, 1-2 hours of sleep and 15+ calls later...I think that Superbowl Sunday was the busiest day this year...and it had nothing to do with the football game.