Stu Does Trauma
Friday night I was working my fourth night in a row, and got ordered in to an incoming trauma: man crushed under car. In three minutes medics roll in this big guy who had been working under his car, which was sitting on concrete blocks or bricks, or something that fell anyway. Trauma codes aren't usually successful, and Charge Nurse knew that but needed a teaching experience for us newbie RN's. The surgery residents pretty much called it soon as the patient rolled in, but we went to work, shot him with meds and fluids, and the guy came back. Meaning his pulse returned, heart started beating again, but the poor fellow was basically brain-dead from the crush injury. Took him to CT then back to Level 1 as an in-patient, the family was called in to see him, leaving crying.

I thought about all the times I've been under a car or my buds have, without proper jacking devices. I thought about the time as a fireman, I responded to this same type situation, we got there quick and lifted the car up and the guy underneath scurries out like a fiddler crab. I see how amazing it is to see someone revived from death, see a pulse return, a heart start beating again. I went and looked at the guy later and wondered what he was thinking when the car fell, what he would do differently if there were a next time.

But then, there wasn't much time for reflection because more patients were arriving: guy kicked in face by horse, woman hit tree head-on while riding home with "new" friend from the club, and young guy with new onset of nausea. Trauma Drama: read about it here, on House Calls. Operators are standing by.