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- Nov 17, 2011
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*hopefully 
Hello everyone,
I couldn't find a specific forum for introductions, and I didn't want to busy up the pre-med section with a simple introduction, so I figured putting this with fellow EMS folks was as good a place as any.
I'm not sure if there are many Canadians on here, so my acronyms and training levels might be a bit different for most of you. I'm in my second year of EMS as a PCP (Primary Care Paramedic). I'm not sure what that translates to in the States, but its a 1 year training program and covers the BLS side of our spectrum. I work for a busy urban mixed fire/EMS service. I have the honour (..or something) of being right smack downtown on the hands down busiest unit in the city . A 12 hour shift can easily net 5-8 calls, sometimes more, dependent entirely on how long it has been since we brought/bribed dispatch with coffee.
I did my undergrad in politics and psychology, as I started university right out of high school with absolutely no idea where I wanted to go or do with my time. While in my final undergrad year an unfortunate event involving a classmate got me thinking about the fire department, which led to joining my local volunteer FD. That led to EMS, which then led to me moving to the city to work full-time in EMS.
A few months ago I made my decision to start taking my pre-reqs (no science background since highschool, although I have always been interested in it) and pursue med school and eventually Emergency Medicine, which from browsing this forum is a popular choice for us. I'm giving myself a conservative timeline of 2-3 years to take the courses and the MCAT while continuing to work part-time. If it takes longer, it takes longer. I love my career in EMS, but I find myself wanting to know more about my patients and wanting to know more about what happens to them after I move them to their bed. One call in particular is standing out to me (because I got to break a door down ). Younger pt, late 20's. Found GCS 3. I was on a BLS truck that day (I usually have an ALS partner) so we did the usual BLS thing: ABC's all good, pulse was tachy at about 150, pressure was up in the 180/110 range, resps were normal at 16, blood sugar of 5 mmol/L (normal), pupils were reactive at 4 but were doing a weird involuntary shaking, almost like windshield wipers on a car, back and forth from left to right. Called for ALS but none was available as it was friday night and the city decided it was the night to go mental. Gave him O2, loaded him up and ran red to the hospital. After a bit he woke up and was alert to person, place, and time but not event so we downgraded to Amber (not that it mattered, he was right down the street to the hospital). My partner, the triage nurse, and other medics we met in the typical friday night hallway holding pattern thought it was just a drug overdose, but I was thinking it was a medical issue on his part based on his presentation after he awoke. He would go from being legitimately confused (I believed him) to being relatively alert and oriented, and pretty scared about why he was in a hospital. Plus his house didn't look like what I would expect from an overdose call, and I searched everywhere trying to find drugs or signs of an OD but turned up nothing. Initial dispatch came across as a chest pain turned SOB, ended up being a 911 hangup. He wouldn't answer the door so we got dispatch to call back, heard his phone ringing but still no answer. We peeked in a window and noticed his feet barely poking out from around a corner (didn't notice initially) so we forced entry.
That story got longer than I had intended, but the bottom line is I have no idea what was wrong with him and wasn't able to find out what was wrong with him after the fact. But I want to know more about him and other patients I'm going to see in the future.
This forum appears to have a wealth of information on it and I look forward to taking advantage of as much of it as I can.
Nice to meet you all
Hello everyone,
I couldn't find a specific forum for introductions, and I didn't want to busy up the pre-med section with a simple introduction, so I figured putting this with fellow EMS folks was as good a place as any.
I'm not sure if there are many Canadians on here, so my acronyms and training levels might be a bit different for most of you. I'm in my second year of EMS as a PCP (Primary Care Paramedic). I'm not sure what that translates to in the States, but its a 1 year training program and covers the BLS side of our spectrum. I work for a busy urban mixed fire/EMS service. I have the honour (..or something) of being right smack downtown on the hands down busiest unit in the city
. A 12 hour shift can easily net 5-8 calls, sometimes more, dependent entirely on how long it has been since we brought/bribed dispatch with coffee. I did my undergrad in politics and psychology, as I started university right out of high school with absolutely no idea where I wanted to go or do with my time. While in my final undergrad year an unfortunate event involving a classmate got me thinking about the fire department, which led to joining my local volunteer FD. That led to EMS, which then led to me moving to the city to work full-time in EMS.
A few months ago I made my decision to start taking my pre-reqs (no science background since highschool, although I have always been interested in it) and pursue med school and eventually Emergency Medicine, which from browsing this forum is a popular choice for us. I'm giving myself a conservative timeline of 2-3 years to take the courses and the MCAT while continuing to work part-time. If it takes longer, it takes longer. I love my career in EMS, but I find myself wanting to know more about my patients and wanting to know more about what happens to them after I move them to their bed. One call in particular is standing out to me (because I got to break a door down
). Younger pt, late 20's. Found GCS 3. I was on a BLS truck that day (I usually have an ALS partner) so we did the usual BLS thing: ABC's all good, pulse was tachy at about 150, pressure was up in the 180/110 range, resps were normal at 16, blood sugar of 5 mmol/L (normal), pupils were reactive at 4 but were doing a weird involuntary shaking, almost like windshield wipers on a car, back and forth from left to right. Called for ALS but none was available as it was friday night and the city decided it was the night to go mental. Gave him O2, loaded him up and ran red to the hospital. After a bit he woke up and was alert to person, place, and time but not event so we downgraded to Amber (not that it mattered, he was right down the street to the hospital). My partner, the triage nurse, and other medics we met in the typical friday night hallway holding pattern thought it was just a drug overdose, but I was thinking it was a medical issue on his part based on his presentation after he awoke. He would go from being legitimately confused (I believed him) to being relatively alert and oriented, and pretty scared about why he was in a hospital. Plus his house didn't look like what I would expect from an overdose call, and I searched everywhere trying to find drugs or signs of an OD but turned up nothing. Initial dispatch came across as a chest pain turned SOB, ended up being a 911 hangup. He wouldn't answer the door so we got dispatch to call back, heard his phone ringing but still no answer. We peeked in a window and noticed his feet barely poking out from around a corner (didn't notice initially) so we forced entry.That story got longer than I had intended, but the bottom line is I have no idea what was wrong with him and wasn't able to find out what was wrong with him after the fact. But I want to know more about him and other patients I'm going to see in the future.
This forum appears to have a wealth of information on it and I look forward to taking advantage of as much of it as I can.
Nice to meet you all
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