It was a Saturday
morning, Ving had gone to a conference up north and I was enjoying my time with
the two kiddo. After sending Yun to school, Xian had suggested a swimming trip
as he would be facing his swimming test few weeks later. I complied with Xian’s
request and headed to the nearest swimming pool but found out that it
was closed for service. We decided to go to another swimming pool nearby and we had noticed an accident at a T junction during the drive. A lady was laying at the
middle of the junction and a few bystander were standing around. Normally I won’t
stopped as most of the time, there would be a lot of bystander willing to help
but this was different as the victim was laying without movement. I told Xian
that we would stop and offered some help. I parked the car along the roadside
and told Xian to grab an umbrella to shed the patient as it is still hot during daytime.
The scenario was a
bloody one as the lady suffered from an open jaw fracture and skull base
fracture. After securing the airway and c-spine(that was what I could do, as I
did not bring my bag and was driving Ving’s car instead of mine) and packing
the wound, I called out the ED at A-hospital(my employer) as it is the nearest facility
with neurosurgery capability. The nurse whom I knew told me that their computer
was downed and I told them that they are the only hope for the patient and we would be coming over.
The ambulance
arrived 10+ mins later and the patient went into arrest. I commenced CPR and have no choice to accompany the patient to A
hospital as only one EMT-B would not be enough to manage the patient during the
ride. Xian had come along and taken a seat at the front seat passenger seat of
the ambulance. I managed to insert the LMA into the patient and continued the
CPR session until our arrival in ED 10+ mins later.
The pass-over was
a crap as the attending ED physician did not bother for a pass-over. I brief
the triage nurse and walked out from the ED. The morale is low at that department as most of the ED physicians there are asking around for job lately.
Xian had acted
bravely during the scenario but freaked out during the ambulance ride. The
local drivers have no driving ethic as no one is giving way for the ambulance; the
ambulance had to drive like snake crawl during the journey.
Well, the
ambulance was kindly enough to give us a drive back to the scene to pick up our
car. It was a perilous and educational journey for us. Xian had finally taken a
look at what I am doing and I had a good workout…it was 2+ years since I did a
long duration of CPR(we had a auto-CPR machine since then).
It is my 1st time to involved in CPR on board an ambulance...not a pleasant one but yet a memorable one...
For Xian , it was another trilling experience on a speeding vehicle ( the first one was the TUK TUK ride in Sri Lanka months ago...)
As for the victim, sadly she did not make it even though ROSC was noted after she arrived at the hospital....
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