Mechanism of injury

     The other day I was working one of the MICU trucks when we got a call for a MVA. It was a busy intersection mid after noon the the local FD and PD where already on scene. There was moderate damage to the vehicle and two people were inside. The restrained driver and the unrestrained passenger. The driver didn't want anything to do with the whole incident and was otherwise fine. The unrestrained passenger actually hit his head on the windshield and caused what many have referred to as a postive "windshield sign". You could see where his head impacted the windshield because it caused it go crack and make a spider web appearance. Gotta love a head on collision.
     Thankfully one of medics I work with from time to time was doing the fire thing that day and did a great job of making sure this guy had a c-collar and was extricated properly. One issue I did have was that there was no real traffic control because we were in the middle of the intersection and many people were just trying to slide by us. Rude, unsafe, and annoying. Thankfully no one was hurt.
     Our treatment was fairly quick and simple. IV, O2, monitor, C-Collar, and transport to the trauma center. Report was called and the trauma team was standing by when we arrived. I love giving report to the trauma team. You get to yell, be blunt, and be done in under a minute. Good times. They took over and did their thing.
      A few things we did on this call were pretty cool. For the sake of saving time, I used the blood pressure cuff as a tornaquet for my IV. While it was taking the pts pressure, I slipped in an 18g and did alittle EMS multitasking. Another thing that I was pretty happy about was our scene time. We were on scene for a total of 17 minutes. That included extrication, packaging, and IV access. Not too bad.
     As it turns out, our pt had a head bleed and a fractured c-spine. Not much we could do in the field for that. Fortunately for him, he was transported to the areas only trauma center and is good hands. Also, a good thing to point out was that he had positve pulse, motor, and censory function in all his extremities on scene and upon arrival to the hospital. It's funny how pts may not look sick but treating based on mechanism alone can really save lives and cover your butt.