I know it has been a while since my last post on here. It has not been for lack of interesting situations, but rather due to lack of time to adequately document them. The last semester took a lot of my time and required me to put my blogging on the back burner for a bit. This was a call when I was working the ground in the mitten. Anyways...
So there I was right...working a shift up in Michigan with a buddy of mine on one of the MICU trucks. We started the day with a ventilator wait and return type of call. Those are my favorite calls said no medic ever! So the call went fine with no real story worthy details to add here and we return out pt with no issues back to a facility that we frequent.
So we are cleaning up our truck when we see the local PD/PSO show up. I go over and ask the officer what was the story was and before I could get the words out of my mouth he says "Are you guys able to take this one?" ...I respond with a VERY confident "Sure. I guess. What's going on?" he points to what I can only describe as a very angry looking Santa wearing a Red Wings jersey. The officer says he has been angry and aggressive with the staff and this call is going to be a committal. He also informs us that they have been here before for this individual and they have never given them a problem in the past. He is just pissed off at the staff. And apparently he is very hard of hearing.
So I gesture to this guy to follow me and he complies and provides no resistance at all. He knew the drill and was cool with it. We get him strapped in on the gurney and start our usual assessments and questions. "How are you feeling?", Do you have any pain?", "What happened?" The usual questions. He really doesn't give us much of an answer, but doesn't give us much of a hassle either. Ok, we can deal with that. I won't be the first time we transport an angry pt and it certainly won't be the last.
Well the snowball started rolling just after my partner asks me a question about the status of the receiving hospital while having a smile on his face. The pt immediately changes his mood and starts yelling at him. So he goes from smiling to total poker face in about 0.3 seconds, apologizes to the pt and explained to the pt that he was merely asking me a question about the status of the hospital we were about to transport to. The pt snapped at him again but didn't show any further signs of aggression. I ask if we are good to go and get the thumbs up to transport.
As we start to roll priority 3 towards the mother-ship, I start to hear some more angry noises from the back of the truck a few minutes later. I ask if everything is alright and all I get back is "Pull the !@#$ truck over!" As I pull into a parking lot, I look into the rear view mirror and can make out hands moving all over the place. I flip the lights on so when help does arrive, they can find us quickly. Unfortunately, I forgot to call out on the radio to request it. My bad.
I jump out of the driver seat and run around to the back of the truck and throw the doors open and then myself into the darkness. I was half expecting to get punched in the face before my eyes could adjust to the relatively darker pt care compartment in the back of the truck. Thankfully there was no punch in the face. I'm always happy when I don't get punched in the face. As my eyes adjusted I see my partner on top of this now VERY violent pt trying his best to keep him from further assaulting him! Apparently the pt decided to undo his safety belts and lunged at my partner. No bueno!
My partner is on the upper body and I am on the lower body making sure to protect ourselves as best we can. So we have our pt somewhat subdued...now what? We can't reach the locked drug box in an attempt to sedate this pt and we can't reach the radio to call for PD. Welcome to that lovely piece of real estate located on the corner of Rock and Hard Place. But what it the key to success? Flexibility and dynamic or out of the box thinking. We were able to grab our cell phones but thanks to the endogenous catecholamines coursing through our veins we were not able to remember the number for dispatch. What we did remember was 911.
Now I have to admit it was a bit odd being on the other end of the 911 call requesting help. And right on pain in the ass Que, our pt starts yelling every obscene and foul word he can think of. I am sure the dispatcher that answered the phone wasn't expected to be verbally assaulted when they answered. So this means I have to try and yell over the sea of profanity to get our location to the other end of the phone line. The only thing I can see out of the back of the truck was a local Mexican restaurant. However, I was able to recall the closest intersection to give them an idea of where we were. As soon as that information was given the call ends and we are left hoping for help to arrive soon.
It was probably only a few minutes between the call and the arrival of the first PD unit on scene. However, when your adrenalin is going it seems to take forever. It was a huge relief to see the flashing blue lights. Yet it seemed as though it took the officer way longer to get out of the car and into our little box of advanced life support chaos. He pulls out his tazer as what I can only assume was a show of force and says something to the effect of "I'm only going to ask you once, calm down, sir". And of course there is a slew of obscenities towards the officer which he doesn't take kindly to. He tells us to jump off of him and applies the tazer directly to his chest! CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK! Goes 10,000 volts of justice. Apparently he initially had good contact but lost it because the pt was able to swat it way. Unfortunately, this did not work in his favor as the officer swung it around again to regain contact and hopefully control but the pt swatted it away again. However, this time it landed on his nuts. That's not the medical term for it, but still...OUCH!
Now there is another officer that has arrived to the party with more toys in the form of hand cuffs. FINALLY! We have the situation under control. I ask my partner about sedation and he was OK with just restraining the pt. He said he could take the abuse, as long as it was verbal only.
So we transport our crazy, electrocuted, and now secured pt to the mother-ship I realize that I never told dispatch about our little "situation". I call over the radio to ask and I can only describe the response as a long drawn out question mark.
As we pull into the hospital, we are met at the door by a couple of security guards that are way too excited to do their job. I kept thinking that a whistle would be blown soon for unnecessary roughness. But they played nice and provided a spit shield. After all, no one likes getting punched in the face AND spit on. It just goes to show you that you never really know what is going to happen. Just add it to the list of WTFs that occur every day on this job.
