Ollie and I were responded to a job, early on the Saturday morning, being my first real casualty incident.
We were called to a woman collapsed at the back of a house in Auburn, the patient was
conscious and breathing, post collapse.
What had happened was an elderly lady had apparently been using a shower at the back of the house.
It was a cool morning in Auburn, and when she has stepped out into the cool morning air, from the hot shower cubicle, she has collapsed onto the tile floor.
On arrival, we casually got out of the old F250 ambulance, 301 was it’s designation, and
made our way down the driveway, towards the family members waiting for us at the rear of the house. I had butterflies in my stomach, trying to run through in my mind, the questions I was going to ask the patient, what I was going to do first, how I was going to communicate with people, etcetera, as I didn’t want to disappoint Ollie. As we rounded the corner at the back of the house we found her sitting on a chair, conscious and sporting a minor skin tearon her elbow. Thank goodness, she was conscious.
I can’t forget the feeling of Ollies’ hand in my back as he gently pushed me forwards
towards the lady. Thanks mate.
I introduced myself and Ollie, to the lady and her family attending to her, then asked what had happened.
As she had gotten out of the shower into the relatively cooler air of the cubicle, she started to feel slightly light headed. Having successfully gotten herself dressed, she then stepped out into the cold morning air of the back veranda, where she immediately felt light headed, and slumped to the tile floor. She did not completely lose consciousness, but was unclear to the exact events.
My first thought was that that the temperature changes from the hot shower to the cool
exterior environment, may have altered her blood pressure, bringing about a type of
fainting response. After checking her blood pressure, with her both laying down, and the
sitting up, I realised that she had a relatively low blood pressure in both positions.
Her heart was beating regularly, and was able to be felt easily at her extremities. Ollie did a 3 lead ECG on her with the Lifepak 5, and it did not display any irregularities of note.
I cleaned and dressed the minor wound on her elbow, assessed her for any possible mobility concerns, and checked her blood glucose reading, and for any signs of fever. Basically, we were unable to find anything out of the ordinary for her after assessment of her vital signs and history, other than the wound.
She politely declined our offer of transport to the hospital for further assessment, but I
strongly recommended that she see her local doctor if they were available on the day. So
we said our goodbyes after gathering her details for my paperwork, walked casually up the driveway, hopped back into the ambulance, and left the scene.
Now the hard part started …… the paperwork. Navigating the case sheet, and getting my
story correct, and succinct was a task that needed a lot of practice to get right, and was I
ever going to get that practice!
Please check back regularly for the continuing story.