Carpentry Accident

[C. Aylward]

Next up BLS unit. Amputation . 599 Bay Street, Commercial building.

 

"911 Wheres your emergency?"

"599 Bay street. I need an ambulance. One of my guys just ran his hand through a chop saw. I think he cut off his fingers!"

"Ok do you have the fingers?"

"My other guys are still looking for them."

"Is he awake and alert?"

"Yeah hes screaming at the top of his lungs."

"If you find the fingers put them in a clean plastic bag. Do not put them on ice.'

*I begin to rattle off prearrival instructions before quickly muting the phone and hitting the tones*

"Medic 1 599 Bay street for the unknown age male multiple finger amputation. Patient is awake and alert, Status of the amputated fingers in unknown at this time"

 

[D. Callahan]

"Medic 1 599 Bay street for the unknown age male multiple finger amputation. Patient is awake and alert, Status of the Amputated fingers is unknown at this time"

*keying my push to talk on my portable i key up*

"ERT Medic 1 Acknowledging the page will be in route momentarily, Can we get our nearest intersection on this?"

*releasing my PTT I leave Breslin's office and head out to the truck opening the bay door and hopping in the passenger seat i wait for my partner to come out*

[C. Aylward]

"ERT Medic 1 Acknowledging the page will be in route momentarily, Can we get our nearest intersection on this?"
 

"Cross street is North 9th and 10th"

[D. Callahan]

"Cross Street is North 9th and 10th"

*grabbing the mic for the radio in the truck i key up*

"Medic 1 copies cross is North 9th and 10th street" 

[B. Jacobowski]

Driving along Bay Street, I stop my truck at the red light. Rolling down the windows to cool down the cab a little, I hear a screaming man. I look to my right and left to try and find him, and then see a person flagging me down. I guess someone needs my help! I knew there was a reason for all my emergency equipment. Seeing the man across the street, opposite to my location, I reach down and activate my emergency lights. While ambers can be on any vehicle, the green is reserved for emergency volunteer responders. More over, most people don't know that it's just a courtesy light, and immediately give way to me, traffic hesitating in the intersection as I edge forward. I reach down and press the air horn button on my console, because even though I can't have a siren, I can have airhorns. I pull a u-turn, and park my vehicle in a no stopping zone just past the crosswalk. It might be no stopping for regular cars, but I'm operating as an emergency vehicle now, so the meter maids I'm sure will recognize the urgency of this illegal parking. 

I reach into my front pocket, knowing my plain clothes look won't necessarily bring confidence, and pull out my badge, clipping it to my belt, the full silver SCFD Clinton Volunteer badge showing authority. I pull out a smaller wallet with my EMT ID card from my full time job and pull the chain out of that, tossing it over my neck as I undo my seatbelt and jump out into traffic. A car slams on the brakes and I wave up to the lightbar on my truck. "SLOW DOWN, MOVE OVER!" I call, as he passes me. 

I Open the  back door and pull out the formerly bright orange trauma backpack and a pair of blue nitrile gloves. 

"Hi, what's the emergency?" I say to the flagger.

"One of the guys just cut off his fingers! Where's the ambulance!?"

"Okay, my name is Benjamin Jacobowski, I'm an EMT. You've already called 911 yes?"

"YES! OBVIOUSLY!"

"Okay, well, I'm going to help until the ambulance arrives. I can't transport in my truck, but I'm going to help. Bring me to the patient."

It's important I stay calm and cool, they're trusting me to save their friend.

 

[K. Petrovic]

*I'd get up and get over and get into the bus and sit down on the cloth seat after buckling in, seeing that everyone else got there before me*

[B. Jacobowski]

Coming into the building, I see a mess. Blood, paper towels and panic. There's a man still on a cell phone, this must be to 911. I certainly hope so. 

"Sir, are you on with 911?"

He nods.

"Tell them there's an EMT here." The shouting continues, making it harder to hear myself think, let alone speak. "Ask them to ensure ALS is on the way. Yes. ALS. Tell them I'm requesting a medic." This guy will clearly need some pain management. That's one thing I don't carry. 

Refocusing towards the patient, I size up the scene. Blood paper towels everywhere. 

"My name is Benjamin, I'm an EMT, can I take a look at what happened?"

He continues shouting, but nods.

"Okay, I've got higher level help on the way, they're going to help with your pain, but in the meantime I'm going to help you to make sure we can get those fingers reattached." I drop my trauma kit, unzip the sides and pull out the gauze pouch, grabbing several clot bandages. As he moves his hand away to make room for mine, I see the stubs where he had fingers not too long ago. I quickly undress the dirty papertowels, and apply pressure via the gauze, trying to stem the bleeding. 

"Hold pressure here. Hey you," I say turning to his first aid attendant, who realizes from my authority he's been relieved of his primary duties, "I want you to get his fingers all together in a zip  lock baggy, get two if you can. Get them over to me, I'll get some ice for them when you have them."

[C. Aylward]

 "Theres a guy here saying hes an EMT. And says he wants ALS or medics... I don't know who this guy is, He just showed up in a truck with green lights"

*I glance over at the AVL screen and see the ambulance is still a few blocks away and I have no SCFD vehicles on scene yet.*

"O-1 Back M-1 for this job on Bay. We have an unidentified EMT requesting ALS"

 

[A. Breslin]

"O-1 Back M-1 for this job on Bay. We have an unidentified EMT requesting ALS"

"O-1 Show me responding"

*Groaning I get up and begin walking out to the command car.*

[B. Jacobowski]

I hear a faint siren in the distance and recognize the brand. Oh that's definitely one of ours. 

"Sir, I need you to go back outside and meet the paramedics when they arrive."

It's probably not the ALS unit, for some reason dispatch likes to code amputations as a basic, but maybe one day they'll listen to us. Either way, I'll have some more help with me here soon. 

"Alright, good, the bleeding is slowing, here, that's your digits. I'm going to keep them cool so the doctors can get them reattached."

I size up the bagged fingers and see clearly the bottoms were a big mangled. A clean cut would be better, but I'm sure that the surgeons can work with this. I know I could, it's only a basic procedure.