I'm writing this exhausted and worn. Last night was our final scenario for RescueNet. And boy oh boy was it something. Our team of 14 people (some emts, nurse, and others with no medical experience) teamed up and split into groups to get ready for this scenario. This was it. This is where we put into practice what we learned over the past 2 weeks.
So we all had our last class at the fire department in Santa Rosa. We were doing studies on calling helicopters in and setting up a landing zone. Crazy aigh? We finished our written final and then geared up for the scenario. I was put onto one of the medical teams after saying no to leading the entire operation. I like hands on and not staying on the radio the entire time. More and more now, I'm thinking I should have led it.
This was the scenario. There was an 8.3 magnitude earthquake. We were called to a town where we didn't know how many victims there were. We arrived at a training facility where they train EMTs and Paramedics. We got out of the vans and hit the ground running.....kinda. There were a lot of people there! And our commander wasn't sure of himself. So it started out slow. I really had to control myself with not taking control and telling people what to do (I should have been the commander). We sent the search & rescue people out to triage. After they were finished, the medical teams were dispatched. We came up to a house that was tagged with two critical patients. The first one was a girl curled up in the closet. She was unresponsive and obviously in shock. So my partner Jared and I got her out fast to the medical zone where we treated her and passed her off to the nurses. We went back and found the other patient lying down in a tight room and breathing rapidly (40+). I did the assessment while others did vitals and held c-spine. We were in there for about 20 seconds when three onlookers came in and started messing with us and trying to get to the patient as well as the media asking us questions and taking pictures. Let me remind you that everyone, including the media, was part of the scenario. And boy did they get in the way. It was over the top, but the scenario was putting us in the WORST possible situation and forcing us to adapt and work with what we have.
SO... this patient's vitals were badly trending. This told us something else was going on that we missed. We decided to get her out. So using a door, we rolled her onto it and strapped her down. This was tough, especially with all the other people getting in our way and us constantly having to get them out of the room. We FINALLY got the patient to the medical zone and went over her one more time. I found what I had missed earlier. She had a flail segment in her ribs which impeded her breathing. I should have caught it in the beginning! So that was frustrating for me no doubt. All in all, that was a frustrating patient and my team and I had to stop and take a deep breath before moving on.
We went to the far house where we found a new room blocked by a deaf and mute girl trying to protect her brother who was unconscious and had a bad head wound. This one was tough! Whenever we tried to start helping the brother, the girl would get in the way, take our equipment, bounce on the bed, get in our face, hit us, etc etc etc!!! But my team and I worked together so well! We wrapped the wound, got him on the board, and carried him down two flights of stairs to his horror. HA. We rocked it in the face of just pure pandamonia. The scenario was truly stretching, and I learned a lot about myself and how to work with others. We all messed up somewhere, but we excelled in other places.
I'm leaving to Haiti in about 4 hours. I'm excited to see what's going to happen! Thank you for all your prayers. If I can't keep this updated down there, then I'll definitely do it when I get back. Promise!
With Love,
Paul
Paul
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