Wednesday, July 7, 2010

More Busy and a Helicopter

I guess saying in my last post that everything has died down here was speaking too soon. Last night I was called out on another medical. We were called to Yancy's hole, a backcountry BBQ area, for someone who had been thrown from a horse with reported respiratory arrest. Usually with respiratory arrest, after a few minutes of it, the heart stops as well. So Colette put me in charge of the Automated External Defibrillator(AED) and CPR compressions if they were needed. Luckily they weren't needed because the patient had regained consciousness. On the way to the scene, Brady did some awesome driving and fast technical maneuvering of the ambulance. During the transport, I was in the back with two park medics, Colette and a paramedic from Canyon named Amy. It was interesting to watch them put in the IVs and pain medications. Amy had this fancy machine which measured pulse, did an EKG, Blood pressure, respirations, and SpO2 all at the same time! We transported to Mammoth where we met the trauma helicopter. By the time this was almost done and the patient was loaded in the helicopter, it was already dark out.
One of the rangers from Mammoth was there as well. She was the one who had directed the helicopter in. Someone brought up about how the pilot would have to use night vision goggles. I mentioned how that sounded cool because I had always wanted to try night vision goggles. So without me asking or anything, she reached into her rig and pulled out a pair and said I would be able to use them to watch the helicopter take off. Which was awesome by the way. Those night vision goggles really do work well!
As the helicopter started taking off about 30 feet from me, the wind from it really started picking up. It got really strong, probably around 40mph! I watched it take off into the pitch black of night....well, not pitch black for me, I had night vision goggles.
Really exciting night overall. Brady and I got back to the station and we both found tacos made for us in our fridges by Amanda, which was really cool of her because we were hungry!

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Myself in my uniform from a couple of years ago. I wear normal clothes to the office now.