Atmospheric Decontamination!

63M - Found by Police sitting on the ground after vomiting and falling out of his wheelchair. He's an above knee amputee, he's not a Vet he just got an infection that wasn't treated. They stopped to assist him back into the chair but his first word were 'call the Ambo's I've vomited'.

Denies any pain, alcohol, drugs or medical Hx just keeps telling me he thinks he needs to go to hospital to have this single vomit investigated. Everyone else on scene is standing upwind but I can't due to his position. The smell in unique, I'm shallow mouth breathing and the smell is still invading my olfactory nerve after smothering my taste buds. On the way to hospital my partner drives with her head out of the window.

I never let on how bad I found his stink, I do my basic obs and engage the pt in converstation to try and gain a better undertanding of how he got to this point in his life.

Some poor agency nurse gets the job of showering him and destroying the cloths and we leave all the doors open in the evening breeze for 30 minutes before spraying half a can of deodorizer inside.

Other work was,

54M - Abdo pain, he was a day shift crews pt and we took over to let them go home.

53M - Chest pain, not an MI more likely a conduction problem.

91F - Post treatment discharge to N/h.

19M - Minor head wounds, left in own care.

23F - Street dweller found asleep by Police, sometimes they call us to check them out, sometimes they just move them on.

69M - Self discharged against advise from the small hospital in the city and found again by Police disorientated at 4.00am in a McDonald's store, we returned him to the hospital.

82M - Transport to Airport for Air Ambulance flight home after successful draining of a sub-dural haemorrhage.

And that was the night shift for me on St Patricks Day!


See you at the big One.

Taz