By Tracy Orlowski
We were mourning the loss of our previous night’s full arrest. The patient we lost was a member of our department and someone we had all known our whole lives.
As I sat reminiscing with my mother, the tones dropped again. Unbelievably, it was a reported full arrest on the same street as the previous call. When we arrived at the station, we met up with Danielle and our driver Jimmy. We all got in and started preparing when Jimmy yelled back, “Are you ladies ready? It’s ‘patient name’”.
All of our jaws dropped — it was someone from the same family as the previous call. Someone we once again all knew well.
We arrived to find a crowd and the patient lying in the street. I was the first one out of the ambulance, hitting the ground and feeling for a pulse. Thankfully, I found a pulse, but the patient was turning blue. Danielle and I unsuccessfully tried to rouse the patient. Sheryl quickly inserted an airway and began bagging. We grabbed a backboard and the stretcher and loaded.
Once in the ambulance, Danielle and I worked to bag the patient. While we bagged, Sheryl obtained the vitals. The patient’s color came back. As we stopped to meet the medic, the patient’s gag reflex returned. We stopped bagging and removed the airway.
I said the patients name, her eyes opened and she looked up at me and said “Tracy.” The patient became totally alert and had recognized me right away. We all sat in the ambulance with the biggest smiles.
I think this call had a lot of teamwork for a small volunteer department. We all responded from home and still made a quick response. When looking at the times later, we realized we were on scene under 3 minutes. So in under 3 minutes, we assessed, established a airway, began bagging, loaded the patient, cleared the entire crowd, and went en route. We then worked together to adequately ventilate the patient and saved a life. All of this happened with emotions running high and the thought of losing a close friend.