Ambulance Driver

We had 70 runs today during my shift. Ambulance Driver was assigned 7 of them.

• Call #1 was for a non-English speaking patient with back pain that resulted from a chronic condition. A friend was present that spoke passable English and was able to translate. Patient was given pain medication and transported. The funny thing about this call was the friend. He was an amiable sort and was very helpful. As we lifted the patient from the floor, the guy was giving us directions. His last bit of help was a lusty, “one, two, three,” followed by a grunt. We got a kick out of it. We told him that he was going to assimilate well into this culture.
• Call #2 was for a young patient with abdominal pain that had been persistent for a couple of weeks. Had not had nausea, change of stools, fever or recent history of trauma.
• Call #3 involved a foreign visitor to this country with a fever and hypotension. Also nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Very pale and weak as well. Sad thing about this was the patient had no insurance but had to go by ambulance. Ouch.
• Call #4 was for a very elderly patient who stumbled getting on a city bus. No obvious injury but was aphasic and could not write. The patient seemed to understand what was being said but had a very hard time communicating. This condition was obviously chronic. The patient provided a phone number but no one was home. We transported to the nearest hospital to let them sort it out.
• Call #5 was for a seizure patient housed in a shelter for those with chemical dependency issues.
• Call # 6 found us in the home of an elderly patient who had fallen in the home and discovered by “Meals on Wheels.” Patient had been lying there for several hours.
• Call #7 was for a patient who had gall bladder problems and had been putting off surgery for several months. Now had very severe upper right quadrant abdominal pain.

It was a busy enough day to keep us interested and the time went by fairly quickly. See you tomorrow.