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Firefighter Intern: Day 4
Apr. 13th, 2018 11:32 pmThe difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. - Jimmy Johnson
We woke up to an alarm for a vehicle fire in Westport at 8 am that turned out to be nothing, and then we had a long meeting with the Chief and the other firefighters on our training goals when we got back. My goals were simple; I want to finish my Firefighter I taskbook by this Summer. I spent the rest of the morning finishing my fire extinguisher training (and getting some signoffs), and learning knots and hoisting tools and utility shut-off procedures (for more signoffs). After lunch, we had back-to-back Code 3 medical calls, including a transport from Westport to St John's in Longview - where I learned how to better transport, how to use the new gurney more effectively, and how the paramedics engage in patient care. We settled down for a relaxing evening watching a movie.
And then, and 8 pm, after dinner ... my first code. "Medic 482, please respond to a cardiac arrest, CPR already being performed, ..." and we bolted out of the breakroom at high speed, and loaded into the Medic before the app on my phone went off. This wasn't an ordinary call, so the regular paramedics drove there (faster than we usually do) and then we were all there in a 69-year-old lady's living room with a Sheriff's Deputy performing CPR. I spelled the Deputy and performed both chest compressions and breathing for our victim with the Resuscitation Bag with CPR Mask on a human being for the first time in my life.
The paramedics got a pulse back and I was tasked to drive to St. John's ER. I got turned around in the dark and started to drive the wrong way down Highway 30, but I figured out quickly I was making a mistake and flipped around - and drove the fastest I have ever driven the Medic rig. Going Code 3, pedal mashed to the floor, in the rain and dark and around logging trucks on the Longview Bridge, while the three paramedics worked on our patient in the back. We got her to the ER, and the ER Doc took over. We checked in later after we got back and cleaned up and reset the Medic rig, and she was still alive and being admitted ... a very unusual circumstance for a code.
Other than driving the wrong way briefly, and missing some of the radio protocol to C-COM, I did pretty well for my first time driving without a trainer in the right seat. After almost four days being an Intern, I'm a far more effective volunteer than I have been after sporadically being a volunteer for the last three years. *smile*
We woke up to an alarm for a vehicle fire in Westport at 8 am that turned out to be nothing, and then we had a long meeting with the Chief and the other firefighters on our training goals when we got back. My goals were simple; I want to finish my Firefighter I taskbook by this Summer. I spent the rest of the morning finishing my fire extinguisher training (and getting some signoffs), and learning knots and hoisting tools and utility shut-off procedures (for more signoffs). After lunch, we had back-to-back Code 3 medical calls, including a transport from Westport to St John's in Longview - where I learned how to better transport, how to use the new gurney more effectively, and how the paramedics engage in patient care. We settled down for a relaxing evening watching a movie.
And then, and 8 pm, after dinner ... my first code. "Medic 482, please respond to a cardiac arrest, CPR already being performed, ..." and we bolted out of the breakroom at high speed, and loaded into the Medic before the app on my phone went off. This wasn't an ordinary call, so the regular paramedics drove there (faster than we usually do) and then we were all there in a 69-year-old lady's living room with a Sheriff's Deputy performing CPR. I spelled the Deputy and performed both chest compressions and breathing for our victim with the Resuscitation Bag with CPR Mask on a human being for the first time in my life.
The paramedics got a pulse back and I was tasked to drive to St. John's ER. I got turned around in the dark and started to drive the wrong way down Highway 30, but I figured out quickly I was making a mistake and flipped around - and drove the fastest I have ever driven the Medic rig. Going Code 3, pedal mashed to the floor, in the rain and dark and around logging trucks on the Longview Bridge, while the three paramedics worked on our patient in the back. We got her to the ER, and the ER Doc took over. We checked in later after we got back and cleaned up and reset the Medic rig, and she was still alive and being admitted ... a very unusual circumstance for a code.
Other than driving the wrong way briefly, and missing some of the radio protocol to C-COM, I did pretty well for my first time driving without a trainer in the right seat. After almost four days being an Intern, I'm a far more effective volunteer than I have been after sporadically being a volunteer for the last three years. *smile*
