'Did you black out at any point? Do you have a headache? How much alcohol have you had to drink this evening?...'
My interrogation carried on whilst all around me were the bodies of wounded strangers. They were sitting in chairs, laying on stretchers and a few were wandering around aimlessly.
Some bright spark decided that throwing glass bottles into the air whilst in the middle of a crowd would be a fun game. The bottles returned to earth crashing into anyone that stood in their way. Slicing into faces, arms, torso's, feet.
I found myself zoning out, blocking out the noise and urgency of other patients whilst I made sure I did a good job on the one sat in front of me. I patched him up and sent him on his way. As i returned to the masses the noise gradually became louder, the crying and whaling of other patients became increasingly unbearable. I had come out of my 'zoned out' state and walked back into reality.
Who will I treat next? Shall I go for the unconscious, unresponsive teenager or the multiple facial trauma? or how about the suspected spinal fracture?
Yes, you guessed it. I chose the suspected axial burst fracture! Wahey! I get to play with some toys, puff out my chest and play with the big boys. hehe.
She was sat in a chair with a nurse holding her head, I retrieved our kit and applied a hard collar. The plan was to slide the long board behind the chair and tilt the chair down until she was flat on her back, on the board, on the floor. I am pleased to say that it went rather smoothly, I had hold of her head whilst the Dr cleared her. She was assessed and we were happy to send her on her merry way, without the added accessory of the spinal board of course!
By this point Big Ben had chimed, fireworks had gone off and it was finally 2010. I did not see midnight but I did see a very nice splatter of second hand kebab that night.
Happy New Year.
No comments:
Post a Comment