A little background. Lifeguard is Carilion Clinic's helicopter company. They have three stations in the area and take both pediatrics and adults. I am told that the other large hospitals on the east coast only have 2 helicopters including Duke, Wake Forest, UNC, and UVA so Carilion always has to "one up" them. The station I was at was at Smith Mountain Lake, about 45 minutes outside of Roanoke on a super windy back road that will make anyone car-sick. Lifeguard flies with one Nurse, a Paramedic, and a pilot. What a dream job. Okay scene is set. Back to the story.
I drove up early while watching the sun rise, only to find out it was too cloudy and 1 inch of snow was on its way. So they sent me home. Tuesday was a little more clear so I headed back up again. My first hour consisted of getting my helmet, my survival kit to placed in my jump suit, and learning how to survive a helicopter crash. I learned how to shut down the 10 switches in case of a crash and how to break out windows. I was just hoping I wound remember to breathe in case of a crash...there was know way I was going to find all the switches. We sat around for about 4 hours awaiting a call. Finally, at about noon we got a call. Now you don't get to know what call you are going for until you are in the helicopter and in the air. This way weather does not tempt you do make a bad call and go on a call that weather would make too dangerous. Pretty good plan. During the Virginia Tech Shooting they ran out to the helicopter but said they couldn't go as it was too windy. A few hours later they found out it was for the shooting and felt horrible but knowing that they would have flew in extremely bad weather. Anyways we took off, I was five-harnested in, helmet plugged in so I could hear the dispatch. "This is lifeguard we have 4 people aboard, no warnings no restrictions we are ready for the call." We were headed to a rurual hospital for a STEMI (acute heart attack) and taking them to RMH (Roanoke Memorial Hospital). Super easy, stable transfer. On the way back to the station the piloit did some tricks for me as he used to be an air-show pilot for the army. He made me scream in my microphone as we tipped strait up in the air and then strait down with all the bells and whistles going off. "Danger, Danger." I about had to change my pants. Super fun though. No calls for the rest of the day. I intubated every manican they had and learned some great techniques.
Day 3. We did not get a call till later in the day. I tried every thing to get a call. Ate lunch, started homework, people ran to the grocery store, ya da ya da. Finally the bells and whistles went off and we ran to helicopter, pushed it out of the garage, did the walk around, jumped in, helmets on, plugged in, strapped in. In about 5 minutes we were in the air. "Yes lifeguard you are going to an on scene trauma for a logging accident." WOOOOOOTTTTTTT WOOOOOTTTTT. I knew this was gonna be good. It was about a 30 minute helicopter ride and I was enjoying it once again as it was a beautiful sunny day. We could see for miles. On arrival we were to land in a cemetery. Now this was pretty funny as I have never seen so many flowers as the wind from the helicopter blew them all over the place. Wonder if they found which flowers went where. We could not land at the site as it was too swampy. So the ambulance was to bring him up from the site to us. We waited for a few minutes and they came. We were in po-dunk county where there are only volunteers. This was Lincoln 555 minus 10. But they were great. I opened the ambulance doors to find a man with his leg positioned near his ear and it wasn't moving. My exact words were "holy shit." Pulses of the foot were thankfully intact! Airway....clear and screaming. Sounded as if the butt end of the tree kicked out and hit him in the hip. That leg was not wear it belonged....and that was obvious. The nurse tried doing conscious sedation so we could try to reduce it but he started screaming immediately. We were afraid he would not fit in the helicopter. I thought my 500 square foot loft was small.....there is about 30 square feet in the helicopter. Well as reducing him was not going to happen we splinted his leg to his shoulders and took about 5 of us to get him in the helicopter. We gave him pain meds the entire way and I may or may not have started my first IV at 3,200 feet. Buuu YAAA. Now that was a great ride. I was super pumped and so was my adrenaline. Nothing like throwing you into a trauma and then add a little helicopter on top of it. Great time with lifeguard!!! And got some amazing pictures to go with!! Glad I got to have this experience. Might have to go spend more time with them. Found out this man's head of his femur was down by his sacrum and he fractured his acetabulum.
Thursday and Friday I took ATLS. A little background for that is that they only started letting NPs and PAs take the class 2 years ago. Trauma surgeons teach it and really are particular about the class. For every PA or NP in the class there must be 4 doctors. We learned chest tubes, surgical cricothyroidotomys, and central lines. I was a challenging class. The final consisted of "victims" who were moulaged.
Mat and I spent the weekend at Smith lake hiking around and letting Miley swim, and on Sunday went for a mountain bike ride up at Carven's Cove. Carven's Cove was truly amazing. Although you can't even stick a toe in, or let your dog in as it is against the rule. I have never heard of a lake where it is illegal to swim. Not because of the snakes and it is very clean water. Just because...hmmmm.
This week I am riding with the firetrucks....should be great stories to come.
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