From zero to hectic in fifty seconds

So that clinical... the spring-break-grave-trauma... it started off horribly slow.

Like... "no-ambulances-for-four-hours" slow.... like "Everyone-including-the-security-guards-remarks-on-how-strangely-slow-it-is" slow.

For the first 7 hours of my 8 hour shift, I mostly stood around the nurses station. I shot the breeze with a few patients, including an absolutely amazing WWII Marines vet who was at Iwo Jima, among many other battles.

Then magically in that last hour of my rotation, all hell broke loose.

First came a pt that hardcore intentionally ODed on EtOH and benzos. I dropped my first NPA in her, but had to pull it right back out because she became pretty combative. Her BP was insanely low... like 86 / 44 last I checked.

Then came a man whose wife awoke to him seizing... she called 911 and the man became extremely combative with the paramedics who brought him in. Luckily by the time he landed in the ED he was out of the "beat-your-ass" postictal phase and into the "sleepy-drunkish" postictal state.

Then came a boy slumped over in a wheelchair, rushed in by the triage nurse. He was about 15 and drunker then all hell. An acquaintance had driven him from some house party to the front doors of the ED. He's a John Doe, because he's completely unresponsive and the guy who brought him in didn't even know his first name.

Man, that poor kid is going to have a hell of a time when he wakes up. He kept slumping over and moving around.. banging his head on the side rails, he's got a foley, he probably aspirated some vomit, he's going to have the mother of all hangovers, and his parents are going to be mega-pissed. That's a bad spring break right there.

And then at exactly 3:30 AM, the time my rotation was supposed to be over, the first trauma team activation of the night came in. Drunk dude was leading cops on a chase when he crashed his pickup and was ejected. He was banged up but there were no obvious major injuries that I could see.

Poor guy, he was completely alert giving his information to the registrar, when they started placing a foley. I had to hold his legs down. Man, that would suck. I hope if I ever need a foley, I'm as out of it as that OD lady was. When they placed a foley in her she didn't even twitch. Mr. Police Chase, however, definitely felt it.

I bet he learned his lesson. The next time he gets shit-faced and runs from the cops, he'll wear his seatbelt.