It is extremely frustrating to know that in spite of being certified for something you cannot use it as effectively as necessary because you are all of 5 feet 5 inches tall and weigh 120 lbs. Somebody driving a car just got hit by a truck outside my apartment today, barely 50 minutes ago. I ran downstairs to help extract the driver from the car (as an EMT , we received the training necessary to do so). Obviously some dumb shit sporting a HIPAA mask but lacking any knowledge or skill whatsoever got there first, and pushed me out of the way, saying "we don't need you". I flashed my EMT license and CPR cert at him, and again, he said he didn't need me and tried to push me away. Was he really going to pull out a guy from a car crash without any help whatsoever? Normally I'd let him try and fail, but the driver was bleeding freely out of his nose and was shaking uncontrollably. Shit. I pushed him out of the way, got hold of C-spine, and after some persuasion and instruction the fool helped me get the driver out.
Now we're on the street, 911 has been called, and the driver clearly has head trauma and is unconscious. I started to lay the driver down in supine position in order to assess airway, breathing and circulation and to do a rapid trauma assessment. Now donkey-fuck here wants to keep the driver sitting upright because he doesn't want the man to "choke on his blood"....are you fucking serious? You stupid freaking shit. I don't remember ever being this pissed off at a complete stranger. While he was arguing, I began checking pulse and respiration - they were absent, and he needed CPR - how the fuck am i supposed to do that while he is sitting up? The fool tried to tell me that I was wrong. Before the battle over putting the guy in supine position began, however, we heard sirens - the ambulance was here. I informed the EMT of the situation and he began CPR with his partner; two other EMTs pulled out the stretcher and continued assessment. I was free to go, and unlike that fart balloon I was working with, decided that since they didn't need my help and since they are *up-to-date with their training* I should get out of the way.
I am so relieved that the ambulance showed up when it did. In the time that I wasted trying to argue with this fool (as physically I had no chance of pushing his grubby hands out of the way without injuring the patient), I could have been halfway in with CPR by the time the EMTs showed up.Turns out my partner here was one of those fuckhead premed students who have taken 2 biology courses so far and shadowed somebody in a hospital for about a day and now think they have all the skills necessary to save the world. I really don't understand where the hell they come from. This is part of the reason I really don't like a lot of premed/medical students (no offense to the ones who are my close friends), and a small part of the reason I've begun to choose public health over medical school as a career - absolute fucking lack of humility. They just automatically assume that they are superior to everybody else without listening to anybody around them - if you have EMT/CPR/rescuer training (or are at a point in med school where you've been on rotations and have learned real-life stuff), you have the right to think you can help. But if not, get the fuck out of the way! They are so hung up on looking like the hero that they fail to realize that they are actually harming the person they are supposed to help.
Medical schools place a large amount of stress on trying to figure out whether an applicant wants to be a doctor because he is passionate about medicine, or because he is passionate about the 3 perks that come with it: sex, money, and POWER. You may not want to be a doctor for the money, but looking like an action hero is an innate desire that med school applicants have....yes, I know that I may be applying to medical school, and I am not completely innocent of this desire....but there is a time and place for trying to reap it! If you are trained and certified to help, by all means, go ahead, even if all you are doing it for is the image. I could care less. But it's a little pathetic how many premed students I have met who seem to care about nothing BUT the image. This is how medical schools should test them - put applicants who have no background in clinical/emergency procedures in a situation where they need to implement them. See how many people stay behind and how many rush in and try to move their fat asses in where they don't belong.
Now we're on the street, 911 has been called, and the driver clearly has head trauma and is unconscious. I started to lay the driver down in supine position in order to assess airway, breathing and circulation and to do a rapid trauma assessment. Now donkey-fuck here wants to keep the driver sitting upright because he doesn't want the man to "choke on his blood"....are you fucking serious? You stupid freaking shit. I don't remember ever being this pissed off at a complete stranger. While he was arguing, I began checking pulse and respiration - they were absent, and he needed CPR - how the fuck am i supposed to do that while he is sitting up? The fool tried to tell me that I was wrong. Before the battle over putting the guy in supine position began, however, we heard sirens - the ambulance was here. I informed the EMT of the situation and he began CPR with his partner; two other EMTs pulled out the stretcher and continued assessment. I was free to go, and unlike that fart balloon I was working with, decided that since they didn't need my help and since they are *up-to-date with their training* I should get out of the way.
I am so relieved that the ambulance showed up when it did. In the time that I wasted trying to argue with this fool (as physically I had no chance of pushing his grubby hands out of the way without injuring the patient), I could have been halfway in with CPR by the time the EMTs showed up.Turns out my partner here was one of those fuckhead premed students who have taken 2 biology courses so far and shadowed somebody in a hospital for about a day and now think they have all the skills necessary to save the world. I really don't understand where the hell they come from. This is part of the reason I really don't like a lot of premed/medical students (no offense to the ones who are my close friends), and a small part of the reason I've begun to choose public health over medical school as a career - absolute fucking lack of humility. They just automatically assume that they are superior to everybody else without listening to anybody around them - if you have EMT/CPR/rescuer training (or are at a point in med school where you've been on rotations and have learned real-life stuff), you have the right to think you can help. But if not, get the fuck out of the way! They are so hung up on looking like the hero that they fail to realize that they are actually harming the person they are supposed to help.
Medical schools place a large amount of stress on trying to figure out whether an applicant wants to be a doctor because he is passionate about medicine, or because he is passionate about the 3 perks that come with it: sex, money, and POWER. You may not want to be a doctor for the money, but looking like an action hero is an innate desire that med school applicants have....yes, I know that I may be applying to medical school, and I am not completely innocent of this desire....but there is a time and place for trying to reap it! If you are trained and certified to help, by all means, go ahead, even if all you are doing it for is the image. I could care less. But it's a little pathetic how many premed students I have met who seem to care about nothing BUT the image. This is how medical schools should test them - put applicants who have no background in clinical/emergency procedures in a situation where they need to implement them. See how many people stay behind and how many rush in and try to move their fat asses in where they don't belong.
super impressed was under statement. way to go :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a crazy episode!
ReplyDelete