Red Eye's and other strangeness from last night.

[peter at thescirocco.com (Peter)]

Definitely!!!

Good job! :thumbup:

You must come to CINCY again, and keep those things off your shoulder... ;)

Peter - 302.832.8989
thescirocco.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Bubb" <jdbubb@verizon.net>
To: "Chris Bennett" <scirocco16vr32@gmail.com>; "Scirocco List" 
<scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 12:20 PM
Subject: Re: Red Eye's and other strangeness from last night.


Way to go Chris!
Sounds like she was a lot better off with your assistance than she would 
have been.
Thumbup!
Dan

From: "Chris Bennett" <scirocco16vr32@gmail.com>
To: "Scirocco List" <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 11:30 AM
Subject: OT: Red Eye's and other strangeness from last night.


> Let me say first that THANK GOD in HEAVEN or whatever YOU choose to
> pray to... that I wasn't the one jacked up last night or I would be
> COMPLETELY screwed.
>
> I get on the red-eye to Philly last night in Vegas.  11pm pac time.
> As soon as we get up in the air I change my watch in anticipation of
> landing at 6am.  Approximately 3am Eastern Time the stewardess turns
> on all the lights and announces that there is a medical emergency.
> Was there a doctor or an EMT on the plane?  No answer... crickets...
> A couple minutes goes by and it's starting to sound a little more
> desperate again the call for an EMT or doctor or now ANYONE with ANY
> sort of medical training...
>
> I am thinking holy crap someone's got a bum ticker.  I wasn't sure
> what I could do but I was trained as ALL in the Navy are, to be a
> Naval Firefighter, and I had specialized training as a medical/damage
> control first responder.  Keep in mind in a military mindset/time of
> war priorities are a little different than in the civvie world--you
> let people die to save the ship if you had to... so my training was
> crude at best and at least a couple years out of practice now.  I got
> up to see what I could do to help.  I walk back there and there's this
> guy playing with the blood pressure cuff on this poor lady.  She was
> maybe 30, about 16 weeks pregnant and had passed out.  He asked me if
> I was an EMT and I couldn't help but laugh.  No but I play one on
> tv...  So the stewardess's are completely useless, he's volunteer fire
> fighter with basic first aid, but he couldn't find her pulse.  I
> suggested the carotid artery and he asked me where it was!  (and I
> caught him using his thumb)
>
> I always try to generate some sort of conversation with the patient to
> distract them.  You chat them up a little while observing a few
> things.  Respiration, color/claminess of the skin, pupils and so on.
> I crack jokes... Ma'am I've got some bad news for you, you have no
> pulse so therefore you must be dead.  She thought that was pretty
> funny.  I took her pulse and it worried me.  90+bpm and weak.  The
> stethescope was crap so I couldn't get a decent blood pressure.  They
> got the oxygen out and made her lay down--I basically treated for
> shock while I was gathering info.  Stewardess comes up and wants to
> know on behalf of the captain how serious it was--did we need to land?
> I made it very clear that I was in NO WAY qualified to answer THAT
> question but I suggested getting an FAA doc on the radio and giving
> the stats.  She was pregnant, no bleeding, no history of diabetes, no
> gestational diabetes with her first kid, I asked her if she had a good
> meal recently and she had.  No history of anemia and no history of low
> blood pressure.  She asked for some ginger ale and we gave it to her
> and her pulse slowly came down to about 60 (I monitored every 5
> minutes) and was much stronger.  I was thinking she had low blood
> pressure and stood up too quickly in the bathroom.  The doc on the
> ground made the call that there was no need to make an emergency
> landing, thanked me and that was about it.
>
> What bothered me was that I was the most medically qualified person on
> the plane... considering what I know... very little--that is really
> damn scary.  If she had a broken bone or was bleeding horrendously I
> could deal with that.  I could even do CPR... but that's about it.
> Jesus Christ I think I was more scared than she was.  I told her when
> taking her pulse that I usually didn't hold hands on the first date, I
> kept her laughing so she wouldn't see how scared shitless I was.
>
> Additionally--WHAT THE HELL KIND OF TRAINING DO THESE FLIGHT
> ATTENDANTS GET?  They give those people AED's!!!  I mean if it was me
> in that situation I would have nightmare scenarios of one of them
> yelling "CLEAR!"
>
> They seemed almost in a state of panic.
>
> EMT's were waiting when I got there I turned over my observations and
> they wisked her away in an ambulance.
>
> Thank God it worked out.  I got no sleep though.
>
> Chris
>
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