Journal Entry

Friday, November 17, 2000

A huge wow and two exams later, here we are. Should we start with the wow, or the exams?

Ok--So the prelims weren't that hard. I studied sufficiently, although it still seems like the exams come every week. This week was computer science and math. Next week is chem, and once that's over, it'll be the absolute LAST prelim exam of my first semester. Then it's home free (well, after we hop over the hurdle of the finals).

Interested in the wow? Let's regress a bit.. back to the last journal entry. I was signed up to staff the EMS crew at the Taekwondo tournament--or, at least I thought I was. When I arrived, no other EMS folks were there. I decided to give a hollar over to the office, and right as I did, one of the crew chiefs (CC) pulled up. He was quite surprised to see me--he didn't even know he had a crew. If he didn't see anyone else for an hour or so, he would have gone home. So it turns out it was just he and I from 10am to 3pm.

The tournament looked really cool. There were teams from Harvard, U. Penn, Yale, Rochester, Boston, and Ithaca College, among others. Cornell actually won the tournament, even though there were allegations of unfair judging. Unfortunately, the tournament organizers didn't exactly foresee the need for referees and judges that didn't consist of team managers and coaches (not all necessarily from Cornell).

So the tournament started with forms... the test of skill, self control and precision. This lasted until about 1:30pm. That's 3 1/2 hours of forms. Needless to say, you don't come in contact with much other than the floor during forms. My crew chief and I satisfied our hunger by having lunch (for free) from the catering table.

1:30 rolled around and the sparring just got under way. Not far into it, our scheduling officer called. He said there was no crew scheduled from 3-7pm and asked if I would stay. At this point, I wasn't really excited and asked if I could call back with my decision a little later. I wanted a little more time to see if things heated up.

It was pretty slow, so I headed to the restroom. (bear with me here) The restroom is down a flight of stairs and through a maze of doors, so I figured we'd get our first call while I'm in there.

Sure enough, there I am in the restroom/locker room place. "BEEP (echo echo) [garbled speech] BEEP [garbled] (echoing all the time)" Ohh great. "EMS Barton to EMS 4." Sigh... I grab my radio as I run out the door. "EMS 4." No response. "EMS 4 to EMS Barton." Still nothing. And he calls again-- "EMS Barton to EMS 4." Wonderful.. somebody's radio doesn't work.

I fly up the stairs and into the arena. Aye, there he is with our very first patient. The scab on his foot has come off, apparently close enough to some major veins to produce some pretty good bleeding. Just a simple procedure of gauze and tape, and he's good as new.

2:30 hits, and we've only had one patient. So the CC and I split up and walk around the 5 rings observing the spars (they're pretty entertaining). Now, it's his turn. He tells me he's going to walk over and get a drink from the vending machines. Bam. Call number two.

This time, we're introduced to what I shall call the panicked medic alerter (PMA). This is one who frantically runs around in circles screaming "MEDIC!!!!" Simple enough, but I guess you'd have to see one to really get the full picture. By the end of the day, we've learned to judge the severity of the patient by the number of PMA's we see.

"EMS 4 to EMS Barton on private." "EMS, go." "Shin injury needing ice, side of ring 1." So I bust out a cold pack, and wait for the CC to come jogging over. Not too shabby. Just finishing up the paperwork, and friend of patient 3 comes walking over. "Her toe's bleeding." So I grab the 50 lb primary (the bag containing everything plus an O2 tank) and start walking. The toe's bleeding pretty bad, so naturally I'm told, "Grab some gloves... looks like you can handle it." Oookie dokie then.

We're finished up with the bloody toe, and the scheduling officer calls back on the EMS cell phone for my decision. I'm just about to tell him I wouldn't mind staying, when about 6 PMA's sprint toward us screaming about as loud as people can really scream. I snap the phone shut, stick it in the pocket, and run to keep up with the CC who's already shoving people out of the way.

So this one was serious. We get into ring 2, and the guy is on his back with his opponent holding his head in-line, and he's got a good amount blood in his mouth. Now at this point, I probably could have been as much of an adrenaline donor as a blood donor. The patient received a kick to the side of the head, and, not surprisingly, complained of pain in his jaw. With a possibility of airway problems (because of the blood in his mouth) and potential c-spine injury, the CC decided to call for Bangs Ambulance. "EMS Barton to Public Safety." No response. He tries again... nothing. After a third time, he utters a "piece of sh.." and tosses the radio. So it's my turn! "EMS to Public Safety." A garbled mess comes back, so I hand it over. "EMS to Public Safety, get Bangs rolling." He continues treatment as I begin the usual set of vitals.

The ambulance took quite some time to arrive, as did Cornell Police and 418 (Environmental Health & Safety officer). The dispatch situation on this call, for those into the terminology, was FUBAR. Thankfully, his injury was isolated to his jaw.

So it's a little past 3pm, and after transfer to Bangs is complete, the CC is ready to head home. The new CC arrived and said there was no attendant or trainee scheduled for 3-7pm. So without hesitation I decided to stay! The scheduling officer himself also decided to stick around, and a good thing this was.

This entry is getting well beyond lengthy, so let's put some of this into a condensed version. Quite literally, all hell broke loose. Competitors were spraining this, cutting that, and the good old fashioned bruise was quite popular. We went through about 40 ice packs. Towards the end, the major calls come in. A direct punch to the face--broken nose. A kick to the face--a horribly bloody nose. A kick to the abdomen below the padding--bruising and abdominal pain. All 3 of these were pretty bad, but were controllable and none of them went to the hospital by ambulance. During the peak, we even had to call in the on-call crew to help out.

Then, as we're all ready to pack up. The biggie of the day. This time, it's an uncountable group of PMA's. I throw the strap over my shoulder and haul the 50 LB bag back to ring 2. Same situation, kick to the side of the head resulting in severe jaw pain. This time there are three of us, so it goes a little smoother. The CC takes head stabilization and I hook up the O2 (15 lpm by NRB if you're interested.. an NRB is the mask you see on TV). When finished, I take over at the head. We apply a C-collar and log roll him onto the backboard. Bangs arrives, and the Bangs attendant and I lift the patient onto the stretcher. All in all, a very good response by CUEMS.

So that's all I can handle this time...

Aaron