Sunday, May 18, 2008

His Life Flashed Before Him

So I'm thinking that Ken needs a career change...not only is he working hours and hours on end with very little pay but now this. (This was written by Ken for another blog.)

So, Steve (a friend of the family) and I have had a few shifts together in the ER this month--tonight was another. We were sitting there talking about my hyponatremic seizure pt when all of a sudden we hear, "GSW at the door--NOW!" There was a massive rush to the main entrance of the ER, where a car was waiting with a guy in the back seat. He had a bullet entrance wound in his anterior neck. As we all approached the car to help the guy out, out of nowhere, a second car whips around the corner and screeches to a halt right behind the first car. Out jump 5 very scary-looking guys. Steve backed up to where I was already standing (just inside the entrance to the ER), and we waited for the guns to be pulled and the shots to start out. Visions of the TV series "ER" came to mind as my life flashed before my eyes--no way this was going to turn out well. Luckily, they ended up being our guy's "brothers" (aka fellow gang members), there for moral support.
I ended up climbing into the back seat of the car to help carry the pt out and to help get him on a stretcher. Unfortunately, the pt was offering no help (all limbs completely lax) and complained of difficulty breathing (yes, he complained of paralysis and difficulty breathing before we started helping him out). C4 and C5 Fxs. Pretty sad life left for our guy.
Unfortunately, less than 2 minutes later we had another GSW arrive by ambulance and then about 5 minutes after that another GSW arrived by car. We had already had one. My shift was over, so I left right after number 4 got there. Who knows what else came in afterwards--maybe Steve got to see some more?

3 comments:

Cynthia said...

Scary!! Shelly, you might want to stipulate to Ken that when he becomes an attending he is not allowed to go to the entrance of the hospital to get gun shot wound victims. Let other peons do it so that he doesn't risk his life!

Shelly and Ken said...

Good comment, Cynthia, that's exactly what my attending did. When it was all said and done, he commented, "Notice I just went straight to room 2 and waited."

S&J Jones Family said...

Oh, that is so scary! I can't imagine what that would feel like! I'm glad they were his brothers!