My night in the ER....... :)

CAUTION
THIS THREAD IS NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED, but for people who want to see what emergency medicine is about at its best....


ENJOY, or CAUTION... either way....

*****

I work nights in a very busy ER. I love my job. I love the medical field.
This post is just to pop up pictures of things I see at my job. By no means, if you see something crazy on the news, don't both ask if I worked on a certain person or how are they doing. This is merely to show people what I see, and what I do... educationally. If anyone has any questions about the procedures, please do ask. Or any questions about the medical field.
Feel free to comment or add in additional information also.

ENJOY

 

A middle aged male came in with chief complaint of multiple GSW.
He was shot around 5-8 times, and was bleeding out inside his body, so the doctor called for a thorecotomy. This is where you cut open the chest cavity, so you can clamp off the aorta (largest artery in body) which comes right off the heart. You stop the blood from going to the extremities for a short period of time, so you can stop the bleeding and keep the vital organs alive (heart, lungs, brain). These are amazing to watch, and great to be involved with.

Here comes the picture!!!!
the instrument you see is what holds the chest cavity open so the doctor can clamp off the aorta, and even massage the heart to keep it beating. He can also hold the heart in their hands and feel if it is full, empty or inbetween to see how blood flow is going.... freakin awesome!

 

Cool!

 

Did he make it?

 

totally awesome...

I am studying to become a nurse (murse) and I want to be a trauma/ER room nurse.

Fricking COOL!

 

the gentleman did not make it. He was shot in neck, thigh (femoral artery), back, butt.... too much volume loss at scene pre-hospital.

 

Good work boss, its the best job Ive ever had.
Rewarding, educational almost every day, and you see some AWESOME stuff

good luck

 

That's got to be the hard part. My wife is an OR nurse in Providence. Lots of violence. It takes a certain mind set to do this kind of work, I know it's not for me. Take care.

 

Good stuff, EMT-B for now, working on my FF then going on to Paramedic, then bridge from Medic to RN then RN to Physicians Assistant.

 

Most of the time, in the ED, when someone comes in that is going to need a procedure like that, they come in unconscious already, so I don't talk with them or anything to that degree, so it is much easier to deal with it.

 

that will take years!!!! meaning 10-15.

you can do it much faster ways.

 

I have always been immune to gross shit.

Except one thing that turns my gut.

My horses taking a shit. Horse owner know what I mean.

I have watched the birth of my kids not a thing, but a horses ass pooping watermelons for some reason just grosses the crap out of me...?

 

For some reason this made me laugh!

 

Kinda like Dirty Harry and Hot Dogs with Ketchup:

"God this stuff isn't getting to me - the shootings, the knifings, the beatings. Old ladies being bashed in the head for their social security checks. Nah that doesn't bother me. But you know what does bother me? You know what makes me really sick to my stomach? It's watching you stuff your face with those hotdogs! Nobody - I mean nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog!"

 

O yeah I know but I looked at it and this is the way I want to go, I am in no rush.

Just a long term goal

So end goal is to be a FF first, then a PA on the side. or maybe stop at RN not sure yet

 

DAMN you guys have to log 1k hours before medic class!?


Here I can go from EMT-B class straight to EMT-P (medic) class!

I understand why but at the same time that kinda sucks! Since EMT-B's get paid a little over minimum wage.

Then again you dont do something like this for the money.


I hear a lot of people being burnt out on bus's but most cope with it and find ways to have fun, like when I did my clinicals wow I had so much fun with the people I rode with they had been on for 18 years and still going strong they had a sick and crazy sense of humor though lol

 

Lol! I put Ketchup on a Hot dog all the time!!

Hey OP, Please continue if you have more stories and pictures. I'm a sponge for knowledge can't wait to see more. Also I give you Props for being in the medical field, I know i couldn't do it. I've seen some catastrophic mechanical faliures in my day. Something different from seeing an entire machine torn to piece versus a human..

 

Dude, you could lose your job if your employer saw that image. Granted, there's no patient identifier such as name and you've covered over the face but you are violating patient privacy. And nowadays hospitals are hyper sensitive to that fact.

 

He is not violating HIPAA

He is not saying who it was, where it was, disclosing any information.

Not the hospital, not the names, merely what happened to him.

You can not see the pt's face or any revealing markings like tattoos that would give it away of who he is if you saw him.

He did not post where he lived, or if he had any diseases.

He is fine.

This is the way it was explained to me.

 

Technically you are correct. However, with the hitech act that was passed as well as numerous disclosures about high profile patients around the country you could take the OP's location and scour the news. It's a stretch I realize but you are playing with fire by disclosing this stuff on an open board.