So tonight I signed up for an extra shift. Strange things were destined to happen since tonight the Engineering Dept. decided to shut off the water to the entire hospital to fix a leak. That's right. NO Running water in the Emergency Room. We were given buckets of water to wash our hands with and 55 gallon drums were placed near bathrooms to "flush" the toilets. So tonight we were given an extra incentive to work. Not a bad night for time and a half for half of my 9 hour shift
So I was in a room doing a standard EKG on a patient presenting with chest pain. A nurse runs into the room and tells me that I better go to Room #1 and help out. I walk down the room, through the curtians to see a young woman sprawled out on a stretcher holding a newborn baby. Chord still attached and all. I stop to get a pair of gloves and I'm imediatly ran over by a nurse pushing the Pediatic cart into the room. I catch my footing, get my gloves on and help stablize the baby and mother. Turns out she presented to the ER in full labor and breeched birth. Her friend ran into our triage area to get a nurse and stretcher. The nurse checks for crowning and sees a foot. She and another nurse gets the woman into the stretcher and the baby is completely out except for the head. Just in time the doctor shows up to catch the newborn. Then Mother and baby are taken into the ER to be checked out. I got to see the baby cleaned off and the afterbirth delivered. Both are doing fine.
In other news tonight I was reminded why lawnmowers and feet don't mix. An elderly man was riding his lawnmower when he was going up a hill. It fell over and his left foot ended up under the mower, amputating his big toe and slicing all the way down his foot. before he was sent off to the ER I got to wash out the wound and pick out grassclippings.
So I was in a room doing a standard EKG on a patient presenting with chest pain. A nurse runs into the room and tells me that I better go to Room #1 and help out. I walk down the room, through the curtians to see a young woman sprawled out on a stretcher holding a newborn baby. Chord still attached and all. I stop to get a pair of gloves and I'm imediatly ran over by a nurse pushing the Pediatic cart into the room. I catch my footing, get my gloves on and help stablize the baby and mother. Turns out she presented to the ER in full labor and breeched birth. Her friend ran into our triage area to get a nurse and stretcher. The nurse checks for crowning and sees a foot. She and another nurse gets the woman into the stretcher and the baby is completely out except for the head. Just in time the doctor shows up to catch the newborn. Then Mother and baby are taken into the ER to be checked out. I got to see the baby cleaned off and the afterbirth delivered. Both are doing fine.
In other news tonight I was reminded why lawnmowers and feet don't mix. An elderly man was riding his lawnmower when he was going up a hill. It fell over and his left foot ended up under the mower, amputating his big toe and slicing all the way down his foot. before he was sent off to the ER I got to wash out the wound and pick out grassclippings.