Today's cop story isn't nearly as funny as yesterday's.
I went to a bad two vehicle collision in the hill country west of Austin. Three people in one car. One person in a little truck. All four pinned in. They guy in the truck is hurt and only semiconscious but seems to be doing OK. I get to the car. Mom and dad in the front seat and about a 14 year old girl in the back. Mom has no pulse, she's gone and there's nothing that can be done for her. Dad just BARELY has a pulse, is badly mangled and pinned in badly enough that it's going to take quite a while to get him out even with the jaws of life. He took a 70 mph or so hit directly broadside on his door. The kid in the back has a pulse and erratic breathing.
I'm a ways out there without any units close, so I know it's gonna be just me for a while. I called for the Star Flight helicopter. I got a bystander to go keep an eye on the guy in the truck and have him just stay calm and still. I wrote mom and dad off as hopeless. Even though you don't normally move a person in a collision, when they have no pulse, you can move them because the lack of a heart beat is more critical that a potential spinal injury. I could have pulled her out and done CPR, but that wouldn't cure any injuries that caused her death. It would just tie me (the only help there) up giving an artificial heart beat and respiration to a person I know good and well to be dead. I just let mom go. Dad was badly mangled and I was amazed that he had any pulse at all. Plus, he was so badly pinned in that I wasn't physically able to access him well enough to do anything for him. I let dad go. I focused on the kid. I checked for any open wounds that she might be bleeding out through. It appeared all her damage was internal. I accessed how badly she was pinned in. It looked like we could cut her door off, pry up the seat in front of her, and she'd be free.
The kid started to come around. She would lift her head up, look around, but wouldn't speak. If she became lucid, I didn't want her to realize that she was pinned in with the dead bodies of her parents 2 feet away. I squeezed in to the wreckage and positioned myself between her head and the front seat. That way, I could block her view and keep her from freaking out about what was in the front seat. She went in and out of consciousness this way several times, but never became alert, never seemed to realize where she was and never responded to anything I said. Then, she'd go out again for a while. While she was out, I'd check on dad. It wasn't long before I lost what little pulse was there when I first arrived.
I was sure glad when the first fire truck pulled up. It's also nice to work with the same EMTs over and over and get a good relationship going of what you expect from each other. I gave them my quick layman's triage that mom and dad were gone, the guy in the truck was hurt, but could wait and the girl needed their resources now. They took over and did a great job on the kid while I backed out of the way.
After they got her out, she started having seizures. It took a while for them to even get her stable enough to put on the helicopter that had landed by then.
The last I heard, it sounded like the girl was doing OK and had a real chance of making it though she was in critical condition. I've seen a lot of dead bodies in my career...no, really. I mean a LOT. I'm pretty jaded and it doesn't bother me any more, but it still bothers me when someone dies right in front of me while I'm helping them one on one. It's different when they are already dead when you get there or beyond help. I don't so much see them as still being human at that point. You can't escape how human someone is when you watch them go from alive to dead right in front of you. That's when it sucks. There were a lot of people on scene who worked on that girl who have similar views and were sure glad to hear that she was doing as well as could be expected. The kid wouldn't have had a chance if it weren't for for the great job done by the EMTs paramedics and Star Flight crew. Someone also said that these may not have been her parents either. That would be good too.
Of course, none of this prevented me from being a smart ass. When the new girl from the medical examiner's office came up to me and asked me for my name and number (meaning employee number) I said "My number? OK I'll give you my cel and we can go get a drink later." She blushed.
I went to a bad two vehicle collision in the hill country west of Austin. Three people in one car. One person in a little truck. All four pinned in. They guy in the truck is hurt and only semiconscious but seems to be doing OK. I get to the car. Mom and dad in the front seat and about a 14 year old girl in the back. Mom has no pulse, she's gone and there's nothing that can be done for her. Dad just BARELY has a pulse, is badly mangled and pinned in badly enough that it's going to take quite a while to get him out even with the jaws of life. He took a 70 mph or so hit directly broadside on his door. The kid in the back has a pulse and erratic breathing.
I'm a ways out there without any units close, so I know it's gonna be just me for a while. I called for the Star Flight helicopter. I got a bystander to go keep an eye on the guy in the truck and have him just stay calm and still. I wrote mom and dad off as hopeless. Even though you don't normally move a person in a collision, when they have no pulse, you can move them because the lack of a heart beat is more critical that a potential spinal injury. I could have pulled her out and done CPR, but that wouldn't cure any injuries that caused her death. It would just tie me (the only help there) up giving an artificial heart beat and respiration to a person I know good and well to be dead. I just let mom go. Dad was badly mangled and I was amazed that he had any pulse at all. Plus, he was so badly pinned in that I wasn't physically able to access him well enough to do anything for him. I let dad go. I focused on the kid. I checked for any open wounds that she might be bleeding out through. It appeared all her damage was internal. I accessed how badly she was pinned in. It looked like we could cut her door off, pry up the seat in front of her, and she'd be free.
The kid started to come around. She would lift her head up, look around, but wouldn't speak. If she became lucid, I didn't want her to realize that she was pinned in with the dead bodies of her parents 2 feet away. I squeezed in to the wreckage and positioned myself between her head and the front seat. That way, I could block her view and keep her from freaking out about what was in the front seat. She went in and out of consciousness this way several times, but never became alert, never seemed to realize where she was and never responded to anything I said. Then, she'd go out again for a while. While she was out, I'd check on dad. It wasn't long before I lost what little pulse was there when I first arrived.
I was sure glad when the first fire truck pulled up. It's also nice to work with the same EMTs over and over and get a good relationship going of what you expect from each other. I gave them my quick layman's triage that mom and dad were gone, the guy in the truck was hurt, but could wait and the girl needed their resources now. They took over and did a great job on the kid while I backed out of the way.
After they got her out, she started having seizures. It took a while for them to even get her stable enough to put on the helicopter that had landed by then.
The last I heard, it sounded like the girl was doing OK and had a real chance of making it though she was in critical condition. I've seen a lot of dead bodies in my career...no, really. I mean a LOT. I'm pretty jaded and it doesn't bother me any more, but it still bothers me when someone dies right in front of me while I'm helping them one on one. It's different when they are already dead when you get there or beyond help. I don't so much see them as still being human at that point. You can't escape how human someone is when you watch them go from alive to dead right in front of you. That's when it sucks. There were a lot of people on scene who worked on that girl who have similar views and were sure glad to hear that she was doing as well as could be expected. The kid wouldn't have had a chance if it weren't for for the great job done by the EMTs paramedics and Star Flight crew. Someone also said that these may not have been her parents either. That would be good too.
Of course, none of this prevented me from being a smart ass. When the new girl from the medical examiner's office came up to me and asked me for my name and number (meaning employee number) I said "My number? OK I'll give you my cel and we can go get a drink later." She blushed.
your a noble man...that has to be hard.
glad the girl is ok.