Ever wonder what your local EMS team does? Here is a true story that may answer your question.
It was a warm humid summer night. Medic 1 had just transported a male patient to the Emergency Room. As we were replacing our supplies the dispatch tones set off our radio. “ Medic 1, Engine 1 and Rescue 1, motorcycle accident, 3145 Ontario Street, Law Enforcement is in route. Time out 2137.
We placed our supplies in the medic unit headed towards the accident scene. It will be about a six minute response and the engine and rescue will most likely arrive ahead of us. The accident is on a road with several sharp curves and we have seen a fair amount of accidents in this area.
Engine 1 and Rescue 1 marked on scene. Immediately the crew called us and asked for us to step it up. We arrive about three minutes later and noted the motorcyclist had missed the curve and ran through a chain linked fence.
Our assessment found a 22 year old male who was wrapped in part of the fence. In addition, the 3 inch pipe that was attached to the fencing had penetrated both legs laterally. As the pipe passed through the legs it lacerated his scrotum. The blood streak on the pipe was seventeen feet long. Which means the victim was impaled and he slid seventeen feet downed the pipe.
The victim appeared to have been drinking and was less than cooperative. He called us several names that I can’t repeat, one of which I had to look up the meaning.
With the mechanism of injury we expected the victim may have fractured his femurs or fractured his hip or pelvis. His vitals were stable but if he had any of the injuries we suspected, he could lose a fair amount of blood. For this reason we start two IV lines to keep him hemodynamically stable.
Next we must determine how we will extricate him. Obviously we cannot transport him with twenty feet of pipe. We decide to cut the pipe on both sides. This had to be done carefully to prevent further injuries. We used an electric rescue saw to cut the pipe while someone held the pipe. This prevented movement, thus reducing a chance for further injury.
Since the victim was face down we needed to turn him over. It is never a good idea to transport a patient face down. If his condition would deteriorate it would be difficult to resuscitate him. Remember the victim has about six inches of pipe still protruding out of both legs. This makes log rolling the victim on while the ground impossible.
A second medic unit had responded to the scene for extra help. So we decided to place the stretchers side by side. We then positioned the victim on one of the stretchers face down. We then log rolled him to the second stretcher. As we rolled him the protruding pipe went between the stretchers and now he was face up on the second stretcher.
During transport we notified the ER that we were coming in with a victim of a motorcycle crash, with a 3” pipe through both legs. Nurses and doctors met us on arrival and began evaluating the young man. The interesting thing was every nurse and every doctor that entered the room, looked through the pipe. Not sure what they were looking for, but I just had to look too.
Once we were in better light we found the pipe was bent. This indicated that he hit the pipe so hard that it bent on impact. It takes a tremendous amount of force to bend a 3” inch galvanized pipe. Which could cause some very serious injuries.
The patient was then taken to surgery. The laceration to the scrotum was cleaned and sutured. It turned out he had no serious injuries. The pipe passed in front of the left femur and behind the right femur. The surgeon administered a muscle relaxer and pulled the pipe out. The victim was walking the next day.
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Hebrews 13:16
Leave a Reply