I work in a doctor's office building!

[Sapphire Silk]

This happened the other night.

I met a couple of my Tae Kwon Do friends for dinner at the local FruityBees. One hasn't been coming to class lately because she's working a temporary 2nd job, and the other's been out due to a back injury. So we were catching up. We had a great dinner, dessert, a couple of hours worth of good gossip when this woman starts screaming.

I look over in her direction and see a woman is screaming, "He's not breathing! He's not breathing!"

My first thought is the man is choking, so I bolt out of my chair and through the crowd that is starting to collect around that booth yelling, "I'm a nurse, let me through!" Fortunately, the crowd lets me through, and the wife slides out of the booth to give me access to her husband, who is slumping over to the side, looking very pale.

Me: Sir! Sir! Can you hear me? [I'm looking to see if he is actually trying to breathe, and I catch his head and shoulders to support his neck as he slumps towards me]

Then this woman grabs me by the arm shouting, "I work in a doctor's office! Let me in!"

Uh. Yeah. Sorry, dumb ass, but nurse trumps office worker. I ignored her and continued my assessment. I was just starting to think I might need to slide him onto the floor to try the Heimlich (he wasn't breathing) when suddenly the man woke up with a gasp and sat up. Meanwhile Dumb Bitch in a huff says, "well, I'm calling 911." Which is fine since that's actually the right thing to do.

I talk to the man, who is a bit slow to respond and still very pale looking. He says he's fine but admits to being dizzy. He's able to answer questions appropriately. The wife says he had turned blue (I didn't see that, but I believe her) and that his "fingers got really stiff."

It's hard to know what really happened. He could have swallowed a food bolus and irritated his vagus nerve; that can cause people to pass out. He could have an undiagnosed heart problem (he's a young guy and denied any medical history when I asked him). Or he could have had a seizure (I'm leaning towards that).

The woman who called 911 said she had them on the phone and they were on the way.

Me: Let me talk to them. [woman handed me her phone]

I updated the dispatcher on what was going on, and what my thoughts were. After, I told the wife that even if her husband refused to go to the ER (which he was saying he would do) he should not drive tonight. I encouraged the man to let the medics check him out. The store manager was there and he said he was a combat medic, so I left the patient with him so I could talk to EMS out of earshot as they arrived right then.

After that I backed off and let the medics do their thing.

My friend C was with me last summer when we stopped at a wreck. She said, "Why is it whenever we go out we do something like this? If you hadn't been here, I wouldn't get involved!" C. is a vet, great with animals freely admits she knows little about people.

Well, we decide we're all caught up on our gossip, and we've already paid our tabs, so we decide to take off. The medics are still evaluating the man, but they don't need me anymore. As we leave, my friend S. says, "You at least could have asked for a free meal out of it, since you kept a customer from dying in the restaurant." [note to CS readers: S. wasn't serious.]

I swear, I heard Evil Empryss talking

[MoonCat]

Glad you were there. Nothing beats actual knowledge in a situation like that (unlike, oh, say, "working in a doctor's office." )

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Our shop is at an airport. I would guess I'm still not qualified to fly a plane.

[wolfie]

Our shop is at an airport. I would guess I'm still not qualified to fly a plane.

I've filled my car at a gas station that was getting a delivery from a tanker B-train. That doesn't mean I'm qualified to operate that kind of combination. For non-truckers, tankers are a whole other ball game from "rigid" cargo due to the sloshing (in fact, in the U.S., tankers require an extra endorsement on your CDL), and a B-train has 2 points of articulation (as opposed to 1 on a "classic" 18-wheeler), which adds to the complexity of operating them.

[raudf]

Now, from the guy's perspective, "Which would I rather have treat me? A nurse, who is trained to do this sort of thing or the doctor's office worker, who probably has only seen this sort of thing happen?" I am sure that if he had been able to, he would have pointed to the nurse as his final answer, no phoning a friend or polling the audience required.

Just 'cause I slept at a certain inn, doesn't mean I can do something that requires training and skills! (I know the basics, but I would consider myself a last resort, zomg, there is no other way, answer. Nurse would trump me. Any first responder would trump me!)

[jedimaster91]

Nothing beats actual knowledge in a situation like that (unlike, oh, say, "working in a doctor's office." )

Now, from the guy's perspective, "Which would I rather have treat me? A nurse, who is trained to do this sort of thing or the doctor's office worker, who probably has only seen this sort of thing happen?"

To be fair, just about any idiot can be taught the Heimlich and CPR. But in that situation, if you're lucky enough to have a nurse or EMT handy, get out of the way and let them work. Even though I work in healthcare, I'm not a nurse. I'm an imaging tech. I'm good for compressions if necessary, but when it comes to evaluating a patient all I can really do is say yup we've got a problem call 911, and then be ready to start CPR if it comes to that.

A couple weeks ago there was a met team call in the department around the corner from me. A met team call is a step below a full code and is normally called for someone who's had a seizure, loss of consciousness, heart rhythm change, or other serious thing that needs intervention, but isn't life threatening yet. Even with the above in mind, I still responded to the code while waiting for the met team to get there. A coworker asked me what I expected to be able to do, to which I told her be ready to start CPR if we had to. And answer the doc on the phone who's wanting to know what's going on. Luckily that patient turned out just fine.

There was also a code in my department not long ago, but I was busy putting a needle in someone else's arm. I got my hide down there as soon as I was free but by then the situation had fortunately resolved.

[Cia]

It's possible she didn't hear you say you were a nurse and thought you were a helpful bystander.

[bbbr]

I run a laser welder so by rights, I can fire the big laser on the Death Star right????

I've got first aid training (regular and Wilderness First Aid, IE what to do when the nearest ambulance is a 2 day walk away and somebody has a busted arm). The training has come in handy as I've initiated more than a few rescues when dh'ing at ski resorts in the summer. It's amazing what landing on your head and sliding down a gravel road will do to a person without body armor and a full face helmet (also seen it with the armor and full face helmet- cousin got up and kept riding like it was nothing) The really bad one had absolutely no clue who/what/where/when he was or doing. Once the EMT's arrived I passed on everything I knew and helped strap him to a backboard for a rough ride down the rest of the down the mountain and into the waiting ambulance.

Had to do the Heimlich on a little kid one day at my old grocery store- he swallowed a piece of hard candy and it lodged in the wrong pipe. Store manager was freaking out, mother screaming for help and one swift motion later the candy shot across the Produce department. Went back to my register once the EMT's took over and got chewed on by a customer for making them wait.... grrrrrrrrr

[EvilEmpryss]

As we leave, my friend S. says, "You at least could have asked for a free meal out of it, since you kept a customer from dying in the restaurant." [note to CS readers: S. wasn't serious.]

I swear, I heard Evil Empryss talking

OMG, I wish I had seen this earlier!

Hell yes you know I would have teased you about that. Either the restaurant or the wife should have comped you.

And while I hae had enough first aid training in the military to actualy have taught CPR and first aid as a trainer in my squadron, there is no way I would ever presume to know as much as Sapphire or any other person who does that stuff for a living. If you're first on the scene, I'm not getting involved unless you need extra hands. If I'm first and you show up, I'm backing out as fast as I can and letting the pros take charge.

[dalesys]

... letting the pros take charge.

You're the drive-dancing poet...

[EvilEmpryss]

I think I'm going to regret admitting that for a very long time.

[dalesys]

I think I'm going to regret admitting that for a very long time.

Confession is good for...

...painting a target on yerself.

[Sapphire Silk]

It's possible she didn't hear you say you were a nurse and thought you were a helpful bystander.

Possible but not likely. I'm loud, even when I don't mean to be. Ask EE