Little chuckle on a bad call

[strippel]

Yesterday, my partner and I got dispatched for an unconscious person. Our additional information reports a 47 year old male now conscious, having trouble breathing.

Arrived to find family at the door, they direct us to the upstairs bathroom of a beautiful row home. There is a large, muscular Black man sitting on the toilet, screaming with chest pain and difficulty breathing. Within a second of my partner getting into the bathroom, the patient becomes unresponsive, and slumps over. He is the whitest black man I have seen in quite a while, profusely diaphoretic. I squeeze in, and bounce him to the floor, trashing the well decorated bathroom. (Probably V-tach). We drag and bounce him a few inches to the doorway, struggling to get the monitor and O2 on him. He is struggling to breathe.

The police arrive, officer walks to the top of the steps, and asks; "did you get any of that Narcan stuff in him yet?".

The patient is now on the monitor (located in the bathtub behind me), with huge ST elevation. The cop was a little confused when my partner yelled, "call county, upgrade to an AED response". (That gives us our supervisor and an engine).

We rapdily had enough help, and got him downstairs, and into the ambulance. Called the ER, and they were ready, even though the Nextel amazingly was unable to fax the 12 lead. After multiple bouts of V-tach, he was pronounced about 45 minutes later.

[Just Plain Ruff]

What is an AED response? You have a 12 lead yet you upgraded to a AED Response? Please explain as I'm really confused here.

So the guy coded I assume?

[imedic]

hehe. Proof in the pudding how a little info picked up on previous scenes and blatent assumptions totally take you down the wrong road. (Speaking as to the cops comment, that is...)

I am too, however, confused at the AED response? even our volunteer fire / first responders have SAED capabilities.

You can perform a 12-lead with telelmetry, but no defib? even a preset defib?

Me Confused.

[strippel]

"AED Response" is our CAD terminology. It means possible cardiac arrest, and gives us police officers with AEDs, our Paramedic supervisor, and an AED equiped fire engine to the scene. It is for manpower.

We have AEDs in all police cars in the county, and they MUST respond on all "AED" calls.

[Eric]

but yet you do not have a AED but yet you may have a LP12

[Just Plain Ruff]

yes I'm still confused.

but color me confused

did he code prior to sending the 12 lead or after?

[strippel]

We have LP12, full function with fax.

He coded in the ER, shortly after arrival.

[Acosell]

I'm still a wee bit confused, but I'll take a stab at it using point form notes.

-You are an ALS unit

-You carry manual defibrillator

and here's where it gets fuzzy.

-"AED Response" tells dispatch that you're using a defibrillator -- not necessarily an AED, and with this information, they will execute a tiered response agreement of some sort?

[Asysin2leads]

I understood the post perfectly. The cardiac arrest protocol is called the 'AED protocol', because fire engines are so equipped. Now, while an AED isn't exactly useful in a situation like this, the things that come with it, a supervisor (although I'm a little dubious on their usefulness), and the large men on the engine are useful. So, real slowly, just because you use something known as "The AED protocol", doesn't necessarily mean that you need an AED. Jeez, its like dealing with Rainman sometimes. "Don't need an AED, we have a LP 12, LP 12 definitely better than an AED, definitely... No, Raymond, we're just using the AED protocol, not an AED... Course, a LP 12, definitely better than an AED, yeah, definitely better... No Raymond..."

[mediccjh]

I believe that the "AED Response" also brings manpower, not just an AED.