Dispatch and their quick alert protocol. As soon as someone calls and says "I need an ambulance" they ring us out. It saves 30 seconds on their end but costs me 2-3 minutes on my end. Looks great on paper, bad for patient care. Speaking of patient care, seen any good cartoons lately?
THE EMERGENCY
The man we meet says someone has fallen off a ladder and leads us UPstairs.
THE ACTION
We're led to a man lying in bed, fully clothed, holding his hands over his genitals. The house full of family says he was hanging christmas lights and fell off the ladder. Looking out the bedroom window we see the ladder leaning against a 5 foot fence in the backyard below. After doing our thing we find only one place he's hurt. You know where.
Turns out he leaned out half way up the ladder (about 8 feet up) and lost his balance. He tried to reach out and grab the fence with his foot and missed. Then his other parts found the fence. It wasn't so much a fall off a ladder, but an encounter with a fence.
He asked if we could take a look and just make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. We did and they were. He then took a deep breath, smiled and thanked us.
His brother offered to take him in to the local clinic and we suggested taking an ice pack along as well.
My question is, did the brother not have the basic training to identify missing man parts?
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