Back into the "You called 911...for this?" format thanks to a recent interaction with the BIB (Boys in Blue).
Awoken by the tones at just past 130 in the morning. Dispatch gives us the location and the chief complaint of "Head injury, PD on scene." Shoot. This could be a medium deal, I better head on over there and help my crews out. After all, if the cops called in a head injury it could be serious.
Stop laughing, it's not nice.
On scene PD have awoken one of our regulars found asleep in public view, not unlike the dozen or so others trying to rest until their early morning flights. None of those folks have been awoken and had an ambulance summoned for them though.
Being at the end of a public transit line, often folks wander out in search of food and shelter, not realizing where they are.
The officer talking to the person we are to assess is well known to us as a trouble maker. This is the officer who always uses the "You can goto the hospital or goto jail!" argument just as we arrive onscene to most calls. However, when a patient gets combative he's suddenly a few yards off sipping coffee.
Back to this call and I'm not seeing any blood on the floor and the person is sitting up in a chair. I'm thinking the same thing you are...where's the head injury?
"She needs to goto the ER, she's got stitches."
Sure enough she turns her head towards me and I see a very nice, tight set of 4 stitches over a brow, maybe a day old.
"Looks to me like she's already been to the ER, Officer, but let's take a look."
"She can't stay here like that, she HAS to goto the hospital."
I pass the assessment off to the ALS crew and ask the Officer to step away with me. Of course he does not.
"She doesn't HAVE to go to an ER if she doesn't want to. And why did you call us? This is a pre-existing injury. It's like me calling PD for an armed robbery and you arrive to find Starbucks shorted me 15 cents on my coffee."
"She's got an open wound, can't stay here."
"I look over at the ALS crew fighting for a BP and wave them off. "Would you like a bandage for your stitches?" I ask her and she nods. I reach in and pull out a standard size band aid and the Officer let's out a "Oh, hell, no. She's going."
As he shifts his weight trying to figure out what to say next I obtain a refusal of transport and cancel the ambulance responding. I then remind our regular that this isn't the best place to grab a nap and turn to leave. That's when I see this call is about to get interesting. Standing behind the officer is his Lieutenant, who calls him over ever so subtly.
"Officer (Jones)...a word please."
Awoken by the tones at just past 130 in the morning. Dispatch gives us the location and the chief complaint of "Head injury, PD on scene." Shoot. This could be a medium deal, I better head on over there and help my crews out. After all, if the cops called in a head injury it could be serious.
Stop laughing, it's not nice.
On scene PD have awoken one of our regulars found asleep in public view, not unlike the dozen or so others trying to rest until their early morning flights. None of those folks have been awoken and had an ambulance summoned for them though.
Being at the end of a public transit line, often folks wander out in search of food and shelter, not realizing where they are.
The officer talking to the person we are to assess is well known to us as a trouble maker. This is the officer who always uses the "You can goto the hospital or goto jail!" argument just as we arrive onscene to most calls. However, when a patient gets combative he's suddenly a few yards off sipping coffee.
Back to this call and I'm not seeing any blood on the floor and the person is sitting up in a chair. I'm thinking the same thing you are...where's the head injury?
"She needs to goto the ER, she's got stitches."
Sure enough she turns her head towards me and I see a very nice, tight set of 4 stitches over a brow, maybe a day old.
"Looks to me like she's already been to the ER, Officer, but let's take a look."
"She can't stay here like that, she HAS to goto the hospital."
I pass the assessment off to the ALS crew and ask the Officer to step away with me. Of course he does not.
"She doesn't HAVE to go to an ER if she doesn't want to. And why did you call us? This is a pre-existing injury. It's like me calling PD for an armed robbery and you arrive to find Starbucks shorted me 15 cents on my coffee."
"She's got an open wound, can't stay here."
"I look over at the ALS crew fighting for a BP and wave them off. "Would you like a bandage for your stitches?" I ask her and she nods. I reach in and pull out a standard size band aid and the Officer let's out a "Oh, hell, no. She's going."
As he shifts his weight trying to figure out what to say next I obtain a refusal of transport and cancel the ambulance responding. I then remind our regular that this isn't the best place to grab a nap and turn to leave. That's when I see this call is about to get interesting. Standing behind the officer is his Lieutenant, who calls him over ever so subtly.
"Officer (Jones)...a word please."
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