MASSIVE 'Q Word' F*ck Up
So, I recently had a student EMT riding along with me on a shift, and despite being a VERY busy service normally, we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time for all of the calls for the first several hours of the shift. There always seemed to be another rig in service much closer to calls than us, so we didn't get dispatched. (We have trackers our dispatch can see)
Anyway, it got to the point where the student had just been sitting there all day, and she was definitely starting to get antsy. She still didn't have nearly enough patient contacts in.
I felt pretty bad, and I said she had my permission to use the 'Q Word' if she wanted. I am NOT a superstition person, so I just thought it would raise her spirits a bit.
I SHIT YOU NOT, but 30 seconds later we got a call from dispatch for an unresponsive 4 year old after an unwitnessed drowning after they got into the family pool without anybody noticing. I have run 5 pediatric drownings in my career, and the only one that survived was witnessed, and the parents got them out of the water within seconds.
By the time we got on scene the pt was completely cyanotic, and I couldn't palpate a pulse. To her credit, the student handled the whole thing really well, and was actually helpful during the whole thing. She started ventilating right away and I got the defib+ ecg on pt. They were in PEA, so we got the LUCAS on.
Firefighters got on scene really quick (everyone FLIES to a peds drowning)
I was able to intubate within a couple minutes of being on scene even though their airway was fucking TINY. We did everything by the book, but with those unwitnessed drownings you never know how long they were in there, and based on what I saw I think it was quite a while. In spite of our efforts we never got rosc, and the pt was declared pretty much as soon as we got to the hospital. I think we could have called it on scene, but I never want to do that to the parents, even if it is just performative recusitation.
Long story short, that was my students first call, and regardless of how idiotic it is I feel some amount of guilt about telling her she could say quiet to spice up the shift a bit. I've had her back with me a few more times since, and I'm really proud of her. I think she is going to make an AMAZING paramedic someday.
Sorry that was so long and poorly written, I am pretty much just word vomiting on my phone at 2am lol