One of the things that will constantly amaze me is that some people will drop dead at the drop of a hat (so to speak), while others will survive injuries that would kill us mere mortals.
Today was a case in point, we got called to a 39 year old female who'd been hit on the head by a brick which had fallen seven floors. We turned up at the location fully expecting to see someone with less of their brains inside their head than would be considered healthy. Instead the woman was sitting in a chair (having had a C-Spine collar applied) with he head supported by a BASICS doctor.
This woman, who should have been dead, had a one inch cut to the top of her head.
And that was it.
The brick had hit her on the head, then had hit the floor with such force that it essentially shattered. Yet here she was complaining of the cut being painful. There was no loss of consciousness, but we treated her as if she had a neck injury, purely due to the 'mechanism of injury'. It's been a while since I've had to do a 'standing take-down' (where you get a standing patient onto a spinal board by placing it against their back and laying it flat with them on it, you don't need the swimming pool that is in the link…) but it all went smoothly, the Doctor travelled with us and was a pleasure to work with.
Although she is 39 the woman actually looked like she was in her early twenties – perhaps she has some witchy super powers? Either way she was discharged later in the day.
Either way she was exceptionally lucky – if you can call getting beaned by a brick 'lucky'.
Wouldn't it be much more fun if each ambulance was equipped with a pool though?
Ever thought of displaying how many hits your blogs are getting?
destiny
Yeah, a hit counter would be good…if only to make me feel more unnnoticed! :o)
er…..no pun intended there!
That sounds like an RTA that my wife happened upon on her way home form work. She was first on the scene and went to give assistance to a car that had had a 30mph head on with a lorry travelling at the same speed. She found the driver in a terrible state. She'd been scalped by debris and most of her facial skin was in hanging into her lap. The driver's head was so damaged that my wife could alos see signs of skull fractures.My wife did what she could as an ex nurse and first-aider, which was basically to reassure a very scared driver who was losing coherence and manage the situation. The AS arrived in a few minutes and took control. Mendi continued her journey, expecting to find out that the driver had died. Nope – she was stitched up and released from hospital to outpatient plastic surgery after 3 days.
clearly a case of it not being her time. then again maybe this is a comment of the shoccking fall in standards bedevilling today's construction industry. Either way, a very lucky lady indeed.
Who threw/dropped the brick though?My guess is one of the feral kids you get round here.
-PP
Wow, that's an amazing story. Strangely, a little friend of mine had a lucky escape yesterday when he was hit by a car at a crossing – he had dashed out in the mistaken belief that the lights were on red for the cars. Only ended up with a bruised shoulder and a bit of whiplash. And a lesson well learned, I hope.Only just found your blog and enjoying it very much, thanks.
What do you mean?