Two jobs, both of which revolve partly around the inability for my patients to keep their blood on the inside. I can go weeks without seeing a drop of blood, on this day there were two patients. One after the other.
Two patients – one who had just had her wisdom tooth removed, the other had his arm sliced open to the bone when caught between two lumps of machinery.
Both patients stressed out by their injuries, both trying to be brave and both being nice to me in their own particular way.
One patient bleeding at least half a litre of their blood over my ambulance, needing me to blue them into A&E
One patient, a few drops of blood at the scene, the dressing that was applied caught a small amount of blood.
She was sped into hospital after trying not to cough blood over me.
He took a more leisurely ride in where his arm would almost certainly require surgery.
Her problem would be solved by her bleeding stopping, the work of a few people.
His problem would be solved over months of work by a complete team of people.
Two patients – different but alike.
Ouch, blood… the sight of it and somehow reading about it makes me kind of feel uneasy. Don't know why this is. Heard quite a few people have this fear of blood, esp. if it's not their own they are looking at. My question is: Do you guys get used to it over time or Is it only those who never had such a fear apply for the job?About HER – Did she extract the tooth herself? Can't imagine a dentist leaving a patient with such an aftermath…
Personally a bit of both I think, I can't stand the sight of my own blood, but other peoples is fine. I think you have to not be bothered by it in the first place, but you certainly get used to seeing it!
Believe me they can and do leave patients with bleeding gums, had a guy just the other week with a bleeding gum while on the response car, came in as a red as it was classed as a haemorrhage, his family demanded a lift to the hospital as they said he would be safer with us, and not in one of there 2 cars outside, then the guy had the audacity to ask why we wernt using blue lights to get him there.the worse thing was that it had been bleeding since the previous night, he had waited till after they closed there chinese takeaway and then his family took him to hospital in there car, they had told him to wait till the next day and see his dentist.
what a joke realy.
then straight after that job a red call to ?bleeding from nose unknown origin.
what a night
cheers
But what about the smell? Seeing it is fine for me but the smell…………qiuick! Pass me the bucket!
I would hope the origin was the nose …… don't the dispatch people have a funny way with words sometimes.
i didn't know blood had a smell?
Yes it does – it smells of the iron which is one of the main constituents….
i didn't know that so cheers for replying!
My pleasure – people often mention a “metallic” smell, when there's a large amount of blood about. The smell comes from the iron content of human blood. Also, it takes approximately 147 hours for the human stomach to digest rare steak, because our stomachs don't like “blood, or anything bloody” – hence the reason why so many people vomit blood. It's not solely a case of a GI bleed, Triple A etc – it's because the stomach cannot errrr stomach blood.
Another thing to add to my list o f things i don't know! You really need to stop telling me all of this because you are making me look really stupid!! Na i'm just kiddin but that is really weird
It was the dentist who called us – and was looking a little panicked when we arrived…