My second day as a flight nurse (Part 2)

The isolette call was okay. I always feel like some chauffeur on a taxi ride for the elite on team flights like that. The neonatal nurses are so nice, though. I pick their brains and I've learned a lot so far.

The other memorable call was a 310-lb woman who was intubated and paralyzed. She suffered a brain bleed from high blood pressure. Yes, you people out there with high blood pressure have a very high risk of just keeling over and busting a blood vessel in your brain and, well, can awfully disable you or kill you. Manage the blood pressure, eat well, exercise, get rid of bad habits, etc. (All this advice on living well is exhausting. I need some chocolate!!!)

Oh, yeah! The 310-lb patient. So, picture the aircraft and the door. You see it? It is only 24 inches wide. Patient is 34 inches across her widest point. Do you see our dilemma here??? So, most of her weight is in her middle. The most genius of paramedics (Thanks, Matt!) comes up with a bright idea to use a sheet (sorry, hospital. We ruined it). Wrap it around her abdomen, cinch it like a belt from hell (good thing she was already intubated, because that, I'm sure, was the tightest clamped girdle that was ever fitted on anyone). She was so tightly packed and her, uhm, (how can I put this in a PC way), her blubber (not so PC, but forms an accurate image, I hope) was squooshed sort of all over and we reduced her waistline to fit her through the King Air door. Whew!!!

Forgot. In order to load her into the King Air, we had to wake up four firemen to come help us. Felt bad, but, well, someone with muscles had to come and rescue us. As it was, the patient threatened to tilt over onto the tarmac from the stretcher. Isn't that awful? Anyway, so there it is. When we got to the receiving airport, we had to wake up another set of firemen for muscle assistance. You know, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Comments

[Ivonne M]

OH MY GOD!!! That is hilarious!!!LMAO!! It sounds like your havein lots of fun and exciting things!! LOL! Sounds like something I would love!!! LOL!

[Ruthie]

You would, Ivonne. You have the personality for it.