Memoirs of an Emergency Nurse by Elizabeth Nicholl Read Free Book Online

tractor!
    So there it was, with the limited information that I was given, I prepared the resuscitation room and had my scissors ready to cut through leather biking clothes .
    I always feel horrible when cutting off biker’s leathers as my family and I ride motorbikes and I know how expensive they are to replace, but thank god people wear them . T hey are absolute lifesavers . I always feel a bit calmer when I see that the biker has worn the proper equipment, but I know it’s probably going to have been a high speed impact and the person can easily deteriorate in front of my eyes .
    I know the rush biking gives a person, the feel of the cool air racing past your body and the adrenalin of being on a fast machine and being in control, so I hate it when I hear a fellow biker has come in .   I understand that if they come to us , they are in pretty bad shape and usually with multiple injuries . T he fact is motorcyclists aren’t bad drivers and they don’t drive like lunatics, it’s just car drivers don’t see them . I t’s inevitable that the biker always comes off worse.
    I heard the familiar sound of the paramedic doors opening and saw the helicopter paramedics in their bright orange flight suits wheel the patient into the resuscitation room . I went to the patient and greeted him with ‘ hello ’; he said ‘ hello ’ back and this indicated that his airway was clear and that he was breathing.
    The paramedics lifted the patient over onto the bed, he was on a spinal board and had a C-spine collar and head blocks on . I listened to the paramedic handover. I apologised to the biker but explained that I needed to cut o f f his leathers to see what damage he’d done . He was in so much pain that he didn’t care, he just wanted pain relief. Once he was adequately exposed , I was able to measure blood pressure and pulse and ensure a second cannula was inserted into his vein in his o pposite arm so that I could give more fluids . His blood pressure was indeed low and he had already been given some pain relief in the helicopter by the air paramedics . The biker has been airlifted as the paramedics suspected internal bleeding. His body was sweaty and pale and he stated that despite having 5mg of morphine in the helicopter , he was in 8 out of 10 in pain. We gave him another 5mg of morphine as we wanted to   move him so we could assess the damage . We also gave him an anti - sickness drug as the morphine can make people vomit.
    W hile the helicopter crew were still around , the doctor assessed the patient’s spinal tenderness by log - rolling him onto his side and feeling down his spine , asking the patient to indicate where it hurt, reminding him to mak e sure that he didn’t move his head or neck and only spoke yes or no to make sure his answers were clear . Despite the pain relief , he was still in agony and complained of leg pain being the major discomfort. We took away the hard spinal board and lay him flat on his back on the trauma bed . Being the smallest person , I held the patient ’ s head to keep it still while we rolled him as a tea m making sure that he kept his head and neck still while I held his head when we rolled him simultaneously.
    The paramedics took away their spinal board and s traps and said they would come back later for their other equipment . W e started giving intravenous fluids immediately as his blood pressure was low . T he biker looked dangerously pale . I asked him what he remembered had happened and he recalled the incident while the doctor was taking blood and calling for x-ray .              
    He had been on a ride with his mates . T hey had turned i nto a scenic route for a change of pace and were travelling along the narrow country roads without a problem . The biker recalled that he was overtaking a tractor when it started turning into an open field without indication . The tractor hadn’t seen the group of bikers travelling behind and ended up colliding with my patient