ArcEMT

I just finished my EMT-B in December and the first person I lost was during my ER time in November. I was kind of surprised that I had no feelings about it. I checked in with the charge nurse and she told me to wait in Trauma 1 because a gentleman was en route with unknown cardiac problems. The guy collapsed at his desk at work and his co-workers called 911. Co-workers say what they saw as a seizure. When ALS arrived the gentleman was cyanotic with a nearly nonexistent radial pulse and respirations were nearly undetectable. They couldn't get him orally intubated so they did it nasally. On the ride to the ED his pulse came and went. Upon arrival his pulse started to come around but dissipated just as quickly. The ED Doc immediately had me expose the guy. I was then up at the head so I was told to start chest compressions. After doing that for about 40 minutes the guy had already gotten an injection of atropine and epi. The ED Doc wasn't able to get a line started so he had to put it in femorally. After me doing chest compressions one of the other ER Techs put the pads of the AED on and a total of three shocks were given. I then took over ventilating the patient. He was then given another injection of epi. His pulse would start to come around and then slide away after each injection. Same thing would happen with his color. While were were still working him his wife then came in and pleaded with him to comeback because he promised her that he wouldn't leave her alone. After she left we gave him another shock and injection. I then took over squeezing the IV bags, which by the way is really freakin tiring. After working on the gentleman for almost two hours it was called. I had the opportunity to follow this guy from coming in the door all the way to the morgue. I was surprised how emotionally removed I was from the situation. But I suppose in this line of work it's what has to be done to get the job done. In an intense situation emotions can become a liability and cloud judgment.

I took the AMR test a couple weeks ago. There were a few questions that had to do with child birth and intubation, which I wasn't really expecting since the intubation is outside my protocols in my county. The majority of the test was situational.