The Ventilator.. .or was that The Terminator?
by

My partner and I were working a normal 12 hr. shift 4p to 4a we had been partners for about 2 years at this time. We responded to a seizure pt. out in the county. It took us about 15 min. to get there. Upon arrival we went straight to the pt. and the mother informed us he had been having seizure like problems all day. The pt. was approx. 25 y.o. vent dependant, vegetative state (arm and leg contractures) we have all been on these a thousand times. Well my partner goes with the mom to get the home health papers for a face sheet and his cards or some kind of paperwork, you know everything is about billing these days. I am standing in the room vent is kicking right along I check the settings, partner comes back in like 3 minutes later and we load the pt. Right then something kicks in my mind and I dont think the vent is working correctly so we start to bag him and I look at my partner (who has been a medic for 17 years and I for 9 years) and say damn it sure is hard to breathe him. Anyway we get him out to the truck and mom wants him to go to hospital C of course bypassing  A and B yeah whatever. I shut the doors and look at my partner he offhandedly says someone needs to buy her a brain and I jokingly say yeah someone nees to buy the pt. a pulse. BAM  ooooh shit it finally hits us like a ton of bricks our pt. is DEAD as a hammer. rigor and all. now we both feel like complete asses and have to call the good doc at the closest facility and explain. Luckily he was really cool and just told us to pay just a LITTLE more attention next time. You know us old medics if air is going in they must be alive (respirator)
pt. had expired about 7 hrs. prior according to the coroner.
hawksheadj@bellsouth.net