Clearance

Eight hours. Four calls.

Started off with a man in his thirties with sciatica. His pain was so bad that he couldn't move. He was allergic to sulfa drugs so I couldn't medicate him. I have run into a number of morphine or sulfa allergies lately and it has me wondering about investigating alternative drugs for us to carry so these people won't be denied pain relief prehospitally.

We were called for an unresponsive and found a man cold and clammy out cold leaning against a fence. I was think ETOH, but when I checked his sugar I found it was LO -- less than 20, so I gave him some D50 and he woke up. He was fasting and on his way to see his doctor to have his blood work drawn.

We did a long distance VA transfer and then an MVA. The woman was cspined when we got there. There were two victims -- each going to different hospitals. On assessement, her pain was just in her shoulder and across the seat belt harness. I went through the clearance with her and was able to take her off the board en route. That made her much more comfortable. She had been carsick, nauseous and anxious.

I really want to push the BLS spinal clearance. It is an easy protocol to follow. The other day I saw a woman c-spined in triage and she was crying because she had to pee and they wouldn't let her off the board, and she didn't really even have an injury -- she'd been in a low speed MVA, and her she was all in her business suit and she had to pee and the truage line was long and they were yelling at her to quit moving around.