Dispatched via private for-profit EMS for a priority 3 (non-emergent) fracture. Arrive on scene at the nursing home to find a older male in a wheelchair with a recent right foot amputation. Staff says he keeps bumping it and reopening the wound.
Wound is dressed, clean, bleeding controlled. Pt is A&O to baseline and pt denies any complaints. No idea where the fracture idea came from, but the pt is loaded up and taken to unit. Transport w/o change or incident less than a mile to the ER.
On arrival of ER, pt is moved by sheet to bed. Crew starts putting a new sheet on the stretcher as the doctor takes a look at the wound, he tells the crew to wait, redressed the wound and tells us to return the patient to the nursing home. Pt taken back to room, put in bed in POC and turned over to staff.
It’s a hard job. Lives hang in the balance, some days it’s all you can do to keep from falling apart. But someone has to do it? Am I a hero? Well… Yeah… Maybe.
