So last night was my first shift in the Emergency Room. It was such an adrenaline rush! I was thrown into Triage taking vitals for the nurses. It was exciting to say the least. One patient had her eye scratched with a wire from her two year old son. Quite a few patients had been having chest pains. The excitement of the night was that we had two traumas come in and had to be put on Trauma bypass as we had no more beds and or trauma rooms available. The first trauma was a walk in patient that had been hit in the head with a baseball bat. He was covered in blood! The patient had a lump on his head about the size of a tennis ball. We got him a wheelchair and put him in the trauma room to get X-rays and a CT. The patient I was taking vitals on asked me if that sort of thing bothered me and I told him not really. I mean as long as it wasn’t my head I am fine. The next trauma came in a little while later as a man that was already on blood thinners was in a MVA and hit his chest on the steering wheel. The amazing thing is that he was conscious and sitting up! He looked a little flush but otherwise I couldn’t have told that he was injured. The problem with injuries like that is that they are all internal and can be catastrophic. He could have been bleeding on the inside which you can’t see but he could have died right there. When we were put on Trauma bypass two GSWs had to be diverted to various hospitals throughout the county. We had two life-flight helicopters land and pick the patients up from the ambulances and take them to their various destinations. It was pretty spectacular to watch. The most amazing thing was that I was only there for FOUR hours! Granted it was Friday night which means there is more potential for “action” but I didn’t think it was going to be quite so packed full of it on my first shift. One of the nurses asked me if I was a little crazy to want to be involved in something like that. I guess I am a little different if something like that is my idea of a good time so to speak. Don’t get me wrong I do not enjoy other people’s misery but I do enjoy helping them and there is so much potential for that in the ER. Although I still want to do Neurosurgery, as a backup plan I may consider Emergency Medicine as a 3rd or 4th alternative.
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