EMT Paramedic Stories

I once ran across a problem that I never even knew could exist.

We were called to a local drug store, where we were met by the manager telling us about an elderly customer that had come in, but was just not “Acting right”. The manager went on to explain that the customer was a regular that was known by all of the clerks and was always very friendly.

As we approached the guy we noticed he was standing near the counter, but seemed very unsteady on his feet. Upon questioning him, we discovered that he was very disoriented and could not even explain to us how he had gotten there.

We did the normal routine of checking his vitals and putting him on a heart monitor, but aside from a little high blood pressure, we could not determine any immediate life threat. We had encountered this sort of thing so many times, and most often it was determined to be what is called a TIA or mini-stroke.

Assuming we were dealing with a TIA, we put him on oxygen and loaded him into the ambulance. While sitting in the parking lot, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to start our IV while stationary. After all, most TIA patients usually recover pretty quickly with very little intervention and the urgency of the matter is usually minimal. NOT this one.

Soon after we started the IV, we began our 10 minute trek to the hospital. Myself and a rider were examining the patient and rechecking vitals. Suddenly, the patient went into cardiac arrest. This was obviously turning into something much more serious than the average TIA.

We began to expedite to the hospital, while myself and my rider began resuscitation efforts. Just prior to arrival at the hospital, we regained a pulse on the patient, as well as some spontaneous respirations. This was a very good sign as it was soon after the arrest, and gave the patient a much better chance for recovery.

We delivered the patient to the hospital, and handed him over to the ER staff, before returning to our truck to start our paperwork. Normally, we can do our paperwork at the hospital, and by the time we are done, the ER staff can give us a good indication of what the problem was with the patient we had just brought in. NOT this one.

We completed our paperwork and the hospital staff still had no clear indication of the problem. They did however; note that the patient’s lab results were very strange. His sodium level was unbelievably low, as well as his potassium and many other indicators.

The patient was flown by helicopter to a large hospital for further treatment and diagnosis. The next morning we received a phone call from the hospital with their discovery.

It seems that the patient had recently taken a fetish to water. Friends of the patient stated that the patient had been drinking large quantities of water and estimated it into more than 3 or 4 gallons in the last couple of days. This over abundance of water had diluted the patient’s normal lab levels to a possibly fatal low level. The diagnosis was Water Intoxication! It was my first encounter with this disorder, but not my last. Over the next decade of working in EMS, I would see it only one other time. Although the first patient did make a near full recovery, the second one was not so lucky.

We received a call from dispatch one day that a teenage girl had been reported missing and presumed to be seriously considering suicide. The caller stated that the girl had been missing for almost 48 hours, and despite all of their searching, had yet to be found.

The setting was a very rural farm house, with about 300 acres of land, mostly wooded, behind it. The girl was last seen running off into the woods, and the only sign of her since was a suicide note found laying on the trail near the woods edge.

Many county agency units had been mobilized, including about 20 deputies from the sheriffs department, 2 ambulances, 2 K9 search teams, a few fire departments, the Red Cross, and lots of civilians. The command center was set up in the driveway of the girl’s home, and the search was on.

The search started at about 10 AM and lasted throughout the day. Groups of searchers were formed, and the land was searched in grids. By the end of the day, much of the home owners land had been covered, and the hopes of finding the girl that day were rapidly dwindling down. Eventually, the State Police was able to send a helicopter with Infra-Red capability. This gave the crew the ability to detect heat in large ranges on the ground. It took about an hour for the helicopter to arrive, once they had permission to head our way, and we were glad to hear that better search help was finally coming our way.

The entire search crew was pulled back to the command center, so that the ones monitoring the infra-Red were not confused by searched or the missing girl. The helicopter arrived and immediately started their mission. It took only about 10 minutes for them to find her from the helicopter. Once they did, they hovered above her location, so that rescuers could know where she was.

It was only a short trip to the girl’s location. She lay hiding just 10 feet from where her suicide note was found. The girl had been hidden there all day long, and watched searchers come and go. She would move from one side of a log to the other to avoid detection.

A few things became grossly obvious. The biggest thing was that finding a person in the woods can be very difficult. Another was that we need better K9 dogs. However, the most important lesson we learned was this. Never ever forget to search the area near you. You see, the command center was located in the driveway, but that driveway was only about 20 yards from the edge of the woods. The girl had been sitting and listening to every conversation at the command center the entire time.