Bloody Mess...

21:00… we are dispatched to an ill subject, complaining of severe stomach pain. The dispatcher says we are responding to a person throwing up at home. As we headed out of the engine bay we all glove up.

We arrive on scene to a house tucked back in the trees just off the side of the road. We pull the gurney off of the ambulance along with all of our medical gear. When we get to the house we are greeted by an older woman, rushing us in.

We follow the woman to the back room of the house where we find her ‘friend’ lying on the bed. There is blood everywhere… now we realize not only is he throwing up but he is throwing up blood. As we ask about his past medical history and do our assessment we find that he has a tumor on his liver and has been suffering the affects of it for a few months now.

He began throwing up blood earlier that day but they both thought that it would pass and decided not to seek help (big mistake!)

We decided to put him on the floor on a sheet where it would be easier to access him and move him to the gurney. When we did we noticed that his stomach was now bloating due to the internal pressure and all of the heaving he had been doing. It was literally as hard as a basketball!

After we finally got him out of the room into the ambulance and on his way, we were talking to his ‘friend.’ We were asking her questions about him… trying to get any other information we could out of her. Finally she decided to mention that he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C about 2 years ago! So naturally we all checked out each other for possible contaminations, but found nothing. It just goes to show you how careful you need to be.

- This incident happened about 2 weeks ago now. This incident will forever change my outlook on calls involving people in these types of situations. BSI (bodily substance isolation) is so important in this profession… this just proved that point.

posted by Unknown at 5:57 PM