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Twentieth Job of Bob - Rural Ambulance - Part VII - You can't save others if you don't save yourself; meet interesting people at their worst; Vagal-down dudes!
This entry was posted on 5/18/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
Of course growing up in the era of John Wayne movies and 1960s television cop shows, there was a general prevailing wisdom that firefighters, cops, and paramedics should charge into a burning building and save, "old people and children." In one of my very first classes in the Fire Academy the curriculum and instructors began the process of a chipping away of that pop culture paradigm. To make a long story short, you can't help anyone else if you get yourself killed. You'd think I would have picked that little tidbit of advise up in the Army, but that is a whole different story....discussed back in "Army" chapters of this book.
I trained to be an emergency medical technician in the age of protective gear, team plans of attack, and mutual assistance from neighboring public safety jurisdictions and agencies. It did not always work like the text books suggested, but from historical documented and filmed fire and ambulance events, we were lucky to be in our "new" era. Former public servants seemed to die right and left often from poor planning and lack of training. In my era, we had "safety" pounded into our heads ad nauseam.
Without breaching specific patient confidentiality, I can say that in the ten years I served on the ambulance and worked in the medical world, I got to see a variety of medical and injury cases. The general mood I was left with after ten years of working on an ambulance, is that you will often meet otherwise smart reasonable people....at their worst. Illness, injury, medication, abuse, assault, guns, knives, depression, illegal drugs, and alcohol have a way of breaking the most steadfast citizen's spirit. As well, other mitigating parties, animals, and substances often cause an unassuming person great anguish - horse falls, dog bites, cat allergies, and reactions to food and plants.
And, of course we all get old; and, as we age any number of conditions can attack us. We may be born with challenging conditions. A good part of our survival seems to fall on dumb luck....or if you will, bad luck. None of this should be news to anyone, but people are funny, "It can't happen to me," we think.
As my first EMT instructor insisted, "No one usually has a grocery list with the last item listed as, (Be sure to get in a fiery multiple vehicular crash on the way home....and die)."
In lieu of going on a medical jargon journey I am not qualified to lead, suffice it to say there is a cool nerve that wanders around our head and upper body called the vagus nerve. Many things can agitate the ol' vagus, but one utilitarian reality is that when you bear down (as if having a bowel movement) the vagus nerve can reduce the heart rate and blood pressure. It is therefore, not uncommon to find a great deal of older patients unconscious in the bathroom - usually pinned between toilet and wall, etcetera. This is urban legend to ambulance crews.
If you have an intolerable heart arrhythmia (odd, fast, and inefficient heart beat - ventricular tachycardia; and or atrial fibrillation), a working suggestion sometimes given by responding emergency crews before they dive into their medicine bag, is to "vagal-down." It is called the vagal maneuver, or also the valsalva maneuver. Bearing down as if holding the breath....or taking a crap....might temporarily simmer down the fast, irregular heart beat - or, maybe not. Do not try this on your own for it has been known to kill people too. Often those old folks in the bathrooms are, well....dead...trying to....take that all important dump.
In typical Bob insensitivity, I use the language of the vagal maneuver vernacular as an opportunistic, invented, Bobism term to hurl at anal co-workers, workaholics, and hyper-overactive nuisance jerks.
"Vagal-down dudes!"
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Sergeant Ryan Christopher Adams, 26, Rhinelander, Wisconsin, was killed on Friday, October 2, 2009 in Logar province, Afghanistan. Enemy forces attacked his vehicle using rocket-propelled grenades. He was assigned to the 951st Engineer Company (Sapper), Wisconsin Army National Guard out of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted seven other Guard soldiers were injured in the incident. About 100 soldiers from the unit were deployed to Afghanistan. Their mission was one of combat engineering tasks including clearing routes for the 101st Airborne Division. Adams had also been deployed with the unit to Iraq from May 2003 to April 2004. At that time the unit went under the moniker of Company C, 724th Engineer Battalion. Adams had joined the National Guard in 2001 after he graduated from Rhinelander High School. The Journal Sentinel went on to mention Ryan played quarterback on the football team; and, he played baseball. He was also a volunteer for Angels on My Shoulder, a nonprofit cancer support group. An obituary posted in the Journal Sentinel mentioned Ryan was born on December 7, 1982 in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
The Rhinelander Daily News via their Website noted Adam also played golf in high school. He was remembered as a hard worker and a natural leader. Ryan had a love for football beginning his playing days in Pop Warner competition. Adam's Guard unit was deployed to Afghanistan in February 2009. Sergeant Adams was the second Rhinelander soldier to die in the line of duty in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
At the time of his death, Ryan Adams was survived by his parents Peter and Jalane Adams; his sister Amanda Adams; and, his uncle Patrick Adams. Sergeant Ryan Adams was the 15th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Afghanistan since October of 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011
100,799 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,950 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,455 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1572 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
880 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
32,085 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
11,314 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
31 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
148 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
4 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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