Don't Sleep Naked

Seriously. No matter how attractive you may think you are at least sleep in underwear. If we're there, it's not going to be pretty.

We got a call to a business for a man having a stroke. Strokes are one of the calls where seconds count. There is only limited time to get someone have a stroke the treatment that may make the difference between permanent disability and normal life.

As we approached the business we found an old man waving us down. He pointed us toward the rear of his property. His business rents single wide trailers to construction companies to use as offices on site. He pointed us in the direction of one that had an open door on one end and said that the patient was in there. I should have suspected something bad when he didn't lead us into the trailer.

Stepping inside the trailer we found a walk way that was about 18 inches across. Lining the path was trash, boxes and miscellaneous stuff stacked all the way to the ceiling. I went in first and worked my way to the back where I found my patient. He was laying, naked, on the floor, with his head leaning to the right. He was groping around with his right arm trying to find something to grab onto. I asked him his name which he said was John. He said that he fell down on Friday night (it was now Monday morning). He was unable to move anything on the left side of his body. His facial symmetry was way off as well. Classic signs of a stroke. One that had probably struck 3 days prior.

At this point I asked my engineer to grab our carry all. It's a tarp with large loops for handles for carrying dang near anything you want, although we primarily use it to move people. My captain and I then backed out of the crawl space to get our equipment out. There was no way we were working this guy up in the trailer.

Once we had maneuvered the man onto the canvas we literally drug him out. There was no way for us to safely pick him up to carry him and avoid all the objects sticking out into the walkway. As soon as we got him to the door we picked him up and carried him to the gurney. Thankfully AMR was already waiting. I gave hem a quick rundown on the call and helped them load up the patient.

After some calls, you just need a shower.