Sunday, May 24, 2009

Memorial Day Nightmare





The above is a real pic of one of our trauma bays from last night...

I don't know who I pissed off to work trauma on Memorial Day. Tons and tons of BAD accidents, the vast majority of which were preventable. As always...drugs and alcohol were the problem.

The day started out with a motorcycle accident at 2pm. The man was already drunk, got on his bike without a helmet, and didn't even make it out of the parking lot before he drove into a parked car at close to full speed. He had a good sized head bleed. What really pisses me off is that he had his 4 year old daughter in the apartment with his drunk girlfriend.

Then we had an ATV accident that brought in 2 sisters and their 2 kids, all of whom were on the ATV. Bad injuries. The worst part is one of the adults was 4 months pregnant. Who the hell gets on a 4 wheeler pregnant!

When it rains it pours. Overnight about 6 motorcylce collisions, 4 ATV wrecks, 1 diving accident, 12 car accidents, 2 assaults, and 1 shotgun to head. They ALL had either drugs or alcohol on board...except for the 2 people that died. It's amazing...the trolls always live and the innocent die. One female and friend lost control of her car in the rain and smashed into a pillar. The blunt trauma left them without a chance. Their family lived out of state, so I had to tell two different mothers about their childs death over the phone. The other near death was a man smashed by a bus on his way to work. 2 chest tubes and 18 units of blood later...I had to make the dreaded phone calls to family about the accident.

Appreciate your kids today...

-ER Doc

8 comments:

One Nurse said...

And this is exactly why I don't like to work holidays and am always thankful I didn't choose to work ER or Trauma! It is terribly hard to have patience with studpidity!

Gia's Spot said...

WOW, HOPE YOU HAVE SOMEONE AT HOME TO GIVE YOU A BACK RUB! Thanks, though for being there for them, drunks and all. You sound like you care.

Unknown said...

And I just got home from a rather dull 24. In Boston, no less....

After reading this post, I have nothing to complain about.

SerenityNow said...

I am sorry for deleting certain comments. I know they are meant with no harm, but we cannot walk on the line of which hospital we are at or the people involved in the stories.

RE: "future trauma nurse." I doubt its same place. pls read the last paragraph of the post again you might have misunderstood.

BC of ethical and legal reasons we cannot answer questions about specifics in cases. This has to be private and confidential or we would have to stop the sight. We cannot cross that line.

-ER Doc

ERP said...

Ah, that brings back fond memories of my inner-city knife and gun club residency......

LivingDeadNurse said...

Good grief sounds like your weekend was filled with drama...I hate that people can't be smart with alchol. What is it with holiday's and stupidity..the worst thing i have to encounter on a holiday is family not visiting their loved ones...Kudos to you and your crew for a great job

Brian and Jennifer said...

...and that's why i chose not to fly with my flight team today.

tracy said...

...and that is why...if you are going to have a drink or two...a d r i n k o r t w o , stay home!

So sorry about the terrible day, doctors.