The calls that knock you down and teach you

The call came in like any other, "68 y.o. Male feeling ill". As we arrived on the truck, there was no hint of the chaos that was about to unleash itself in the house on a quite street. The Paramedic on the ambulance, is often known for his ability to be calm under pressure, this night he looked panicked as he met us at the door and said," we need to go right now!" the man was pale,cool and diaphoretic. When we attached him to the four lead, he had tombstone t-waves. It looked like he was having a heart attack in the bottom part of his heart. When we placed the 12-lead on him, the ectopy had cleared and he was in normal sinus tachycardia. We where puzzled. Then things got worse. He began to complain of not being able to breath. His lungs where demonstrating pulmonary edema. One of the other medics on scene began to reach for a nebulizer mask, when the patients pupils dilated shifted to the left and he vomitted. now we where thinking neurological cause. As we sped towards the stroke center, he began to drop his Herat rate from about 160bpm to 40bpm rapidly. I remember asking, "do we have a pulse?" No pulse. "Ok gentleman, here we go." As we pulled into the ER, we got a pulse back, then lost it. We worked him in the ER for another 20 minutes before we got a pulse back, just as the attending physician was about to call it. During that 20 minutes, the ER attending took a portable ultrasound, and discovered a 7cm dissecting aortic aneurysm. They patient maintained a pulse into the OR where he died on the table. Many lessons where learned, but I often am left to wonder if my seeing all of this knowledge was worth the death of a father on the eve of fathers day? I have faith that one day, be it today or 30 years from now, that what we saw last night will effect the life of a patient and their family.

Location:S 25th St,Bellevue,United States