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Extrication on a priority 3 patient.
Last night we responded to a 2 vehicle t-bone accident with 1 patient trapped. I was first on scene with my pov and decided that we'd have to pop the driver side door off to get this patient out. I had the spreaders in my hand when I noticed the patien was not covered up with a blanket. I asked one of our FF to go and get one. My captain tells me we dont need one (the glass is already broken) I told him that we're not popping this door tell she's covered up. I know sometimes you dont have time to spare and you need to get the person out NOW. She had no life threating injuries and I wanted to make sure that she was covered. I've always been tought to cover the patient up. Was I in the wrong for telling my captain no in this case? He was not bad with me at all, he just thought I was wasting time. What would you have done?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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If he says do it just do it, unless its a life threatening issue.
The same should apply to those we're caring for too....
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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The captain might not have the expertise do make a good decision on this one. There are lots of fire captains that don't have much of a background in extrication, or that went to the "We got our Hurst tool in 1975, I was trained on it then, and I proudly haven't trained on it since" school of thought.
As a chief of my acquaintence says, "There's a big difference between being a firefighter, being a rescue firefighter, and being a good rescue firefighter."
If the operation has the potential to harm the patient, then everyone at the scene has the responsibility to be a patient advocate. I bet the chief will be glad that a firefighter or EMT questioned the captain in the interests of patient safety and keeping the department out of court.
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Permalink Reply by Teia Kenyon on
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I would have done the same thing you did. b/c you were trying to protect the pt and the rescuer that is inside of the car. Safety comes first.
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Permalink Reply by Cory on
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Error on the side of care! (you did the right thing) Crap happens when you least expect it so being prepaired for the worst and hoping for the best is always the way to go. If you can possibly cause harm to the patient then make sure you do the right thing and sometimes you need to say hey I would like to cover the patient. A lot of times its how you approach the officer to get them to change there mind and then there are some officers that are Mr. or Mrs. Know it all. "the masters of miss information" I aggree to comply with the Captain, but it is still your butt to if something goes wrong.
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Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on
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He may not be right but its in his hands now. If you knowingly put a patients life in danger wouldnt it be in your hands?
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Permalink Reply by C.T. Drake on
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I would've done the same as you. Patient and rescuer safety always come first.
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Permalink Reply by anne potter on
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No way .. Pt is always first in the line of care... Even if she was critical alot could happen to this pt as you use the spreaders..Shame on your captain for forgetting about the pt... Congrats to you for making the right call...
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Permalink Reply by christopher morgan on
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well i too was tought to cover the person up too because if there is glass or in the worst case a picse of metal the comes of then what ?
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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Thanks to you all that have responded to my question, and I've asked a lot of people on the street (firefighters) about this and everyone said I did the right thing. I'm a very close friend with this captain, and I realize sometimes we get caught up in the moment. I respect this captain fully and would not want him to get in trouble for this but there are going to be times where your going to have to listen to someone else, no matter what color your helmet is.
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Permalink Reply by Drew Tenhundfeld on
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Ben
I agree with everything but covering the drivers side airbag. I did training with the Holmatro Steering wheel cover. This style DID NOT work on the newer cars (mid 90's and up). The reason behind this is the newer car have a composit core in the steering wheel which will break forcing the cover over the wheel. At the junk yard we were lucky enough to find a car with a steel core. The cover worked on this steering wheel. I know this has nothing to do with the topic just information to pass on.
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