An Unexpected Emergency

A patient came into the waiting room feeling unwell and asking us to call an ambulance. He had booked an emergency appointment ( no pun intended), because he had been experiencing pain in his LL jaw for the past two days; no RMH and on no medication. On taking his pulse I found it to be rapid and then he started to become disorientated. Another team member brought the defibrillator and we positioned a nurse outside the practice to direct the ambulance which thankfully arrived within five minutes of the 999 call.

It turns out the patient was having a heart attack and we learned that just because he did not have any chest pains or pains in the left arm, that something serious should not be ruled out. Although we had the defibrillation unit ready, we did not use it because we were not sure what was actually wrong with him.

In hindsight we should have placed pads on the patient because it wouldn’t have activated unnecessarily so no harm could have been done, apart from the loss of a few chest hairs, and we would have been prepared had it become necessary.

I’m proud to say that everyone remained calm and played their part perfectly and the patient was transferred to the hospital a very poorly man but still alive. He is recovering well.

Although this experience will make us better equipped to deal with an emergency of this kind again, had we not recently undertaken a comprehensive first aid training away day I am not sure we would have responded so effectively as a team. Our enormous thanks ( and no doubt that of the patient) must be extended to the Clive Hadrell of First Response.

Lessons Learned…

• Maintain first aid skills and awareness amongst the entire team
• We had recently undertaken a team first aid training event and this experience proved that having the entire team trained together makes your response that much more effective
• Don’t think you will never have to deal with any of the scenarios you practice; expect the unexpected and be prepared!