Trauma Junkie: Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse by Janice Hudson

Author:Janice Hudson
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Nursing, Emergency, Emergency Medicine, Nurses, Occupational & Industrial Medicine, Medical, Emergency Medical Personnel, General, Personal Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography, Women
ISBN: 9781554076147
Publisher: Firefly Books
Published: 2001-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Rose calls for help while treating a truck driver who was trapped when his rig fell from the Cypress viaduct during the Loma Prieta earthquake. The cardboard tube protruding from the window is a makeshift splint used to secure an unstable fracture

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When CALSTAR’s patient was finally pulled out of his truck, the crew saw he had pulverized the left half of his body. They worked quickly to get him packaged, and loaded him onto the helicopter. On the way to John Muir, Andy overheard CMED estimate the casualties: 250 dead, 250 critically injured. As it turned out, these numbers were wildly inflated—67 people died in the quake, 42 of whom were on the Cypress Freeway.

After dropping off their patient at John Muir and making two more routine flights, the crew got back to quarters at 2:00 a.m. By that time CALSTAR had a generator for power, and the phones were again working. Once they received word that their homes and families were OK, they finally got several hours of sleep.

Several months later an EMS journal published a picture of Rose yelling for Andy to bring another IV bag for their patient at the Cypress Freeway. Her expression is one of intense concentration, mingled with the fear and horror of what they were witnessing. This picture rekindles all the painful memories of that night. I have a copy of the magazine, but keep it buried deep in a file of old news clippings. I don’t look at it often; it’s too distressing.

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