Well, that sucked. (witnessing a car wreck)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Truck wreck, actually. A car wreck would have been better.

Robin and a friend and I were coming home this evening, and a truck that was in the other lane going the same way lost control, skidded off the road, and flipped over twice, rolling down the embankment beside the road. Big Dodge Ram, only one person in it. We stopped, the friend called 911, I went up to the truck to check on the person in the truck. It had landed on its side, perpendicular to the road. I found out that a Dodge Ram (at least that particular Dodge Ram), when on its side, even slightly crushed, is enough taller than I am to make it nearly impossible to get a decent evaluation of a crash victim. I couldn’t even see in the driver’s window, much less get to her to help her.

Happily, there was only one person in the truck - she was conscious, responsive, nothing broken, she could wiggle all her fingers and toes, and nothing was bleeding copiously. I’m still up at 2 AM because I can’t figure out what I would have done if that hadn’t been the case - it bothers the hell out of me that, given how damn short I am, how big the truck was, and how fucked up the body of the vehicle was after the roll, there was almost no way for me to have gotten to her if she’d needed CPR, or to have pressure applied to a wound, or something of that nature. I did what I could do (got information to dispatch, kept her calm and still, made sure the area was as safe as it could be), but that was so damned little. Helplessness sucks.

In other news, reaching through a busted out window with no gloves also sucks, even when it’s in a good cause. I am going to have to start carrying gloves in my purse, I think, because this is just silly. I can’t say for sure that I didn’t get her blood in with mine, though I was as careful as I could be in the situation. So it’s off to get tested at the end of a month, and no fluid exchange with anybody between now and then, just in case.

The good news: the response time from the fire dept was fantastic (less than 10 minutes), they got her cut out in less than 15 after they arrived, and she was still responsive and sounded coherent when they got her loaded up and on her way to the hospital. All signs point to her being okay, even though the truck is a total loss. They ended up cutting the roof off to get her out.

The moral: wear your seat belt, folks. That’s what saved her from being either flung out of the truck or having her head and neck crushed against the top of the cab and the windshield, and that was in a low-speed accident that was not (to the best of my observation) caused by anything more than shitty road conditions and bad luck.

Yeah, it could’ve been Pit material, but mostly I wanted to share rather than rant, so it ended up in MPSIMS. Mods, if I’ve chosen wrong, please forgive me and move as you see fit.

2

I’ve seen 2 fatal accidents. What fun. One, a head-on (man, what a sound!) and the other an Ultra-lite “aircraft”. :rolleyes:

Dude fell 200 feet straight down and landed on his head. Glad I was far enough away to not hear that sound, but I was unfortunatly close to his family. Gruesome day, that.

3

I’ve never yet seen a fatality where I was in a position to stop and render assistance. The closest I’ve come is seeing the victim being extricated and strapped down as I was passing by. That’s as close as I hope ever to come, honestly - even the little wrecks are quite big enough for me, obviously.

4

I saw one a few years ago. It was both distressing and a bit surreal. Actual car crashes only happen in Hollywood, right? Guy in a nice new shiny sports car decided that he didn’t need to stop at a stop sign. Ploughed into the side of a delivery truck. Delivery guy was wearing a seatbelt and looked fine. Never found out what happened to Mr. Stop Sign.

I realised there was a fire station two blocks away, so I zoomed off on my bicycle and pounded on their door.

If there’s a prize for boring car wreck stories, do I win?

5

Hey what? The guy was the aircraft (hence the quotes,) or he fell out of a real aircraft?

6

I witnessed a hit and run on a skateboarder. This was pre-cellphone late at night in a residential area. Another car stopped to aid the victim so I raced to the nearest firestation to put in the alarm. He was dead before the paramedics arrived. Turned out it was my brother’s best friend. He was 14.

I also aided a guy who’d been run off the road by a drunk & had hit a cliff face more or less head on at ~40mph in his late 1980’s Suzuki jeep-equivalent. IOW, not a crashworthy vehicle. This was about 20 miles from the nearest paramedics & the same ride back into town to get to a hospital. His legs were pretty well crushed when I got to him and he died before the paramedics arrived. There wasn’t much we could do, he was bleeding from darn near everywhere & the structure was pretty well wrapped around him. But we tried like hell while we could.

There have been a few others, but these are enough for one post. And I’m not a medic, first responder, or anything else. Just an ordinary guy driving down the street minding his own business & whammo, I’m in the middle of somebody else’s crisis.

All in all, you feel good at helping, and pretty awful at not helping enough to matter.

7

You can tie a small window punch and seatbelt cutter to your turn sigal lever with an elastic. It will completely shatter a car window into little pieces. This can save your own life if your car goes into water. You can use it to get out, even if your power windows are not working. Keeping it hanging on your steering wheel will keep it in reach even if your car is upside down in the water.

Also, according to paramedic blogs I read, SUV & pickup roll-overs go one of two ways: occupants a wearing seatblets, a few cuts & bruises to patch up, maybe a sprained wrist or broken arm. No seatbelts: all occupants ejected, smushed by the truck as it rolled on top of them, don’t bother hurrying, call the morgue.

You did a good thing stopping to help. Remember that.

8

I saw a car hit a pedestrian as I was leaving a classroom where I had taken a final exam. He flew about 20 feet and after he landed started making a horribly weird vibrating sound trying to breathe. I jumped onto the top of a brick wall and rolled over to the other side to get to him. Several other people moved toward him to help so I headed back into the building and called an ambulance, jumping onto the wall again. When I got home I found my calculator was in a zillion little pieces in my coat pocket. Really nice programmable one, back when they still used LEDs and cost hundreds of dollars.

9

A Priori Tea, my husband’s not an EMR either, but in his construction safety work he’s taken advanced first aid courses so he has somewhat of an obligation to render aid if he can - he carries a pair of gloves and a mouth dam with him, as well as a well-stocked first aid kit in the car.

10

Don’t sweat not being able to get in there. Even if she did need CPR, the mortality rate for a patient in cardiac arrest due to trauma, especially one with no vital signs on EMS arrival is essentially 100%.

Bolding mine. It sucks not to be able to do anything, but nobody can do anything at that point.

St. Urho
Paramedic

11

Ultralights are pretty damn minimal - originally powered hanggliders, even the more advanced versions didn’t have much more structure beyond landing gear. They are sufficiently open that, were one so foolish as to not buckle one’s safety harness, falling out is a real possibility. Such accidents have occurred.

The other alternative is simply a flying screw-up, with resulted in a crash. Again, the structures are so minimal that, even if one remained strapped in, in some models it is quite possible for the pilot’s head to be the first point of impact.

12

Quite often those don’t provide enough punch to shatter a car window. Also if the car in question has anti-theft side windows*, it won’t do any good. Hell with anti-theft windows a brick won’t do much good.
ATWs are side windows that are built like the windshield, a glass/plastic sheet/glass sandwich. You can break the glass, but the plastic is elastic and holds everything in place.

13

Thanks for the replies, folks. I was looking for a place to vent a little and get some sympathy about the suck factor, and that was just what I needed.

That’s… really good to know, actually. It will help me make a more informed, rational decision should the necessity come up. Being in the field, can you point me to a decent source of information for civilians on what’s worth trying to assist on-site, and what’s not? Given my minimal training (first aid, CPR, like that), I would be very hesitant to render any assistance unless it were time-critical enough that waiting for the real responders would do more harm than good. Anything that could help me make that call more intelligently would be useful, I think. And one more question, if I may impose - do you know, by any chance, of a program between the Red Cross-level first aid classes and actual EMT training? I’d like a more thorough grounding, for my own satisfaction, but do not have the time to dedicate to a full professional training program. Any guidance you could give would be appreciated. (To be clear, I do understand and respect that you are a paramedic, not an EMT. To the best of my understanding, being a paramedic is a couple of steps even higher on the food and training chain, which puts it well out of the range of feasibility for me just at this moment - hence why I use EMT rather than paramedic.)

Well, if nothing else, this has taught me a very valuable lesson - the day I am driving someone else’s car is the day I am going to need the kit that’s in my car. I am in something of a similar situation that your husband is in, but we were in Robin’s car, and I didn’t think to move my kit over. Somehow, a facepalm smiley just doesn’t seem to cover the dumb feeling you get from that, heh.

I am actually saving up for this set , 'cause the sheath with the knife will strap down nicely next to my right leg and the smaller cutter will go in the small compartment just left of the steering wheel - both can be secured well within arm’s reach, one on each side, just in case. (My inner safety police says: Yes, I can and will make sure they don’t become flying objects to cut me in some horrible fashion when the worst happens.)

14

I don’t know of any specific links, but generally speaking the most important thing you could do to help someone in an emergency is CPR for a patient in medical cardiac arrest. The survival rate drops 10% for every minute without CPR so it’s critical that bystanders help out. Otherwise, the biggest thing really is to call 911.

It sounds as though a first responder class would be what you’re looking for. Here’s a (PDF) link to the first responder curriculum. It’s generally about a 40 hour class and it’s intended for firefighters or police officers who would arrive before an ambulance and help, but who won’t be transporting patients.

Since you (sort of) asked and I like talking about it, most states recognize four levels of prehospital providers. First responders take a 40-hour class, can apply oxygen, use a defibrillator, and perform basic splinting.

EMT-Basics have a 120-hour class. This is the usually the minimum level required to work on an ambulance. They don’t get to do a whole lot more than the first responders do skill-wise, but there’s more training on pathophysiology. EMTs do clinical time in the hospital and on an ambulance before they’re certified. Some states have programs where EMTs can obtain more training and be allowed to start IVs.

EMT-Intermediates take an add-on to the EMT-B class. They’re then allowed to place endotracheal tubes, administer cardiac arrest drugs, aspirin, nitroglycerin and certain pain medications and seizure medications. You don’t see intermediates much except in rural areas.

EMT-Paramedics have a minimum of 1500 hours training, with more training on pathophysiology and pharmacology. Paramedics are also required to take 2 semesters of anatomy and physiology. Paramedics spend a lot of clinical time in the hospital, including rotations through the ER, OR and ICU. Most paramedics do about 500 hours of ambulance rides, as well. What paramedics are allowed to do varies quite a bit from place to place. Generally, paramedics can administer any medications the state allows them to, perform oral and nasal intubations , use manual defibrillators, and perform and crichothyrotomys. Most states allow paramedics either on their own or with a doctor to pronounce someone dead and place someone on a mental health hold.

15

Wow - that was much more than I expected, and very helpful! Thank you. :slight_smile: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little ignorance fought is always a pleasure.

I will seek out first responder courses close to me, and see what I can find; it’s actually just what I was looking for, but didn’t know how to phrase. I also didn’t know that paramedic was a subclass of EMT; I thought they were separate and distinct, because paramedics required so much additional training in order to gain the additional treatment options. Thank you for explaining; that makes it much clearer!

So, when are you going to do an Ask The EMT-Paramedic thread? :slight_smile: (Or have you already, and I missed it?)

16

Glad I could help :slight_smile: If people are interested, maybe I’ll do an “ask the” thread over my weekend (starts Wednesday).

17

Not interesting story, but important advice:

ALWAYS stop. Another, less well-informed, person might try to make someone more comfortable; you might be the person who shouts “No, don’t move his neck”.

Or the only one who has a clean blanket (for shock), flares, or a fire-extinguisher (as a baby-shower gift, of course) in the car.

18

I can highly recommend signing up for the closest CERT program to you. In CERT training, you’ll learn to: [ul]
[li]Manage utilities and put out small fires[/li][li]Treat the three medical killers by opening airways, controlling bleeding, and treating for shock[/li][li]Provide basic medical aid including adult and infant CPR[/li][li]Search for and rescue victims safely[/li][li]Organize spontaneous volunteers to be effective[/li][li]And collect disaster intelligence to support first responder efforts. [/ul] You can find one near you, either by searching with your zip code here, or by calling your local fire department (which is where most of them are offered).[/li]
My husband and I have used our training to assist in several traffic accidents (thankfully no deaths yet). It’s actually a great course and a lot of fun. Here’s some pictures from our final training drill for one of our CERT programs (we’re “CERTified” in 3 communities; where we live and where we each work, so we’ve taken the course 3 times, plus periodic refresher training). That page will also give you a little more information on what it’s about and what to expect.

You did a good thing! Stop worrying that you didn’t do enough.

19

Okay, clarified with Jim - he would be classified as a first responder, having taken 88 hours of class time. We actually have first aid kits in both cars, Jim reminds me.

20

Back in April, as I drove my daughter home from a friend’s house, we came across a very recent accident. I saw something lying in the intersection, realized it was a motorcycle, and turned around to see if I could help. As I came back up the street, I saw a person lying in a yard and a kid on a cellphone. The kid, who looked to be somewhere between 16 and 18, had turned left in front of the bike, which must have been going insanely fast, judging from the damage, and pretty much hit him head-on.

I know CPR and some first aid, so I ran over to the guy on the ground. He was lying face-up with his legs bent back behind him mid-thigh, and there was a lot of blood coming from somewhere in the back of his head and out of his mouth. He was still breathing, and I swear that I felt a pulse in his neck, but he was unconscious (thank God) and his skin was already getting clammy. The kid who’d hit him was distraught, but he’d called 911 immediately and his little brother had run home, which was just down the street, to get their dad. Another car stopped to help, but we basically both just knelt there and talked to the guy while watching blood gush out of his head. Neither of us could think of anything to do for him except keep on trying to get a pulse (neither of us could find one after the first minute or so). The paramedics got there very quickly, probably in less than 5 minutes, and when I got out of their way I still was thinking there was a possibility they could save him. Since I hadn’t seen the actual wreck, there was nothing the police needed from me, so I got my car out of the way and took my daughter home.

I heard on the news that night that the man died at the scene, which means I most likely watched him die. I know that my limited skills were of absolutely no use at all in that situation, but I still feel somehow that I should have been able to do something. Although it’s extremely unlikely, perhaps he was able to feel that there was someone with him at the end. Actually, considering the extent of his injuries, I suppose it’s better to assume he was just completely out of it from the moment he hit the van.

I couldn’t sleep for a week or two after that. Every time I closed my eyes, I’d see how his legs were broken or remember all that blood. When I read his obituary, I considered going to the funeral, but I thought better of it. The only time I saw him is not the moment any of his family wants to think of when they remember him. He was 48 years old, and he left behind two young daughters. I don’t know what happened to the kid who hit him. He was somewhere around my daughters’ ages, he had a typical careless teenage driver moment, and the worst thing possible happened. I doubt he’s ever going to fully get over this.