I forgot to post yesterday so today you get a dramatic but true tale of my 18 year-olds swoon. My editor Kilian is in the hospital right now, so while I will give this a once over please overlook mistakes due to no Kilian, and the emotional content I am typing. All names except for Logan’s shall be made up to protect people or because I can’t remember them.
Thanks,
The Mng.
It was a normal Tuesday Morning. Logan was in Stage Craft Class at his high school. His teacher Miss. Bell was working with him on something when a student casually strolled into the light booth.
“Miss. Bell, Mr. Leon cut his finger off. Where’s the First aid Kit?” he said.
Logan sprung to his feet and ran, leaping up stairs, dodging students and vaulting over books while he put on the non-latex medical gloves he carries with him at all time, to the injured student teacher. Mr. Leon had wrapped a paper towel around the injury, which was a heroic move; kids should have to see such things.
Quickly assessing that a mere Band-Aid wasn’t going to help, Logan supports his wounded teacher and leads him out in order to take him to the ER. (The hospital is a few blocks away this is faster than an ambulance.) Logan, ever mindful of the rules, takes the route which leads them through to the office so he can let the administration know he is leaving campus.
Mrs. Hill springs into action grabbing her keys and leads them to her car so Logan can continue to support the now pale teacher.
At the ER Logan continues his vital support as they enter triage and the nurses begin their duties. The nurse, Jeffery, informs them that he will need to remove the paper towel and apply a clean wet/dry dressing. Mr. Leon, who is now a grayish color bravely, requests that Mrs. Hill and Logan look away. Logan does so while still supporting Mr. Leon’s wrist.
Nurse Jeffery tells them when he is done and thanks Logan for his assistance. Logan removes and throws away his gloves and sits down in a chair, unwilling to leave Mr. Leon until his family arrives. Mrs. Hill is also there to offer support and is making the needed phone calls.
Once seated my poor 18 year old son who is unused to massive adrenalin rushes begins to feel off. It starts with a light ringing in his ears, and then his vision begins to fade.
“I feel really dizzy,” Logan says.
“Ok,” says Jeffery who then slaps him on the leg.
Jeffery tries to keep Logan focused and talking, slapping him on the leg when he doesn’t respond quickly enough. Until Logan finally gives in to the post-adrenalin rush crash and passes out.
Logan wakes up shortly after the nurses put him into a bed. One nurse removes Logan’s shirt and starts to attach sticky monitor pads to his chest. Another nurse starts prepping an IV and blood work tubes (we live in the desert half the people who faint need water). While all this is going on Logan is being asked all the standard questions – name, DOB, allergies, etc, and is answering the nurse’s questions quite efficiently, which is a bit of a shock to her. Then the nurse asks him what happened and my son tells her the story. After this the nurse knows exactly what his medical condition is, adrenaline crash, she removes the IV from the bed. Then all the nurses leave. Logan is now alone and starts to look around. He notices that his blood oxygen saturation level keeps dipping a little below 90% (90-100% is the normal/healthy level) which he finds interesting.
Poor Mrs. Hill is hoping between the two rooms, and has to call me, while all this is happened. I bet she has made many calls to parents over the years I can’t help but wonder if this was the most interesting.
Dr. comes in and says they’ll do and EKG and let him go home. Logan nods and at 18 is able to sign forms and has his insurance card on him.
Nurse Jeffery comes in and checks on him. Logan asks, “I was planning on taking an EMT course this summer. Should I not do that?”
Jeffery smiles warmly. “No, this is totally normal. This happens to a lot of new paramedics until they get use to the adrenalin.”
Mr. Leon’s parents come in and thank Logan for his heroics.
When Logan leaves the hospital, the surgeon is consulting with Mr. Leon.
I am very proud of my son, but for @#%^# sake, he swooned after and adrenalin rush! They should have slapped him and thrown some water on him! I understand this was a CYA (cover your ass) move but come on, once the doctor and nurses heard what happened they had to have known what was going on. Just leave the boy on the floor until he comes to. I now flinch when I open the mail waiting for the emergency room co-pay from a swoon!
So next time you are heroic Logan, dearest, please just lie down on the floor and put your feet in the chair.
BTW just a point of interest, my son has never been to a hospital before. He wasn’t even born in one. And here he goes to help a teacher and winds up being treated. So weird.
Oh he’ll make a great paramedic.
LOL- thanks it is one of the safer jobs he’s wanting to do.
I dread to think of what my son will want to be when he matures into a fine young man.
LOL- I am sure Logan will terrify me no matter what he chooses.
Oh Alica, you crack me up. “Just leave the boy on the floor…” But not if the hospital didn’t want a law suit. Although I’m sure when the bill does come in you’ll be thinking about that statement. 🙂
If I had been there I wouldn’t have let them touch him lol, my poor swooning boy.
I think they did the right thing. What if he’d turned out to have an arrhythmia? I have one, and adrenaline is often what sets it off. They made sure it was nothing serious. He has the right instincts for an EMT, for sure.
This…it’s easy to be flippant if nothing truly was wrong, but the hospital had no way of knowing that ahead of time. Think of the young athletes who die suddenly from undiagnosed and unsuspected heart conditions in their teens and early twenties. If it HAD been something serious, you’d be glad they’d taken the time to treat it as such! 🙂
Anyway, your son sounds like an awesome young man to step up and take responsibility as he did, so WTG on raising him right. 🙂 He’ll make a fantastic paramedic.
True I shouldn’t blame the ER nurses and Dr. and yay now that he’s safe it is easy to be all irritated about the bill for him swooning LOL.
I think he’ll make a great paramedic, once he stops swooning 🙂
True they did need to check but still ER co-pays are evil. I think he has good instincts and really it’s the safer of a bunch of his chosen career choices.
That sounds like a trip to the ER I’d have. Something new always happens there that makes the original reason for the vinsit a bit dull. Glad he’s OK.
LOL- his first trip and it turns into all this drama, now I’m extra glad I’ve never had to take him before.
Logan’s such a great young man, being the first to help his distressed teacher. I’m glad everything turned out okay.
Thanks Kim, I’m rather proud of him. But it will be years before I stop teasing him about swooning.