I guess I'm not as prepared as I thought for a traumatic injury

[Tim K]

Was driving home last night and was the 6th vehicle to stop at the scene of a hit and run against a pedestrian. By the time I got to the victim with my "oh shit" bag, there were 5 or 6 other people fluttering around him doing nothing. EMS had already been summoned. He had a compound fracture of his left ankle and blood coming from his nose and mouth, but no obvious facial injuries. There were a number of large blood spots on the pavement, roughly 3" in diameter. I'm guessing he had internal injuries. He was in a lot of pain based on the amount of noise he was making. He was obviously conscious and breathing.

I stood there for a minute trying to figure out what to do. My limited training said to look for other hidden injuries, stabilize the fracture and control the bleeding. There was surprisingly little blood from his ankle, so that was likely a non-issue. Then treat for shock and wait for the cavalry. By the time I did my mental evaluation, someone had a blanket on him (it was cold on the road) and I could see EMS inbound about 1/2 mile out. I elected to step away and leave it to the pros. I was totally creeped out at the thought of trying to help this poor guy, especially moving that broken ankle. I think I'd have done what needed to be done if no help had been available, but I was absolutely thrilled to see EMS coming over the hill.

The whole episode made me realize how hard it will be if I'm ever called upon to provide care in a real deal emergency.

Anything wrong with my evaluation? What did I miss? To be honest, checking for hidden injuries didn't occur to me until after I was home.

[TFOGGER]

I think you did well. Sometimes the best you can do is keep the patient calm, warm, and out of shock, especially when the pros are only a minute or so out...

[asmo]

Great eval. You did everything right. Its hard to push through the 'what the fuck' - to the actual doing something, especially when your just a bystander. Only other things that you didn't expressly say, but I am assuming you did as part of the checklist:

Airway - could he breath? You said he was making noise so I am assuming yes, but since you asked.
Shock - Keep him talking and get as much information as you can out of him. Name, where he lives, anyone else, whats his phone number, anything to keep him talking (and get info).
Stabilize - Keep them immobile unless there is some life threatening need to move them.

Otherwise - good job!

[ray1970]

I've been taught that as long as the victim is breathing and has a pulse (even if they aren't conscious) there probably isn't much more you can do until trained professionals arrive on scene.

Although, if there is obvious major bleeding that you can safely deal with then that probably would have been OK. Assuming you had the proper protection to protect yourself from hepatitis and HIV.

[Great-Kazoo]

Well............................ my Opinion () is.................I applaud you for actually wanting to assist the injured party. How you did or didn't act / respond after that, not my call. Armchair QB'ing someone when i was not on scene, doesn't resolve what did or didn't happen.

I will say, i am as annoyed as you were that everyone else was standing there with their thumb up their anus. If anything that is one of the biggest pet peeves i have. There's been more than 1x i was involved while everyone else stood there like statues.

[newracer]

Well............................ my Opinion () is.................I applaud you for actually wanting to assist the injured party. How you did or didn't act / respond after that, not my call. Armchair QB'ing someone when i was not on scene, doesn't resolve what did or didn't happen.

I will say, i am as annoyed as you were that everyone else was standing there with their thumb up their anus. If anything that is one of the biggest pet peeves i have. There's been more than 1x i was involved while everyone else stood there like statues.

Well at least they called 911 instead of just using their phones to video the guy dying.

[Irving]

I recently had a thing where I had to go get my blow out kit, and also didn't have to use it. Maybe we should start a thread specifically for arm chair quarterbacking, just because it's not something many of us deal with.

[asmo]

I recently had a thing where I had to go get my blow out kit, and also didn't have to use it. Maybe we should start a thread specifically for arm chair quarterbacking, just because it's not something many of us deal with.

I don't see it as arm-chairing. Tim specifically asked for anything else he might have missed and was looking for other opinions. Evaluating yourself, and having others honestly do the same, for what you did and did not do is a great way of learning.

Arm-chairing, IMHO, is telling the guy he did it wrong and saying how the arm-chair QB would have done it better (which in Tim's case was not an issue).

[Irving]

I think we could have a thread for evaluating. That's what I meant.

[asmo]

I think we could have a thread for evaluating. That's what I meant.

Sorry misread. Sounds good to me.