GREAT EXERCISE AT AKERSHUS FORTRESS

Todays post in English

The alarm wakes me at 04.00 am

The taxi arrives at 04.45 am

At the airport this nice greeting from a Starbucks employee makes me smile for the first time this morning. ( even though my name is spelled wrong) 🙂

The plane departure at 06.10 am

From rainy Bergen

«Good morning winter Oslo»

Time for the certification of our NOR EMT (= Norwegian Emergency Medical team)

We meet up precisely 08.00 am at Thon airport hotel for extradition of our personal equipment- hereby referred to as; PE. ( from now on its only military jargons that applies) 🙂

And than we were off to our camp location:

AKERSHUS FORTRESS

All day, evening and some of the night we spent building the camp:

Totally exhausted we crawl into our sleeping bags at 01.30 am

I am so grateful that I don’t have guard duty this night ( I have been awake for nearly 22 hours by this time)

But my guard duty comes soon enough – the next night from 04.00 – 05.00 am

Even though I am very tired I actually enjoy the beautiful moonlight and the fact that I actually know how to handle the «heater» for the tents and the power units. Witch I learned day 2.

At this time feel pretty good about my self 🙂

Time is of the essence and the next morning we realize that we have to hurry…

The big exercise starts at 11.30 am day 3

representatives from WHO and EU is coming

We are going to be certified to travel anywhere in the world were there is a catastrophe, to help people in need, with our transportable hospital/clinic . ( our worst case scenario not get certified…)

The tents are up, but the clinic inside the tents are far from ready…

And we work very hard for many hours to get it ready…

 

WILL IT GET DONE??????

Read my next blog post on Saturday and I will tell you all about the exercise and the result.

Have a wonderful week everybody!!

❤ ❤ ❤

 

 

Gas leak and emergency response request

Mondays post in English

06:25 pm

the phone rings

«this is an emergency request by Haukeland University hospital….»

«…..It has been registered that you are able to meet within 30 minutes…..»

Calling a colleague – a gas leak at the shopping-mall he says….

 

I jump into the car, while wondering what has happened ….

Is it a terror act?

its sad, but this is often the first thing you think these days…

Arriving at the hospital alle the roads are guarded by police or security guards

They let me through to the parking lot

I run in and report for duty

dress up in scrubs

sit at the designated place for the nurse anesthetists

minutes after the intern phone rings

the list of who can meet and when – obviously has reach the organisator, they ask for us by name.

They want us into the emergency rooms

There, a secretary meets us, gives us vests with our work tiltes

We form teams and wait for the patients to arrive

wonder what will meet us?

Are they very ill?

unconscious?

is it life threatening?

and then they arrive….

wet and cold

have been undressed at the scene

through the decontamination tent and a cold shower

met by staff in protective suits

Outside the hospital in the cold October night

surely scary

not a great experience… but necessary

all precaution had to be taken

we didnt now what gas we were dealing with…..

I was part of team 2 – we were;  a nurse, a nurse anesthetist, a anestesiolog, a medical doctor and a bioengineer

we took our patient to assign place

covered them with warm blankets

tried to calm and reassure them…

They were in relative good shape

An itchy and burning feeling in their throat and eyes..

some were coughing and had a headache

we applied an intravenous line and drew som blood samples

EKG

asked them what they had experienced..

Tried to find out what had happened and how it effected our patient

It was all done pretty quickly and then the patient was sent for observation in a near by ward

There was many of us there

we were ready to meet the next patient

in 13 minutes we handled 12 patients

All in all we treated 19

No one was seriously sick or hurt

I am sure they were a bit shocked, but at the same time they were very appreciative that this was taken so seriously

They were grateful

and felt very well taken care of

«This is a very good exercise for you to» many of them stated.

And thats true!!

We have had many exercises this summer

to get ready for the world championship bicycle raise

But of course this was much more realistic

Many things could have been better

of course we had a debrief after – to talk about what we had to change or do better

But still I am impressed

Impressed of my colleagues

the system

our healthcare system

Well done hospital!!

We dont know what this was – but there are speculations about teargas or something similar

If somebody did this for fun – I hope its kids who doesn’t know better …who doesnt realize what they put other people trough

Fear…

In these times of terror

If its adults who did this……..well thats just sad…

I WISH YOU ALL A WONDERFUL WEEK

❤ ❤ ❤

 

His heart stopped 3 times! «We» saved him!

Todays post in English

I remember working in a regular hospital ward many years ago

Many of our patients stayed for a longer period of time

We got to know them

They got to know us

Some were soooo grateful

and we got a lot of feedbacks;

…that we did a good job

……that we made a difference to them

……that we were appreciated

Either in form of words

flowers

hugs

and many times in form of chocolate

usually  confectionary

That is very rare were I work now….

We deal with acute and critical injured patiens

Life treating situations

afterwards the patient continues through the system

Without ever knowing us

without ever «meeting» us

Without ever knowing we were there….

Of course they know what has happened to them

And that someone saved their life

But not that it was us

Not that it was me…

It doesn’t really matter that much

When you deal with life threatening situations….

when you treat critically injured patients

You realize that your effort is of value

You know you make a difference

It is gratification enough!

It gives a pride and joy in our profession that is hard to describe…

10th of may 2017 a helicopter crashed into the sea at the harbor in Bergen

In the helicopter there were 3 men

David Tang, Charles Chan og Quentin Smith

They all got out of the helicopter that was upside down in the water,

Quentin and David by their own – Charles was saved out by Quentin..

They were all conscious when they broke the surface

But when David got up, he inhaled exhaust-gas and swallowed aviation fuel…

He quickly lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest..

Several lucky factors contributed to the further chain of treatment ending as well as it did…

Redningsselskapet ( rescue company at sea) was near by due to another assignment

They startet CPR quickly

The air ambulanse were soon at the scene

and advanced life saving treatment were initiated

A very accomplished doctor secured the airways and quickly decided that all lifesaving efforts should be done…

This is an important, but difficult decision to make in each cases – but it has to be considered carefully because it must be both ethically and a certain chance of survival..

The intensive care that David received at the hospital was of top quality

Which resulted in Davids full recovery and discharge from the hospital only 16 days later

A SUCCSESS STORY

Yesterday we were so fortunate to hear Davids story, told by himself and the people that saved him

He started his lecture by saying; » My heart stopped 3 times – I am an ex-dead man!»

We are attending a trauma-congress in Førde, Norway and Davis wanted to come and show his gratitude by telling his story

I thanked him and expressed how wonderful it is for us to hear patiens stories and views…..it doesn’t happened to often..

They usually continues trough the system before they are conscious

It is how it should be…

But sometimes a confectionary is given to us as well

One like David

Who gratefully thanks for everything that has been done for him..

Who tells us how important this was for him and of course his family….

Who puts a face and a personality to all the patients we meet as a trauma team:

«Was I a part of the team that rescued him?» he asked

«No I wasn’t»

But I, as most of my colleagues  has treated similar patients…

And when we hear success stories like this one, we are so proud on our colleagues behalf..

We are so proud of our profession

We are so proud of our job

The truth is that David was saved by several lucky circumstances – combined with very accomplished physicians and health care personell

Especially rapid start of CPR ( cardiac and pulmonary rescue)

As the attending doctor in ICU that night stated;

We have high quality intensive care at our hospital – but that doesn’t amount to much if those who are near by when the accident occurs doesn’t start CPR…

We have to start saving life at once!!

Lucky for David the Sea rescue company was near by when it happened

Without them he probably wouldn’t have reached the hospital alive…

The RS company is a voluntary company and they save many lifes at sea each year

Their motto is;

Nobody is going to drown

David didnt drown!!

Thanks to them…

To thank them, the 3 men from the helicopter has decided to donate 2,8 million Norwegian kroners to the RS

I am sure they will be well spent

More lives will be saved

LEARN CPR !!

IT SAVES LIVES!!

❤ ❤ ❤

PS; I was not involved in the treatment of David and has not shared any privileged information – all this can be read in the newspapers or heard in Davids interviews.

 

To read more about the story:

helicopter crash