Joey Vento was Right!

Gentle readers, as you know, the TrekMedic actually holds down a wage-paying job when he's not blogging along to information highway.

He's a paramedic. (A cranky, tired, old and arthritic one at that, but that's another rant)

Over the last week, the ability to proficiently speak the English language, especially when dealing with the sick and injured, sorely tested the TrekMedic's patience.

First, the TrekMedic was dispatched to one of our regular nursing homes to assist one of our BLS crews on a "Bleeding" call. Arriving at the same time as the BLS guys, we found an elderly woman in bed, unconscious. No, wait - she's just asleep. No evidence in her bed of any bleeding. After several long minutes of waiting and assessing the patient, the nursing SUPERVISOR, a young Oriental woman, arrived and simply stated to us "she bleeding." Nothing more. After several attempts to get her to expand on that thought, she finally pointed to the patient's groin area and said "down there." She then left, not to be seen again.

Follow up: the patient showed no evidence of active bleeding. Her vital signs were OK. The transfer paperwork the nursing home is required to send with the patient stated some blood was found in her diaper during changing.

Next, yesterday, while at the office performing my supervisory duties, I was told to respond to another facility along with a nearby BLS crew for a possible stroke victim with "bloody vision." Now, folks, this is more serious. A stroke could be causing the patient's blood pressure to go so high that an optical vein could have burst. This is a life-threatening issue!

OK,...so here's what happened: again, non-local nurse calls it in. The patient is in rehab because he's had a stroke and was no complaining of "BLURRY VISION." There are more than a half-dozen differential diagnoses why his vision is blurry. Again, the patient was fine, vitals normal, released to the BLS crew after consulting with medical command.

The point to all this pro-English ranting? Its bad enough that only 40+% of 911 calls turn out to be what was dispatched. Do I really need to fly down the road and put my life, as well as the lives of other commuters, in jeopardy because someone can't speak this country's language???