Maddog, the mighty slayer!

I took the practical portion of my EMT-I test last Friday.

Not too bad, I only killed 3 people.

Needless to say I will be re-taking the 3 stations I failed. Here's the recap:

Medical Assessment: 1 Dead patient. She was having an allergic reaction to nuts in cookies. I did everything perfectly until I administered 500mg of a drug that is supposed to be given as 500mcg (That's 1,000 times the dose!) OOPS!.

IV skills: No worries. Patient got a perfect IV in the left forearm and 1mg of atropine IV push.

Adult Ventilatory skills: Intubated and did a combi-tube perfectly.

Static Cardiology: 4 cardiac rhythms interpreted and treated correctly. Awesome

Dynamic cardiology: Patient was complaining of chest pain, had an SVT of 138. I went to immediate cardioversion (Where I zap the heart to re-start it). BLAM! Dead!. I suppose I should have tried adenosine first since immediate cardioversion is only indicated for a rate of >150. It didn't matter as I ran out of time anyway.

Pediatric Intubation: Perfect

Pediatric Intraosseus infusion (putting a needle into the bone): Perfect

Basic Bleeding control: Perfect.

Trauma Assessment: Another Dead one, courtesy of Maddog. Gunshot wound to the chest. I found the exit wound right away but either didn't pay enough attention to breathing rate and assist as needed or I loaded the patient without backboarding them first. Either way: Patient Dead, I failed.

Damn.

I keep beating myself up for not studying enough but EVERYONE in my class failed. Many of us feel that the program didn't prepare us enough for the practical portion. I think that's due to the fact the the person who would be running it was suddenly gone for the semester and a series of teachers and students stood in to fill the bill. Hm.

I'll be re-taking this thing soon before the summer lazies fully set in and I forget everything about medicine. Clearly, I'm an idiot. Hopefully, I won't kill as many patients in the field.

Grrrrr!

--maddog