Kids, kids and More kids!!

We get dispatched as the 2nd ambulance on a car accident.

On our way to the scene, the incident commander (the chief of the neighboring station) asks us if we have a problem taking 3 stable kids in car seats.

RT and I look at each other. He knows he can "tap out" and drive, leaving me in "the back" to handle things if he's over his head.

"Ambulance XXX, We're direct. No worries" I reply.

Here's the deal on scene:

Mom's driving the minivan with two 11 month-old twins and a 22 month-old son in car seats. The minivan gets rear-ended. Kids are fine (that's what car seats are for) but mom's neck and back hurt. RT and I work on mom. We get her extricated to a long board & immobilized to our stretcher. Into the ambulance we go and start doing our trauma assessment to be sure we haven't missed anything.

While we're doing this, firefighters start loading car seats and kids into our ambulance. By the time we're on the road, we have a 38 year old woman in full spinal immobilization as a precaution, 3 screaming children in car seats and RT being a stuffed-toy-laden octopus who's spending equal time entertaining toddlers and treating his patient.

At the hospital, I have to go in and get help from one of the waiting ambulance crews. We roll in. One EMT with a kid in a car seat and two others pulling a stretcher containing a woman on a backboard while holding identical boys on their hips.

At the nursing triage station, it's wait wait wait.

The oldest boy is content to play with his toy while still strapped into his car seat. No escape there. RT has one twin with a biblical name. Biblical name #2 is on my hip.

As I shift Biblical name #2 from hip to hip, I notice a particular smell.

Now, RT has a son but his ex left before the boy was born. Even though RT is very much involved in his son's life now, he's never dealt with toddler management. Mind you, we're already a spectacle in the emergency room with one patient on a cot and three little kids being wrangled and corralled by two harried-looking EMTs.

I catch a nurse's eye.

"Can u get me diapers and wipes?"

Her eyes widen in recognition. I look significantly at the toddler on my hip and nod at her with a knowing look.

"I'll be right back!" She drops what she's doing and dashes off.

Five minutes later, I've got this little man on his back on an exam table and am fighting him to get his onesie off.

Clearly he has a healthy diet! Bleah!

Another 3 minutes pass and he's clean, changed and dressed.

I walk out of the exam room and mom puts a hand out to touch her baby. Her hand finds my arm.

"Thank you."

The nurse from before comes bustling by.

"They teach you that in Paramedic school?"

I smile.

--maddog