Day #201: The One Where He Intubated a Cat

Did anyone watch the Superbowl last night? If you did, these memes are sure to make you laugh:

Okay, enough of that.

My husband has been a paramedic for over fifteen years. As you can imagine, he has some amazing stories about his life working in EMS. However, one of my favorite stories is about the time he intubated (put a breathing tube in) his ex-wife's cat. Soooo, I made him type it up for you guys to read!

"Many years ago when I was married to my first wife, we had a cat named Rusty.

Rusty was an older cat; 7 or 8 years old if I remember correctly. She had started urinating in inappropriate places, so we took her to the veterinarian. The vet suggested that we have Rusty spayed and this would probably stop this behavior. So, thats what we decided to do. The evening we returned home with Rusty after her surgery started off ok. Rusty had a shaved belly and one of those cone shaped collars that keep them from licking their stitches. The vet had made a rather large incision on Rusty’s abdomen that was closed with 8 or 10 sutures. The incision was closed well and didn’t seem to have any problems. Rusty spent a couple hours sleeping on the floor. I’m sure the anesthesia was still in her system. 

We were watching TV when suddenly Rusty woke up and stretched and immediately jumped onto the couch to take up her usual resting place. When she jumped her stitches ripped open spilling the contents of her abdomen onto the couch. In simple terms, her guts fell out! Rusty started to make a gasping gesture with her mouth but there was no air moving. Her internal organs were pulling on her diaphragm and she was unable to breath. Brenda (My first wife) started crying, screaming and pleading with me to shoot the cat. I being a paramedic had some medical equipment in a jump kit as we call it in EMS. I carried advanced airway equipment in case of an emergency; some of which were laryngoscopes and endotracheal tubes. I selected a small ET tube and laryngoscope and intubated Rusty. I quickly secured the tube with some cling bandage wrap and begun assisting Rusty with ventilations from a pediatric BVM (Bag Valve Mask) or Ambu Bag. Brenda took over the ventilations after some coaching and I wrapped Rusty’s intestines in a plastic bag to keep them moist and loosely secured the bag to her with an ace bandage. 

We called the veterinarian’s emergency number and he said to bring Rusty to the office and he would meet us there. Brenda ventilated Rusty all the way to the office with the BVM. When we arrived at the Vet’s office he met us at the door and escorted us to the examination room. I unwrapped Rusty and showed the Vet Rusty’s dilemma. 

He said: “Well, you don’t see that every day.” 

I replied: “Yeah I know her guts just fell out right there on the couch!” 

To which his response was “ No, No, that happens all the time. You don’t see them come in intubated like that.” 

I said: “Oh that, yeah well, I’m a paramedic and she wasn’t breathing and I didn’t know what else to do.” 

He told me I did a great job and that Rusty would have likely died had I not been able to provide an airway and breath for her. Rusty was taken back into surgery where the vet had to clean her internal organs and put them back. Rusty was also given antibiotics to stop any possibility of infection. She returned home a few days later without incident and lived for several more years."

Robert Melrose EMT-P 

It's nice to know our little fur-babies are in good hands.


Meet this month's awesome sponsor!

Linking Up: