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!
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
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