Since, the 1st of September I have been back in Rexburg, ID continuing my education. I am working as a Fire Fighter Intern at Madison Fire Department and a full-time student in the BYU-Idaho Paramedic Program. I have had all sorts of new experiences throughout the semester and I am about 3 weeks from completing the first semester of 3 in the Program. I really enjoy the Program and the Internship with the Fire Department. I feel like I have learned a lot so far and I definitely have a lot more to learn in the coming semesters. I was recently on an ambulance call of a man in cardiac arrest. It was quite the experience! We (The Ambulance Crew) worked on the gentlemen for a while. Personally, I probably ended up doing more than 8 rounds ( 2 minutes) of compressions and there were 4 of us switching off. At one point about 5-10 minutes into the code (code=working a cardiac arrest patient) he began breathing, but had insufficient heart rate to sustain his body's needs, we ended up defibrillating (shock) the man more than 12 times throughout our time on scene and during transport. I think the biggest eye opener for me of the whole experience was how physically demanding giving CPR is. I was dripping in sweat from head to toe and exhausted after each round. When we arrived at the hospital I jumped on the side of the gurny continuing compressions until we got the patient in the room and onto the bed. The nurses and doctor worked him for probably another 5 minutes and then discontinued CPR. As an overview of the whole call, this man weighed about 350 lbs. he collapsed on the second story of the residence and when we arrived on scene he was quite blue in the face. We spent a good 25 minutes on scene and it was about 7 minutes to the hospital.
