A little scratch

It all started with a little scratch...

An emergency call to an unconscious patient at a train station had us rushing through the streets. On arrival there was a First Responder on scene gave us a brief run down indicating that the patient had complained of a scratch to the lower leg some two hours previously. By now the scratch was an angry looking yellow rash that may or may not explain the patients current unconsciousness.

We quickly transferred the patient to an Ambulance and completed a more detailed assessment including a 12 lead ECG. We did not find anything remarkable on the ECG but did notice that his blood pressure was on the low side and his heart rate and breathing rate were on the fast side indicating that the patient was suffering from shock.

With no obvious explanation for the scratch which his friends said had not been yellow until an hour previously we took the decision to rush him into hospital in order to get an explanation for the causes of his unconsciousnes.

Along the way the patient had brief moments of lucidity when they woke up and tried lashing out at the crew. Unfortunately we are not allowed to restrain a patient so we have to make do with deflecting their half hearted attempts to hit us which for the most part they do not realise they are doing in the first place.

Luckily for us we were only a few minutes drive from the hospital and we were able to get him transferred to a resuscitation trolley where they quickly got to work assessing the patient and finding out what was wrong with him.

Sadly for us we never got a chance to find out what was causing his unconsciousness but we suspect it was as a result of the scratch that he obtained some hours earlier.

It just goes to show the need to ensure that you keep covered up in areas that your not normally in to prevent any bites or scratchs causing problems at a later stage.