Last week, we talked about what EMS does for someone whose belly hurts. This week, we get to talk about what EMS does for someone whose belly hurts because they got stabbed!
Once again we find ourselves discussing trauma protocols, which comes with the requisite reminder that the majority of prehospital trauma care comes at the BLS level, since the name of the game is generally rapid transport to the hospital. For abdominal injuries, after addressing ABCs there’s little more involved aside from special considerations for evisceration injuries (tldr – don’t shove bowel back inside, just cover it with moist gauze). For chest injuries, the protocol addresses dressing (and, if needed, “burping” the dressing for) sucking chest wounds. There is also reference to Appendix O, which describes how to perform a needle decompression in cases of tension pneumothorax.
Not a lot of OLMC-specific stuff in either of these protocols, but now you have something to refer to the next time an EMT calls the phone asking for help! www.nycremsco.org or the protocol binder if you want to brush up even more.
Dave