December Days of Happy #24
Dec. 24th, 2010 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegeekToday was a rough day, so I was worried that I'd have trouble deciding on a good happy thing. I searched my mind and thought that this one was a pretty damn good one since it practically makes me tear up every time I hear it. I can honestly say that it helped restore my faith in humanity when I heard it the first time. Today's happy, therefore, is this story.
When a patient in a NICU* needs to be transferred to a different facility for care, a specialized team called a transport team will organize and carry out the transfer. The baby is transported in a transport incubator, which are often large, heavy, and unwieldy, carrying not only the infant, but supplies, suction, a ventilator, oxygen and air tanks, etc.
One winter night, an extremely ill infant needed to be transported to a high level facility for life-saving care. Despite a heavy snowstorm and less-than-ideal driving conditions, the transport team stabilized and packed up the baby and hit the highway for the long trip to the closest available facility that can offer the needed treatments.
On the way, they hit a snag. A tractor-trailer truck had hit a bad patch of road and slid out of control, turning over on its side and completely blocking the highway. Between the nature of that area of highway, the truck in the road, the traffic ahead, and the snowstorm with ever increasing snowdrifts, there was no way to pass by the accident. The ambulance was trapped in a large traffic jam with no way to even turn around, with a very ill patient, and a limited amount of oxygen and air left in the tanks for the ventilator.
They got on the radio and called for a backup transport ambulance to be sent out. The new ambulance would get onto the highway going the other direction, across the median. Once there, they could transfer the baby and transport team onto the new van and take refuge in the nearest hospital's ER until another option presented itself.
The problem? The transport incubator was extremely heavy (hundreds of pounds) and unwieldy. And it needed to be carried from one side of the highway, through stopped traffic, through the snow, over the highway median, and then loaded into the new ambulance. It also needed to be done quickly so the fragile infant patient didn't get too cold, and the incubator needed to be kept level. All of these concerns were mentioned on the radio as they conferred with the transport organizers about how to handle this emergency.
The new ambulance arrived, ready to accept the patient. The transport team readied the infant for what may be a rough ride and wondered how the hell they were going to get the baby safely transferred, when figures appeared outside the trapped ambulance.
Traffic was stopped for quite a ways behind the overturned truck, and amongst the stranded motorists were a number of big trucks. The drivers of the trucks had heard the call for help go out on their radios and listened to the challenges that the baby was faced with. They got out of their trucks, facing the cold and the snow, and offered their help to the transport team.
With the help of some selfless people offering a hand to complete strangers, the baby was safely and quickly carried in his incubator across the highway, through the snow, and across the median to the waiting alternate ambulance, and whisked off.
He survived and recovered.
People are awesome.
*neonatal intensive care unit - caring for ill or premature infants
When a patient in a NICU* needs to be transferred to a different facility for care, a specialized team called a transport team will organize and carry out the transfer. The baby is transported in a transport incubator, which are often large, heavy, and unwieldy, carrying not only the infant, but supplies, suction, a ventilator, oxygen and air tanks, etc.
One winter night, an extremely ill infant needed to be transported to a high level facility for life-saving care. Despite a heavy snowstorm and less-than-ideal driving conditions, the transport team stabilized and packed up the baby and hit the highway for the long trip to the closest available facility that can offer the needed treatments.
On the way, they hit a snag. A tractor-trailer truck had hit a bad patch of road and slid out of control, turning over on its side and completely blocking the highway. Between the nature of that area of highway, the truck in the road, the traffic ahead, and the snowstorm with ever increasing snowdrifts, there was no way to pass by the accident. The ambulance was trapped in a large traffic jam with no way to even turn around, with a very ill patient, and a limited amount of oxygen and air left in the tanks for the ventilator.
They got on the radio and called for a backup transport ambulance to be sent out. The new ambulance would get onto the highway going the other direction, across the median. Once there, they could transfer the baby and transport team onto the new van and take refuge in the nearest hospital's ER until another option presented itself.
The problem? The transport incubator was extremely heavy (hundreds of pounds) and unwieldy. And it needed to be carried from one side of the highway, through stopped traffic, through the snow, over the highway median, and then loaded into the new ambulance. It also needed to be done quickly so the fragile infant patient didn't get too cold, and the incubator needed to be kept level. All of these concerns were mentioned on the radio as they conferred with the transport organizers about how to handle this emergency.
The new ambulance arrived, ready to accept the patient. The transport team readied the infant for what may be a rough ride and wondered how the hell they were going to get the baby safely transferred, when figures appeared outside the trapped ambulance.
Traffic was stopped for quite a ways behind the overturned truck, and amongst the stranded motorists were a number of big trucks. The drivers of the trucks had heard the call for help go out on their radios and listened to the challenges that the baby was faced with. They got out of their trucks, facing the cold and the snow, and offered their help to the transport team.
With the help of some selfless people offering a hand to complete strangers, the baby was safely and quickly carried in his incubator across the highway, through the snow, and across the median to the waiting alternate ambulance, and whisked off.
He survived and recovered.
People are awesome.
*neonatal intensive care unit - caring for ill or premature infants
