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Talk About A Close Call!

17 comments

This poor woman almost had to sit through a Lady Gaga concert!

Aside from being a pretty good story on the value of AEDs and post-ROSC therapeutic hypothermia, I'd like to direct your attention to the 7th paragraph:

She was then airlifted to Vanderbilt Medical Center's emergency department, where doctors immediately used therapeutic hypothermia to cool Thornton's body temperature to between 93 and 86 degrees — below the normal body temperature of 98.6 degrees.

(emphasis mine)

I checked the distance: 1.87 miles, according to Mapquest.

For the love of all that is holy, one of my Nashville readers please tell me that Tuesday night traffic around Bridgestone Arena is just one big parking lot, and that a ground ambulance would have taken, like, a half hour to make the trip.

PLEASE.

 

Hat tip to reader Brendan McStay, who evidently thinks it would be entertaining to see my head explode.

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Posted by on April 23, 2011 • Filed under: Helicopter EMS, Raging case of rotoriasis
  • Ezequiel Chernikoff

    I’m not from there, but that seems absolutely ridiculous. I mean, seriously, pushing the stretcher down the street would have been a quicker way to the hospital and wouldn’t have wasted resources or put anyone at risk.

    My question is, probably whoever requested MedEvac made a bad call, but why did the crew respond knowing what the distance was? Or was the chopper already there on stand-by?

  • Anonymous

    Vanderbilt Lifeflight staff the event medical team – almost definitely a factor in the decision to fly. I very much doubt they would have a helicopter based at the event but my question is; was a ground transport unit even called?

  • Anonymous

    Probably more a case of “use it or lose it.” Face it, medical choppers are sexy and good PR, so they’re going to be used regardless of actual need.

  • Mrmacs

    Having been born in Vanderbilt Hospital many years ago, growing up in Nashville, and attending high school very near Vanderbilt, I’ll throw my $0.02 into the ring.
    I won’t say that the chopper was the best idea. However, Nashville is a warren of fairly narrow streets, and Vanderbilt Uni is even worse. Consider: a major concert, roads of 2-3 lanes packed with concert-goers, a hospital in the middle of a very large, active college campus, lots of red lights, and other factors. And the said heart attack with seizures. Fastest way to Vanderbilt could have been helicopter vs. ground transport. Not the wisest or economical, necessarily.
    Hey, a helicopter IS faster from our town to the nearest hospital as well. Doesn’t mean that we use it, but it is faster under certain conditions.

  • minimedic

    Called in a consult to my older brother, who’s been living and working in the Nashville area for the past decade…

    His response in regards to the traffic around the area on a concert night: “It’s stupid.” However, his non-EMS estimation of how long it would take an ambulance to get from Bridgestone Arena to Vanderbilt’s Medical Center?

    5 minutes.

    In regards to the patient’s distress about missing Gaga’s on-stage porn performance due to her brush with death: Did she sustain this brain damage before or after her cardiac arrest?

  • Anonymous

    Mike, they operate at least one CCT ground ambulance. Don’t know if it was detailed to the event, though.

    Ambulance Driver

  • Laurakat2

    I am also from Nashville and while it does seem like overkill, I have spent over 45 minutes trying to get five blocks away from Bridgestone arena after a Preds game. There also is a lot of construction by the arena with many streets closed right now, so that may have factored into the decision.

  • Too Old To Work

    Ridiculous. When she gets the bill for the helicopter, and I bet she will, she should flat out refuse to pay it. Or offer to pay the equivalent ground ambulance fee.

    Stupid shit like this is why the federal and state governments are stepping in to regulate HEMS. The industry has no one to blame but itself.

  • Antibubba

    Couldn’t Gaga’s stage show have provided the necessary shock?

  • Canuck

    “The patient was unconscious with no heartbeat,” Jones said.

    Please tell me he didn’t say that. “Unconscious” patients breathe and have perfusing pulses. She was dead. Pisses me off as much as cardiac arrests being referred to as “heart attacks”.

    And flying her seems insane to me. Heli in air, heli down, mebbe 5-10 min ? Even by road at 30 minutes, with trained EMS that should make diddly squat change in outcome after ROSC…

  • Anonymous

    Overkill, plain and simple…

  • Ken

    I suspect the confusion came from the fact that Vanderbilt LifeFlight’s Event Medicine division staffs the events. The quote below from a release on their FB page (I saw this post a few days ago on my wall) states that they were transported “by ambulance.”

    “Jones and paramedic Shane Clark used a portable automated external defibrillator (AED) for more than five minutes to get her heart to begin beating again. Along with paramedics Rich Delmotte and Jonathan Webb they restored her heartbeat and transported her by ambulance to Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Emergency Department.”

  • Pingback: Ambulance Driver Talks About a Close Call | Rogue Medic

  • http://profiles.google.com/chrystoph1967 Chrystoph Foss

    My wife has attended concerts at the venue in question, and, when I asked her about this, she said that a reasonable expectation during a mainstream performance was between 1.5 and 2 hours for the route in question.

  • Anonymous

    The question answers itself, and the reasons are obvious… more profile and more profit. I’m in agreement with TOTWTYTR… when these patients start demanding justification and refusing to pay the extraordinary, unnecessary bills, it will put and end to the problem.

    It should be our mission to educate the first responders when HEMS is not necessary, but in this case it was likely cook book protocol.

  • Robhub89

    “”We didn’t get a pulse back until she went into the ambulance 10 minutes after we got the call.”

    To save Thornton, Jones and paramedic Shane Clark used a portable automated external defibrillator and performed CPR for more than five minutes.

    She was taken by ambulance to Vanderbilt’s emergency department, where doctors began to cool her body temperature to about 89 degrees to reduce the risk of brain injury”

    Where did you get airlifted out of that? Sounds like a ground transport to me. Don’t monday morning quarterback. Hindsight is always 20/20. Even if she was airlifted the crew had a reason. Vanderbilt is one of the best facilities in the nation with some of the best staff. Even if they did fly her, they probably had a good reason.

  • http://roguemedic.com/ Rogue Medic

    Robhub89,

    She was taken by ambulance to Vanderbilt’s emergency department, where doctors began to cool her body temperature to about 89 degrees to reduce the risk of brain injury”

    Where did you get airlifted out of that?

    You did not read the article that AD linked to and quoted -

    She was then airlifted to Vanderbilt Medical Center’s emergency department, where . . .

    The article clearly states airlifted.

    The article is in English.

    Don’t monday morning quarterback.

    That is funny. You are Monday morning quarterbacking about Monday morning quarterbacking.

    Does AD need advice on blogging from you? Of course not.

    You apparently did not even read the entire article. It does appear that a reporter got the story wrong, but which one? I don’t know. I wan’t there, but I do know that flying a patient less than 2 miles needs a very good reason. Weak EMS protocols are not a good reason to fly patients. Weak EMS protocols are a reason to get a smart EMS medical director.

    Even if she was airlifted the crew had a reason.

    Nobody suggested that there was not a reason for flying the patient, if the patient was transported inappropriately by helicopter.

    If the patient was flown, the reason is almost certainly a really bad reason and an indication of incompetence.

    Even if they did fly her, they probably had a good reason.

    Why did you change your support of the reason to probably good?

    Why do you think that it was probably good?

    -

    A better way to approach flying patients –

    If the patient was flown a distance that could have been traveled by a ground ambulance in 45 minutes or less, the flight was probably inappropriate and should definitely be investigated very thoroughly.

    We make a huge mistake in EMS when we presume that we are providing a benefit with our interventions, but we do not have any evidence to support those claims.

    Where is your evidence that patients benefit from ridiculously short helicopter flights?

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