Uhhh, you'd better send some more help here...

It had already been a long and busy shift and I had grabbed a few minutes between calls to take a quick shower before going (hopefully) to lay down for a bit.

*tones drop*

Of course while I have shampoo in my hair and I am soaking wet.

"Medic X, need you to respond to 123 ABC Street. Female patient is unresponsive."

Crap!!!! I should have suspected it though, because the shift had already been long.

I heard my Captain check in route and knew that I had a few extra seconds to dry off before throwing my uniform back on. I grabbed a elastic band to pull my hair back and was grateful that I had a hat to out on my head since I didn't have time to drag a comb through my wet hair.

As I'm climbing in the truck, I hear several First Responders check en route to the scene, and my Captain checks out on scene. We check en route and a few seconds later I hear the weary voice of Captain D, "Uh dispatch, you'd better call the Anytown Fire Department. We're going to need some man power here."

Huh? Ok let's see...We've got my partner, myself, Captain D, and 4 firefighters. That's 7 people. What in the world is so bad that we need MORE help?

It became very apparent when we got there. We walked in the door and saw a mattress laying on the floor and a very very large woman was laying on it, unresponsive and with snoring respirations. We start to provide emergency care and the firefighters try to figure out how in the hell we are going to extricate the patient from her house. There wasn't enough space to bring the cot in to her, and frankly her estimated weight exceeded the weight limits of the cot (650 pounds).

We ended up using a spine board as a ramp from the bed to the cot and essentially pulled the pt from the bed, over the spine board, and onto the cot. She was so wide that she had to be placed on her side in order to secure her safely to the cot. That really was the best position for her anyway as the weight of her massive chest significantly impaired her respiratory effort.

We left the cot in the lowest position to roll it over to the truck, then the 11 of us raised the cot up and secured it in the patient compartment for transport. There was 4 of us in the back and Captain D drove us to the ER. We alerted them to get a bariatric bed. Once we left the patient at the er and transfered care, we returned to the station.

I punched Captain D in the arm..."Man Power? Geesh, man you could have come up with something better to ask for."