A few very important minutes

[Reposted from CGBlog.org] Yesterday morning at a little before six all the training, the practice, the field experience and the mental scenario building paid off. The moment didn’t occur out on the water or during a disaster – the moment occurred in the safety of home, waking from those last few moments of sleep before the alarm was to go off with a shout for help from my wife.

Sarah had been out for her morning five-mile run and got bitten by a yellow jacket on her way up the walk. She didn’t think much of it and proceeded to the shower. Within a few minutes she started to feel dizzy. Thinking it was just the heat of the shower combined with a warm morning she sat down to clear her head. Luckily she decided something was really wrong and shouted for me. Within a few seconds I knew something wasn’t right and the responder persona kicked in -- the mental checklists started popping up in my head: establish communications, do an assessment, check the ABCs, … I yelled for my daughter to get the phone (30 seconds from a sound sleep to a phone in my hand – yes, an 11 year old can be a superhero). By the time Sarah lost consciousness, 90 seconds to 2 minutes after calling out, we had the 911 dispatcher on the phone. She ended up having a fair selection of the anaphylactic shock symptoms list – BP through the floor, unconsciousness, seizures, breathing irregularities.

We were lucky in a lot of ways yesterday. The ambulance crews hang out at the grocery store a few blocks away, the fire station is 4 minutes away and the ER is 7-8 minutes out. We were home rather than camping, biking or hiking in the boonies. Sarah got stung on the way home rather than the way out. She wasn't home alone.

We also got lucky because I’ve been trained to call on my team (in this case my two kids), developed a bias to seek outside assistance immediately, have enough basic first aid training to check her eyes and general responsiveness, and enough practice in other emergencies to have a calm inner place to go when action is required. Having the Coast Guard training and the experience saved 2-3 minutes yesterday. They were very important minutes.



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The crazy thing about anaphylactic shock is how quickly it responds to treatment – Sarah was out of the ER under her own power in six hours. The dispatcher, the paramedics, the firemen, the ER RNs and doctors were all great. Everyone took great care to treat Sarah respectfully and tell her exactly what they were doing and what they did, and didn’t know. She has now joined the ranks of the EpiPen wielding masses. When I asked if I could write about her experience she responded without pause that the more people who are aware of the risk the better -- the kind of thinking I'm lucky enough to have come to expect over the last 20 years.

UC Davis has some great information on bee and wasp stings.