Confrontation Averted

It was fathers day and we had a barbecue planned for mid afternoon. The pager opened up at noon for a patient with abdominal pain, located on the other end of our district, 20 minutes from my station. I went to station 73, fully expecting someone else to get to one of the other closer stations, but that didn’t happen. I went enroute. The dispatcher gave me additional information “28 year old female severe abdominal pain respond 30 alpha 4. Alpha responses typically mean no lights and sirens. Every time we ‘light it up’ we increase the chances we will get into an accident. Dispatchers ask callers key questions to determine the severity of the patient which dictates the urgency of our response. I wasn’t supposed to go lights and sirens, but I was looking at a 20 minute ride, and I wanted to take as much time off my response as I could. I light it up. “What took you so long” is what I hear as soon as I entered the trailer from an irate fiancé. The county was busy and even though I had a 20 minute ride, I even beat the county medic in, so this family waited for any kind of help to arrive for a while. 5 minutes feels like forever. 20 minutes is an eternity. I ignored the comment and went to work assessing the patient, who was in obvious pain. A female patient with severe abdominal pain, who looks sick could be bad, and I tried to rule out the most serious. Triple A or abdominal aortic aneurysm, and ectopic pregnancy. But the fiancé and the rest of the family wouldn’t let the protracted response time go, and I could hear comments through my stethoscope as I listened for bowel sounds. I was out numbered 5 to 1, and I checked to make sure I had a clear path to the door in case things got worse. I usually let these kind of comments go, but the attitude was getting worse so I needed to address it. “I am sorry it took me so long to get here. I am a volunteer and I left a barbeque to respond here. I would much rather be at home with my family on father’s day but chose to come here instead. The county is very busy and a county paramedic unit wasn’t available which is why it took so long to get help here. Now I need your help and cooperation to get the best care possible for your daughter.” I was pretty pissed but hoped my attitude didn’t show in my words. “Well it’s just not right” the father raised his voice. Oh Boy. Maybe my strategy back fired. Maybe my attitude was obvious. I thought about heading for the door. “But thanks for being here anyway” the patients mother said, and I continued with my assessment, relieved. I enlisted the help of the family to get the stretcher and get the patient on it. We had the patient assessed and packaged by the time Paramedic 4 arrived.