Trauma-rama

I should have realized I'd jinx myself the other day when I wrote about overhead pages not applying to the ER.  Walked in to work the other afternoon and discovered we had just lost a traumatic cardiac arrest an hour or so earlier - never a good way to start off.  Not long after the beginning of my shift we received a patch for an incoming bad MVC with prolonged extrication and a heart rate in the 30s.  I poked my head into the trauma bay once she arrived, and even I could tell this one was in pretty bad shape.  A few minutes later, after I had returned to my area, I heard several pages for the code team to CT, where the patient went into cardiac arrest and died.

Shortly thereafter EMS delivered a (surprise!) no-helmet motorcyclist who crashed head first into a passing car.  Also in bad shape, sporting a CT-revealed head bleed, he was rushed up to the ICU.  

A few hours later our last major trauma of the evening rolled in: a frail-looking 86 year old female who had fallen down a long flight of stairs.  She was a train wreck - multiple fractures, bruises and lacerations, and a pressure in the 70s.  Every time we tried to move upstairs, she turned south, and eventually they discovered a cardiac tamponade on the ultrasound, resulting in a quick page to CT surgery.  The resident ran down, grabbed a big-ass needle, stuck it into her chest, and drew out the blood that had accumulated around her heart.  He then jumped back on his horse and rode off into the sunset, looking for other lives to save.