ECA's

It's typical that on my first shift working with an Emergency Care
Assistant I get two properly sick patients as the first two jobs.

First of all was the 79 year old man who had not been seen for two
days and therefore Lifeline had been called as there was a little
concern about his welfare. Getting there we found that he was laying
against his door with his head at the door. Responsive but not able to
answer any questions or move we were unable to open the door. As he
was in a first floor flat that meant we needed Fire and Rescue to help
us gain access. This they did and we found a tachypnoeic, tachycardic,
hypotensive male with a really strong smell of urine. Decision was
made to blue light him in. Tests in hospital showed that he probably
had been lying there for two days and was now septic. Luckily it seems
we may have got to him in time. Just.

Secondly was the diabetic whose blood sugars were off the scale at the
high end. She was transported in and ended up in HDU with two jugular
lines in.

In both cases it would a have been easier on me if there had been a
paramedic with me to take the lead but it was down to me. Running
through the cases with experienced staff later means that I know I did
the right thing by both but I'm still not happy at being put in that
situation by working with an ECA.