Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 13

Wednesday, September S3, 1987-Mld-nilnoU Newspapers-C-l Trauma umiirses trainedl to save lives A I Wednesday morning started out relatively calm tor staff members In Sarah Bush Lincoln's emergency room. Everyone was breathing a sigh of relief after two hectic heavy patient care days. Monday, which was Labor Day, brought over 35 patients In an 8-hour period to emergency with a variety of ailments ranging from lacerations and sprains to allergic conjunctivitis and cardiopulmonary failure. Of the 64 patients seen In that 24-hour period, 51 were treated and released, 12 were admitted and one died. Tuesday was equally as busy with 14 ambulances arriving at the ER's automatic doors.

The nursing staff were still restocking the exam rooms, looking for a patient's missing watch, and recounting to each other the outcome of some of. the more serious or unusual cases. An ambulance arrived from Charleston with an elderly man, who had passed out at the grocery store. By the time he arrived at the ER, he was feeling better and refused to be treated. His daughter was called, and she arrived shortly to take him home.

Even though be seemed to. be breathing okay and "looked good," the nurses reluctantly watched them walk out through the ER's waiting room. He and bis daughter had Just rounded the corner out of their sight when they heard his daughter's scream. "Somebody please help me, help me Instantly, the ER crew sprang Into ac tion. The charge nurse and one of the emergency medical technicians from the Charleston Fire Station's ambulance reached the man lying on the waiting room Boor at about the same time.

His heart bad stopped beating. Another alerted nurse grabbed the nearest cot and the team had the man on It and was racing back to the trauma room In a matter of seconds. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was started on the Boor and continued by a nurse running along side the cot. Hospital personnel from respiratory therapy, social services, the critical care unit and all other Boors arrived In response to the "Code Blue" alarm ss. iv xt i a MEDICALSER' scfreuBfH Diane Wier and Mary Durham work on a pqtient.

'Code Blue' He's lucky tie twice sounded over the hospital's public address system. Shortly, they had restored his breathing and placed him on an external pacemaker, which temporarily corrected the heart block that caused his arrest. Trauma nurses and other emergency room personnel often have only a few seconds to make life-saving decisions like the one described above. One moment the ER may be perfectly calm and 15 minutes later every room might be full of patients, some in critical condition. The experienced professionals who choose to work in emergency care have to be able to ''think on their feet" because often there isn't time to do it any other way.

It's a department that many medical people avoid like the plague. But for the special few, who thrive on the challenge of emergency medicine, it is the ultimate in providing primary patient care. There's an Inner feeling of caring that brings many women into the nursing profession, but it's the test of their personal skills, the challenge and sometimes the. excitement that brings them to emergency care, says a 14-year nursing veteran. Two-way communication between ambulances and the hospital can now give the ER some warning of what's coming in and a chance to prepare for it.

But sometimes there is no warning, no medical history or even a name on which to base treatment. "We have absolutely no control over what's coming through those doors and a lot of the time, no warning," says a registered nurse, who Is a certified emergency room nurse and trauma nurse. "It's our job to take a critical care situation that is out of control and bring some sort of control to it. It takes a lot of adjustment to come from a dead stop into a full-blown emergency. Monday I didn't stop walking, and sometimes running, for a solid eight hours.

There was no lunch and no breaks, there just wasn't time," she continued. "It's definitely not Continued on page C2 EEK se n. in? cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on Brewer. "By the time I came to in the ambulance, I didn't know what had happened, but I felt okay," he continued. When Brewer reached the emergency room at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center, he refused treatment saying he "felt fine." He was up walking and talking when his daughter, Susie Babbs of rural Charleston, who happened to stop by the grocery store and learn of her father's condition, arrived in the emergency room only a few minutes after he did.

"He told me that he wasn't going to let them admit him, that he felt fine and wanted to go home. But, there was no way I was going to take him home. We were going to talk about it and we walked down the hall," she said. "We had just gone around the corner' when he just dropped." It was then that Brewer's heart stopped beating for the second time that day. Hospital personnel, anxious that Brewer was leaving the hospital without treatment, were standing at the admitting desk watching him go around the corner when they heard his daughter's cry for help.

Dan Ensign, an EMT-I with the Charleston Fire Department, which had I'm married to a river rat. Which sometimes Isn't half bad, but I'm a city girl and getting me onto the river is something akin to launching the Titanic into a farm pond. It's not that I don't enjoy canoeing. It's just that I can't paddle very well and Roc (the river rat) thinks that I'm out of balance, which is normal for me, but can cause some serious problems on the water. We've had such beautiful fall weather lately, I finally took foe plunge and agreed to a "short" canoe trip down the 16 bridge, east of Charleston, and went a few miles downstream to the Harrison Street bridge.

I have to tell you if you haven't gone down the Embarras in a canoe well. you missed how can I put this you just haven't lived. Actually it turned out to be one of the best afternoons we've had in quite a while. I packed sandwiches, chips (two kinds), fruit (two kinds) and a big jug of ice tea. Then we needed jackets (it might turn cold), first aid stuff, towels (in case we capsized in the mud) and paper cups for the tea.

To make Roc happy, I left everything else at home. Even getting the boat to the water was fun. It takes a lot of planning because it takes two cars you know, one to drop it off and one at the other end to pick it up. VICKSVV If 4 Emergency room nurses 1 VTt Edgar Brewer just transported Brewer to Sarah Bush, was the first to arrive at Brewer's side and he immediately started CPR. In almost the same second, Mary Durham, a registered, nurse and the ER's charge Sharon Hargis Hoe-said to caasaa-t-get-i6Yf-feaw-I-managed to figure that all out.

Then there's the heaving it on top of the car, tying it on and driving (me) to the water with the canoe hanging over the front windshield obscuring the on coming traffic and him following behind. How was I supposed to know the canoe was slipping and sliding all over the top of the car from all those crazy gestures he was making? I was driving one eye on the rearview mirror and the other on the road! Well, we finally made it, got the boat into the water and the first thing that happens I fall in the mud. Canoes aren't easy to get into you know, they tip a lot. I was ready to go home, but this was our 4-year-old's first canoe trip and by now, Roc seemed to be having a good time. So I climb in, grunting and groaning, lit- If By SHARON HARGIS JG Lifestyle Editor No one has to tell Edgar Brewer he's a lucky man.

He already knows it. A recent shopping trip turned into a life and death drama for the 80-year-old Charleston man a situation he could neither predict nor avoid. Brewer's heart stopped beating, not once but twice in the same day. Amazingly, Brewer has been a remarkably healthy man despite the fact that be has been a heavy smoker since the age of 10 and was never reluctant to have a drink or two after work each day. UntO his heart stopped beating, he had not seen a medical doctor since 1945 and said he had no idea there was anything wrong with him.

The first time his heart stopped was at a Charleston food store. Brewer was buying groceries and was on his way out the door when he literally dropped dead. 'There wasn't any pain at all, no warning. I'd been feeling fine. The last thing I remember is that I was walking out the door and I guess I passed out," Brewer said from his apartment at Cougill Manor in Charleston.

A store employee immediately began Canoeing down the Embarras: Boy, what fun! survived nurse that day, also was at his side assisting Ensign. In a matter of seconds, they had Brewer on a cot and back into the emergency room's trauma room where he was resuscitated and placed on a temporary external cardiac pacemaker. A permanent internal pacemaker was inserted during surgery the next day. His doctor, Dr. K.A.

Fehrenbacher, explained why Brewer's heart stopped beating. "He developed a complete heart block, which means the electrical portion of his heart was no longer functioning properly so his heartbeat became very slow to the point that he collapsed and would have died if he had not been resuscitated in the emergency room and placed on the external cardiac pacemaker, which saved his life. "The community and the hospital are very fortunate to have the external pacemaker available. Mr. Brewer is lucky that he was successfully resucitated and lucky that the external pacemaker was available," A pacemaker is an safety device which produces the electrical stimulation to help his heart beat when his own system fails, Dr.

Fehrenbacher continued. After one more day of recuperation while Roc holds the darn tipsy thing, put on my sunglasses and I'm ready. We set off on this grand adventure. The water level was low, but the beauty of the turning trees and the tranquilty of silently gliding through the murky green (sometimes slimy) water was great! Seeing it for the first time through Roxanne's eyes was as it has been with quite a few things an ex-hiliarating experience. Cu2 usuwiiy hc3 a frcch pcrcpcctivc cn everything we consider to be old and bor- -kSTmS 'S S3 pSSCS ful." And we were all speechless when we spotted a baby sandhill crane and a few yards downstream a huge adult one.

Watching that magnificent bird soar up against the startling blue Sunday sky and silently glide down the river was almost too breathtaking to describe. It reminded me of one of those clips they show while they play the national anthem just before the TV station signs off at night. It was nice, and it almost made me forget about the mud and this huge chunk of road oil I got on my arm unloading the canoe that was slowly, and painfully pulling every hair out when I tried to rub it off yuk. I can't remember the last time we took the boat out. It's been in storage for a couple of years, and Roc finally got around to getting it out and patching up a couple of leaky spots.

after the permanent pacemaker was inserted, Brewer, who said he was "feeling fine," was released from the hospital. Brewer has nothing but praise for the people that saved his life and said the nurses were especially good to him and checked on him frequently while he was in the hospital. Brewer said he has never felt like he! was 80 and he has no idea why he has been so healthy. "My mother's family all lived to be in their 80s and 90s, maybe that's why. I drink two cups of coffee a day and eat whatever I like.

I've always stayed about the same weight and I've always gotten up at 4 a.m." a habit he acquired while working for the. Brown Shoe Factory, a job he held for 49 years. Brewer will soon be driving his own car again, eating breakfast at Snyder's Donut Shop at 5:30 a.m. every morning and going fishing, a favorite pasttime. Meanwhile, he's been sleeping a little later, watching the ball games on television and resting under the watchful eye of his daughter.

While he admits his experience was frightening, be said he won't spend a lot of time worrying about his mortality. "When your time comes, you can't get away from it, so why worry about it. It's going to happen." He did a good job because the only time we got wet was when I flipped water all over us trying to execute my "almost perfect" paddling. But, at least I didn't drop the oar overboard, which I thought that was a major accomplishment And when Roc stopped paddling (he's in back, of course) and we veered under some low hanging branches despite my best paddling efforts, I wasn't boat. Pretty good, huh? 14 i-jiifitit'M tlW lvttMM.ttf 'te) "MlHi always enjoy seeing the river bank from the water.

There are miscellaneous camp sites along the way fishing cabins, docks and boats, some obviously reminiescent of an era when staying on the river was everybody's idea of weekend entertainment. The best part was there weren't any shallow spots where we had to get out and trudge through the swamp-like water toting the canoe behind us. Don't laugh it's happened before. Then, we got there and the ride was over. I think everyone had a good time, Roc to laugh a lot and Roxanne worked out a lot of anxiety over water, alligators, snakes and life jackets.

We heaved the canoe on the Jeep, tied it down and went home sandwiches uneaten. It had to be fun I forgot to eat!.