 Fire Department engine crew responds to a patient with heavy bleeding from an assault.
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Glen Ellman
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Fort Worth (Texas) Fire Department Engine 10 responded to an assault call in a convenience store parking lot. On arrival, they found an adult male who had a 4-inch, U-shaped laceration on the back of his head. The patient, who was walking around, presented with significant bleeding from the wound and was possibly intoxicated. He said he’d been assaulted by an unknown male who fled the scene. He reported being hit in the face and then stumbling backward, falling and hitting his head on the concrete, but he denied any loss of consciousness. The responding crew applied a pressure bandage to his wound to control the bleeding, took his vital signs and obtained his medical history. Despite his traumatic injuries, the patient would not allow them to apply a C-collar and insisted that he didn’t want to be transported to the hospital. A crew from Medstar EMS arrived on scene and was able to convince the patient to go to John Peter Smith Hospital for treatment.
This article originally appeared in January 2011 JEMS as “Apply Some Pressure.”
