Sometimes It’s Not in the Cards

By Michael N. Ciampo

Responding in on an EMS run for a person who fainted in an apartment on a hot and humid night didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary for us in the summer. Maybe the cause of fainting was dehydration, heat exhaustion, or possibly something more serious. As we entered the building and walked up the stairs, no one met us with any information. We walked into the apartment, and two people just pointed to a room and said, "In there," with no urgency in their voices. On entering the room, we didn't see anything but an empty queensize bed. Walking around to the other side of the bed, we located the unconscious victim on the floor in the narrow area between the bed and the wall. As we tried to slide the furniture out of the way to gain access to the victim, we noticed that the floor was wet from some ice on the ground. It didn't initially strike any of us what the ice was for other than to cool off the person who had "fainted."

As we interviewed the other two occupants of the apartment about what happened, one of our members began a patient assessment and said he had no pulse on the victim. Quickly, members began to set up the defibrillator and the rest of the medical equipment while beginning cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Meanwhile, we tried to interview the tenants about who this person was and what happened but were not getting results. They informed us that they didn't know the victim; she was drinking with one of the other tenants and went into this room to nap about two hours ago. When they decided to check on her, they thought she just fainted and called 911. We asked about the water and ice; they said that they thought it would wake her up and bring her around. However, many of us know that when we respond to overdoses, we'll find victims with ice on various areas on their body, which is thought to bring them back from their "trip."