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Paramedic Stories, Part XVIII: Tetanus! (Part Two) (By Kendall V. Smith, Paramedic/EMT) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Rated "PG" by the Author.
The woman the paramedics suspect as having tetanus is now safely within the confines of the hospital, where a feverish battle begins in order to try to save her life. The woman is from Africa, in Nigeria, where she is visiting a friend in the United States. She became sick after stepping on a rusty nail and not doing anything or knowing anything about it.*
We got the young woman to the hospital within a half hour after first coming onto the scene. We did our best to help, but it was clear that she was now in the hands of competent doctors and nurses who knew more about something rare or deadly like tetanus than we ever could.
Upon arriving into the E.R., Tashi Tachingwe was taken to the treatment table, where additional I.V.'s and other life-saving devices were plugged into her thin, feverish, spasm-riddled body. A nasogastric (or feeding) tube was passed into her nose and down her throat, and directly to her stomach: it was clear that this woman was unable to eat, due to the spasms working their way through her jaw, ncek, face, and mouth; something needed to be done to help her. She was as black as night, and she was thin: she didn't weigh more than 100 pounds soaking wet. Electrodes were placed upon her quivering chest, and you could see the spasms passing through her body like gently rippling waves. It was clearly frightening to see, and I still have mental images of this poor woman running through my mind even now (and it has been several weeks since this took place).
It was tetanus: a doctor who had seen it before in patients back in Africa while he was in the Peace Corps diagnosed the problem, and immediately, steps were taken to try to save her. As I said earlier, this was two weeks ago when this situation took place; and it still has me shaking in my shoes now.
Upon inquiring about Tashi's condition, I was told that she was still alive nearly two weeks later; but she was still in a very critical state; and her prognosis still remained guarded and uncertain. There was no knowing as to whether Tashi would survive her illness without brain damage or disability; but the doctors and nurses who were assigned to her care would try their best to try to save her life and ensure survival over this rare, but lethal infection.
I talked to the one nurse in charge of her care (Louisiana Sandusky, who is the head, or charge, nurse at Nashville Memorial Hospital), and this was what she told me. She knew I was concerned about Tashi and her outcome, so she went out of her way to keep me informed. I would then call her friend, and she would, in turn, call Tashi's family back in Nigeria, Africa, and inform them of their family member's situation. (It turned out that Tashi was one of 18 kids in one family: she had 15 brothers and two sisters.)
*Tashi's story will be continued later, as things warrent.
In my early days of training as a nurse I saw something similiar only it was rabies. Wildbirds and parakeets are warm bloodied. I don't know how the parakeet contracted rabies but the person who owned the bird got rabies as well. It was too late to save her and it was by no means a pretty death. Thanks for an article that tells it like it is.
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