So, I just got back from a call at "The Jungle". Um. . . yeah, when I heard that was where we were going I thought it could be one of two places: a strip club or a gay club. Turns out, it was the second.
This weekend is Atlanta's gay pride celebration and the streets have been full of rainbows and transvestites. According to Andrew Collin's article on about.com, "No city in the southern United States throws a more potent gay pride celebration than Atlanta" (http://gaytravel.about.com/od/gaypridefestivals/qt/Atlanta_Pride.htm). With regards to the patient that we picked up, this explanation couldn't have been phrased better.
Our patient, a 28 year old male, was most likely drugged with HGB (the date rape drug). Upon arrival we found him unresponsive to any stimuli and super diaphoretic (sweaty), however he was doing a great job maintaining his own airway. We immediately tossed him on the stretcher and went to the back of the ambulance, where we started a line (iv fluids), put him on oxygen, and checked all his vitals. While we were doing that, the patients friend called his cell phone to find out where he had gone. We explained what was going on and let him know that we needed him and any info he could give us on his friend. Next thing we know, there is this big group of nasty sweaty dudes in their underwear standing outside the ambulance. After getting the one friend to put on some pants and tell us what he knew about the patient, we were on our way.
Everything went fine all the way to the hospital, all his vital signs looked great. I did put in a NPA when he started snoring and we tried a drug called narcan (an antidote for narcotics overdoses) to see if it would wake him up, but it had no effect. Supposedly, when patient wake up from HGB they become very violent, so we were happy when we got to the hospital before he really started to wake up. In all it was a fun and funny call.
(dedicated to my friend Ben Ralph who I know likes to hear about men in underpants)
Next time take my cake with you.
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