CHCS - Perspectives Winter/Spring 2016

62 • NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY At 9:30 a.m. on September 28, 2015, a phone rang. “911…What is your emergency?” In a panicked voice, the woman on the other end exclaimed, “The grill blew up and my husband is burned badly. I need help!” The accident site resembled a scene out of a war zone. The barbeque grill was ripped apart, with chunks of it lying on the ground and spread out in all directions. A portion was even embedded in the side of a tree close by. Also on the ground was the badly burned body of the caller’s husband lying flat on his back. His skin, in the front from his face down to just below his knees, was a hideous shade of dark red with black-charred streaks and blotches from the burns he sustained in the accident. His wife could be seen kneeling next to his body with her hands covering her face—emotionally distraught over the accident and the appearance of her husband. The shriek of an emergency vehicle sounded off from a short distance down the road. As the ambulance came into view, the woman stood and started jumping up and down, waving her arms, and yelling, “Over here! We’re over here! Please hurry! My husband needs medical attention NOW!” The Saint Johns River State College paramedic students emerged from the ambulance with a stretcher in tow and immediately started obtaining the man’s vital signs while questioning the woman about what happened. She explained that her husband was getting ready to grill steaks and was bent over the gas grill while trying to light it. The next thing she knew, there was an extremely loud explosion, lots of flames, and then her husband was airborne, landing on his back about 15 to 20 feet from where the grill used to sit. The emergency crew quickly assessed the patient, loaded him into the ambulance, and headed off to the closest medical facility while alerting the hospital of its impend- ing arrival with the trauma patient. Upon arriving at the hospital, the paramedic students rolled the stretcher through the mock emergency department doors with the man’s wife walking beside it, crying hysterically. Burn Simulation Proves Riveting BY KERRY WHITAKER, D.H.SC. , PA-C, CHAIR, PROGRAM DIRECTOR AND ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, AND BARBARA MORRISON, ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR Physician Assistant JACKSONVILLE IPE simulation on display