Alex
Seventh Instar
Hello all.
I am a paramedic by profession. Although I just started I am pretty strong stomached. Last shift I saw something that has finally managed to shake me since it involves roaches.
A call reporting “difficulty breathing” pretty standard call. When we arrived to the duplex, the door was open there was an overwhelmingly strong waft of “roach” pouring out of the door. Upon entering the residency “11:00 am”The walls were covered and I mean COVERED with B. germanica and as the ray of light poured into the room the roaches ran for the shadows. There was so many of them that they fell off the wall in clumps. There was also a huge number of dead and live P. Americana on the floor some struggling to pull their feet out of the carpet as we walked across them.
We found the patient lying down on his couch. He was wheezing heavily and claimed he ran out of his medication of albuterol for his asthma. We pulled the patient outside on a scoop stretcher since there were so many roaches we couldn’t put down our equipment on the carpet. While treating the patient with albuterol and O2 I noticed there was B. germanica scurrying out of his jeans. Upon closer inspection of the patient I noticed his finger nails were short and all had a certain shape to them can’t really explain it. The hair on his arms looked as if they have been cut with old scissors. I asked him about this and he straight out told me “The bugs be eating me.” He even stated they would eat his scabs. After the treatment he felt much better and decided that he did not want to go to the hospital. I told him to take down the curtains and open the windows during the day and close them at night. He had a A/C box at one time but when he turned it off roaches would get in and die.
This was a tough call in many different ways. But I just can’t help and feel terribly upset for this poor older man who has little means to take care of himself and cannot even afford air conditioning. Let alone call an exterminator and have the entire building purged.
Just a short roach related story everyone I am sure their are worse.
I am a paramedic by profession. Although I just started I am pretty strong stomached. Last shift I saw something that has finally managed to shake me since it involves roaches.
A call reporting “difficulty breathing” pretty standard call. When we arrived to the duplex, the door was open there was an overwhelmingly strong waft of “roach” pouring out of the door. Upon entering the residency “11:00 am”The walls were covered and I mean COVERED with B. germanica and as the ray of light poured into the room the roaches ran for the shadows. There was so many of them that they fell off the wall in clumps. There was also a huge number of dead and live P. Americana on the floor some struggling to pull their feet out of the carpet as we walked across them.
We found the patient lying down on his couch. He was wheezing heavily and claimed he ran out of his medication of albuterol for his asthma. We pulled the patient outside on a scoop stretcher since there were so many roaches we couldn’t put down our equipment on the carpet. While treating the patient with albuterol and O2 I noticed there was B. germanica scurrying out of his jeans. Upon closer inspection of the patient I noticed his finger nails were short and all had a certain shape to them can’t really explain it. The hair on his arms looked as if they have been cut with old scissors. I asked him about this and he straight out told me “The bugs be eating me.” He even stated they would eat his scabs. After the treatment he felt much better and decided that he did not want to go to the hospital. I told him to take down the curtains and open the windows during the day and close them at night. He had a A/C box at one time but when he turned it off roaches would get in and die.
This was a tough call in many different ways. But I just can’t help and feel terribly upset for this poor older man who has little means to take care of himself and cannot even afford air conditioning. Let alone call an exterminator and have the entire building purged.
Just a short roach related story everyone I am sure their are worse.
