The Small Details Count

My crew and I recently responded to a call for an allergic reaction. We had a small crew that night with only Eric, a student, and me. Eric was driving so it was just me and the student in the back. We arrived on scene to find a female that was basically "out of it". I asked her daughter what had happened and she said that she had taken an antibiotic that had been prescribed to her and she thought that she was having a reaction to it. In the case of an allergic reaction time is very important and getting medication into your patient to combat the reaction as soon as possible is very important because often times the airway is the first thing to be affected. We quickly brought in our equipment and loaded her onto the stretcher. Before leaving I asked the lady's daughter what all of her known allergies were. She replied and I repeated them back to her so as to make certain I had heard right. Asking a patient or close family member about allergies is a very important thing that is done with each and every patient encounter. We loaded our patient into the back of the medic unit and marked en route to the hospital. Once en route I started an IV and administered a medication to combat the allergic reaction. She seemed to be somewhat better by the time we got to the hospital so I was very much relieved. As we were unloading our patient and getting ready to take her inside the hospital her daughter came up to me and asked how she was doing? I told her what I had done and that she was doing a little better. The look of shock on this woman's face told me something was very wrong. She stated that she was very sorry, but she had forgotten to tell me that her mother was severely allergic to the medication that I had given her.I couldn't believe it! Wow how could you forget something like that! Praise God that nothing had happened and the medication had actually helped her like it was supposed to. There was no way I could have known that the lady was allergic to the medication, but I sure was happy that God had been with me in the back of that ambulance and that everything went ok!