An ER Story (could be slightly graphic to some)

I was a fairly new ER nurse, and it was late summer. Could have been around this time of year, school had just started and the first  High School football game of the season was being played..


The town where I worked, was fairly small, probably less than 20,000 people, but in the midwest, High School football was a major event and drew huge crowds.


Our EMS received a dispatch to one of the local parks, for an "unknown problem". Not unusual, and during a football game it could have been anything. Little did we know what was about to transpire.


About 5-7 minutes after arriving at the scene, our paramedic came on the radio and informed us that they were at the scene of a stabbing and they were going to "load and go". oh crap. This meant they were not going to prolong their "on scene" time to start IV's  etc, they had to get in the bus and roll... for their safety.


Less than 5 minutes later they pulled into our ambulance bay, running "Code Red", which indicated to us that they had an extreme emergency on board. It was extreme all right, a 17 yr old african american male, with multiple stab wounds. 17 to be exact. One for every year of his young life. 


When we off loaded him from the ambulance into the ER, he was trying to talk, covered in blood, and with alarm, I noticed a huge hole in the side of his neck. Every time his heart pumped, blood gushed out of the hole. The experienced staff talked me through every step. we lost his pulse immediately after he was moved to the ER stretcher. We never got it back. I had to hold pressure on the gaping wound in his neck throughout the entire code, it seemed like each time the paramedic pushed on his chest, blood would escape from yet another hole in this poor boys body.


We finally ceased resuscitation, and knowing this was a crime scene, it became my job to ready the body for the coroner. This included carefully detailing my documentation, and trying to contain his body without disrupting any evidence. The trauma room looked like someone had been murdered... they had.


I had on a trauma gown and gloves, mask etc. and I was covered with blood. I had to step across the hall to get some supplies, and realized that our hallway was lined with SWAT team members! There was a riot brewing in our parking lot!!!


The story was, that this young man was at a birthday party at a local park, and also at the park were two rival gangs from another town in the state. One of the gang members said something about this boys mother and a fight ensued. When EMS arrived there were over 300 people in the park, and it ended up a virtual mob scene.


We just never know what is going to roll in the door. More ER stories to come!