Let me preface this with saying I fucked up in a couple ways I'll talk about at the end. See if you can guess how as you read.So, let me set the scenario. I woke up at 0515 to go to work, and as I was putting on my pants I hear 8-10 shots in quick succession. Unmistakably gunshots. I look out my patio door since I live on the second floor, and see a car speeding down the parking lot. I throw a shirt on, and grab my backpack where my IFAK has been living lately. I get to my car, drive to the back of my apartment complex and pull in behind two cop cars. I step out, and the brother of the guy who got shot is running by. I ask him what happened, he tells me, I ask where his brother is. He shows me, and I jog over and tell the cop standing right there "hey, can I work on him?" He nods and I go inside.I see guy laying on the ground, two women using a towel to put pressure on his right shoulder. I kneel down, open my bag. Grab out the shit I had, which was two rolls of kerlix, two ABD pads, a pressure bandage and a CAT. I slap an ABD pad on the shoulder wound I can see and have the officer standing there run a small patch down his back to check for an exit wound. None. Sweet, less to worry about. I'm counting entrance wounds and I think I see four. Two bleeding on the torso, two not bleeding. I can feel a pulse and I can see him breathing. I'm listening for tension pneumothorax but I don't hear it or see any other signs. Respirations are surprisingly good. I'm chillin, keeping pressure on the one wound that I think might be an issue but otherwise I'm just watching chest activity and trying to talk to him but he's unresponsive. He starts to go into shock, pulse drops. So I get one of the officers to raise his feet a bit. Shortly after, EMS arrives and I tell them what I know, what I've seen, and what I've done. They cut the rest of his clothes off, and my deaf ass keeps pressure on while they do that cuz I can't hear them asking me to bounce real quick. I stand up, grab my bag, CAT, and pressure bandage and step out to talk to an officer outside to see if they still need me. I give my info, then get a card so I can explain to my boss why I'm late.What I did wrong: First, I headed towards the danger. Bad, stupid, dangerous. Not recommended.Second, I didn't check my kit. I thought I had a chest seal in my bag, but I didn't. I thought I had more pads, but I didn't. I thought I had an Israeli bandage and I didn't. I went in under-prepared equipment wise and shit could have gone south quick.Third, I didn't fully check for more injuries, I just listened to what the people present told me. I didn't cut his shirt to fully check his chest, partly cuz I also didn't have shears (see above) and partly because I got hyper-focused on stemming the bleeding I could see. There were moments where it seemed like bleeding had stopped and I could have rolled him to check for exit wounds or weird entrance wounds if I hadn't been tunneled in on one area.Fourth, I was too cocky. I had the training, I've been in similar situations before, I had the kit (or so I thought), I was hot shit. I went in thinking I was gonna knock it out of the park. And I was fucking humbled. I had tunnel vision, I made rookie mistakes, and I was under-prepared. So it's back to the boardroom, you can bet my ass is gonna be in a trauma class this weekend going back to square one. And I'm absolutely making sure I have the right kit in my bags, and that it's where I think it is. Honestly, from first shot to EMS arriving was 10-12 minutes at most. I would have fucked something up if they took longer. I was too cocky going in and I got complacent with my skills. So gong forward I'm going to make sure to stay on top of that.Tl;Dr: A-A-Ron done fucked upAbsolutely feel free to critique and point out other places I screwed up without even knowing about it. I hate to say it, but this is at the very least a good training day. I'm learning from this and hopefully improving. via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/2xfW3Ow
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