Exposure

Sunday evening while my wife and I were catching up on Battlestar, I received a phone call from the south station crew who had just transported a patient to Providence. The crew member wanted to inform me that the hospital was putting together a contact list of all health care workers who had come into contact with a certain patient because this certain patient was positive for meningitis. Not only did I have contact with this patient, but I also spent two hours in the back of an ambulance with her on a transport to Portland.

So I paused Battlestar, got out my little contact book and started making phone calls. First I called the ER to speak with the doctor directly. Sure enough, I'd been exposed to meningococcal meningitis and they want me to come in and start cipro right away. Great I'm thinking. Next phone call is to my shift supervisor to let her know about the exposure. Third phone call is to the supervisor who was working the day of the exposure as it was an extra shift for me. The fourth phone call was to my partner for that particular shift, who would now have to drive an hour into town to the ER.

Now, I understand that paramedics (and all health care workers) run the risk of exposure and I can run down a short list of recent ones.

• A hepatitis patient had explosive, bloody vomiting in an ambulance and the ER, contaminating a number of nurses and EMTs.
  
• An ambulance crew transported a confirmed pneumonic plague to Portland.
• A fire lieutenant was recently splashed in the face by contaminated IV fluid after the catheter was pulled from the patient's arm and subsequently sprayed around the scene until it was clamped.
• An EMT Basic received a needle stick after being in the wrong place as an EMT Intermediate was handling the IV catheter.
• I was splashed in the face by potentially contaminated IV fluid after the spike was pulled from the bottom of the bag and the sprayed all over my partner and I.

All these have occurred in the last 4 months between my ambulance company and my fire department. Thankfully, there have been no confirmed cases of any hepatitis, or plague, or meningitis in any of the exposed responders. It really makes me worry about the odds though. One day, my partner, or myself, or one of my coworkers may get more than just a scare.

By the way, Sunday was my birthday. What a hell of a thing to have to deal with...