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Slightly worrying - medical id

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Julia

Julia

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
My cousin and his girlfriend have a search and rescue dog and are part of a local search and rescue team. Yesterday evening I helped with a training session by pretending to be an unconscious mountain biker in the local forest. The team did a brilliant job finding me, doing first aid and getting me out of the forest to vehicle access. The people working on me were all relatively new (there are a few doctors and medical professionals on the team but not there last night) but not one found my medic-alert bracelet or pump. Their instructor was disappointed with this (as he knew I had diabetes in real life). I even put my medic-alert bracelet on especially. It usually lives in my purse as I previously assumed that a paramedic would find my pump and put 2 and 2 together. Now I am not so sure.

And as a aside, I went hypo less than 5 mins before I had to pretend to be unconscious! 2.7mmol/l. Whoops. Know exactly why. I wasn?t planning on being active, but couldn?t help but ride my bike round the skills section for 20 mins or so whilst waiting! Plus I bolused for pasta with creamy sauce less than an hour before, but just did normal (not extended) bolus. Ended up over treating that hypo!

Julia
P.S.Going over the bike jumps on a spinal board/stretcher etc was almost as fun as on a bike!😉
 
That is a bit scary that they didn't find the ID Julia, especially since you didn't have it hidden away. Had it been in their previous training or was it an omission?

lol at you cycling around when you were supposed to be playing dead! 🙂
 
That is a bit alarming. The only time I've needed an ambulance after an RTA when I was knocked off my bike I apaperently walked into the ambulance and told them I was diabetic. I have no memory of it since I was concussed and came to in A&E. So no idea if my talisman necklace would have been seen or not.

I hope they stretchered your bike out of the woods too ! :D

Rob
 
I all honesty this isn't surprising. These devices are exceptionally rare. You are very unlikely to come across them in the community. Making what is wrong patently obvious is essential. Having an ICE contact in your phone or a wallet card is the best thing that you can do.
What any medic will deal with first is what is going to kill you in the next five minutes. You are assessed using either ABCDE or CABCDE principles.

C - catastrophic haemorrhage (massive blood loss)
A - airway
B - breathing
C - circulation
D - disability
E - exposure

As you can see, disability is a long way down the list. Generally it isn't going to kill you in the next five minutes. The fact you've come off a bike, from height with the possibility of a fractured spine and neck is more pressing. Hosing out from a limb or damaged blood vessel is more important that treating a hypo. That will kill you much quicker than the hypo.
 
TomH said:
I all honesty this isn't surprising. These devices are exceptionally rare. You are very unlikely to come across them in the community. Making what is wrong patently obvious is essential. Having an ICE contact in your phone or a wallet card is the best thing that you can do.
What any medic will deal with first is what is going to kill you in the next five minutes. You are assessed using either ABCDE or CABCDE principles.

C - catastrophic haemorrhage (massive blood loss)
A - airway
B - breathing
C - circulation
D - disability
E - exposure

As you can see, disability is a long way down the list. Generally it isn't going to kill you in the next five minutes. The fact you've come off a bike, from height with the possibility of a fractured spine and neck is more pressing. Hosing out from a limb or damaged blood vessel is more important that treating a hypo. That will kill you much quicker than the hypo.
Click to expand...

All fair points ! :D

Hopefully when they get to D, they'd then look around for some clues, which the pump should be. Or the bracelet/necklace/phone ICE number.🙂

Rob
 
Your best bet is an ICE contact in your phone, a medical ID piece of jewellery and a wallet card combined.
Most A&E doctors won't recognise what a pump is. Very few people do unless they've had a specific set of training in relation to diabetes. If you're unconcious and unable to self care for your diabetes a sliding scale is the better option for all concerned as we can actually manage this sort of thing more easily than a foreign piece of technology with which we have no training.

We will expose people to get to any possible hidden injury, hence a lot of nurses (myself included) carrying a dirty great set of trauma shears which are fantastic for slicing off clothing in a hurry. At that point we would spot a pump and then start asking questions about it after you've been stabilised.
 
Fascinating Tom. Very interesting to have your 'insider' info on this.
 
THank you Tom, for your interesting comments. They certainly make a lot of sense!
And there were several times when they said they would cut off certain items but instead asked me to take off my bag/unzip my jacket etc.
No worries my bike (& bag & brand new gloves) got "rescued" too!
 
Julia - I recently found the best medical ID I've yet found - in fact, the first I've bothered to use!

Before Christmas, my local Up & Running shop was selling pairs of reflective strips, with velcro (so you can attach to shoe laces or, as I do, attach to loop on the rucksack which I use for all normal cycling round town etc) and a pocket with paper on which you can write whatever you want. When wrapped and velcroed, one side reads "Medic Alert" and has 3 red crosses (not sure IRCC would approve), the other reads "Up & Running". So, I bought one set for my partner and one for me - partner said he assumed it was to alert other people to me being a medic rather than having a medical condition, but that's OK! I have looked on Up & Running website, but couldn't find the strips there, although there were several other reflective items eg "snap bands".

I would suggest talking to someone who I think you know (but if you don't then PM / email), is a Snowdonia mountain rescue team member, former national park ranger, now student nurse, who uses an insulin pump - she can probably advise further and perhaps suggest how to get the word out about insulin pumps.

Hope the trainees will remember always to look for medical ID from now on - possibly an initial msitake leads to a better remembered fact than if it all went smoothly.
 
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Hey Julia, What an intersting discussion and very valid points and concerns brought up by others.

In my experience of using an insulin pump for 10 years +, even now whenever I got generally into a hospital, most members of staff (unless Diabetes SN) havent seen one and are quite interested to find out more.

I assume that your medic alert bracelet was on your wrist?

I use various ID alerts for doing different things see http://www.theidbandco.com/Home.aspx

I think you should do a session / lecture for your friends search and rescue dog group and rescue team (I used to have my own search dog with SARDA Wales, so I may know some of them) about diabetes bringing to their attention about ID alerts on tags, bracelets, necklaces, helmet tags, shoelaces tags, ICE in phones, blood glucose meters (and where they might be carried by the casualty), insulin pumps (What they do and where they may be worn - mine is often in my bra, or clipped onto my bra or in a Medtronic Pump harness or in fact loads of other places) etc etc etc

If I can help more, please let me know.

Use this experience as a learning opportunity.

Nikki
 
I wear a bracelet and a pendant (OK I know it's a bit belt and braces). A number of peole have spoted my braclet (on my right wrist and I am right handed) and asked me if I'm alergic to something.
 
Welcome Snowflake / Nikki - glad you took up the invitation to join in! 🙂
 
Hi Nikki,
Thanks for your comments. Yes, medic alert was on wrist and I showed them my insulin pump.
And welcome to this forum! There's loads of great people here, but it's nice to have another outdoor enthusiast.
Julia

snowflake said:
Hey Julia, What an intersting discussion and very valid points and concerns brought up by others.

In my experience of using an insulin pump for 10 years +, even now whenever I got generally into a hospital, most members of staff (unless Diabetes SN) havent seen one and are quite interested to find out more.

I assume that your medic alert bracelet was on your wrist?

I use various ID alerts for doing different things see http://www.theidbandco.com/Home.aspx

I think you should do a session / lecture for your friends search and rescue dog group and rescue team (I used to have my own search dog with SARDA Wales, so I may know some of them) about diabetes bringing to their attention about ID alerts on tags, bracelets, necklaces, helmet tags, shoelaces tags, ICE in phones, blood glucose meters (and where they might be carried by the casualty), insulin pumps (What they do and where they may be worn - mine is often in my bra, or clipped onto my bra or in a Medtronic Pump harness or in fact loads of other places) etc etc etc

If I can help more, please let me know.

Use this experience as a learning opportunity.

Nikki
Click to expand...
 
often useless :(

I've have awful troubles with sever hypo's and going unconscious at least 4 times a week (good weeks). There have been a number of occasions there I've asked paramedics afterward why they didn't seen my pump, bs meter in my handbag, medical card and so on but they are not allowed by the UK law to check your pockets, handbags, purse ect... best thing you can do is to use a neckless or bracelet.

True tho... should have found your bracelet 🙄
 
Hi MissMolly.

That sounds rather worrying. Have you tried adjusting your doses to prevent the hypos ?

Rob
 
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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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