Question for A&E Dr's or Ambulance drivers....

[Schmeeeee]

I've got a totally genuine and really random question that is often on my mind....

If a women happens to be on her period, is wearing a tampon and finds herself injured enough to be incapacitated or requires emergency attention so quickly she can't talk much, does anyone check down there to see if she's wearing a tampon? I'm just curious as to what the chances are that a woman could develop toxic shock syndrome due to a tampon being left in for too long or forgotten about. Is there some kind of rule that medical staff always check to see if a woman is on her period? And what happens if the woman goes into surgery or is placed in a coma? Does someone take responsibility for changing her sanitary protection?

Told you it was random!

I was part of a pilot programme to train people from 15 as ambulance technicians. Obviously I couldn't drive but I was qualified to do everything they trained at 18 to do. I'm not offended but was amused.

It wouldn't be picked up in the ambulance unless there was PV bleeding but it's normal to do scans or x-rays as part of the survey in A&E so they'd be picked up quickly, certainly long before a TSS issue.

Also when people are shocked that things are not in their medical records, like hearing problems, medications, metal work etc… there is not one centralised ‘medical record’ with the exception of your GP record. Every hospital will have a file for you if you’ve attended there, with info about what happened during your stay/appointment. Maternity records are separate again. So say you go to ‘The Queen Whatever Hospital’ to have your gallbladder out, then that will be in a folder that they keep there will all the info of your pre op appointments and check ups etc. Then a few years later you move towns and go to ‘New Town General’ to have a baby then you will have a maternity file there, and if you end up going to A and E about something then they will have a normal, non maternity file about you too there. In theory you should always have a discharge letter sent to your GP from each hospital, and your GP record should be transferred when you move practices.
the reality is that nothing is very linked up. Certainly not nearly as well as the general public imagine it to be…
sorry, that had absolutely nothing to do with tampons or ambulance drivers 😂

There is no such thing as an Ambulance Driver. It's literally not a role within the ambulance service.

There are MANY MANY professionals in numerous professions where people don’t know/understand what they do, yet it’s those who work from ambulances that get so bothered by not being given their job title!

why is being called an ambulance driver perceived as derogatory? You are trained to drive! You are trained for much more too, to different levels that are not clear to an onlooker.

@ShirleyPhallus, you are a tonic.
Btw I was once in a&e after being knocked over by a slow-moving car. I was waiting for a CT scan on my neck, so couldn't move. I could feel my tampon had overflowed, and the male nurse deftly changed it for a new one.

I work in maternity mainly but do sometimes pick up an A&E shift.

piercings - you’d have a CT rather than an MRI initially, so piercings would show up on that. Pacemakers, pinned bones, cochlear implants etc would all be bad news in an MRI so it’s very common that people can’t have one tbh, so we’d always check.

periods - if you are unconscious or incapacitated then it’s likely you’d be catheterised soon after arrival, so it would be noticed then, and you’d be taken care of.

contacts - pupillary reflex is part of your initial exam so they’d likely be removed then.

Very good. I have a non verbal 3 year old yet we still call them by their correct name... paramedics. As I know one personally and like to be respectful. He didn't spend years training to be called a bloody driver.

It would be a nurse that noticed/ checked. No reason for paramedics to be rummaging around in an unconscious females underwear.

I have thought about the question too but please……

As a partner of an ‘Ambulance Driver’ and mother or another. Please don’t call them this, these are the people who are usually first on scene to some horrific incidents, they lie awake pondering over jobs, have nightmares and flashbacks and yet they are still up for the next shift. These people are trained professionals. Most of whom have been to university and choose to help save us in our hour of need.

They won’t check for your tampon, this would be done at the hospital and like others have said if they see blood down there or toxins in your body from blood tests.

surely its very difficult to remove someone elses contact lenses?
plus if this ever happened to me and no one who knew me was around, I'd be effectively blind without them and of course wouldn't have my glasses with me, maybe I should always carry them just in case....

They're Technicians.

@StillWeRise yes it is hard to remove contact lenses but if you need emergency surgery or are going to icu in a coma we can't guarantee the ointment we put on the eyes to keep them lubed up and not dry out won't react badly with the lenses so they have to come out.

I once removed 12 from one eye like a stack of pancakes. She forgot to take them out at night apparently.

Well, I can obviously only comment on my own profession, but it's because driving is pretty easy and most people can do it. The other stuff is not.

I'm a paramedic, which is a protected title and I'm fairly sure everyone knows what I do. However my colleagues who aren't registrants have all kinds of job titles, but NONE of them are ambulance drivers.

It's not about being offended, it's about educating the public and getting the recognition they deserve.

As for the "many other professions" that apparently get mislabelled- if they don't choose to correct people that's on them, but I for one would be more than happy to learn what that person does and refer to them appropriately.

Nee naw nee naw

Oh bleuurgh, so pompous.

Not pompous at all. As a PP says, it is absolutely a mark of respect. The paramedic I know goes above and beyond, he will bend over backwards for his job. It is stressful yet rewarding. And he deserves to be known as more than a 'driver'. Big difference between being a paramedic and delivering fast food ffs

The comments did not disappoint.

*disclaimer - paramedic.

Took a patient to ITU, we (paediatricians and paediatric nurses) were super impressed that an ICU HCA checked and whipped out the tampon within minutes of her arriving. It seemed part of the admission stuff for them.

Hugely pompous and overkill, how many times can people comment the SAME thing, it’s been addressed ffs.

Not checked in a&e as such, though of course catheterisation would spot it. They do routinely do a pregnancy test before xrays. Urine sample used from catheter

This has blown my mind. I had no idea
I genuinely thought a medical record was just the same everywhere and the nhs had one big computer system it all gets stored on!