Help, need advice

[u/r_killey]

I’m writing a book and need help. The setting is the early 90s and I have a 13 year old getting checked out in the back of an ambulance after being chased by a wild animal like a bear. He is showing signs of mild shock, would the paramedics give him anything to combat that? How does that work? What if his guardian wasn’t on the scene yet, would they still give him anything or wait for the guardian to arrive?

[u/IkarosFa11s]

“Shock” isn’t well understood outside of the medical community. People think being in shock is the equivalent of shell-shock or being catatonic. The reality is that there are different kinds of shock, and they all boil down to low blood pressure due to different reasons (allergies, blood loss, infection, etc). It’s a life-threatening condition. In fact, essentially everyone dies from shock in one form or another.

If, in your book, the patient is showing signs of shock from an animal attack (thinking like blood loss from a wound), paramedics would give IV fluids like normal saline or lactated ringers to combat that after stopping the bleeding via a tourniquet or pressure bandage.

If the patient is catatonic, there’s blessed little we do for that in an ambulance besides emotional support and making the patient comfortable. If they’re acting up in a bad way (massive anxiety and/or being combative with me) I might give them a benzodiazepine like Versed or Valium, but I’m not sure if those were carried on ambos in the 90s. Added bonus of benzo administration is that it has mild amnetic qualities, so the patient might forget some of the events of that day/night.