Situation on the road today - help me learn from it?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I am a nursing student, just finished my first semester and this is something that happened to me today while driving.

I rode with the new girl at my office while she went to pick up something at lunch and we saw a car going the opposite direction start to drift with the driver slumped over his steering wheel....it came to a stop.... We flipped a u-turn and stopped behind him, hazards on....I approached his car and he was slouched over an open cell phone, unresponsive, eyes closed. Took a while of knocking - I was worried he'd had a heart attack or a stroke. I was terrified for a minute that I was going to have to use my somewhat newly acquired CPR skills. Another lady stopped and I told her to call the paramedics and I just kept on knocking. Never thought to try his door. :rolleyes: He finally started to alertness, looked bewildered, then embarassed.... Looked like a business man burning the candle at both ends. He stated he was fine and had no chest pain or shortness of breath, that he just fell asleep - felt weird and empowering to be the person to know at least some of what to ask him. He would not pull off the road and let me call for someone to come get him and he did end up going on his merry way, very embarassed. I really hope he is okay and wish he'd waited a bit longer for the EMTs to arrive. Thank goodness his foot drifted to his brake and not his gas pedal.

So critique me - what else could I/should I have done? I feel like this is a great learning opportunity if nothing else....

Specializes in CT stepdown, hospice, psych, ortho.

write his tag # down and call the police for continuing to drive after that!

I'm not playing. Yes, I've been sleepy driving but a couple of years ago a lady in my hometown fell asleep and drifted in the other lane, beheading a local businessman well known in our community with five children at home. He should have had someone come to pick him up.

I just had to get that off my chest. I'm sure you'll get a ton of response from the emergency lovers here at the site about the medical situation, so I'll leave that part to them. But good for you for being a good samaritan!

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

See, I wish I had thought of that. It happened so freaking fast and he took off so quickly.

Thanks for replying!

Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

sounds like you handled it well. Always let the person know that they can refuse medical treatment but that it is in their best intrest to at least get a set of vitals taken my EMS. Also - May want to take down a license plate number and make and model of the car if you have someone refuse and drive off again. It would be terrible if the guy drifted off again and caused an accident or got hurt. You can give that info to the police when they arrive.

I had a long commute to work at the wrong time of day, or should I say night, and caught myself routinely drifting off at the wheel, even swerving across four lanes of traffic. I was not surprised to find myself the center of attention of the Highway Patrol each trip after that for as long as I kept that job.

Specializes in Critical Care.
I am a nursing student, just finished my first semester and this is something that happened to me today while driving.

I rode with the new girl at my office while she went to pick up something at lunch and we saw a car going the opposite direction start to drift with the driver slumped over his steering wheel....it came to a stop.... We flipped a u-turn and stopped behind him, hazards on....I approached his car and he was slouched over an open cell phone, unresponsive, eyes closed. Took a while of knocking - I was worried he'd had a heart attack or a stroke. I was terrified for a minute that I was going to have to use my somewhat newly acquired CPR skills. Another lady stopped and I told her to call the paramedics and I just kept on knocking. Never thought to try his door. :rolleyes: He finally started to alertness, looked bewildered, then embarassed.... Looked like a business man burning the candle at both ends. He stated he was fine and had no chest pain or shortness of breath, that he just fell asleep - felt weird and empowering to be the person to know at least some of what to ask him. He would not pull off the road and let me call for someone to come get him and he did end up going on his merry way, very embarassed. I really hope he is okay and wish he'd waited a bit longer for the EMTs to arrive. Thank goodness his foot drifted to his brake and not his gas pedal.

So critique me - what else could I/should I have done? I feel like this is a great learning opportunity if nothing else....

First thing...if you have CPR skills you know to check alertness. You can't do this from the outside..open the door if you can. If he had been having a heart attack you were wasting time by waiting for him to answer you. Time is muscle and every second CPR is delayed can mean the difference between life and no life.

Second thing...I echo the thing about getting his license plate. What if this happen 5 miles down the road and now he kills himself or someone else. I can't tell you how many times I have called in for someone swerving or driving erractically. I would rather have the police stop someone just being inattentive than have a crash heppen.

Third, thank you for stopping :yeah:, so many others would have just kept on going.

Specializes in ER.

I agree that he needed to be reported. That's probably why he didn't wait for EMS or pull off the road, gotta get out of there before he gets in trouble. I wonder how much further he had to go.

He may have taken pain meds, sleeping meds..then got in the car before they had worn off. Might also have an underlying med condition, as yet undiagnosed, that causes him to fall asleep....Getting the plate number a good idea

Specializes in OR, peds, PALS, ICU, camp, school.

May be a leap but I wonder if he was postictal and hoping no one finds out?

Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.

If you suspected he was drunk, you would have called the cops. At least a drunk person can see the road somewhat when they drive. Had that been my husband, the daddy of my children, out there driving while asleep, I would have been absolutely mortified to know that someone didn't try to stop him if they had the chance. You'd also probably never forgive yourself if you heard about this dude's demise in a car accident during the evening news after this happened.

You have to call 911 no matter what in a situation like this. The emergency personnel would rather be inconvenienced by a false alarm of an impaired driver, if that was actually the case, than to go clean up an accident scene that they could have avoided had they known about the impaired driver beforehand.

I think the interacting you did with him was fine. I probably wouldn't have opened his door either...you just never know what he is going to do. It's not a great learning opportunity, though; the reality of it is that someone's son drove away from you while impaired without you immediately notifying the cops.

Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

Please, please, please remember to keep yourself safe in these situations. Call 911,.then get out of the car.

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I had a long commute to work at the wrong time of day, or should I say night, and caught myself routinely drifting off at the wheel, even swerving across four lanes of traffic. I was not surprised to find myself the center of attention of the Highway Patrol each trip after that for as long as I kept that job.

You mean a police escort? Cool! :cool: (j/k) My stepdad fell asleep at the wheel twice-- the DMV had no choice but to take his license away. He was so depressed. Glad nothing horrendous happened to you.

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