|
Roman Pulido (left), an employee of Lifeline Medical Transport, and his father Damien Pulido, a Critical Care Nurse, unexpectedly found themselves Sunday night tending to the same patient being transferred from Los Robles Medical Center in Thousand Oaks to Los Angeles-based Kaiser Sunset. |
Pulido & Pulido: Father and son
paired on same medical transport
August 27, 2014
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
A Santa Paula father and son found themselves on the same medical transport team, a rare occurrence in the world of inter-facility transfer.
Damian Pulido, a Critical Care RN (CCRN) and his son Roman, an EMT and driver employed by Lifeline Medical Transport found themselves sharing an ambulance August 17.
Some patient transfers require the presence of a CCRN, rather than an EMT or paramedic and Damien said, “Sunday night Lifeline called me,” to ride with a patient being transferred from Los Robles Medical Center in Thousand Oaks to Kaiser Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
“I went in and Roman was the driver of the ambulance... I knew he did transports for Lifeline but I had no idea he would be the one transporting!”
Roman had one up on his dad: “When I got the call and all the information on the transport it included that CCN Damien would be on board, so I thought it might be him... then Dad showed up.”
Damien said even the patient being transported was amused by the meeting: “When we told the patient he thought that was funny, so did the other nurses, they had never heard of a father-son team bringing in a transfer... “
Jeff Winter, Lifeline director of operations agreed, noting “It is probably the first time,” that such a father-son pairing had occurred on a transport.
Damien has been an RN since 1997 and works in the ER at the Los Angeles County Olive View Hospital in Sylmar; he also works part-time at Ojai Valley Hospital and of course Lifeline, when called and his schedule allows.
Roman has been with Lifeline for about two months and, “on average transports anywhere between five to nine patients,” during a 24-hour shift.
Of sharing Sunday’s inter-facility transfer with his father, “It had crossed my mind it could happen, but it had to be really random,” considering the number of transports and availability of CCNs.
Roman is readying to take paramedic training and thereafter, “Maybe one day,” becoming a nurse, but “I’m just working it out right now, considering my options.”
“Even though it was kind of late, there was a lot of traffic,” that Roman said made Sunday’s transport a two-hour roundtrip.
Then, after his shift, Roman had plenty of time to debrief with his dad... he lives with Damien.
