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Meagan Babb, an emergency nurse at UTMB Clear Lake Campus, felt an adrenaline rush as a kid when she helped to save a man's life.
1. Why did you choose emergency medicine? Did someone or something influence you?
When I was a kid, I would pretend my Nintendo was a defibrillator and use the controllers as the paddles. I’d rub them together, place them on my sister’s chest and yell “clear,” and she would jolt her whole body upward. You know, completely normal childhood activities.
When I was in elementary school, I found an unconscious man at the bottom of a swimming pool. Everyone I was with went running to call 911 (ah, life before cell phones), but not me. I stayed behind to help my friends’ father get the man out of the pool and start CPR.
I felt that adrenaline rush, and I was hooked.
My dad worked as a volunteer EMT for a few years when I was younger, and I would always sneak off to flip through his textbooks. I’d find the gruesome photos and read the text on that page. By age 11, I knew you never pull out a protruding object, you stabilize it, and that on a sucking chest wound you only tape down three sides of the bandage.
Those pieces of knowledge really came in handy in my suburban upbringing.
2. How do you get through a tough shift?
Humor. There is always something to laugh about during a shift.
3. What do you do to relax when you are not at work? And why do you do that?
I enjoy partaking in sampling Martin House Sour beverages. Why? Because they’re delicious, and it makes me happy. (And most are 8% BBV.)
4. What can you tell us about a recent EMS-related case that was a success? Was there a medic who made a difference?
A case that I know will stick with me: League City EMS brought in a status post-CPR.
They achieved ROSC (return of spontaneous circulation) in the field and rolled in with a completely awake and alert patient.
The patient was having a STEMI, and EMS gave all the meds including Heparin prior to arrival. It was great.
We were able to get that patient to the cath lab in under an hour. He was discharged from the hospital a few days later, neurologically intact.
I would not say it was a specific medic that made the difference, it was all of them; the whole team of EMS and fire personnel. Very impressive.
5. What is your favorite type of food? Do you have a recipe for that?
Hmm. Well, my go-to potluck dish is buffalo chicken dip, and it’s delish. Shredded chicken, Ranch, Franks buffalo sauce, shredded cheese and cream cheese.
Throw that in a crockpot and you’re done. It’s legit.
6. What’s something you want people to know about you?
I am not as angry as I appear.
My face has a way of always making people think that I am mad about something when I am probably just thinking about my baby or food or how my compression socks seem tighter today.