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"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" It doesn't matter how deep you've paved the road with your 'good intentions', it's still the road to Hell.... First off, you stated that you administered the Nitro, then you change it to you 'helped him by getting it out of his pocket'. In the world of documentation, you're dispensing medication without a license, and THAT my friend is illegal. Secondly, in all your 'gear' that you have stashed in your personal vehicle, how much of it are you traned in using? How much education (aside from advanced reading the EMT books) do you have in interpreting your findings? How much of an assessment are you trained in performing? What education do you rely upon to interpret your findings there, and what education are you basing your planned course of treatments on? What equipment do you REALLY have available to you in case the patient needs more than band-aids and a c-collar? You jumped a call for the 'adrenaline rush' and you put yourself, your 'patient' and anyone that had to come rescue you and your patient at risk because you have no clue what you're doing! The fact that you 'snuck off' after the EMS crews took over (especially when they made it perfectly clear that they wanted to talk to you) shows that you KNEW that you did things wrong and didn't want to face the consequencs of your actions. This is NOT a 'good quality' for a future EMT to have! Compounding things is that you came to this forum and asked 'What did I do wrong?', and when your errors were pointed out; chose to try to 'justify' them and shif the focus from your screw-ups to blaming everyone that responded for being 'mean to you'. Another negative attribute. As has been pointed out by people who are much more intelligent than I am, you 'screwed the pooch' on this one, and all the heat you're taking is well earned. I've noticed that your story is starting to change from your initial post to the incarnation of the tale we see now. There are several facets of this whole incident that beg to be addressed: 1. DITCH THE SCANNER! It and your actions have already dumped you in a steaming pile of cow puckey, and potentially cost you everything you've ever HOPED to have (up to and including your dreams), and you could be facing jail time on several charges. 2. PUT THE 'GEAR' AWAY UNTIL YOU'RE EDUCATED AND TRAINED IN IT'S PROPER USE! Just because you've read a couple books doesn't qualify you to do anything more than stand at the edge of a scene and look at the pretty lights. The best way you can 'help' right now is to keep your cell phone bill paid so you can call 9-1-1, and get QUALIFIED/EDUCATED responders en route and on scene... 3. LEAVE MEDICATIONS ALONE! You're not qualified to administer drugs, or even assist in the administration of drugs. If you keep this up, you WILL find yourself in jail on some SERIOUS charges! 4. DROP THE RANDY/RACHEL RESCUE MENTALITY! This will only set you up to get sued, land in jail or injure/kill the person(s) that you're supposed to be helping, because you've got no education/training do do ANYTHING other than put a band-aid on a 'boo-boo'. 5. OWN YOUR FUCK-UPS! The sooner you start owning up to your mistakes, the sooner you can start learning that every action you do has consequences. Even the 'Good Samaritan Act' has limitations on what you can and cannot do. You've violated most of them; if I were you, I wouldn't expect that act to provide much cover from the shit-storm you've started. If you REALLY and truly want to help people, leave it alone until you've completed your education and training so that you can do it without doing more damage than you prevent....

Hey all, Just a quick note to say that I'm off to Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia. Though I'm never happy to leave home, I'm truly excited to see what this new country holds in store. I'll be working a 4wk on/4 wk off rotation with 28hrs of flights each way...Not terribly excited about the travel, but little that's interesting seems to come without some sacrifice. Being a remote medic has truly changed everything about my life. It's given me the confidence to do my very best medicine, experiences that have shaped me in amazing ways, and most important to me, given me perspective....it's shown me what is truly important if not in 'life' in general, at least in my life. I mention this only to make the point this point....If you believe that the City is somewhere that you come only to become stronger as a provider, only to become more intelligent, only to stay current in EMS, then you've missed one of the major opportunities available here. Networking and making true friends. If not for the advice of Asysin2leads I believe I would have quit medic school, and I'd likely have never chosen an AAS in Paramedic Medicine if for not having my intellectual balls busted by him, Dust, ak, and many others here. Akflightmedic got me into Afghanistan when I was worth even less than I am now as a medic. He said, "You've got the education, you seem to have the balls for it, I think you'd be a good fit." This happened at a get together that involved the now departed Dust Devil, who seconded those thoughts. Up to that point they'd had nothing to judge me on other than my opinions here and viewing how those opinions had changed over time. Ak also helped me get my gig on the BP oil spill, that led to the offshore oil fields, and friends of mine spoke for me again and now I'm off to Mongolia. Just the other night Mobey hit me over the head with a brick to make the point, "Why are you traveling so far from home when there are the same, or better opportunities available in Canada?" Excellent question, also posed to me by Annie. So the spare time during my year contract in Mongolia will be spent trying to make myself hire-able in Canada. Maybe none of these things sounds good, or sexy, or exciting to you, and if not, I get that, as it's not for everyone. But just as many people have been helped by their friends here to succeed in main stream EMS. What I'm trying to say, in my silly, long winded way, is that I cherish my EMS career. Not only because it's been enriched by being a member here, but because it would almost certainly have never been possible had I not been a member here. Don't waste your time here guys and gals. Don't fool yourself into thinking that 'this is just anonymous words on an internet forum." Because though it is certainly possible that that is all that you may take from it, it is absolutely not all that is available. Lets all look out for each other. Lets all keep helping each other to succeed. And maybe most of all...lets not forget that we're friends...with all that that entails. Dwayne Edit. Ok, so it's not such a short note after all...sue me. :-)

Ok...abridged answer. Of course decisions should be critically evaluated. But that's not what HLPPs was doing. She was stating that she should be fired based on this call. It sounds like she saw it as straight forward. Risk/benefit. Google it. Man, do whatever is necessary. But please don't make any more critical decisions until it's well understood. There are a million ways that this call could have been, but what we have available to discuss is the scenario presented here. I once was reprimanded because the local hospital was trying to empty out because of an upcoming blizzard. They wanted me to take a 80+ year old active MI on a 90 minute transport to a cath lab along with a 280lb prisoner from the local nursing home, who was under police supervision, to the same city, to be transferred to a physch hospital. Their argument was that he was well medicated and hadn't been an 'issue' in several days and was considered 'low risk for violence.' I met him, he seemed sweet as pie, and I refused him. I was not going to be distracted by a second patient while trying to care for a patient that was likely going to die before the end of the transfer anyway. If he was good, it was a bad situation, if he was bad it was a catastrophic situation. See, being a paramedic and all, I believe that I am morally and ethically obligated to make such decisions. I transferred my elderly patient on the 4 hr turn around, then came back, loaded him up and did the same thing again. It made for a long night in snowy conditions, but it was the responsible thing to do. My bosses were pissed because it "would probably have been fine. We've done it many times before." But they weren't responsible for my patients well being, I was. Fuck the legal ramifications if you want, and the argument remains the same. And I can't claim to have not hauled children on their mother's laps. There have been times when I had relatively hypoxic children that I couldn't keep a mask on and would fight me when I attempted blowby that I felt needed other care that I couldn't provide if they were strapped into our inflatable seat. So I had the mother hold them, provide the O2, and I did my work. I felt that the benefits outweighed the risks... See...there's that pesky phrase again... Dwayne

I guess I would be terminated immediately then. I would absolutely refuse to transport this patient, on a mattress, on the floor with no safety equipment. The risks FAR outweigh the benefits. If I get fired for putting the patient's and my safety first, then so be it. And just because this has been done before doesnt make it right....it only makes you very very lucky that nothing bad has happened and to be honest, you are tempting fate if it continues. How does be sued help anyone? Because you know that if something bad happens, the patients family will be over the lawsuit like white on rice. Can you afford to be charged? lose your cert? your job? go to jail? lose everything you own? I think not. Medicaid only pays $126 for a non emergent transport plus mileage. Is it really worth it considering what you would lose in the event of an accident? Not to me it isnt. And if I was the medic that you wanted to take this transport hatelilpeepees...you would have been told, in no uncertain terms, what you could do with your job, especially if you, in your management position, had told me, take it or be fired.

Easily gets my vote for the most idiotic thing said on the City so far this month. Fyre, she's not going to be able to understand the whole concept of cost/benefit. She's made that clear I think. Which leads me to believe, and I'm truly not meaning this as an insult, that the 'manager' in her description is for a paid per call volly service. Girl, the fact that you're unable to grasp the fact that a paramedic is responsible for all who enter their care, and all of the results of anything that follows makes me wonder what, exactly, you really do for a living. I'm smelling bullshit here, I'm just not sure exactly what flavor it might be. If this is an emergent patient, then you operate on one set of priorities, non emergent, another. Anyone in this field should know that. And to imply that this decision is being made based on discrimination against fat people certainly speaks more to your mentality than it does to the scenario presented. And to suggest that loading her onto the floor of an ambulance in an unsafe manner like a wounded cow instead of insisting that she, like non bariatric patients, is provided a safe means of transfer is just transparent hypocrisy. If all goes well, as it seems that it has in the past, then there are no issues other than your inability to make sound, patient focused decisions. If it doesn't go well, say, with even a minor fender bender, then every ailment real or imagined just became the responsibility of the medic that accepted this patient and chose to transport in an unsafe manner. And if it is more than a fender bender and there are real patient deficits due to the medics decision to transport in this fashion then it is well past time that you stop considering yourself a true patient focused provider and simply admit to be the whacker that you've proved to be. It may be time for you to get out of the office for a while and back on the street where real world, difficult decisions have to be made. And JP, to suggest that this patient should be transported despite a providers misgivings simply because some other asshole is willing to do it is the very weakest and impotent possible logic for a prehospital provider. I'm not assigning those labels to you, as I know differently from your previous post, but to this line of logic only. MG, if you had been dismissed over this incident you should have used that as a sign that it's past time to move on to a more professional service. A hardcore medic friend of mine once said, after I'd been fired from a service for what I considered to be aggressive, but strong medicine, that he'd never met a good medic that hadn't been fired. Though I've not found this to be the end all barometer for medical providers I've certainly seen the truth in it over the years. There is no question whether or not a bariatric rig could have been provided for this lady. I've worked some really remote places and it's always an option, though it means giving the transport to another, non local company. The fact that these services were willing to risk harming her instead of bringing it in shows that they are more concerned with snatching calls than customer care. I think that you did good MG...And for what it's worth, I'd be your partner any time. Dwayne

I'm new but I figured I'll get right down to some of the questions I have. I'm active duty Navy right now but I should be back to civilian life by May and possibly looking at a future in EMS. That's where you all come in. I got some questions about the job, the schooling and stuff so I was hoping you could help me out. Here we go lets see if I can remember them all. 1). Is there a major difference between going and getting training at a community college vs. hospital? I know a lot of hospitals offer EMS training but so do some community colleges (they offer degrees too). I was thinking when it came to looking for a job it might look better to get training from a hospital but I'm not really sure. The issue I have with that is I don't think my GI Bill will pay for hospital training. I'd have to look that up though. Most hospitals dont actually do the training themselves. Most of the time, here in NY anyway, they will sponser a class so that the students can do clinical time there. You will be much better off going to the college where you will get core knowledge, such as A&P and terminology. 2). The college I am looking into says it's about 3 semesters worth of school before I can apply for the medic core program. The medic program is another year long. So I guess I would be looking at around 2-3 years of schooling to become a medic. That sounds about right? EMT basic classes vary in time frames. Some take 3 or 4 months, a couple nights a week. EMT basic is only 120 hours to complete. Depending on where you will be going to take the paramedic program, it can take 10 to 18 months. Here, where I am, they have streamlined the 18 months program into 10 months. The paramedic program is 500+ hours of didactic (classroom) and then several hundred more clinical hours. 3). Some people told me before you can become a paramedic you have to do a certain amount of "911 calls" as an EMT. Is that covered in the training/schooling or do you have to go out and find an EMT job? I ask because I'm being told EMT jobs are tough to find these days. So some clarification on that would be nice. The more experience that you have as a basic, the easier it will be to use that "real life" experience to draw from while in medic school. There is a huge controversy about new basics going directily into medic school. It really depends on you and how quickly you getcomfortable you get with sick patients. EMT's are, unfortunately a dime a dozen, and getting a job is very difficult to do if you have no experience in the field. Doing some volly time might help with that. 4). Do you guys enjoy your profession? I've been narrowing down my options for years and I finally have it down to xray technican and medic. I'm leaning towards medic because I think it's a much more rewarding field and I like working outdoors. I've always wanted to be a first responder (at first a police officer now medic). To have a job where I help people on daily basis sounds awesome. I know I would enjoy that. I absolutely LOVE my job. My favorite calls, and I dont wish bad on people, are unresponsive diabetics. I can see that what I do makes a difference, right now. Other calls, like stroke and MI, I have to get updates from ED staff. 5). I know every company is different but in general what is the EMS community's opinion on tattoos? Obviously, if they are concealable (chest, shoulders, back, etc) it's no big deal but what about visible tattoos (on the calf, lower arms)? For the answer to this question, you wil have to get the policy of the company you are applying too. There is no steadfast answer. 6). What is the job outlook like for medics? Is it tough to find jobs out there? All I hear is about how the medical field is expanding and there are jobs everywhere but that just seems hard to believe. I know it's a recession and even though it should be I bet EMS isn't exactly recession-proof. Are any of you having a hard time finding work or know of people trying to find a job? There is a HUGE need for paramedics now. Services all over the US are increasing thier cert levels to meet the demand and falling short. The company I work for is basic heavy, meaning the ratio of basics to medics is about 2 to 1. As for being recession proff...there will always be sick and stupid people. It's job security. That's really all I can think of at the moment. It wasn't quite a million but it should keep you guys busy. Thanks in advance for your help. I'm looking forward to hearing some responses. And by the way I'm going to be living/working in Minnesota (twin cities area) and I'm nearly 22 years old. If that helps at all. Thanks.

Say, does all of this talk of regret and missed opportunities make anyone else think that another City get together might be in order? It certainly does for me... Dwayne

Do you find it stressful to see the world in black and white whilst trying to negotiate the grey of everyday medicine? Usalsfyre has said it over and over: what part of risk/benefit do you not understand? How on earth do you cope as an alleged paramedic and alleged manager if you cannot weigh up risk versus benefit on a case by case nature? Goodness me! Strawman much?

If you'll recall back earlier, I answered you directly by saying it's not safe to transport in an emergent situation. It's simply that the risk benefit shifts. There's ZERO immediate risk waiting for the appropriate resources in this case, not so in the emergent case. The company I'm at now has four trucks set up for bariatric patients. Seriously doubt all you want. Not all of us panic and run to the ED without doing things properly when faced with a difficult situation. What part of RISK vs BENEFIT analysis do you not understand? If you can't grasp that concept, please refrain from making other medical decisions. This has NOTHING to do with dodging a transport. It's about safe, prudent action. Did I ever say I flat out wouldn't transport them because I find it distasteful? Or did I simply argue it's not safe for the patient given the equipment, and that it's better to wait for an appropriate set-up? Pulling out discrimination when you can't prove a point is poor form in an argument. Quite honestly, I'm insulted you would sink to this level when nothing I have posted should lead you to belive this other than your own biases. What you want to do is patently unsafe and frankly stupid when a better option exist. Cut the bull-crap of a "can do" attitude, it gets providers and patients hurt in addition to ensuring EMS will stay at the bottom of the food-chain in medicine.

So your saying you don't trust paramedics to make decisions about what's safe or not? Or do you just not trust medics not to be lazy? This is not determining who "doesn't need" an ambulance, this is determining safe vs unsafe. Emergent vs not emergent is key, not only here, but in all of medicine. Would an ED doc intubate a non-NPO patient if they weren't in respiratory failure? Would a cardiologist perform a cath on a patient with a labile pressure if they weren't having a STEMI? No, the risk benefit factor shifts when the patient presents emergently. You don't have to have every truck equipped for bari transport. But if your doing non-emergent transport of these patients you should have some equipped for it. This is the dignified, SAFE thing to do. Otherwise you should be rolling the call to someone who can. What are you basing your minimal chance of an accident on? You anecdotal experience? What happens when the drunk hits you? Part of patient advocacy is ensuring safety. Loading a bari patient on the floor of the ambulance to make a few extra bucks rather than explaining to them respectfully we don't have the equipment to safely transport them is not advocacy in view. As for the pedi arrest patient...they make devices to do this safely. Again, you pay to play, or you don't play.

Ah, missed that. However patients in cardiac arrest shouldn't be transported anyways.

Just said nasty things so I deleted it all

You should take a look online for some general guides about interviewing, I'm no expert but here are my thoughts: 1: Dress appropriately. A little bit tough for a job interview like EMT, where as a guy I might be a bit overdressed in a suit. I'd probably wear a shirt and tie, kaki pants or dockers. You might want to wear the female equivalent (keep in mind you are going to be doing practical stuff, so I wouldn't wear a skirt, I wouldn't wear anything low cut that you are going to be giving a show when you bend down to assess the patient.) 2: Think about the following questions, you don't need to memorize answers but you should have some ideas of things you can talk about: a) what are you greatest strengths/weaknesses tell me about a time you've worked well in a group? Worked well under pressure? c) Why do you want to become an EMT? d) tell me about a patient that had an impact on you? e) why do you want to work for this company? f) What would you do if: you think your partner is doing drugs/stealing 3) Know about the company. Look at the website. ask people about it. 4) Drive to the company where the interview is the day before, last thing you want is to be trying to figure out parking 5 minutes before you interview. Good luck

Hello all, I enjoyed reading the posts. I thought I would add my thoughts. First, a few pages back, the consensus I gathered from posts was that you should apply a tourniquet to slow, but not stop blood flow. From my experience I would recommend against such practice as typically you are applying these devices to control deadly uncontrollable bleeding that cannot be stopped by other means. I think, from a practical level, halting deadly bleeding yet maintaining distal flow in an attempt to maintain tissue viability would work, from a theoretical point of view, but in field application this would be almost impossible to achieve. Also, one could argue that such end tissue perfusion would eventually produce hemodynamic instability over time. This doesn't fit with the life over limb concept of tourniquet application as the blood supplying the tissue isn't coming back, so to speak. Typically, the distal flow theory of tourniquet use is sometimes advocated for when there is significant post-injury tissue at risk. For example a mid-thigh GSW with arterial bleeding, or perhaps some sort of crushed a extremity. Anything other than a straight forward amputation would be another way of saying it. The concern is distal tissue death. If anything these are the cases where a loosely applied tourniquet will actually promote blood flow and loss through the venous side. After all we all put tourniquets on when starting IVs to 'puff out' the venous side. Well the same thing is going to happen to that messy extremity trauma. It will promote blood loss. I am a KISS guy. In trauma I see all blood loss as bad with the goal being to stop it. Yes, over a prolonged time-line there is an increased risk of tissue/nerve damage or death, but in my humble opinion that is outweighed by risks of blood loss and death early on. It wasn't that long ago when the math added up differently: you had your head jumped on for applying a tourniquet for that very reason. I never understood why, as after all, many of these complex extremity injuries have surgical-tourniquets applied in the OR to help facilitate surgery as it is hard to see your work if it is covered in blood. Look forward to people's thoughts. TS This is a certified 100% troll-free post

FNG, I'm glad you came back and hope you'll stick around. I think you need a word of caution about this site. This site is fairly unique in that it has a high level of standards for EMS. Its really a collection of prehospital professionals, and we like to try and keep it that way. Our friend and colleague who recently passed helped to set that high standard. You can Google a million and one EMS sites and find the same old pat on the back war stories that everyone has heard and everyone is sick of. They'll be the ones with the cool gear and the latest patches. This isn't that site and its why its the only EMS site I belong to. I even canceled my subscription to JEMS because I got tired of the nonsense on that site. I read back the responses to your post and I really didn't see any name calling. Yes the responses were a bit harsh, but this real life. Every single profession in the world treats its subject matter with the same degree. If you don't believe me, go try arguing a point about structural steel with a group of ironworkers. It won't go well. So you won't find anyone here who will tell you everything is okay when it isn't. But if you have a question, you'll get it answered. It may not be the answer you wanted, but I can tell you it will be right answer. So good luck and again I hope you'll stay.

Narrow minded and bigoted answer.

When death comes to me, I hope I can face it with dignity but if not, I'm ok with it. I have never really cried at anyone's death except the miscarriage of my child at 17 weeks. I don't go to funerals not because I don't want to cry, I just don't go to them because I'm not that into mourning in public. I live my life the way I live it, love it or leave it. If I go today, I'm not going to be upset in the least.

Brother, let me break this down for you, and I'm not being shitty, as it can be hard to understand where people are coming from if you don't live/work in this field. You believe that you helped, that you showed that you care by leaving your home and showing up. Many others do the same, and like you, most often they harm people with their ignorance. Now, don't confuse the words ignorant and stupid. You can fix ignorance... The bent steering wheel is a huge deal to most of us here as it tells us that the pt, in one way or another, transferred a ton of energy from his body to the stearing wheel, and that almost never comes without significant injury. Almost every injury that can happen from that mechanism is going to be life threatening, and most of them will cause the medics to have a battle to control and maintain the patients perfusion. (blood pressure) Now the body will fight to keep that blood pressure up, to keep the organs fed. But by giving him the Nitro you gave him a medicine chemically designed to fight against the body's efforts to save itself. You claimed that his 'vitals were fine' but not a single paramedic in this conversation, no matter how many years they've been practicing would make that statement on this patient without taking them again and again over a period of time. If this patient had any of the injuries common with this type of accident there is a very good chance that you killed him with your treatment. It is likely a good thing that you ran away, as there is also a good chance that you would be in jail now if you hadn't. It looks, from the outside looking in, like people are doing a bunch of mindless bullshit when you watch them on scene. But most of the important stuff is happening in their heads, not in their hands. You hurt a man. You claim you wanted to help, but all here are telling you that you almost certainly harmed him instead, yet your response remains, "Well at least I did something!" This is a professional forum full of people that have payed their dues for the right to go behind the yellow tape. Most have payed with years of their lives. They are intelligent, and have the ability to help people. You should really, really not kid yourself into believing that just by running to an accident and being willing to get bloody makes you a good guy. As in this case, it doesn't. Stop pretending that you want to help by buying bandages and hanging out with the local volly squad and actually get committed to doing some good and get the education necessary to do so. In this case, this man would have been better off if you had never shown up. He would have been healthier and safer if he has sat there alone until professional responders showed up. That's not your fault, because you didn't know better. But now you do. So what are you going to do? Continue to cry about it, or get the education to Do good, instead of Pretending to do good? Not running away, and continuing to participate in the forums is a good start. If you have the balls for it. Dwayne

You rang? I'll start by saying that I think the OP is BS (either that or Dust is screwing with us from beyond. I wouldn't put anything past him. He's probably loving every minute of this). Assuming it's legit, let's start with the fact you practiced medicine without a license. Show an EMT book that says it is legal for an EMT to give nitro. I doubt any generic EMT book, such as Brady, will say what is and isn't legal when it is used in multiple jurisdictions. A protocol manual from a specific certifying agency might say it, but no general EMT book will do so without saying something like, "See you local protocols to see if this is allowed in your jurisdiction." Secondly, you are not an EMT so it does not matter what the EMT book says. You had a good chance of killing this guy and are lucky you didn't. Your actions could have landed you in jail and no, you would not be covered by Good Sam laws. You were practicing way beyond your scope. You fucked up big time. Lucky for you, you didn't get caught. Eat your slice of humble pie and move on. Learn from your mistake. It's great that you are eager, we encourage that here but take it down a notch before you do some damage. You are under 18 and will have plenty of time to get on those awesome, adrenaline filled calls. Learn what you need to learn so that you don't hurt someone next time. Remember-Primum non nocere. Don't let your ego exceed your knowledge. As others have said, turn off the scanner. The only equipment you should have in your car is basic first aid supplies. If you stay in this field you will come to learn that the more stuff you carry, the less experienced you are. I hope you stick around, there is lots of good advice here, but you need to check you ego and attitude at the door. EDIT: As for why not today, have you looked around. There is a huge banner across the top of the page and a huge thread about it. We lost a great member today, someone who has tried to move EMS ahead. He was a personal friend to many and a mentor to many more. To come on here today and act the way you did is disrespectful to those who are mourning. Think of it as being similar to making Sept 11 jokes in a NYC firehouse.

Sorry, you got it backwards. The reason for teaching to pass is that the test became harder. In the old days, the test was easy. It is the responsibility of the employer to "orient" new employees, there is no way that any school can teach someone everything they need to know in school.

I am sorry, but in a situation like the football game, you have a DUTY TO ACT. If you are so burned out that you no longer feel compassion towards your fellow man, then it is time to get a new profession. For all you know the person could have been choking on some food, and could have been saved by a simple maneuver. You should stop at all wrecks too (unless everyone is out walking around), if for no other reason to keep some untrained idiot (or a trained idiot like a Dermatologist) who stopped from doing something dumb (dragging them out of the car before it explodes like they do on TV).

Quote you a law ? Read your Bible. If you are atheist I guess you have no obligations except to your selfish self. The fact that you say "you used to stop all the time" tells me that you know you are wrong now. In your early years you did the right thing, now that you are old, lazy, and burned out, you choose to do the wrong thing.

Whhhhhooooaaaaa, get off your high horse. We have several volunteers in the area that have no EMS training, and it is not rocket science to put on a c-collar and hold a head up straight, would you prefer for his neck to be flopping around for another 10 minutes ? And I have reviewed my EMT book which clearly states that it is legal to assist a patient in taking their medication. The difference between me and some of you: I care enough to respond on my time off to people in need, according to another thread, most of you wouldn't even consider stopping on the side of the road to help someone.

I think we are superior to students of past generations, in that we want it more, and study harder. EMS used to be the career you fell into when you dropped out of a college for another career, now we are professionals who want this as our career.

Who cares about your bible? Who are you to be preaching here? Give me a break super medic, push your own values on your kids, not to us. really? I'm not sure why I'm responding to this.....probably just to point out this is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard on this forum.

I am sorry, but I would have terminated you. First of all, the stretcher bar and antlers are easily removed from the floor. We do this type of transport frequently, we typically roll them to the truck on the hospital bed (fully raised), remove the head board and then just slide the mattress and patient into the back of the truck, then reverse the process at the receiving facility. You probably pissed off every social worker and nurse in that facility, and showed them exactly how valuable your competitor is. There are very few services that have a bariatric wench and lift for an ambulance, so the other ambulance may not have been any better equiped than you. It is not your job to determine who you will and will not transport. Hopefully you will still have a job when you go back to work, but do not be surprised if you do not. P.S. You have no idea what the next stage of treatment was, so you may well have delayed definitive care. She may have been scheduled for a procedure of some sort that day or the next day.

usa, i guess you will never transport another patient then, as their is always the chance of an MVC involving the ambulance. I guess you will never start another IV due to the possibility of infiltration. I guess you will never administer another drug because you may overdose the patient. I guess you will never use a stairchair, as it is too dangerous to transport patients up and down steps. I guess you will never work a wreck in the roadway as there is the chance you could be hit by a car. So lets put this in a way that even you can understand. Lets change this patients location to her home, and she has just called 911 for chest pain. Are you going to leave her there until the bariatric ambulance can come the next day ? If it is unsafe to transport her non-emergency to a bariatric facility, how is it safe today to transport her to a hospital facility, just because she called 911. Same ambulance, same crew, what you gonna do for her ? Patients who weigh in excess of 700lbs pretty much have to be transported on the floor of the ambulance, in most parts of this country, unless you are going to advocate loading them onto an open-bed wrecker somehow. It is obvious that you have never handled this type of transport, so please withhold your opinion when you have no clue what you are talking about. And yes I read that the OP said the supervisor refused to let them remove the stretcher gear, but I doubt that is the way it really happened. And how do you think the patient felt, when she was refused transport because she is too fat.