CBEMT

I ordered that book years ago. Never billed for it, never received it.

The only personal fail by this woman was the failure to consider that the phoneline she spouted off on may have been recorded- which not even be legal under PA law. Many states require that both parties being recorded have to be made aware of that fact, or its a crime punishible by fines and/or jail. She was fired for her comments on the recorded line and not for the fact that the guy died. Hence why she was fired and nobody else. Let's remember that everyone involved was cleared by the PEMS medical director and the Commonwealth of PA.

And while he's looking for new employment, maybe the EMT will remember not to use an ambulance that doesn't belong to him to intentionally cause a vehicle crash during a dangerous law enforcement incident.

I have a problem with him interjecting himself, his partner, and his vehicle DIRECTLY into a dangerous, potentially violent law enforcement situation. What's to say someone doesn't get killed BECAUSE he forces a collision? Thinking like an employer, I really think I'd fire him.

Whoever owns FEMA at the moment gets to go, I guess.

Exactly. Almost like they were a private party and bought naming rights to a ball field.

Double paramedic truck. Second time this year for PGFD; by the looks of it the first time may have been a volunteer Basic. These guys were career FF/PMs. http://statter911.com/2010/03/26/maryland-paramedics-under-review-after-pronouncing-a-man-dead-who-wasnt-second-such-case-in-prince-georges-county-in-as-many-months/

We are being unified, Chief. Town by town, city by city. At gunpoint. By the fire service.

You should have quit there. They sure will. From the unicorns. Who do you think the 8 million still-uninsured people will be? (Btw, it'll be WAY more than 8 million.) What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Could you BE any more European? (See how that feels, wise guy?)

Newsflash: this doesn't cover everyone. And will result in millions of Americans who currently DO have health insurance, to lose it. And others, their jobs (and therefore their insurance too). It's always amazed me the number Europeans willing to work more for the goverment's benefit than their own. I guess it comes from centuries of being subjects instead of citizens? No adult has a right to something that by it's nature someone else has to provide for them. Life, liberty, and the pursuit (NOT necessarily the attainment) of happiness. Those are rights. Nothing that costs money is a right. (Yes, healthcare costs money, even in your little Utopia. You pointed that out better than anyone by telling us how cheerfully you hand over 52% of your income, a large portion of which is no doubt used to support- in a myriad of ways- people who don't work as hard as you do.) What it call comes down to is this- this "health care plan" (in quotations because it isn't, really- it's a national bankruptcy plan) was written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it, to be signed by a president who also hasn't read it, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, and financed by a country that's broke. Explain to me again why I'm supposed to be celebrating? Maybe you didn't know all that. I can give you the benefit of the doubt. Next time, know what the hell you're talking before you stick your nose in. We WERE building a fence and deporting illegals, until "Hope and Change" came along. Draconian? Perhaps. Will it cut down on uninsured consumers of healthcare? (Not necessarily actual "Americans.") Almost certainly. And for a lot less than $960,000,000,000. In terms of direct impact on the healthcare industry, allowing residents of one state to purchase cheaper health insurance from another state, and enacting real tort reform would both reduce the number of uninsured and overall healthcare costs for everyone. Both opposed by the current regime.

You're already in Heaven? That must be a heck of a response district! I'd imagine the cars up there actually pull over a stop, though.... Seriously, welcome.

The bigger, more life-threatening problem is that poor dumb SOBs like me have to stop and call for permission to give her the 1:1000 in my area. She meets both criteria- cardiac history, and elderly. And there have been providers dinged for not calling in when it turns out that there was a negative result. I'm sure Nana won't mind waiting. Not really. However:

Since the firefighters wouldn't really be able to fill it with anything bigger than a garden hose prior to leaving the station, yes it stays full, just like the smaller booster tanks on the engines. The building on fire would be on the ground by the time they filled the tank in-house. Once emptied into either another tanker or "portable pond" at the fire scene, the tanker goes to a "fill site" at either a hydrant or a static water source, and is refilled by an engine to the tune of 1000+ gallons per minute, or whatever the capacity of the engine's pump and transferring hose happens to be. Then it goes back to the scene, and the process repeats until the fire is out. (I know a few rural firefighters.... )

No idea. I just happened happened to find the story. Though I suppose that if they REALLY wanted to screw him, they could charge him for every paycheck he ever got.

My state still requires MAST and EOA- I'll believe in the new BLS standards when I see them on a syllabus.

http://www2.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/article/police_unlicensed_emt_turns_himself_in/33343/

I appreciate that you feel there should be more education and less direct oversight. It's a line the state has chosen to walk. Admittedly, the EMT-B providers don't get a comprehensive A+P/pharmacological background that we find necessary- which is WHY they aren't allowed to make the decision on their own. Its why they can't even THINK of giving nitro to a patient that doesn't have an existing prescription. Should they be able to? maybe, but it doesn't seem like the Basic curriculum will be getting any longer anytime soon, for reasons that have been discussed here over and over again. With that in consideration, it becomes a matter of how far those in charge are willing to let such providers go, and how the patient could benefit from their scope of practice. I think that the compromise that has been chosen is a reasonable one. It takes into consideration both the limits of the BLS curriculum and the reality that two doctors (patient's primary who wrote the script, and the OLMC physician giving the order) are weighing into the decision. And in areas where ALS is not immediately available, a basic provider with the ability to provide pain/symptom relief in this way is, as people with much more education and experience than I have decided, a good thing.

In the pilot, I think she was. Once the series got picked up they re-wrote them as amicable exes, or something like that.

Shelter in place. Barricade the doors, everybody into the basement with whatever non-perishables you have. If the water works, start filling whatever will hold potable water.

Our Basics have the ability to administer the patient's own, in-date Nitro tabs with Medical Control approval. Seems reasonable enough to me. If the doc doesn't like what s/he hears (vitals, patient description of pain/symptoms, pt appearance, history of present illness, etc) s/he can deny the order.

For you? Yes. For the patient? I'd imagine a 25 or 27g needle in the arm will hurt a helluva lot less than an 18g in the leg. I've taken an epi pen in the leg, and I assure you that it smarts. How many of the "omg she's gonna croak right here right now" anyphlayxis do we see, really? For those, yes, I'd consider the pen. For everyone else that I'm considering epi for, there's really no reason we can't draw. Plus, drawing your own gives you the option of nebulizing.

Neither does most of Indiana. Upper righthand corner does, I believe.

To be fair, the tossers involved in the recent EMS debacles in DC have all been civilian, single-role EMS employees of the Fire Department.

Lol. The only thing I "learned" from Sociology is that Michael Moore rulez (thankfully the only movie we had to sit through was Roger and Me), and everything is the white guy's fault (at least, that's what I assume I was supposed to gather from our viewing of Do the Right Thing).

Whose silence is starting to become conspicuous.