CBEMT

If left there, and she dies, I'm curious what the autopsy would say (especially since she started breathing when her airway was opened).

That's it? 6 or 15?

An excellent analogy. Fortunately, prior to getting my ALS license I learned from a veteran medic the dangers if Albuterol in the CHF patient. I've yet to have a wheezing CHFer whose wheeze was not relieved by nitro and Lasix. (By protocol I can get away with skipping the Albuterol, can't avoid the Lasix yet.)

Biggest oops for me was the classic pnuemonia for CHF mistake. Fooled me AND the ER doctor.

It's not specifically in the protocol, but I spose I could call and ask for it. With only Morphine as an option however, even enlightened MC docs would probably say no.

"I'm going to put a collar on you, would you mind lying down on my stretcher please?" is heard commonly on accident scenes in some of my nearby cities...

Come on, everybody's transported Jesus!

Our protocol: Not that most providers know how, as has been covered already.

Ohhh I get it now. Someone has lawyerphobia. Not counting pre-eclampsia, there are about 8 risk factors and nearly as many symptoms of eclampsia. You want to field-strip your patient based on one? Suffice to say, if you ever work with me, I'll be teching all female patients, thank you very much. :? Riiiiiiight......... :roll:

Morphine is the only true pain reliever we have here, and a Medical Control option at that. It's also an optional med, as are Valium and Versed, and also phenobarb for medics. As optionals, we don't carry them. Cost money, you know. :roll:

Oh yeah. I bet the check will be in the mail as soon as they get home. :roll: :roll:

Oh good. A textbook EMT. The chief complaint in a 40 year-old female is a headache, and you're thinking OB? What?

Rub it in my face why don't you fiz. Looks like they're in the second picture. Hehehe- I've got 240, sometimes 300 if the ER doesn't have anything but 100mg vials to replace my 40mg with!

I don't consider them "good," but yes I've seen the notices. Did any of them die because an EMS crew wasn't with their truck? On the other hand, I do happen to know that a firefighter's 3 kids still have their father because the EMS crew was in front of the building, not down the street taking a nap. And with that...

If the company is running 300k mile trucks, what makes you think they have any interest in spending money on things like that?

Not really. Very rare that somebody could come out the back of most buildings here and make it to the ambulance without passing the EMS crew- in most cases the first thing they're going to see after exiting the back of the building is a fence. Much more common that they'd come out the back and be forced to carry the victim the the front- where EMS is. Any other what-ifs you'd care to invent?

How exactly are you going to miss the guy getting dragged out? EMS is with/nearby the IC, IC can see the building. Doesn't take rocket science.

How the hell do you figure that- crystal ball again? He was alone except for EMS because the rest of the alarm assignment hadn't arrived yet. The engine and ambulance in that district are hosed together- and for once the ambulance wasn't out picking up a drunk. For a brilliant guy you say some dumb @#$% sometimes.

EXACTLY. You WILL get fired. It will be for being five minutes late for work (even though you weren't), or for not pressing your shirt well enough, or for an anonymous complaint from a nursing home employee, or for not cleaning your truck well enough, or for leaving two sheets but only one pillow case for the next crew, or for forgetting to dot an I on a run report. There won't be a thing in writing about it being related to your fraud complaint, but we all know that it really is. And the government won't even attempt to do a thing about it. And you can't afford the attorney to fight it. And would you really fight it even if you could afford the attorney?

If I could guarantee that the doors on most of our trucks would lock AND unlock, I'd be happy to. With 300,000 miles on several units and close to that on half a dozen more, I've learned the hard way that it isn't always a given. We also don't have two sets of keys with us, so leaving the truck locked but running is impossible.

Since there was no one else onscene that could have seen him go down, I feel pretty comfortable in the statement. He got CPR within seconds and defibrillation inside of a minute- because the providers and their monitor were within a few feet on him. Not parked "a few hundred yards away" reading a book or whatever.

Epi 1:1000- by auto-injector or drawn from ampule by the EMT, whether the patient has a script or not. Med Control IF the patient is over 50 or has a cardiac hx. 5mg nebulized for adults and pedis if indicated. Pedis with MC. Albuterol- with MC, does not have to be the patient's own. That said I don't think anyone's ever called for clearance to give it, and if somebody actually did the doc would probably be so confused that he'd deny it.

Seems to me he didn't get fired for violating HIPAA, he got fired for bringing bad press to the Empire. Of course, we'd need the details to confirm that. If he posted an address, a name, whatever, I have no sympathy for him. If he said "I transported a rape victim today and I felt bad, maybe women should carry guns to protect themselves," I'd say fight it all the way. Since the police say he didn't violate any laws (HIPAA being a law), I'd say this is probably the way to go.

At a fire near me last year, the only reason the pump operator survived his SCA was because the EMS unit was watching from across the street. Park the truck down the street and out of the way, facing out. Personnel and equipment up to the scene.

Simple physics should tell you that this is a bad, bad idea. Adjustable bucket seats with 4-point harnesses. Anything less is gambling with your life. Ditto to what Dale said about shoulder straps on the patient and unsecured equipment. Guess what a portable O2 bottle does to the human head at highway speeds?