spenac

First paid call was a man dieing. Got there obvious signs of death, so nothing to do but secure scene. Also prior to dialing 911 they must have called every family member and friend they had because over 100 people on scene and we were there within 4 minutes of the call. They were fine that we did not start cpr but we received threats when we refused to move the body while waiting for the judge. People got very aggressive and law enforcement retreated leaving us to fend for ourselves. Ambulance was blocked we were trapped. Finally convinced family to talk law enforcement into agreeing to allow us to move body. Crowd calmed down. Still alive after all these years but ambulance is always parked where can leave quickly.

We are running a McCoy Miller on a Ford F-450 diesel.

Don't sit back, get in there and get your hands dirty. If you stay back you'll learn very little. As others mentioned help with all the assignments the crew have.

Medical director allows use of common sense. If person say's sneezed last week and decided that because they can't sleep tonight that they want to go by ambulance, if all vitals are ok we can refuse. When have doubt and cannot get in contact with medical director we transport. But we are also 90 miles from hospital and the only ambulance so when we do transport the community is uncovered for at least 4 hours. Nearest mutual aid is an hour away assuming their one ambulance is available. I am curious to see others protocols that allow deny patients transport as we are about to redo our protocols.

some patient's I don't want to get that close to but we have no choice.

IV's multiple times on each other in class, blood draws multiple times on each other, but no sc or im. Foley's thankfully not, but have heard that some programs do require it practiced on each other.

what have you been smokin.

busta rhymes call an ambulance?

While I would want to avenge the child, I have to remain professional. Treat the child and do not allow the mother anywhere near the child.

ABC is getting ready to take airwaves by storm, by putting together the executive producers from '24' with the creator of 'Kitchen Confidential', Dave Hemingston. The rights for 'The Call' have been purchased by the network only after fierce bidding against Fox Television, 'Variety' reports, and ABC was the winner by already ordering six episodes of the series. 'The Call' will focus on the story of two doctors who save a new life in each episode while ruining each other's. Despite appearances, the two MDs, Nick Adams and Ian Wode, are good friends and all they do is for the sake of the relationship that binds them. Adams has been described as 'Dr. Doug Ross from “ER” if he were played by Vince Vaughn', while Wode has 'an encyclopedic knowledge of everything. The irony is he knows so much it freaks him out'. Unlike '24', where the plot was more serialized, the story in the brand new series will be confined to each episode (of approximately 22 minutes) that evolves in real time. The writer's hope is that the series will come out as a sort of 'M*A*S*H' meets '24' meets 'ER', with lots of complications and unlimited humor. No names have been attached to the project yet and the airing date is to be set some time in the near future. from http://news.softpedia.com/news/ABC-Takes-0...039-39979.shtml This article actually say's following Doctor not paramedics. And when you go to abc.com and search "the call" get no results found. Who know's.

I am one of the people that do not agree with the mandatory 2 years. I am a firm believer in education. I am an EMS instructor. I do feel the education has improved and that there is still room for more improvement. I have seen some very good shorter certificate programs and I've seen some that are not worth the cost of the piece of paper and ink required to print the certificate. I've also seen the same from college level courses, some great some a great waste of time. Compare textbooks of today with the textbooks of 10-15 years ago, many EMT Basic textbooks are now bigger than the EMT Paramedic textbooks of yesteryear. Now some courses have progressed to use this greater wealth of information, others sadly still teach the same material from 10 years ago. Many train you to take the test they do not educate you and that includes college and certificate course. So choose your program wisely and don't fall for the longer the course the better. If you can take the time and can get a degree great, in the future it may open more doors for you. But if you live in an area that does not have college level courses but does have an organization with a good reputation offering you Paramedic education go for it. Regardless of which way you go you must continue to get education for the life of your career. My point is quality of education far out weighs quantity!!!! If you want recognition for having more education come to Texas and get a degree then you can work as a Licensed Paramedic instead of "just" being a Paramedic, you'll work under the same protocols but you'll have more letters by your name. Texas has the following certifications: ECA, EMT-B, EMT-I, EMT-P, EMT-LP

Dr. Bledsoe D.O. really works hard to promote EMS. Best Doctor I ever saw was a D.O. As far as OB's if D.O's aren't available just have to have us medics deliver them, we already deliver a bunch in our stork mobile..

Yup in our area persons probably going to die or already dead when we get general sickness. When we get "they're dieing hurry" usually end's up being BS ( i.e. see previous post stubbed toe ). Go figure.

Sometimes seems our second most calls are those darn "I've fallen and can't get up buttons" that have been triggered by the cat, dog, kid, or unknown (maybe a ghost). What adds to the frustration is the people get them then move to a new house and don't update the company so when they call us we go wake up some other person. Then we get our share of I stubbed my toe or I sneezed last week and couldn't sleep tonight and thought I should make sure I don't have pneumonia.

We use the LP 12 at all 3 services I'm involved in with good results. As far as NIBP pretty accurate unless on very rough road. We always take first BP manually for a baseline and if LP12 gives significantly different reading we confirm manually. As always treat the patient not the machine. If baby's blue and pulse/ox is 99% something ain't right.

who needs an amusement park when we've got wally world? :twisted:

First of all agree with everyone that he was an idiot to endanger his family and the public. The cop was equally a fool. Now a comment on interstate speeds, in west Texas I-10 is posted at 80mph for a large part of it ( many other interstates and state highways are at 75mph and few are lower than 70mph ). If this guy would have been on I-10 would he have turned on flashers and driven his minivan a 110mph to respond? Inquiring minds want to know.

Well I got served. :oops: Good catch. I should have used the more professional wording. Yes I should have said to educate rather than train. But the main point is you can not lump everyone into one path. All paths require education to begin as well as to maintain. I do realize that the person with the degree will have better chance to advance, but I also see the sad fact that in rural area it takes volunteers to put on EMS courses as there are no college courses within 200 miles. I have seen many EMT's leave the area to get their Paramedic certification to never return because they can make more income where they're at. If degrees were required many rural areas would not have ambulance services. Now as more quality online course's related to obtaining a degree related to EMS become available this will not be as big a problem. Notice I said quality, even today many colleges and private groups train people to take the test, they do not educate them. I now have opened another can of worms as on other post's many of you feel online education is bad. There are diploma mills online and there are diploma mills that require you to sit in their class room, result is the same you benefit very little and wasted your money. The key is check out the path you chose carefully, and don't fall for the one size fit's all scam.

Unfortunatly though, I have never had an OB call - count your blessings. deliver at the hospital lot less messy. no fun to be slipping and sliding when one pops out in the ambulance. never have enough towels. and those ob kits not much good either.

Notice said recommends. The state official gave verbal recommendation, but would not make it mandatory.

Actually ECA's can and do work on ambulances in Texas. I did before becoming a basic. We have one ECA works full time for us, he's been here 25 years. But your right most places not on ambulances

2-3 times a week, not including second calls that come in while we're still in town. sometimes we're able to get them to meet us on the highway to save some time. but sadly every year we have several people die while waiting for an ambulance.

We get lots of ob's. Lot's of babys born on board. I'd rather be a trauma junky but not blessed that way. :banghead: Probably don't have gear for trauma on the rig anyway. HAHA ok have the gear but how do we use it?

We have areas that it atakes an hour or more to reach if we're at the station. if we're out and the mutual aid is available they have to wait more than two hours. And even with the 911 system we still have to get directions such as turn at the barking dog.

we respond from our homes. city does it this way to avoid paying overtime or hiring more medics. we're paid for 16 of 24 hours on duty. we're a rural fairly busy service.