fireflymedic

Count me in for sure. Sounds like a great opportunity and a good time of year for me !

Okay, you don't want it judged by the first episode. I'll judge it by the second. 1. When was the last time I saw a helicopter cruising around and dispatch just decided to call them first to respond to an emergency within the city limits? Evidently dispatch sent them because no cops, fire, even volly fire (unless the mysterious wilson is), or other EMS to request. Some areas do allow PD to request HEMS if they deem the injury bad enough which is fine by me, especially in my area as many are also EMS trained and so in those instances a helicopter may arrive prior to ground units, but that is rare. 2. I would never allow the kid to fly with a parent in that shape. I would never allow the kid to fly period. Somebody would be called in the meantime to come get the kid. At minimum request PD. 3. Yes there are a few pilots that do have EMS training. However, roles are very clear pilots fly, medics treat. I don't know if in the situation of single medics if that is changed or not as I'm not familiar with that set up as most pull providers from the ground for a second set of hands if absolutely needed. 4. Hmmm GCS of 3 and she's not intubated? Looks like she was a prime candidate for it and if she still had a gag reflex, RSI is lookin like a great option when she started seizing. Speaking of which, I never did see a line placed in her. 5. The shooting scene - pissed me off - if you are dumb enough to get out of the truck at a scene like that, and you get a gun pulled on you well what the hell do you expect? Common sense tells you once realize it's not safe to get out of there, and they had no business getting out before the cops secured the scene. As harsh as it sounds, sorry but it's my life over yours. You chose to gang bang, I have a family to go home to. 6. The extreme lack of resources for the MCI and horrible misuse of available ambulances. Hmm, does everybody fly and if so do they get frequent flier miles? Yes there have been a very, very few incidents where limited people have been left to treat a mass amount of people (not long ago here a tornado hit and a single crew were left in the middle of the devastation and all roads to get in to them were blocked for nearly an hour and they did sole treatment, but other crews eventually came to assist with transport). This is highly unlikely though. Usually for MCI's you have plenty of resources and frequently crews are split to treat patients, and ground units are well utilized. I didn't see a single patient go in an ambulance. 7. Wish flight crews had as much time to hang out and flirt and do whatever as rabbit does. Would be nice. 8. Never heard of someone call up and go hey can I have a lift? to a helicopter crew. She could have easily gotten a ride home from another crew but oh yeah, that wouldn't have made for a good story line would it? Only time I'm aware of a crew going to retrieve a person was a rider that got left due to weight restrictions and in a far out place that the ground crew couldn't get them back or they didn't have means to get back on their own. 9. If you have two sets of hands in the helicopter, it's because you need them. Why the hell was Rabbit in the front seat when he is the flight medic and a ground medic is in the back with a patient? Seems a bit screwed up to me. There were two seats in back, already proven with the kid - so why was he up front and really why did he even need her? 10. Is it just me or are the uniforms on the ladies ending up lower and lower? I find that insulting to female professionals. If their uniforms don't accomodate the boobs, get a bigger uniform is all I have to say. To portray them in this light not only puts females in a bad light, but makes them look like they are out to treat patients with sex and not medicine. Fair enough evaluation for round two?

I'm sorry just clarify for me are you looking for something that has multiple patients in the same scenario or multiple scenarios? Let me know I've got a bunch in the box for either. Some medical, more trauma. Just let me know what you need and I'll do what I can to help.

Love the pieced quote there - who knows what people just catching the end of this thread that don't know me will think I'm some sort of princess medic. Sooooo far from the truth, but funny to think about ! It's been five minutes - anything blow up yet besides your tv's from the stupidity of the show? On NBC's board - 169 posts on the postitive/fan board to 10,309 negative so who you think is winning?

Richard, thanks to NIMS everything is pretty much streamlined and there is no questions about MCI stuff for the very reason of mutual aid from out of state departments that may be different. It's not a local quirk, it' stupidity again.

My thought is he either 1.got it from someone else or bought it off the street. 2.Already had it in the house and stole the phenergan which is most likely situation. Either way he's in some big trouble.

I may resort to that too spenac and I don't even like football !

You can answer any of them except number 10. 1. Why is blood red? Because it beats being blue 2. Where do babies come from? The cabbage patch 3. Why are there craters on the moon The astronauts made them when they were bouncing around on it 4. If you were a super hero who would you be and what would your super power be? Superman 'cause I love to fly 5. Why is the sky blue? The painters thought it was a pretty color 6. Where do babies come from? look down and check your foot for Xavier Roberts signature and that will tell you 7. Tell me about the birds and the bees they fly around singing and stinging 8. What is your favorite weapon a steel toed boot - don't let your boyfriend find out why 9. Did you know Barack Obama is our First Black president? Really? Did you now the others were all white? 10. Who was the best president, George Bush or Barack Obama I don't know you decide 11. Can we go back to Baltimore and do the pedal boats sure if we can avoid little mexico and the ghetto 12. Dad, when are you going to quit being on the ambulance and go back to travelling for work. (tough and loaded question) I'm not 'cause I like the woo woo's and blinkety blinks These are the questions in just one week that I can remember off the top of my head. Now how was your week? Great Ruff ! Haven't killed anybody yet !

Yet another sad case of stupidity not ignorance. They make it very clear what you can and can't do in the state at what level so ignorance cannot be claimed and also it's still not an excuse. It's your job to know if you are practicing. I was initially under the impression that she had both at home and he had told her to take both. Did not realize he had stolen the phenergan from work, then found out otherwise. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. Guess he not only threw away his career, but killed his wife, and now has thrown away his own life as he most likely will be sitting in jail for quite a while.

lol I'm sure I peed in someone's cheerios with the comments I made but all well. They can get over it or get out.

It doesn't work - I tried it and it sent me in circles and wouldn't let me send it directly to the opinions dept (hmm I wonder why too much hate mail flooding their inbox?) I did post though so its not closed and admin - I'll take care of that for ya. So if you want to gripe straight to the horse (or donkey in this case) head on over and join the club.

Where do they find this stuff? They would have done better reading EMS for Dummies. It might have been more accurate.

Grrrr Herbie - thumbs down for that comment but a definite two thumbs up to the promotion

Someone needs to revise that medicine net dictionary for even it is wrong ! OPA = Oropharyngeal Amplifier makes my patients sound like they should be plugged in (well probably will be but that's another issue). Wow this gets worse and worse

I heard about this. A very sad day indeed for KY EMS. Hopefully things will start to turn around. Louisville area has had a rough time lately. It's not been released though what dept he worked for whether it was KY or IN as of last I heard.

"Do these BDU's make my butt look big?" Yep I can just see females all across the US in EMS calling stacy london from what not to wear about where they too can acquire designer EMS uniforms that are fitted just to us. This bring back lovely memories of shortly after joining one service which provided uniforms that obviously did NOT fit me or another friend of mine well and coming out and telling the chief it wasn't going to work and when he asked why we turned around and went "too much bootie in the pants !" We were both small waisted with a bit of a butt and it was hysterically funny. He turned bright red, started laughing and told us okay we could find some that fit us and they would buy them. That was several years ago, but I still smile every time I think about it !

Im not sure if it is or not. Anyhow the PM option to admin still works so we can still come out guns blazing if we choose and be a little more direct than general comments, though putting a bit of diplomacy behind it is definitely the way to go I believe. United we stand, divided we fall - applies to the EMS world as well. Remember what we did to that awful show Saved ? And it wasn't even this bad. Tact, but a united stance will go far.

Man now even admin is picking on me ! There is no way I would be participating in the trauma drama. Nor would you ever find me looking like such ! Sorry gentleman, no luck. Otherwise you might be going and we can't have that lol!

I am down a perky point - where's my corner I can go cry in? Somebody didn't like me, what did I do? Maybe if I went into my next shift with my uniform down to my navel my points would improve. You think?

If this is true (which I'm suspecting it is, but I refuse to deem guilty until proven so as I haven't read everything about the situation), then this guy not only needs to be fired (not retired sorry AK he should pay for his irresponsible actions TWICE !). Had he requested retirement (if he was eligible for early retirement) it should have been granted. Once is a poor error in judgement and maybe just a bad day. Twice is inexcusable. If he is placed back on the streets after that they are releasing a loaded gun on the street set to go off at the smallest thing at any time. That thought terrifies me. I will NOT be visiting OK anytime in the near future that's for sure ! It is irresponsible for them to allow this trooper to continue in this manner. He should have been referred for anger management classes previously - if they did obviously they didn't take. Either take him off the road and put him in a non direct contact position ie driving a desk or else let him go. Anything else would be stupidity.

As far as the shrapnel in the throat issue - there are a few reasons why you may have to go to a cric (and I understand not everyone has the option of RSI and surgical cric). If there is damage to the vocal chord area short of air bubbles, which yes I have used to guide me before, the landmarks may be indistiguishable. Also, there may be significant swelling preventing passage of an ET tube. In addition, if you RSI and cannot get the airway, then you have seriously compromised an already bad situation. If significant bleeding, then guess what - a supraglottic area such as king of combi is NOT going to secure that airway and so you have no choice. I wouldn't condemn the situation though I would be taking a look before just jumping into a cric unless there was an obvious reason to not do so. Others may handle differently. However, I think a surgical cric was a little more glorious for tv and gets a frazzled mom involved in the bunch over just a regular intubation (can you see the medic going hey mom, press on his chest so I can follow the air bubbles okay?) Not quite as exciting I guess. Also did anyone notice the lady medic was going for a sternal IO ? Thought that was rather interesting. As for the show paramedics, at least it was real runs and they had protocols to work within instead of the wild cowboy mentality that this show seems to follow. I know if I practiced medicine like rabbit not only would I be receiving a strict discipline from my medical director, but I would be answering to the state board and most likely lose my license. Not a happy day. I'm not saying paramedics was perfect as Lord knows there were some things that definitely made me go huh? I'm already not a fan of AMR and that made me even less of one. However, there was the reality factor as they followed an actual crew (same applied to Trauma life in the ER though I had to laugh at an episode which was at university). They just went for the drama all day long and didn't show the intern that's now on his 5th rectal exam and ready to curse out the world. It seems they went for the warm fuzzies which I laughed at 'cause it was all for the tv - I KNOW some of those doctors aren't warm and fuzzy in real life. It was all for the camera. Sadly the public does base their perception somewhat on what they see if they are unfamiliar with it. Alot of people that didn't frequent ER's formed their opinions from the show ER. They thought it was trauma and excitement all day long with people screaming and drama every two seconds. They also thought that all doctors were like Dr. Green all warm and fuzzy. When they experienced the real ER and found out it is mostly overworked docs that are a bit crusty (some more than a bit) and that there's not that much drama even in traumas or codes (yeah people they run actually pretty quiet and aren't much like they portray on TV - recall first time I saw someone shocked I went "that's it? I thought they jumped higher" when the guy just barely flipped on the stretcher. This was shortly after I first got into EMS and it was far different than I imagined it. I think contrary to what we want to believe, the public is going to form opinions about us as they did with ER and with Third Watch just as with many years ago opinions were formed with Johnny and Roy in Emergency. The opinions don't come from nowhere, they are formed from something and sadly it's usually tv. It is up to us to break those opinions and educate about reality no matter how boring it may be.

Admin, my comp has been touchy today and I accidentally gave a negative point to someone I didn't mean to as I was scrolling across to push the positive my comp accepted the negative and I went OH CRAP ! To that person you had a good post I'm sorry !

I worked hard to get a degree and be seen as a professional and to portray myself as such to my coworkers and most of all to my patients providing them the best care that I can. Yes, this show poured more than a little salt in the HEMS wound and was very poorly timed especially for the area as they are shooting for a helipad to a trauma center and also the recent crash but I've gone on enough about that. The show in general does portray ignorance. If this is a resurrection of the show that was proposed a few years ago (Mercy Air - it seems to have an eeriely similar quality to it) then I'm not suprised what we got. They had pilots as consultants, not actual EMS professionals (to anyone on here that may be a HEMS pilot no offense but you all fly and I do the medicine side we don't tell each other how to do our jobs unless you accept something that is questionable then we talk). While most of us are fully aware of the egotistical doctors that we all hate (thus why I think House is so amusing - it's a love/hate relationship) people aren't aware of all the types that exist within EMS so it's difficult for them to relate to something they may not know. Also people may go a lifetime and never encounter a medic. Few but some except for our frequent fliers - will have enough interaction to understand our jobs well. And well, the frequent fliers just view us as their ride and "ambulance drivers". The legitimate frequent fliers are usually to sick to know what's really going on. We don't have follow up interaction with our patients (rarely) unlike doctors so yeah. It's understandable why they are ignorant about us. We can't demonstrate our skills without it being a traumatic situation and then they are not in the mental state to really absorb it. They remember the firefighters cutting you out of the car, but they don't remember the paramedics that pushed all kinds of drugs potentially to save your life. That glory is given to ER docs - we are just the transport vehicle to get you there. I am sure nurses currently are fussing about the show Mercy and all it's gripes. I am not a nurse so I cannot speak from their perspective. Two years ago I was visiting a friend in a large university hospital. The doc taking care of her was great (hospitalist), and when he came in one day, we were talking and she was asking how work was going and everything. he asked if I was a nurse and I told him no, I was a medic. He responded "oh your an ambulance driver". I promptly informed him I had never driven an ambulance which always makes them look at me funny he was like so what DO you do then? Gave him a small education on what I could do and he was thinking wow I didn't know all that (doczilla this was one of yours, he's well educated now ). I didn't realize even the amount of doctors that are ignorant about our scope of skills and practice. So with this being the case I know the public knows even less in most circumstances ! Yes, we are perpetuating stupidity in an already ignorant society that thinks all we do is race around town with siren blaring and blinkety blinks going, show up, throw you in, and drive to the hospital. Then the image of being a bunch sex crazed people that are reckless and self serving - yeah that's what I want to project as the image of my service. Thanks NBC

Vent - I understand there are no services within San Fransisco that are flight. I was simply commenting on the statement of overuse of HEMS that was stated earlier. Dr. Bledsoe speaks out against the exact things shown in the show, and while I disagree with him on some things, I understand he is an advocate for HEMS safety which I can definitely appreciate. However, most of his studies are in Texas urban areas while this show takes place in San Fransisco - that was the only relation I was referring to. I agree with you that it doesn't help with San Fran General's ability to calm the public's fears. The public is terrified of exactly what the show portrays - again another reason this show didn't think much before doing the series. Hopefully it will not be much to the detriment of San Fran General's bid to finally get a helipad. Best wishes to them.

Kiwi, Just go to NBC.com and you will be able to access it. Click on trauma and episode one. You'll be able to watch the junk. In all fairness though, it does show a crew doing morning checkoffs. Perhaps some changes were made? Things that were originally edited out placed back in to improve the image after such a negative response from JEMS ?