Kaisu

my chick bits...

Wonderful people... thank you so much for the support. This is NOT career ending. I had 9 days left on my deployment and was flying back to AZ to resume my job there. I plan to be out for a month then return to work. I have been up and walking since I got out of the recovery room (hypo-tension and dizziness not withstanding). The pain is actually better and at least Im not having to sit with my head between my knees on the return trek to my hotel room after a cigarette. Once again you folks come through for me. I was feeling so alone and isolated. Thanks again for being there.

The folks I work with are just getting Strykers. Until now, they have used the Fernos (H frame). As luck would have it, I was working 1800 to 0600 and we were getting our asses kicked. 6 calls before midnight and 3 of them very critical patients. My partner and I were taking a patient having an acute MI from the ED of one hospital to the cath lab in another. Patient was having runs of pulseless vtach and was very sick. My partner at the head did not get the cot turned square with the curb. He had one wheel on the cut out and the other on the high end of the curb. It took everything I had to prevent that patient from dumping. The adrenaline was so high that I didnt even realize I had hurt myself. After that call, I had severe abdominal pain, cramping and nausea. Like the idiot I am, I toughed it out through the rest of the shift and took myself into an ER at 0700 after I got off shift. CT scan says incarcerated femoral hernia. Never had a problem like this before. I had emergency surgery yesterday and sit in my hotel room now, 1200 miles from home. I am a miserable, hurting unit. I am flying home Friday. I am just waiting for my roommate to get off shift so I can have her fill my painkiller prescriptions. I plan to drug myself into oblivion. It was not how I anticipated this very fulfilling and rewarding deployment to end.

Agree absolutely.. I was pretty proud of the fact that I didn't let my personal feelings interfere. I took good care of that patient and it was the right thing to do. I guess you kind of had to be there. The tone of voice was gentle and inquiring. I really was puzzled at the thinking. The M-F statements were directed at the police. I wasn't suggesting the company do anything different than what they did.. or the crew for that matter. A little background is in order. A few weeks ago, there was a commotion about a crew backing away from a family member carrying a GSW victim to an ambulance that was staged. PD was not on scene and a news crew captured the incident. There was a lot of criticism on this site about the actions of the ambulance crew. This story was an attempt to show the reality of what these folks are coping with.

First.. the disclaimer... there is no evidence whatsoever that any of the following is true. It may be a total invention of my sick mind. System status posting in the hood. Lots of interesting stuff happening all the time, but this one really drove home the reality of the situation here. My partner and I get toned out to unknown medical - PD on scene. Arrive in the parking lot of an apartment complex to find two PD cruisers and a miscreant in the back seat of one of them. PD officer approaches and says "He got maced." Then continues "this is the guy that shot at the ambulance earlier". I say "I beg your pardon? Shot at an ambulance - when?" I had been on another call and had missed the radio traffic related to this incident. "about 30 to 45 minutes ago" says the officer. I turn to look at my partner and he nods "yeah" he says; "you were in the back with the patient." The officer asks that the crew that was shot at be dispatched to the scene to positively identify the fellow in the back. I contact dispatch and forward the request. In the mean time, I am having a moral dilemma - I mean, this guy shoots at us. Do I really care about his hurting eyes? I ponder for several minutes and then trudge back to the ambulance to get the irrigation solution and equipment, castigating myself for my soft heart all the way. I approach the patient. He has the watering squinting eyes and running nose associated with a faceful of mace, but otherwise appears healthy. I say to him "you were shooting at us and now you want me to help you?" He began cursing and swearing at me. I state very firmly "Do not be m-ther f-ing me. I am treating you with respect and I expect the same from you." He immediately turns gentle as a lamb and I irrigate his eyes for 15 minutes. Shortly after, the crew that was shot at arrives. They approach the vehicle and confirm that this was indeed the fellow that put a round into the ambulance. This is the part that really gets me. This crew is back on the street in an ambulance with a bullet hole immediately behind the medic seat and no one is batting an eye.

I think this is absolutely hilarious. Some of his other stuff is pretty funny too...

Often overlooked... slow down!!!! Make sure there is distance between you and the other traffic and ALWAYS anticipate other drivers doing something dumb.

The difference between a rooster and a lawyer... ... the rooster clucks defiant The difference between a catfish and a lawyer... ... one's a scum sucking bottom feeder.. the other's a fish

no problem... glad to help

minus for making me think that Rid was back.. minus for reviving a 4 year old post triple minus for the lack of quality of the post

I swear by my garmin.. especially in the urban area I am currently running in where when the people move, they take everything, including the house numbers. (and put them on their new residence)

Me too Teri... no longer using facebook... and my email is trashed.... sucks big time... screw facebook...

hmm... why report the golfer's ethnicity on the last line almost as an afterthought? That would bring down some serious s*** on the newspaper here in the PC USofA

What, as opposed to the non-serious heart attack? Yeah, its difficult all right, to get fat asses outta the chairs long enough to run a minimal amount of med calls.. although its probably good for the patients that those aholes aren't out there sticking powerful drugs into veins. I certainly hope so. Go Dr. Tober Go.... You are a hero to those of us in EMS that care about delivery of medical services in prehospital environments.

In our neck of the woods helicopters are necessary. That being said, when you can get ETAs within minutes of each other from 3 or 4 different flight companies, it becomes real apparent that there are too many of them. That competition means the pressures on the companies to cut corners are high. Some of the things that I've seen are flight companies hiring anyone with a cert and a pulse. It used to be an honor to be a flight paramedic... the best of the best. Now, its the guys (and girls) that can't hang with fire or even the privates; We've got RNs holding entire schedules hostage because of one snit or another and companies being unwilling to fire them; Shoddy equipment- I know of one chopper that was so bad local people refused to fly it. It was shipped to another operation out of state where it crashed, killing the patient and crew. Kudos to Bledsoe for being so on target. The man deserves his reputation. edited to fix a stupid spelling error...

Now thats why I come to this site. Excellent advice. I am on a DRT team for a month working straight nights 12 on 12 off with 1 day off. We are system status and constantly moving. If I get an hour or two of downtime (maybe.. it can happen) it would be irresponsible of me to not try to get some rest. The sunglasses are going in the bag.

absolutely amazing pic newbie... I am honored to be in such august company....

Pretty freakin unbelievable. Those people are not worthy of you. I echo the thoughts and wishes of many others.. You will find a better place and will look back on this as a good thing.

Death, even of very young people, does not bother me as long as I know everything that could have been done was done. If the call is a cluster, then I have more difficulty; not because of the fact of the death but because of the error(s) made during the call. My very first code as a student was 3 1/2 months old. I was better than OK because I managed to be a comfort to the family. I have run on some pretty gruesome stuff, including a guy tortured with a box cutter, a guy who blew half his face off, one old fellow who had flies laying eggs on the open sores all over his body, a woman hit in the head with a bag of chains in a jeep rollover, etc etc. None of these bothered me. I just about lost it over a child sexual abuse survivor that I spent 1 1/2 hours talking into the hospital because she was afraid her abuser would find her, only to have her returned to the abuser the next day. There are way worse things out there than death.

Nice info Herbie. I feel the same way about facebook. It was great to get in touch with people but DAMN.. millions of users and they have a security hole like that...

I am pretty well phish proof and I have extensive security on my computer here at home. I have done nothing unusual. This is a bot that exploited facebook and thru fb ran into my mailbox. I am working with google to try and get my contacts back. I will let you know what happens.

that is pretty well what happened. I am done with facebook. I will have a hard time reconstructing my contacts on email. Thanks so much for filling me in. I appreciate the info from someone that's been there.

You are a true blue buddy Dwayne for posting this. I have NO email access (or facebook) for that matter right now. This was awesome of you to post because it lets facebook friends know as well. For all of you getting that semi-literate piece of trash requesting money... I am not in Wales... I have not been assaulted (at least not unwillingly ) however.. anyone that wants to send money .. contact me via PM..

I would suggest that management has a fair amount of flexibility regarding who gets fired and why. Case in point.. two employees make the same minor infraction - one gets fired.. the other gets a writeup thats filed and forgotten. Fired employee had an attitude problem with management. They were excellent in the field but rebelled against the tiny little rules time and time again.. in other words, a continual pain in the a$$ to management. The second employee, excellent in the field but had a cooperative, easy going attitude and was a team player. I work for big corporate ambo and there are a ton of tiny rules to run up against. Sometimes, a seemingly minor infraction is the hook used to get rid of a problem employee. The EMT you know that got fired - what kind of attitude did he/she have? Did he/she run up against supervisors on a regular basis? Were they a whiner or complainer? Everything I know about you Anthony, suggests that you are a cooperative team player without issues with your superiors. Definitely - honesty is the best policy, plead mea culpa and vow to never do it again. I have a feeling you will be just fine. Regards

I believe the OP is tongue in cheek.. and you certainly can't call it a good career move...