ERDoc

Ah, good to know you guys get the same molestation we get at Pearson.

I never took the NR as NY was not an NR state but maybe someone who has been through both can answer a question. How does the NYS exam compare to the NREMT exam? The NYS exam was a joke but I hear a lot of people saying the NR exam is a bitch.

Sex...yes please. Money...don't depend on the govt to take care of you when you are older (or now for that matter). They will find some way to destroy social security. Be responsible for your own future and don't be a burden to your kids. It doesn't take much effort to learn how to invest for retirement, even if it is in index ETFs (read how to be a defensive, value investor as described by Ben Graham). If you can learn anatomy and physiology you can learn basic finance. Don't spend more than you make, and have an emergency fund.

And here is the beauty of Emergency Medicine. Making huge decisions, with minimal information.

What do you mean when you say you want to "practice emergency medicine,"? What is your current license level?

Why do you have to bring up minorities?

Congrats and good luck. Don't be a stranger, think of us as study buddies.

I agree that this is a little concerning. Chest xray is good at picking up about 80% of dissections but that is a big miss rate for something so important and a lot of times the findings are subtle and I would guess only visible with a retrospectroscope.

Maybe if those damned ignorant conservatives stopped fighting with the damned whiny liberals we could all sing Kumbya

Arctic, I personally like, "30 years of serving the community." Good slogan for an EMS service or a house of ill repute. Around here it would be more appropriate to say, "30 years of saving your family from driving one of the 5 cars in the driveway to the hospital."

I'm too lazy to go back through the other pages, but what were the peripheral pulses like? How about the skin in the legs?

Sometimes there is nothing you can do and you just do what you can to keep the pt safe.

I hope you are joking.

It's funny. I once heard someone say that they don't want to wear a helmet in case they get into an accident. The thinking was that if they crashed at speed without a helmet, they will be dead, end of story. If they crash at speed with a helmet, they may survive but will probably have a bad brain injury and end up in a nursing home, trach, PEG, paralyzed and a burden to the family and the taxpayers. I thought that was an interesting way to look at it. To the OP, as was said above, there is a reason they are called donorcycles. Even if you survive there are amputations, spinal fractures, horrible road rash requiring admission to the burn unit with skin grafts (seen that many times) and so on.

Tru dat.

I hear 'medical examiner' and it sounds to me like they need to have the ME declare them not dead.

I was just talking about the requirements to take the EMT class. To be a paid/volley EMT/FF is a bit of a different story and is department dependent.

In NYS all you needed was a pulse (breathing optional) and to be 18 by the day of the test.

The differential on this guy is huge. Ruptured AAA is definitely on the list. With the guy's underlying liver pathology we also need to add varcieal bleeding from portal hypertension, SBP and relative intravascular hypovolemia secondary to third spacing. I would say we also need to be very cautious about the fluid and drug use. I'd like to get his pressure up with pressors. I know we are thinking ruptured AAA as one of the possibilities, but I'd like to get his pressure a little higher so that we have some wiggle room once we start trying to titrate his pain meds. This is one of the few pts that needs diesel and lots of it.

Did it always look like that?

"Ma'am, your daughter is adorable...oh, that's your son. Sorry about that." "Sir, your mother tells me that you are having some chest pains...oh, that's your wife. Sorry about that." See a pattern?

Welcome to the City, Haley. You will find that there are people from all over the world that are members here. The details of your specific area may be much different from anyone else. You will need to provide a little more info before anyone can even begin to answer your questions. To start: Where are you? What is a medical examiners card?

The bedside ones we use in the ER are about the size of a laptop but come on a portable stand that has a lot of extra bells and whistles which makes them look much bigger.

An ultrasound can be used to produce a doppler image. An ultrasound just uses ultrasonic waves to bounce off structures of different types to create an image. Doppler imaging is based on the doppler affect. It uses ultrasonic waves to detect the change in the velocity of a fluid to determine the direction and rate of flow (velocity). Kate, the doppler you are thinking of is the one used just to get an audible confirmation of flow where actually visualizing it doesn't matter (fetal heart tones, presence of a peripheral pulse). It works on the same principles as a color doppler but does not produce an image.

Mikeymedic, I disagree that this needs to be shut down. When I started it I was concerned that it was going to turn into a screaming match between sides but I am impressed by the members of the City and it has been kept very civil and very productive. I don't think anyone will ever convince the other side to change their views, but that is not what this country is about. We are about compromising and coming to an agreement with the other side to come up with a plan that is not perfect but represents as many as possible (though I think our govt has forgotten about this). Bullets, you only site what happens in a very limited portion of one of the more progressive states (PA). Do you really think there are such regulations in more conservative states? The problem with a lot of these arguments from the pro-gun side (as a whole, not on an individual basis as our members here have shown) is that they see it as black or white. You either want to allow my guns or you want to take them all away. I think there are very few that want to take away ALL guns (yes, there are some). I don't think that is reasonable or constitutional. There are some weapons that anyone outside of the military just has no need for. We can regulate cars relatively easily and they have a function other than killing. Why can't the same be done for guns. The problem with registering is the fact that we have gone without it for so long and no politician is looking beyond the next four years. If we start a registry now, decades from now, I think most guns would be registered. It just takes time. Background checks may be superficial, but they can be done. There is no reason a legitimate dealer can't find out if someone has a felony conviction. Any felonies, sorry, no gun for you. There is also no reason there can't be a similar registry of people with a history of violence. The database doesn't need to contain the details just a simple, "This person has a violence related conviction/hospital stay, they get no gun." We have a sex offender database that offers lots of details , why can't something similar be done for violent individuals? No solution is going to be perfect but there are ways to minimize the gun related morbidity and mortality.