Just Plain Ruff

You must be feeling bad. This got posted twice.

I'll bet you never ever ever ever do that again. So lesson learned.

Any chance to get into dispatching? Or QI/QA? ONe question - who told you that you would end up in a wheelchair? ST Johns or your doctor. On a more discerning note, Since when did you equate that all you know how to do is save lives. If you don't have a fall back plan then maybe you should get one. In EMS we are one injury, one needlestick, one bad lift away from full disability. Why everyone doesn't have a fall back plan just for the above situations is beyond me. You make it sound like you can't do anything other than save lives. That's in my opinion bunk. Unless you are one of those one trick ponies that can't do anything else then there is that but I'll bet if you look deep you will find something you can do apart from EMS. I hate people who say "I'm so sad, I only know how to be an EMT. I don't know anything else". I'm sorry to be blunt and rain on your pity party but there are things outside of EMS, you just have to look. Quit selling yourself short. If you truly cannot do anything other than EMS well that's a whole new discussion.

Welcome to the site. I'm currently is Lakeland Florida, is that close to you. If you need feedback or help don't hesitate to call on me. I'd be happy to help you.

I thnk you all missed the spectre of the Grim Reaper sitting next to the patient in your ambulance. Didn't you see Grim's Shadow? Surely those students who are saying you missed something would have seen that spectre right? Tell your fellow students to STHU

Herbie, I am completely and totally with you on this. I did discuss the fact that they should have a backup metal detector so we don't have to go through this but the supervisor told me that the metal detectors are calibrated to each airlines gate and for this particular gate they did not have a spare. Hence the patdown. I totally agree that patting down a 6 year old is absurd as well as an old lady but in all fairness either they do it the same for all people or you don't do it at all and since the TSA thinks that all is better than none then we are stuck with this process. The big technology companies are in this together and they see a cash cow and a way to keep the money flowing to them as long as we keep doing what we are doing. To hell with the passengers and public. For example, Michael Chertoff is now working for the very same company who's multi million dollar security contract he signed off on. He left the HSA shortly after that contract was awarded and guess who he went to work for. The very company who's contract he signed. HMMMMMMM conflict of interest, the government certainly doesn't seem to see it that way. Until we have a major terrorist attack that foils the current technology yet is proven could have been prevented by a trained dog or a trained person looking for certain traits, we will all suffer through this type of security screening. The funny thing is, Israel security forces provide security at the airports in Israel. They are trained to spot certain activity or goings on that our security people are not. I don't remember reading about a single incident aboard an Israeli airplane and I don't believe they are using the technology we are using. Something has to give. I don't have the answers. None of us do.

I just went through the Enhanced patdown that everyone is so inflamed about. The metal detectors at the Airtran airways security gate in Kansas city was broken so they had to pat down every person who went through. For 4 flights within the two hour period you can imagine the lines that were there. The agent was nothing but professional. Wore gloves and explained everything to me. Did he touch my junk, no he didn't. Did he get pretty intrusive, yes, he had to put his fingers inside my pants at the belt line. Did I feel violated? Not in the least. I was expecting a fully grab my junk pat down and it actually took 47 seconds from start to finish. I witnessed the agent screening/pat down a 6 year old and it was done with the utmost respect with the agent completely telling the little girl what was happening and fully involving the parents of this little girl. We hear terror stories and stories of catheter bags and ostomy bags being removed, we hear stories of fingers down deeper than what should be allowed but I think those are the stories that are seized upon by the media and they piss us off so the media jumps on these stories and it blinds us to the fact that many thousands of passengers each day, year in and year out are subject to these patdowns and the majority of those patdowns are done in a respectful and professional manor. I had pre-conceived notions of what the pat downs would be like and those notions were changed today. I specifically asked the agent if this was an enhanced pat down and he said "yes, these are what all the rage is about". Maybe the agents at KCI are different and maybe I got a good agent. Who knows.

Dwayne, in the sense that these two calls were not truly cardiac arrest saves I agree with you but I think you are overthinking and overanalyzing the whole deal. Were they cardiac arrest saves Nope. But were they saves - yes they were. The way presented make me think that if she had been a little longer in getting to the kids then she would definately have had two cardiac arrests on her hands and in the grand scheme of things on the top of the world, that would be a very bad outcome. The fact that there were two of them with the same outcome is pretty amazing. I think that she indeed did have two saves but not in the conventional sense of saves if you take your requirements of their being in cardiac arrest then no she didn't. But if I remember right in the original post they were in resp arrest or at least heading that way. To get them back is pretty good if you ask me. I know you are not criticising her care one bit, I agree that her care was spot on. But let's not take away from her the fact that without her being there we would have had 2 very different outcomes. And by the way, I just took care of a hoarder who had a veritable vegetable garden coming out her hoo hoo. She ran out of space in her house for the potatoes and carrots so she put them in the only place that she had space. Her Hoo Hoo. Gotcha

I'm glad I am not the only one who took issue with this and I hope the Kohlerrf spoke wrong. I know that anywhere I've worked as well as several of my friends who had DUI's on their records were basically uninsurable for several years after the DUI. I believe the quoted statement above is false.

So both kids were saves? If so KUDOS all around. If not, prayers. I was just a little confused as to their status. take care.

High flow Oxygen is any flow rate where you can hear the oxygen flow from the tubing. Or if they are in a nursing home high flow is 3lpm via non-rebreather mask.

Seriously, I disagree. Why not send the guards to learn the skill. I mean we are talking about a simple procedure. If we can have EMT's advocate for intubation and giving medication's after a 120 hour class it certainly seems logical that they can teach a guard to start an IV. Of course I wouldn't let my kid start an IV on anyone but I wiould let him start one on me if I showed him how. But I digress. I truly don't have a problem with EMT's and medics starting the IV's on the inmates who are going to die in the next couple of minutes. I just don't see the issue here guys. You advocate that they need someone medically trained to start the IV yet people complain that medical personnel should not be part of the team doing the execution. Or did I mis-read the sentiment of the group. Again, it can be broken down to training. Why can't you train a guard to start the IV? and yes you are right on the switch thingie but I don't see why this is such a big deal. Train the person to start the IV, make sure they are competent in doing so and let em at it. I don't see the issue here.

plus if you play your cards right you could write off the cost of the uniforms on your taxes. Consult a qualified tax attorney or accountant. Since this is a career change you should be able to write this stuff off.

Why does a doctor have to be present at the execution? Just to sign the death cert? I dont' buy it. A doctor doesn't need to be present. Why can't they train the prison guards to start IV's and set up the equipment and push the button. I can teach my 8 year old to start an IV, so I'm sure that they can teach a prison guard how to start an IV also. I can also teach my 8 year old how to hook up the iv tubing, how to draw up 100ml of each drug and then also to push the button to start the execution. Teach prison guards to do the job. They teach them how to attach the electric wires to the condemned don't they and they teach the guards how to push the button and all that right, teaching them how to run 100K volts of electricity through the body doesn't require a medical degree right? I think this discussion is a moot point. We talk about ‘patient advocacy’, morals and ethics; but are we ALWAYS following them? Are these deathrow inmates really patients anyway?

Get an xray and be done with it, not going to hurt anything to get it x-rayed. If it's broken and you leave it alone then you run the risk of additional nerve, vessel and other sorts of damage. If it's not broken then you only out the cost of the x-ray and pain med script if they give you one. But listen to you hand and not your friends and family who have no medical training. You do.

And JP that is exactly why my thought process is how the hell can you shave 30 minutes off a 75 minute drive by running hot. I hesitate to call bullshit on the poster who said he could shave 30 minutes off a 75 minute drive until I see his thought process or rebuttal to my response. IF I don't get one then he/she just falls into the unsafe at any speed driver and I'd like to steer clear of his coverage area. I'm still waiting - silence........ anyone...... buehler....anyone> I suspect he cannot back up his statements. And for the record - I do not subscribe to the thoughtprocess that if you go faster you get there faster and you need L&S to do it. JP pointed out a part of my post that I wanted to clarify. I was just saying that I get there in 70 minutes at 70 miles per hour but if I drove at 80 miles per hour I'd get there 10 minutes faster. I DO NOT think that way. It's true time wise but that does not keep me safer. Besides, if the patient is going to die unless I get there faster, then hell, just call the coroner because the patient is gonna die anyway speed or no speed.

Help me with the math on this one. You are driving the speed limit on rural highways which is between 55 and 70 miles per hour, depending on the type of highway. Just how fast are you going in order to cut 30 minutes time off the transport? 80? 90? Our transports are usually 75 minutes going 70 miles per hour. If we hit the lights we can go 80 which gets us there just about 10 minutes early. If I'm going 80 miles per hour then I shave 10 minutes off the time so going 90 would shave 20 so I must be going 100 miles per hour to shave 30 minutes off the transport time. Help me with this so I don't go nuts in my head and call you unsafe. I don't want to but I'm just confused as to how you can cut 30 minutes off a 75 minute transport all while keeping a safe transport. Please end my confusion.

You know Lone I am in total agreement but let me go one step further in my statement here. If you as a provider consider any call beneath you when you are assigned to it, then you need to go to work for mcdonalds or burger king It's one thing to choose to not work for a service that does IFT's which I have chosen to not work for. It's another when you knowingly work for an agency that does those types of runs and bitch about it. Consider this, if your co-worker is bitching about running a particular type of call consider the time when you or your family needs that particular help and your co-worker is the one on the call. I can guarandamntee it that they will have the same attitude towards your family member as they have towards every other person of that type of call. To those of you out there who are above running certain types of calls, SHUT THE HELL UP, run the call and then go back to doing what you were doing. I do not have the energy, the time or the desire to listen to you BITCH. Take this advice from a friend of mine, treat everyone like they are your mother or your wife/husband, father, child, sister, aunt, brother or pastor and you will not hate your job as much as you originally did. If you can't think that simply then are you sure you are really smart enough to be pushing medications or driving the ambulance?

Croaker, I agree with you on the BLS methods. Often we have a fractured wrist or ankle come into the ED. they ahve been moving that arm or leg for a while and no stability or splinting have been applied. Nor ice either. many times, once ice, elevation and splinting has taken place the level of pain will drop dramatically. Do not underestimate the value of BLS measures to relieve pain. Same with burns, stop the burning process, cover with dry sterile dressings and the pain will sometimes (not always) decrease to a manageable level that you can continue your assessment and treatment. BLS its not just for transport ya know!!!!

But this ad would offend many delicate sensibilities and that's why it will NEVER air in the USA.

This whole deal is just another one of the reasons why we are considered zero to hero's and have such little respect in the medical community.

Holy moses What a incredible ad The reason why we don't have this type of ad in the US is that drunk driving is not considered to be a bad crime. Just consider all the drunks who walk out of a courtroom with probation or license suspension. It's getting better in the US but we still have a long way to go. Plus there is no network that will show this on prime time or even during the day. it would be considered to graphic to show on television. But we have shows like CSI and Bones that are way worse than this commercial but they are considered drama. The ad shown here is real life. I for one if I had the money to pay for the ad, I'd pay for it to air during the superbowl but the alcohol companies would quickly fight for it not to be allowed.

If you are not getting your new message notifications from EMT City check your email spam folder. Somehow emtcity.com made it on my spam list. I have over 100 emails from EMTcity in my gmail spam folder within the past 1 week. That would be the first place to look if you are not getting your new message notifications. Ruff

Try as I might in the past 2 minutes, I cannot find any pictures of a actual shaved beaver. Not that type of shaved beaver anyway I did find this safe for all ages picture

If you would have seen this guy you would understand why he's probably never had a girlfriend or job at that. Grade A Mullett Big beer belly no front teeth shaved within the past week but with a rusty razor and out in the parking lot he drove a station wagon with so much trash in it that the back cargo area was completely filled with crap. I know, I know, appearances can be decieving but I choose to thank the lucky stars that this guy hasn't mated yet.