Just Plain Ruff

I've been doing some thinking and everyone knows where that get's me What are the legal ramifications of working without sleep for over 24 hours? What I'm asking is this If you are working on a 24 hour shift and you have no ability to sleep based on call volume and you make a mistake, costing a patient their life, who is responsible? Are you the employee wholly responsible? Is your employer responsible in part? These are the types of questions I come up with at 3:10 am sitting in my living room watching the Rape of Europa(the looting of Europes great art during WWII)

I have several leads for you if you want to chat. PM me if you want

this quote hits me in the pocket book if you know what I mean. Emergency response medicine is the least regulated and most lucrative branch in the medical industry. What a crock of crap.

Unfortunately this guy is already guilty to most people after his name has been published in the paper. The bad deal with this is that no matter innocent or guilty the public has alredy made up their mind when it comes to child molestation. You are guilty until proven innocent. That's the deal in our society yet we are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I have one friend who was accused of this type of crime by his ex-wife. He was run through the ringer of public opinion and in the end he was found not guilty by the jury but he can never work in EMS again unless he goes to alaska or somewhere a thousand miles away from where he is now. Just the accusation of this crime and you are on an uphill battle to clear your name. It's a double edged sword. Both ends result in negative consequences.

ok anthony's plane fare is all taken care of. He will be there by 5:30 on wednesday night and then he leaves at sometime on friday. Have a great time everyone.

I have a misdemeanor conviction in 1986 that has never caused me a bit of trouble. I've been registered 3 different times and none of those times was my misdemeanor called in to question. Just be honest and forthright on your applications and do NOT LIE about it. Just be matter of fact and you should do ok.

Dwayne, here's my response if the child is unable to participate in his case is that the correct thing to let this guy go? I am all for statutes of limitations but with children it's a different story. You have a child so traumatized by victimization that it may take years to fully come out. Should the guy get away with it simply because the child is too young to help out in his case? I don't know. I also do not know if they statutes are extended for kids but I read somewhere that they were. I could more than likely be mistaken. If the statute runs out and there is no leeway then by all means the guy doesn't get charged. I think that for child molestation that the statutes should be extended but then again that's just me. Dwayne, why you pickin on me? whine whine whine. But I digress - I'm trying to be a kinder more gentler me. But in the end, only this guy and the child knows what happened in the room and we will never know what happened. Is this is witch hunt? I'd bet if it was your child you'd have a different point of view but maybe not. If the statutes have indeed run out, then let him go. It may happen again and then we can go down this road again. but in the scheme of things, how does this particular case really affect your life? This particular case affects my family and family life with maybe 1% effect. I choose to worry about things that are in my span of control. You can find hundreds of these examples in the paper and on the news and there's not a damn thing any of us can do about them. I choose to fight the battles that are on my doorstep not a thousand miles away.

so true but I think the statute of limitations is negotiable when it comes to childhood abuse. IF the child is not able to voice their accusation and it's proven that if the child is unable to assist in their own defense and it is determined that the case could go to trial then I think the statute of limitations needs some leeway. If this guy really did the deed and the child has been unable to assist in the investigation until now then by all means the guy should be charged even if the statute of limitations are past. unfortunately we have too many whiners out there who think the criminals rights are more important than the victims rights and that's WRONG. I think that for child abuse and molestation there should be a longer statute of limitations. It's a good thing that civil cases don't have a limit. (I don't think they do but I could be wrong) If he can't be charged then by all means, go after his sorry ass in civil court, the money she gets in the settlement would help with the psych treatment.

I don't think we are arguing with your assumption that many of us do that amount over the posted speed limit but does it really matter what everyone does? I guess the old adage "If it's good for the goose it's good for the gander" or "MOMMY, everyone does it" I guess if you want to use that excuse with the lawyers in court in a fatal accident that you as the driver were part of them I guess go for it, we'll see how far that gets ya. I for one rarely speed, in my personal or ems vehicle, I just don't see the need to go 15 miles per hour or so over the speed limit. I guess I'm never in that big a hurry to get to where I'm goin. but then again that's just me.

If this is indeed true then charge him and hang him high. If this is indeed not true then leave him be but unfortunately the damage is done.

NO NO NO NO NO you do not have the right to run 10-15 miles per hour over the speed limit unless running hot and if you are running hot then you have even more responsibility to the public.. If the paramedic was speeding then charge em. Just because we have a knee jerk reaction in response to one of our brothers or sisters being in the wreck this still does not absolve them from responsibility.

How many of you have an EMS membership plan for your ambulance service? Do you find that there are more frequent flyers that call or do you find it a benefit?

AK I have bunches of this stuff. PM me with the addy

Since no one has said anything today, it's my 41st birthday today. My wife even hasn't said anything, but I think she might be planning something diabolical for later today.

ok, we have a 14 year old with a steadily dropping heart rate. I'm getting really really nervous about this time. If she doesn't get to definitive treatment she's goona code and she may just code to spite you. The brother needs a 2nd ambulance so now we have to wait for that ambulance to get here.. This is gonna get nasty before it gets better. Any chance to get a NG tube down her stomach to begin removing contents? You got her a surgical airway. the only other tube is her esophagus. Prep for CPR - I think she's gonna need it.

remember that the mastocytosis is a working hypotheses but it's the closest to his symptoms and his symptoms are pretty textbook masto. I've been to emedicine.com and the most glaring thing was that most adults diagnosed with this do not live more than 5 or so years past onset of symptoms. Mastocytosis from what I can read is a massive influx of mast cells that invade the body causing syncope and unconsciousness. This spell was by far the worst he's had. The crew on scene first thought he was in arrest. I'm going to be teaching the wife and brothers CPR and I'm going to push for an AED at his house. I'll even help her get trained on using a bag valve mask if the doctors are willing. It will take us 11 minutes to get to his house from our hospital so that's a little too long to be without oxygen or god forbid a heart beat.

Well after a terrible scare to my wife and I my father in law is ok. He collapsed at home and when my ambulance crew arrived at his house he was blue and what appeared to be nearly a respiratory arrest. This is not the first episode of this type he has had but this is the first time it has been as bad as it was. The responding crew requested a scene flight and transfer to the cardiology center St. Lukes Hospital in Kansas city which is where is doctor is. He was alert and awake on his arrival at the receiving hospital . The ED physician poo poo'd his symptoms and didn't even look at the EMS copy of the 12 leads saying "well paramedics only have a high school education so I don't put too much stock in their reading of 12 leads" and my wife and her dad spoke up and said "my husband is a paramedic" and her dad said "and he has a master's degree" and the doctor couldn't extricate himself out of the room fast enough. Fricking jerk. Well they admitted him and his cardiologist worked him up. He didn't have an MI I don't think even though his markers were slightly elevated. What they have over the last several years done for my dad in law is a million tests with no set in stone diagnosis. The one they are working on right now (a hypothesis) is mastocytosis which is a bad thing in adults. He will progressively get worse spells and one of them will kill him. I guess the question I have for any of you is is anyone out there very knowledgeable in the disease Mastocytosis. It's so rare that only 7 in every million people have this disorder. My father in law is one in a million so I wouldn't put it past him that he has this rare disease. I also believe that my wife may have it because she has some of the same symptoms. I guess I"m putting out a call to the core group here, dust, AK, ERDOc, Doczilla and others in helping me find more info about this. The two main reasons are as follows 1. so I can help my wife and her family deal with this and get them good information and second 2. so I can help my EMS crews better take care of my father in law when this happens. They flew him from his house to the city and we were fortunate to live in the city so he wasn't alone when he got to the receiving hospital. If anyone prays please do so for my family and my wife and her father in law. I'm working on 3 hours of sleep in the last 42 hours. I'm heading to bed now

maybe if we ignore him he will go away. With comments like his I don't want to know him. His credibility is gone with me but then again, he's only posted 4 times so what credibility does he really have.

I used to work in Jacksonville florida. I have contacts at both St. Vincent's Hospital and also St. Lukes hospital. PM Me if you want more info.

actually, in the hospital I work at I am able to do everything that a nurse can do. The onlything I am unable to do is to spike blood but I can administer it. I can do somethings that a nurse is unable to do such as needling the chest and also intubating. it's a good place to work in .

any of those links will work. I have finished my last lecture and I have decided never to post it as it's too deeply personal. Maybe after I reflect and digest just what exactly I wrote and what it means. I learned a lot about myself after finishing it.

ak I wrote something similar in nature about a month ago. I did not post it because it's deeply personal. I see this story as a return to your childhood and something that can never happen. I too wish that I can return to childhood yet I know that it is impossible. Your writing is very good. I'll post mine sometime but not quite yet. one thing I would recommend is for you to read the book "the last lecture" and see what comes of your writing then. I don't for one instant think that the wall or the ocean is you thinking about your death but then again, dreams are funny in ways you never expect. You can be dreaming about one thing yet it actually means something else. I long to see and read more from ya.

actually those of us who came back and said we don't draw blood in the field answered your question. ha ha the answer was if you think about it, NONE. ha ha But our service does carry 4 vacutainers(red, purple, blue and tiger striped) and they are the same 4 blood tubes that I put on the truck 7 years ago because they expired 6 years ago, that's how often we draw blood for lab.

actually, yes there are many chances to mix it up. You go to an ER that has more than one patient in there and the chance of mixing it up is quite real. Are you going to 100% of the time make sure that the blood gets into the hands of the lab tech's or wil you just give the blood tubes to the nurse. If you give it to the nurse then there is one more person to mix it up. The only way I draw blood on a pre-hospital patient is I will draw the blood, then directly deliver those tubes to the lab tech and watch them label the lab tubes or I will label them myself. but of course the caveat here is that I have direct access to the lab because I work in the ER. I will take care of the patient after I drop the patient off. But if you go to a hospital let's say like Baystate Health in Springfield, Mass they get over 100 ambulances a day. There is bound to be a mixup here and there. Trust me, I've seen it happen. Plus, I'm not sure about clia but if I have to go thru yearly competency for the glucometers I'm sure that Clia has some rules on hospital laboratories taking blood tubes from EMS providers.

OH HOLY HELL I just got our schedule at work via email and she's scheduled me for those days. I'm going to have to bow out of this because I'm the new guy on the totem pole and I cannot ask for it off. Anthony the flight offer still stands though. I'm so pumped about this type of event that I'm going to work on getting one set up for the KC MO area. Dangit.