Just Plain Ruff

You know, I've only dropped one patient too, The one patient who asked if she could keep my pen, Old bic pin, she was going in for a medication check, I said sure, you can have my pen, I then walked in front of her, my partner in back of me. She took the pen and proceeded to imbed the pen in my jacket and then 1/2 inch into the flesh of my back. That was the only patient I ever dropped with a left hook to the right temple. And then my partner and I sat on her until the police got to us. I have a nice little round permanent puncture wound to my right scapula area, blood was everywhere. Got treated as a trauma patient until they could rule out whether the pen punctured my chest wall. DAMN that pen hurt when it went in my back. Patient was deemed a mental case and was never charged. Yeah yeah yeah, before you say it, I learned a couple of valuable lessons, 1. Coats don't stop bic pens 2. Don't walk in front of your patients, EVER 3. Don't ever give your patients your pen 4. Trauma activations are NOT Fun, Really doc(trauma resident), you want to do a rectal for sphincter tone - nah I'll pass(do you have something to tell me Dr. Takei). He reluctantly agreed. 5. If you need a couple of days off, let your patients stab you with the bic pens you let them have. 6. Make sure your patient stabs you and then you knock them down and make sure it's on video. She claimed I hit her and then she stabbed me. Thank God it was on video in the Hospital ambulance bay and the security guards were watching us bring her inside. We had a few witnesses. 7. Don't pull the pen out, if you do, you get a trauma activation, had we have left it in, they would have know it was only in a half inch.

dgmedic, congrats, one of our own did good. way to go.

yeah, and parrot medicine is still alive and well, well he said it so it's gots ta be true

Maybe, "if you don't wake up in 30 seconds, we'll drill your head"

Yes, that is the biggest problem we face, we are a get it now generation, here it would take a couple of days to run a full scenario while it only would take a couple of hours to run a full scenario on facebook. that's where we fall short here, the 132 character generation doesn't want to wait, heck I'm one of those who doesn't want to wait but the responses from those who use their phones are often more disjointed and horribly spelled than those who have a computer and a keyboard at their disposal. I think that this site will suffer for the most part based on what I wrote above. I don't have the answer to fix the low participation here.

Vent was a nutjob guys, she attacked me in several pm's, threatened me, telling me that she could end my career if she wanted to. She was bonafide CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAACRAY

I think it had to do with his business he was running, the Middle east EMS Staffing company. Plus I think after Dust's death he was done. But I cannot prove any of that.

yeah, once dust and actually when AK also left it went downhill.

yeah, this site was better by the idiots who left. And texas will never be the same.

damn, Bushy, it's been a long time, and I was chastised more than once by Dust.

I remember the EMT City get together in Orlando at AK's domicile. Dust, Mateo, AK, Dwayne, Mateo's beautiful cousin and great food. That was a great time.

Has it been since 2005 or so that I've been a member. I remember the good ole days, chat room, lively topics and Dust, who can forget Dust. Damn I miss that ole guy.

OH HELL, there goes the neighborhood. But seriously, I count Tyler as one of my true friends on this site. That's saying a lot. Good to see your smiling face here again.

the question we should ask ourselves is this Aside from transporting 2 patients from a MVC or something similar, should we be transporting 2 patients like the original poster asked.

I agree with both points. but if semi private rooms are not HIPAA violations that happen many times a day, then transporting two patients is not in my opinion. But again, I would want to see this in writing from either the Hipaa gods or my legal team. Michael

I cannot answer your last question about the AMA but I can say I agree with what you posted. I've inserted GI Tubes, foley caths, nasal packed a nose bleed in the ER, Gave enemas, performed bladder scan, debrided a burn and other wound, sutured a simple laceration under the supervision of a doc, gave every medication known to our formulary and even administered 12 units of blood to a AAA patient that was leaking and damn near at deaths door. We as paramedics CAN do these types of things and we as an industry need to strive to be able to do them. BUT caveat Education is the key. when cosmetologists have more hours of training and "internship hours" than we do and they cut our hair, then something is rotten in denmark.

ahhh yeah, money, the root of all things.

Brent I don't know many people who are more fit to be a paramedic than you are. I say that in all sincerity, so why haven't you gone on and gotten your medic, the EMS world is missing out on your being a medic.

I tend to agree partially and disagree partially. In a busy urban setting, of course you cannot spend a lot of time on scene to do this extra service but I believe that it's a case by case basis. If the person has family on scene or that can get there within a reasonable amount of time then by all means clear the scene but if they don't have anyone near, then in a rural setting with low call volume, I see nothing wrong with helping them out with a meal or something. You have to have common sense and if you aren't responsible enough to know the boundaries to keep from doing bad things then that is a bigger issue than what we are talking about.

Amen brother. I have indeed cooked several full meals for patients, usually I would get them something to tide them over and then later in the day or the next day I would bring them over a full meal so at least they had something in the fridge when they got hungry. There's a lot of need out there, we see it every day.

Ok I'll give you the win on could they be the MD but do you want a family doc as a medical director of a EMS service? I think not.

I also find it interesting that you are starting an ambulance service and don't have a medical director yet. that would have been my first order of business after deciding on whether or not I wanted the headache and digestive problems of starting an ambulance service. At least with my medical director chosen early I could probably get the prescriptions to help me with the anxiety, headaches and gut problems that will come with this venture. No plain old doctor will do for a medical director, you need one that understands EMS, a podiatrist or OB GYn won't cut it. You at least need a critical care doc or better yet an Emergency dept physician. Not busting your balls here but why haven't you procured the services of a medical director?

I believe that that nurse is incorrect. Writing would be good though. and what about patients who are sharing a semi-private room? Is that a ongoing 24 hour a day HIPAA violation?

Let's keep the providers and patients in Vegas in our prayers and thoughts today. Awful awful things that one human can do to others. No words. (well I have some but they would get me censored)

I think that your questions are much better answered by the service that helped you. IF you have any concerns about the care you received, and it sounds like you do, please contact the ambulance service that took care of you. but here goes some explanation for you Not surprised that you have a broken rib or two. Bruising can also happen post CPR. IO in the shin is one way to gain access to your system especially if you have veins that are very hard to access. The protocol of the service may be that All arrests get an IO, not sure. I cannot answer the narcan question on your situation. Im very glad you are recovering and are no longer taking those drugs. You were very lucky, you could have been a statistic rather than a recovering addict. Good luck in your future endeavors.