Christopher.Collins

Fire-911 I believe the comments were directed twords Punisher.

Couldnt agree more Wendy. Obviously this dosnt apply nation wide, nor does it always apply in CT but here for the most part you can have your patient in or near a trauma center before the bird will. Their response times arnt poor, its more so that theres two helicopters in the state and depending on where you are your close to a good hospital. My old department had a discussion about calling the bird... unless it was a long extrication or meets a set critera for medevac there (generally) wasnt a need to call it. We were pretty much central to Yale, Middlesex (closest), L&M and Backus. By the time the patient is airborne our ambulances could pretty much be at any of thoes hospitals. My thoughts go out to the famalies of the victims.

I was mostly being sarcastic... you know, like how its the governments fault people who could have evacuated last time didnt. It was one of thoes tounge in cheek statements :twisted:

I hate to be rude, but I cant help but wonder if it will be "FEMA and the US governments fault" if all these people evacuate for nothing... G.W Bush's last folly before leaving office.

SWWEEEEEEETTT!! Can I get one of thoes too!? Im willing to pay a few bucks for it :wink: :twisted:

Nooo, I confirmed it... he wasnt the only one on scene I knew... just the first I heard it from. I mean, maybe what the pt told them what happened wasnt accurate sure... but the call itself was real and was at least made to appear like he was doing as I stated.

Hopefully your right sandmedic... but hell it is good to know that there are so many willing to help I guess. I sent an email to Acadian and got a response, but all it said was they will forward my interest to the HR Office, this was from the Public Information Officer I believe.

Inactive in terms of NR status Id assume? Then yes its been about 4 years, just had my second refresher 7 months ago. Thats a bummer. Guess being active EMT for 4 years isnt enough? lol Never really thought to call them myself, figured they may have more important things to be concerned over. Ill give it a shot though. Thanks for the quick response.

Just wondering if anyone knew how I could possibly re-obtain my NREMT without taking the whole curriculum again? A while back during a seminar, I personally asked this question to Ken Bovior (sp?) who was the director of NREMT or NAEMT (I forgot which) and he said Id have to take it all over again... but from some light digging it dosnt seem like its true. However its the only answer Ive ever been given. I dont regret anything but in retrospect, since EMS is no longer a hobby, I wish the hell I never let it lapse. As always, thanks for the help!

I just sent an email out to Acadian Ambulance, a major company based in LA... they have more important things to deal with between this storm and less importantly the holiday weekend... but if I hear back from them Ill let you all know.

Hey spen, Im sorry about your incident. I know I dont know any more than what youve said but dont be hard on yourself about it. If you were sent as a basic you were sent there as a basic... its not your fault by any means. Maybe a higher level of care could have saved that person, but that would have been like me saying if I got into EMS a year sooner my grandmother may still be alive.

Well, if your nervous about the class, only been teching for 2 months as a basic and have to ask then that should be your answer. Dont mean to sound blunt, Im not by any means trying to be harsh. Take your time brother. In my personal opinion... transport service is a great way to gain experience. Yea, sure your not running 9-1-1s most of the time but being with the patient in a non-emergent situation gives you an advantage. 1) without a reason to rush you can build skills and confidence treating/talking to people, rather than just treating an injury/illness, 2) being able to review intrafacility transport forms (W10s for example) and any paperwork being sent with the patient will give you a perspective of types of and common medications, history, treatments... learning to read :evil: Dr/Nurse handwriting lol :twisted: 3) when you get a chance to work with a medic partner youll have more time (not rushing) to learn their equipment, how to use it and how they work. I could go on but Im sure you may get my point. Personally brother... Id wait. I dont know about your area but here in Connecticut most schools have interviews and backround checks to keep new EMTs from going for their medic right away. I dont per say agree with it because some people are quick learners and hard workers... but I do think that anyone going medic should give some time at the BLS level before serious consideration. Best of luck in your journies. Stay safe!

No one is saying your not entitled to your opinion... Im sure we all saw the news reports and that many of us were also there as well. Its more so that you sound like you only care about yourself (referr to your comments about prior comitments being in a "comfortable environament) and that you should be the deciding factor of who gets help and who dosnt? I dont like 9-1-1 abusers either but you know something, untill there is some system that can put a stop to it (which I doubt will ever be possible or at least 85% successfull) we have to continue to do our jobs and treat every patient with a proffesional manner. Likley you didnt have a say in thoes people being boarded in your home and surrounding communities... and unfortunatley you dont have a say in how these people act or how it will change your community. For that Im greatly sorry, for you, your family and everyone else whos had to deal with it. But not everyone there is a crimminal... what about the victims? I suppose they just had it coming to them right? Im not going to tell you you dont belong in the healthcare system... Im not that type of person. But I will say this... everyone that steps in my ambulance gets the same ammount of respect and care be it a child who was struck by a car... or the person who hit the child. If I hated people, Id look for a new job.

Errrr I never knew you could only edit within a certain time frame. Anyways Richard, I cant remember or begin to estimate his weight... but considering he had surgical incision sites in areas that were hanging off the standard sized stretcher... that alone to me was enough. He was pretty hefty, I didnt have much of an issue... my partner on the other hand did... considering the sheet transfer had the guy rolled over onto his side rather than continuously laying flat.

Ya know tniuqs... if drug dealers can steal and sucsesfully use an ambulance for smuggling, Im sure you wouldnt have a problem posing as an American EMSer :wink: :twisted:

The only time Ive ever been to a scene where vehicles needed to be refuled on the road/scene was the BDA fire in Bradford, RI last summer. It wasnt anything fancy really... just regular trucks from oil/gas companies driving around gasing everyone up. Id start with local companies see what they would be willing to do to support emergency services. Im sure in the long run doing it that way gets picked up by the taxpayers... my ambulance never ran out of fuel though so I dont know how that was handled.

And I cant help but appreciate the irony that your a healthcare provider let alone knocking your fellow EMSers in the real trenches and frontlines of this country while you... I can only hope that your being sarcastic.

Thats the thing though... Id be more surprised that dispatch didnt send it than the soup. Cuz all the dispatchers work in the field too, where as this soup is the same one who allowed me and my partner to stay in a unit with malfunctioning warning lights while there were 20 or so other available units we could use.

Not testicles... but lower extremety related. So a buddy of mine in a neighboring community gets a call (forgot what the dispatch was for, bleeding emergency I think). He and his father get on scene to find a man in the kitchen cupping his groin area and blood everywhere. Apparently he cut it off... It gets better though. He accidentally cut it off while carving a turkey for thanksgiving dinner (later that night) NAKED... and well his hand slipped and slashed off his... unit. They ask where it is, he says the freezer, so my buddy goes and retrieves it and the second the door opens it flops out at his feet. He had to excuse himself from the remainder of the emergency... because he was in tears laughing.

Actually Richard, thats about my only major beef with dispatch... I had a post surgery bariatric and an 18yo partner who couldnt lift a bag of stuffed animals without complaining about shoulder pains. Not to mention the hospital stared at me and my regular sized rugged stretcher when I told them who I was here for. As soon as I met the patient I knew we'd have an issue... So after I spoke with the patient and hospital staff asking if the would mind waiting for another unit, to more comfortable accomodate him... I called dispatch. I asked them the following; Is Explorer (our bariatric unit) available? "Yes." Is there any crews available with no scheduled calls? "Yes." Can you have one bring it to us... "why?" (To myself) Ummm maybe because you could have made it easier on everyone (you, us, the hospital, the patient) and sent us in the bariatric unit to begin with!!!! I explained to them politley the situation... "Oh uh, no!" I asked them enough to KNOW there was no reason it couldnt be brought to us. And we were denied. I spoke to a supervisor, denied again. So my partner hurts himself and my patient becomes uncomfortable before we even leave the hospital and remains that way untill we get him to a bed. I explained everything to him politley and with sympathy, fortunatley he was cool. But yea point is, we all have our bad moments... it happens.

Floppy discs and the original pinball games in pool halls... Doc, your really starting to hang yourself up to dry! lol

I had a job interview, at a private EMS organization, in which the interviewer stated to me that he thinks everyone in the world is crazy... and that everyone in EMS is especially crazy. He made some remark about how we can look at a burnt corpse and make comments about BBQ for dinner and go on like nothing happened, that its truley crazy. I wanted so much to agree with him but I could do nothing but keep quiet. For all I knew it could have been a trick psychological question.

A couple of chapters from here in CT just deployed a day or two ago. I was going to join the Red Cross... but as I took the free training courses I couldnt stop laughing. Their disaster managment courses were hosted and narrated by William Baldwin. Litterally every scene you see him in hes "glowing" and it starts with a scene from Backdraft and him saying.., "Hi Im William Baldwin, I play firefighter Brian McAffrey in the movie Backdraft. I learned alot from that.... blah blah blah, hard working community workers, blah blah blah." Good movie in my book... but I just couldnt take it seriously anymore. Ill stick to donating blood and Fire/EMS. Edit: Oh yea, Im sorry this is a serious thread I suppose I could be a bit constructive. Just needed to rant that Red Cross thing. Anyways I hope that things dont turn out like Katrina, a few of my freinds went and a pic that one of them took still stands out to me, a plane in the middle of a road about 1/4 mile away from the airport. I can hardly imagine how bad that really was. I just peaked at the radar, Gustav is bearing down at a Cat 3 now. Goodluck to anyone who makes it down there... be careful.

And they as well still crash and give us work... (having worked many races at a local track) I of course mean that respectfully to all drivers... except the ones who disobey the red flag and nearly t-bone my crash truck or ambulance.

This is a mistake NO EMS provider with the slightest common sence should make! I agree, none of us our perfect... but how stupid can any self respecting "protector" of the public go post info about a rape on his freaking myspace page? Think this girl lost enough of her dignity that now someone who should have helped her only made it worse? Many of my friends are rape victims... if this happened to them, Id personally casterate my "brother/sister" EMS'er.