medicgirl05

I ran a call on an 800lb+ person. He was unresponsive, and we couldn't even get our ambulance onto his property because of mud. We called a bariatric truck 3 hours away, and we worked on extricating him from the residence to the road while we waited. We loaded his hospital bed onto a flatbed trailer(2 of the wheels broke on the bed), we had to take the door frame off of the double French doors to fit him out, and it took a small army of people. Eventually we loaded his mattress into the bariatric truck, and secured him with webbing. He was too big for the bariatric truck, but we had no safer options. The entire time the family was yelling at us for it taking so long. Terrible call, but he turned out to be ok. After he recovered and lost about 150lbs they put him back in that house so some day another crew will have to probably do the exact same thing to get him out. In our area we don't really have resources for bariatric patients. It's frustrating to me that people put themselves into those types of situations and then get mad when we aren't able to handle it quickly.

Thanks for the effort. I was hoping it would come together. I'm not sure it's realistic for me to make plans that far out, but I was optimistic that once y'all had it worked out I could find a way to go. I miss this place. I wish it was like it used to be. I learned SO much here.

Cooked meals, made coffee, done laundry after a DOA in bed was taken away by the funeral home. Heck I've even fed cattle and unaddled horses.

Texas requires medical directors to be ER physicians or have some special CE about being a medical director that is hard to find. This isn't commonly known and at one service our family medicine medical director was brought under investigation by the Texas Medical Board for this. I would check with the stats to see if Georgia has this requirement.

I find it interesting that you are starting an ambulance service but don't know where to find a medical director. Have you budgeted for one? If you don't know where to find one how do you know how much it will cost you? Do you have friends that work EMS in your area? I would start by asking around to see who the medical directors are in your area. Unless somebody in the forum is close to your area I doubt that we can help you specifically. Its possible that a simple google search of the other ambulance services in your area will give you their medical directors.

"More medical skills than 99% of the people here." WOW. Either you are surrounded by complete morons or you are a tad bit conceited, or just maybe there's something I'm missing. I don't even know what a first responder certification is, but it's obviously less than an EMT. I'm pretty sure I warned you about legal issues in the last post, so I'm not going to do that again. Put some bandaging supplies in a bag. Pretty much all you can do is control bleeding until EMS shows up, and anybody can do that. I would be very careful about how you are helping people. Make sure that no matter what you do EMS shows up to do a report.

I love that last line..."waiting to take a bite out of you, taking everything you have and giving nothing back." That is absolutely true.

Lots of people swear by Littman. They are great if you have the money and aren't forgetful(like me?). I have never bought one, I make do with the cheaper ones. My only real advice on this is don't get one with the double tubing, the tubes tend to rub in the back of the ambulance and I can't hear anything.

Here in Texas, services that exclusively do events want people with quite a bit of experience, and generally advanced EMT's or paramedics, with IV skills. I wouldn't recommend starting a career only working events. It is kind of a different world than jobs requiring transports. I have worked rodeos, car races, football games, among other things while working for a 911 provider. Just an idea.

I am so sorry Ruff. Prayers for everyone involved. I'm glad they caught that piece of S***.

I've been off a truck for about 6 months due to a back injury. I've been thinking about trying to go back part time and I've developed this problem that I'm hoping someone may have some advice for... I worked full time as a 911 paramedic for 10+ years, during that time I saw some things...normally a few days after a call that got to me I thought I was over it. Just recently I've begun to realize I may have some issues from some calls. I absolutely LOVED my job as a medic, still do. Yet, I can't fathom going back to work as a 911 medic even though I desperately want to. I get crazy anxiety thinking about tones dropping. I've applied and interviewed for a couple part time jobs, but when it's time for the new hire paperwork my anxiety is so bad that I can't even go do that. There isn't really a single call that strikes me as especially traumatic, it's just a feeling that I can't emotionally do it anymore. I've thought about going to a counselor, because this is starting to interfere with my every day life, but I don't know that anyone outside of EMS can possibly understand. Also, I don't want pity, I just want to know how to fix it. Any advice? If you know me in real life please don't share this info...

Even with a certification you're not able to do anymore than any other person unless you're working under protocols and a physician. If someone is sick or injured you control bleeding, perform CPR, or whatever the emergent need is while waiting for EMS.

I'm so sorry you're going through this. First of all you need to talk to someone. One of your instructors or the paramedics you were with so you understand what happened and try to process it. As far as getting better, I don't think it gets better but you learn to deal with the deaths better. Most of my patients don't haunt me, but I remember them. I do have a few that haunt me a little. The way you feel now is how I still am after 10+ years of doing this. I handle the call itself well but after it is over and I go home it takes me a bit to settle my nerves, that's ok. As far as knowing if you're cut out for EMS that's a very personal decision that only you can make. I'm pretty sure that if I could grasp how hard it can be when I started I would have looked elsewhere. However, there are also some really awesome things we get to do to. I've delivered a baby in the ambulance and not much beats watching new life enter the world. I've had the priveledge of holding the hands of small children all the way to senior citizens and giving them my support. I've provided pain control for people who needed it. I've been a voice for people who didn't have one. I promise there are good times too. There are people here who are much more experienced than I am who will offer better advice. Stick around here. Good luck to you with whatever you decide.

As far as holidays and weekends, everywhere I've worked it just depends how the days fall. I sometimes joke because I haven't had a New Years Eve off in 10 years. In the beginning it was hard to work holidays, but then my coworkers were like family and we developed our own holiday traditions. Last year for Christmas we all made an Italian dish that we brought and enjoyed together between calls. Also, for the most part holidays aren't usually busy...but the calls you do run tend to be very serious.

Scheduling depends on what kind of service you work for. In my area 911 providers work a 24 on/48 off shift or 48/96. Private services around me usually staff a couple 12 hour trucks, a 16 hour truck, and a couple 24 hour trucks. Again, it all depends on where you are and what you want. International work...I don't know anything about nature trips, but most oils field and contract military stuff is for seasoned paramedics. Whatever you decide to do good luck to you! And, from an old seasoned medic, make sure you find healthy ways to destress before you are too far in. This is a hard job and it takes a toll over the years.

1. I was 17. 2. I took some college classes in high school, but finished my paramedic before I took many classes. Now I have quite a few credits that don't amount to much of anything because I can't decide what I want to be when I grow up. 3. The paramedic program was 2 years, I haven't graduated college. 4. I would give a word of warning-EMS is hard on your body, and when you aren't able to lift anymore your options are very limited. 5. My American dream is financial security. 6. I sure hope so! 8. I probably would choose a different route. Lots of years as a paramedic has jaded my thinking and I'm sometimes haunted by the things I've seen. Plus my back is now blown so I'm having a hard time finding a decent paying job. 9. No. I wanted to be a dr and this seemed like a stepping stone. 10. There were many times I wanted to give up, I just couldn't see a way out. I worked a murder/suicide and just about couldn't make myself go to work the next shift, but I just kept pushing on. Good luck on your paper.

No Julia needed. I started my EMT-B class during my senior year of high school as a provisional student. I couldn't take national registry until I turned 18. If you call and explain I'm sure they will make an exception. Wharton has a pretty awesome EMS program. I'm not sure of the other programs in Houston.

When I started we did standing take downs every day...I haven't done one in probably the last 5 years. I'm curious, are they still taught how to do a standing take down?

This is hard to think about... You know they just passed legislation in Texas so paramedics can carry on duty with their License to Carry and 20 additional hours of training?

I was so excited to laugh until I cried...but sadly I'm not in Canada so I couldn't watch. :-(

I have never worked anywhere(I'm in south Texas) that you could absolutely refuse to transport anyone. We could suggest they wait and see there PCP, or drive themselves to the ER; but ultimately if the patient wanted to be transported we had to do that.

Actually we pulled the stretcher mounts out and left the stretcher at the scene, one backboard on the bench and 2 on the floor. Not safe and I wouldn't recommend it, but we really didn't have much option that day. In 10+ years that's the only time I've felt it necessary to transport like that, so I'm not suggesting it at all.

He was a super nice guy, but that day I literally could have strangled him! The same guy was cutting a lady out of her wrecked vehicle and I pointed out the metal hanging out of her arm so he wouldn't disturb it, well he thought I wanted him to pull it out and he did exactly that! In the situation it was a bit of a relief because it turned out to be superficial but it could have been a BAD deal. Now back to the actual thread...sorry for my reminiscing.

I'm not sure the logic behind it, maybe because you wouldn't otherwise use a car seat that's been in a wreck? Interesting story-I once worked a bad single vehicle rollover. 5 adult patients and 1 probably 3 month old. Rural area and we were the only ambulance within about 30 miles. Bad weather so no air support. On arrival all the patients were scattered over the scene, I assessed the baby first and it was in a car seat, no obvious trauma, and crying. I went to assess everyone else and the whole time I was listening for that babies cry, because if I could hear it crying it was breathing. At one point one of the volunteer firefighters walks up to me with the baby in his arms wanting me to make it stop crying. You know when you're super busy and somebody disturbs the "plan" you have? I was super frustrated because in my head I couldn't put the baby back in the car seat and it wasn't big enough to secure in the onboard system. I put the baby back in anyway because there was literally nowhere else to transport it. I had 3 adult patients on backboards in my ambulance.

I was going through Bachelors program at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio until life got in the way. I had to take a test to get the 52 hours credit for already being a paramedic. Some of the classes were really easy, and some made me want to pull my hair out.