DFIB

Hey Andrew, Welcome! Hang around and jump in wherever your interest is sparked.

Welcome Jason! Come back often!

It is good to hear you got your ducks in row. That is always nice. Welcome!

I really don't ever think of the triple K unless they are in the news and am not at all interested in their opinion. I think the original idea was that people should not force themselves on others as opposed to the opposite. You do know that the Klan was started by Democrats, right?

Funny how that worked out.

Welcome Mike, Congrats on your work with the Red Cross! It is a great organization. Don't be shy, jump right in to the conversations and enjoy!

I agree with ArticKat only you may loose more than just the one student if you drug screen everyone which is not a bad thing, right.

She is cute. I will be happy to help out.

The shooter is mighty jacked up and keeps hopping around for a while before additional officers arrive and he settles down. His partner has a " Dude, you just shot in my direction and I am lucky you only hit the dog" look on his face. I think they did pretty well for city folks. Some people that grow up in the country (many country people do not participate in hunting) shoot live things quite frequently and would possibly be more accustomed to actually seeing their bullets impact living flesh. The amount of information being processed could easily cause psych and neuro overload. Firing a weapon on a crowded street has to have a psychosomatic effect that is potentiated by shooting into living flesh, seeing the dog squeal as blood spatters on the pavement, hearing people screaming at you, the relief of saving your partner, wondering if you did the right thing, imagining the butt chewing and sea of paperwork if it turns into a PR nightmare all the while knowing that your actions have been taped and will face the scrutiny of thousands is a lot to process in less than a few seconds. Heck yea he was a little freaked out.

Imagine them naked!

I would question if having a certification or license trumps the Good Samaritan philosophy and obligates to medical direction. This has always been a huge question for for me. Exactly how much can we help when we are off duty. In criminal cases I believe (not verified with a lawyer) that intent is one of the major contributors to the difference between manslaughter and murder. In this case I think motive and intent is more important than opportunity. There would seem to be a big difference between helping someone that you casually run across during normal activities and actively seeking accidents to run to. The comparison is not in the act but the value of the implications of intent.

This part of the article is interesting "D.C. Fire and EMS has been under fire ever since to revamp its system so that seriously injured people get to the hospital in less than seven minutes." Is this possible?

It does look like the kind of set up that "city fathers" might think is a match made in heaven. FF and LE smooching on TV, kinda like a mastercard commercial.

Good points all Mike. How much do you think something like this would cost? Even if it is approved I would be hard pressed to consider it a legitimate use of resources. Don't local channels cover whatever FFs invite them to cover anyway? I guess if we equate approved to legitimate we could even the playing field.

Can mismanagement be considered good PR?

You are correct once again Mr. chbare. The question I would ask is who has the authority to authorize the private use of public resources and what are the odds that person or group of persons would agree to the variance of city resources? Short of the city council who legitimately has that authority?

Long time no see, Longstar. It is good to see you around again. I wonder how far up the food chain you would have to go to get the city to loan you a ladder truck? Lighten up? Is that a legal term that justifies resource variance?

I wonder why employees think that they can use their work equipment that does not belong to them for personal reasons. It is even worse that the media portrays the misuse of equipment and public resources a cute. The taxpayers of Salt Lake City should send them a bill and sanctions levied against all involved. See the video here

Being a volunteer should not mean that the standards are lowered. Volunteers should be required to up to par with the service standards that our communities have come to expect and deserve. It is not the 300lb volunteers fault he is a fireman. The responsibility lies firmly on management and the standards they have allowed to relax. A management that relaxes fitness standards demonstrates a lack of interest in responder safety. That is why more FF die from fitness related issues than on the job injury. If one responder is down, everyone has been hazarded. The trade off between trade off between high standards and filling the shift spots would seem to be costly and counterproductive in the long run. When people loose confidence in the service, what is the point. When team members can't trust their partners, the committed workers will gravitate away from poorly run services. That is why we see volleys that are almost entirely conformed of uncommitted elements. Standards are relaxes and the committed, experienced people go elsewhere. Then again this is a problem that permeates EMS as well. There are many EMS workers that are not fit either. Just because we should have fitness standards does not mean that we do. Any person who wants to do the job should be disciplined enough to prepare adequately for the job they are doing. EDIT: I also agree that FF and Military/LE personnel are not in the same category.

I agree, and in the same situation I would have most likely acted the same. It was a great quick draw and shot, and the policeman proved to be a great instinctive shooter. Shooting in public is a very tricky thing. Once the bullet is launched it cannot be called back. I am glad it worked out well. If it had been me the bullet would have missed the dog, hit the pavement, shattered into multiple fragments, hit my partner and some poor dude down the street that was watching the show. Yep, it would be involuntary manslaughter for me.

The results of this study are a little starling and interesting as well. August 14, 2012 (Boston, Massachusetts) — Data from two prospective cohort studies have identified the ABO blood group as a risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease [1]. Individuals with blood groups A, B, or AB were 5% to 23% more likely to develop coronary heart disease compared with subjects with O blood type, and the associations were not altered by multivariate adjustment of other risk or dietary factors. The analysis, led by Dr Meian He (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA), included 62 073 women from the Nurses' Health Study(NHS) and 27 428 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) and is published in the September 2012 issue ofArteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. In the NHS and HPFS, the incident rates of coronary heart disease per 100 000 person-years were 125, 128, 142, and 161 for women with type O, A, B, and AB, respectively, and 373, 382, 387, and 524 for men with type O, A, B, and AB, respectively. Compared with individuals with O blood type, individuals with blood group A, B, or AB had a respective 5%, 11%, and 23% increased risk of developing coronary heart disease in an age-adjusted model. These associations were not significantly altered in the multivariable-adjusted risk model. Michael O’Riordan, Heartwire © 2012 Medscape, LLC You can read the complete article Here, but you have to log in first.

Congratulations on starting your EMT course. You will find it to be proportionally fulfilling to the effort you put into the class. Here is a link to a list of abbreviations that might help you. Some EMS phrases that come to mind are "Never do anything you wouldn't tell you paramedic", "If it is wet and not yours, don't touch it" and "If your patient has a priaprism, he is not happy to see you"!

That was one risky shot, with a very high risk of collateral damage. The weapon was discharged pointing down the street with a chance of ricochet. I am more concerned with the LEO discharging his weapon in a crowded environment than that his target was a dog.

Could the light touch sensation be heightened? I once saw a patient with all of the symptoms but presented severe pain to the lightest touch in all four extremities. Her MOI was falling off a horse and hitting the ground with her forehead. Sounds very similar. I simply thought she had fractured her neck.