JakeEMTP

Not as bad as the first show, that's for sure. My personal jury is still out on this one. I have to wonder though, why wouldn't they transport the arterial bleed via ground since there was only something like 10 ambulances on scene. NIMS was out the window on this call. And another thing, if the pilot would just unzip her flight suit about 1/2 in. more, this would be porn.

Gotta agree with Docharris on this one. The 12-lead ECG is a diagnostic tool. If you do a right-sided 12-lead and see infarct, you would withhold the nitro and Morphine right? You are given the tools, use them correctly. The service I am employed by is not cutting edge by any stretch of the imagination. On the other hand, we aren't exactly Podunk USA either. Recently a new procedure was implemented where, based on Paramedic field interpretation of the 12-lead, we can take the patient directly to the cath-lab after a brief consult in the trauma bay with the Attending ED doc simply to confirm our, dare I say it, diagnosis. I have been told do the "newness" of this protocol change, the Medical Director wants to be sure we are taking true STEMI patients to the cath-lab. His feeling is it took so long to get the Cardiologists on board with this that he'd like to keep it that way. The general consensus is this too shall pass.

I see. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your post. It had been an exceptionally shitty shift and I guess I just missed it. I tend to forget about BLS crews as we are all ALS here and our Medical Director trusts us for the most part. We ( my partner and I ) will work a code on scene to the max. but no ROSC, no transport.

Yeah, we have field termination orders. Spenac has it right yet again! If you absolutely have to do CPR enroute for some reason, the only thing I can think of is your patient codes enroute to the hospital, please make sure you have a backboard under you patient. The Attending Physicians at the hospital we go to HATE when crews bring dead people in. There is nothing more the hospital can do that cannot be done in the field. Herbie, while I agree with a lot you have to say, I feel you missed this one. When you feel you're doing something, essentially you're doing nothing.

As long as it's not based in L.A. They still operate like Johnny and Roy did 35 years ago there!

Better than Lenoir. LOL I think Duplin, Pender, New Hanover are all good systems. The two you mentioned in your first post though are, in my opinion, the best in the State. Just sayin.

Matty, What? No Wayne County? Forsyth County EMS in Winston Salem NC is a decent place to work from what I have been told. http://www.fcems.com/

Agreed. It appears from the article that the child was beyond saving. It also appears if the parent AND the caregiver had taken the child with diarrhea, A persistent cough and a temp of a 102 to their PCP the outcome might have been avoided.

Sorry about that. Over here we are not in the military and thus not treated as such. We do that too. Usually at the beginning of the shift. If I know Richard, hardly.

It seems like Hollywood has missed once again. If they would at least try and make it somewhat "real world" people might watch it. Jumping out of your helicopter with your cape on, popping someone with Versed and walking away is poor form and just down right wrong. I, like everyone else has seen the trailer for this trash. It's crap and left a funny taste in my mouth. The sad part is, the lay public might just like this show and it will stay on forever to the determent of my chosen profession. Shows like this do nothing for EMS but coddle the cowboy mentality and attract whackers. Ha! One of the comments from the JEMS crowd suggested a show like "COPS" for EMS. "Paramedics" was the closest thing to reality that we had and was a decent show but was thwarted by HIPPA. The reality is, a show showing the way things really are is boring and wouldn't sell. Can you imagine 2 out of shape EMT's complete with ballcap, "You can't force me to run into a burning building, I'm a volunteer" T-shirt sitting around eating "Cheetos" and watching Jerry Springer for hours until the tones go off? Not my idea of entertainment. Disclaimer: Before some of you go off the deep end, My description was purely fictional, I hope. God knows no of you work for a squad like that!

Well, it was Edgecombe County. Just sayin. I good friend of mine responded to this wreck from Pitt County due to the proximity of their station to the County line. His assessment of the scene was the same as the Troopers. Luckily though, the ECRS was on their way to a call and did not have a patient on board. The outcome would have been quite different. This should be a "heads up" to all. Slow down when going around corners! A ambulance is NOT the most stable vehicle, it is top heavy. IF you don't make it to the call, does it matter how fast you think you can drive?

I have to agree with our esteemed colleague spenac. Doing the research on your own is imperative. Everyone who has posted above has had to do what is now asked of you. While we may offer different styles of studying, the premise is the same. Write on an index card what you think is required information. Read these cards, record and listen to them over and over until you can make a new set of cards from memory. I broke my drugs up in to categories. I placed all cardiac medications together and studied them as a unit. Then airway medications. Then, well, you get the idea. While it may seem tedious and lengthy to make out your own drug cards, the pharmacology section of your paramedic class flunks out the majority of the students in my experience. There really is no shortcut. You HAVE to know this stuff. Information I had on my cards was; -Drug name, Generic and trade, we use Zofran as an antiemetic. On the vial though it is called Ondansetron. -Dosages and route of administration as some dosages change with the route ie: Torodol 30mg IV, 60mg IM -Indications for use -Contraindications for use - Side effects of the medication - Desired result of administration Good luck with your class!

I say screw the union also Ruff. Cos hit the nail square on the head with his assessment of today's unions. Protecting the lazy and inept is their mandate. There was a time when unions were necessary for all. Now, not so much. Anyway, the "Union" debate has been discussed here ad nauseam. The moral of the story is, answer the questionnaire ( it's not even a test as far as we know), and carry on. I will never understand the mentality of the membership of some dept.'s. The Brotherhood? I say Oh Brother!

Most of the comments would be laughable if not for being pathetic. It seems that the majority of posters have know idea what they're talking about. Quite sad actually. It is a simple task of completing ONE EMS shift in NINETY DAYS!! If you work on a 24/48 schedule as NNFD appears to, why is this so difficult? And why would it involve overtime? It appears Chief Stolts has the inflated ego not Dr. Tober. Or perhaps the IAFF has his nuts in a vice and won't allow it. Dunno, just a guess.

I agree. However, can you imagine the "stink" raised by the Union?

I also support Dr. Tober. As LS stated in his rather excellent post, if you can't be bothered to maintain you mandated requirements, then please, don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out of EMS! I feel fairly confident that these "EMS providers" ( cough!) have NEVER missed a fire recert class!

Seriously? Just fill out the questionnaire. What are you trying to hide?

Ha! I guess not even the parking lot. The point is I guess, if you do your job correctly, just taking patients to the hospital w/o providing some sort of intervention if required, really isn't EMS at all.

I don't know. I've been on a respiratory distress call less than a mile from the hospital and had one Albuterol nebulised treatment started in the SNF and 125mg of Solumedrol administered before arrival at the hospital. How close do you have to be to do nothing? The parking lot? While this opinion may not be yours Adam, the individual who spewed this shyte needs to move on.

I agree with your services handling of the incident at hand. I can't help thinking though, w/o trying to highjack the thread, with a CP call, why isn't the medic automatically dispatched? Perhaps since I work in an all paramedic level system my thinking is clouded. But if the FD had a medic, why did a basic crew have to call a medic for CP? Sorry, just thinking out loud.

I agree with Fireflymedic. e-medicine is a great reference as well as PubMed. Both are user friendly and informative. The American College of Cardiology has a nice little tool for help with ECG's. It is amazing what you can find with a Google search! http://www.emergencymedicine.ucla.edu/ECGChallenge/ www.MyAmericanHeart.org has some nice information I have found useful as well as www.mayoclinic.com .

Unfortunately, that is the norm for the FD here. Their claim is the were to close to do any interventions, unless of course it is the "cool"stuff. I had a partner who was similar to the one Micheal summed up. This individual would get out of the ambulance and walk towards the location of the pt. w/o bringing anything with them. I would bring the bag, monitor and O2 which I thought might be required and the stretcher. Enough times of hearing "how about giving me a hand?" I guess eventually shamed them into doing there part. This individual is no longer my partner, however I recently spoke with the person who is now partnered with them and was told they were an outstanding partner. Badgering your partner until they eventually shape up doesn't always work and can be hard on you, but it can be done.

This was a really cool exercise to be involved in. The SAR people are truly professionals. By the time I was "rescued", most of the morning had passed. I will say, being hoisted towards rotating blades is a little unnerving! I was thankful for being picked me up before lunch. We have run rescue scenarios before but nothing at this level. I am on the SMAT (State Medical Assistance Team)team here in Eastern NC and for 3 days we were "deployed" to the fairgrounds for this exercise. Great training for all involved. With any luck at all we won't need to use it, but setting up the Western Shelters and the ED, decon areas and the like went really well. As much as I dislike the FD, all agencies worked extremely well together. Take the FD away from running EMS calls and their actually ok LOL. As I was typing this, Tropical Depression # 2 has become Tropical Storm Ana. Maybe the timing of this training was impeccable. Let's hope it was purely coincidence.

Luxury! (as he says in his best Monty Python voice) We have some ff's arrive on scene and they will do anything asked of them. Others not so much. They can do compressions and bag, which is all we ask of them. If I was unfortunate enough to be placed in this situation, another ambulance is at minmum 20 minutes away. I would have to choose which patient to work.