rat115

Great job! These animals are partners and treated the same as the human coworkers by these officers. By treating the animal (and getting a vet's input), these medics did what they could for a recognized law enforcement officer. I started my medical field training as a vet assistant when I was in high school. Most medications are dosed to animals on a scale similar to pediatrics. Their metabolism and size are closer to kids than adults, so it works.

Here we respond as our EMDs dispatch us. Normally, because we first have to respond to our ambulance location, we respond emergent. We're told either "emergent" or "non-emergent" when we're toned for the call. On the way to the ER, it's our call. In 3 yrs, I've only used both lights and sirens about 10 times that weren't auto accidents. We do a LOT of ground transfers out of here. We're ONLY allowed to use lights/sirens when there is an issue. The last time I went emergent was for a pre-term OB who had the Tributaline start wearing off during the 2.5 hr transfer.

Wow! Glad nothing serious came of this accident.

Prayers to all who are dealing with the after effects of this horrible event.

Bye, Mr Bear!!!! I have refused to go after toys that were thown from places that made them dangerous to retrieve. Once, I even looked at my son and asked him if he thought he'd be safe going after the item he threw. When he told me no, I told him that I knew I wouldn't be safe and would not go after it. He never threw something that meant something to him again. I've even refused to allow tantrums over toys lost after he was told to leave them at home so they wouldn't get lost or stolen. Sounds like these parents and kid need some serious help before the kid hits his teens and becomes real trouble.

Being able to say a BTDT to a having my marriage after a stay that lasted into the teens in years and having kids, I'd suggest that you wait. Take time to get you feeling good about you and your kids. You never know where you'll meet someone special. Just be yourself, take time for yourself and your kids, and live life. You'll find guys you'll be interested in dating in time. Date them for a while before you introduce them to your kiddos, so you know them. Most of all, don't rush it. Good luck!

I've been hit on a few times. Normally, it's by pts and not coworkers. Did have one that hit on me, but not for long.

Closest I've come to a random test was when my advisor told us all last year that he was wrong and we did need a drug test done before clinicals. Didn't bother me a bit. Right now, I'm fighting with my boss at my non-EMS job to get drug testing done. They found a meth pipe in an employee only area about 3 weeks ago and have done nothing about it. :roll:

Get that patent and you'd make a good living.

The service I work with doesn't allow firearms. I don't feel that they are needed most of the time. If they are needed, I've normally got LEO either there or on the way. To add to that, I'm trained in martial arts. I can defend myself if needed, but can normally talk through a situation. I've been known to guilt trip drunks who were getting nasty with the guys on the service and get them to agree to treatment & transport. It's just watching the person and knowing when and how to back off.

Mints or a strong flavored gum can help too, if you're comfortable with that. I, personally, don't like to use these because I don't like to try to talk around things in my mouth with a pt. I still think a vapor rub is one of the best solutions. And don't stress it too much. My boss has been and EMT for 20 years and still has that problem. We raz him about it every chance we get.

I like what DocHarris was describing. Need to figure out a way to clean it of blood, etc. The vacuum splints are nice. I want to warn you of 1 thing.....Make sure to put a sheet under the pt. I had a pt with a hip fx that was brought into our ER by the completely volly service on the west end of our county. The hospital left the pt on the splint and transported after the weather got good enough for us to ground her. By the time I got there, she was stuck to the splint. My partner, pt and I agreed that she didn't want to be moved and put through the pain neccessary to get her off the splint. (I gave her the choice since she was awake and alert.) We got into the hospital where she was having surgery and got a bit of a chewing from the PA who was there. When the pt and I explained what had happened, he backed off us and chewed the local hospital a new one.

I've never needed to wrap a hip fx. A pelvic fx, yes. When you have the rotation like that, it shows that something's up with the femoral neck and that area. Here, we scoop em. Pad the scoop and under their knees so they are comfortable, and go. We've left some on the scoop at the ER until they went to x-ray when they were hurting really badly and x-ray was just about ready for them. I have to admit that I once used a traction splint on a femur fx. The pt was c/o muscle spasms and had no pelvic pain. Her pain went from a 10/10 to a 7/10 when manual traction was applied, so we used a traction splint. Our local hospital took it off for transport to higher level of care. The doc at the hospital we trasfered her to asked why the ER here took it off if it helped the pt's pain level. He actually complimented me for putting it on in the first place (listening to the pt and treating the pt and thinking outside the box) and told me that I should have followed my gut and put it back on even though the doc here told me not to.

Horrible loss no matter when, but worse at this time of the year. Prayers for family, friends. coworkers. Special prayers for those who were on scene with Michelle at the time of the accident. I know this has to be hard on them. I'm glad they've got the guy in custody. It shows that the law enforcement officers do their job well in finding him.

iMac hit what I'd do on the head to a large extent. I would tell the pt that the extent of conversation was up to her. As for touching, I know that the clothing that the pt is wearing would be examined for DNA so I would have her wrapped in a sheet. I would limit touching anywhere not covered by the sheet. I would explain the reasons for this to her. As for a hug or such, I'd be more than willing to give her a hug, with the sheet in place, to comfort her.

You know, I've often wondered about the people with the time to get to 1000 posts within a couple of months. What do they do with their lives besides sit at a computer? Do they even work really? Myself, I don't post a lot because 1) I don't have a lot of extra time, 2) I only post on stuff that catches my interest when I'm short on time, 3) I don't like to repeat what's already been posted unless there's a good reason to, and 4) I don't like to play in the bashing threads. If I want to talk about what's going on in my life, I either go goof off in chat or post on another forum that's not related to EMS. Even there, I lag behind the others who were the original members of the forum (we all moved at once from a forum that shut down) in the post counts because I read and don't always comment or just don't have time to post. The ladies there know that and don't question it, but it's a smaller forum and we know each other well.

The negative stories stink. Unfortunately, there are always a couple of bad apples in the barrel and they're the one's that get found out. I can attest to the fact that the news agencies LOOK for the stories that are going to give them the most hype and best ratings. I worked for a Gannett paper for 5 years and have seen it numberous times. I do have to say that I like the local paper where I live. They print "Thank you cards" from folks when they're sent in. We've had specific EMTs named a number of times in those thank you cards for what they've done. It's always sent into the paper by the pt or pt's family, so we're not liable under HIPPA for them being printed. I guess one of the positives about being in a rural setting is that the people do realize that it's real people who are helping them in an emergency.

I'm with Arctickat so far. I'd also get someone on Fire to get on the phone with the Coop. They can tell us how to pull this apart. They might even know a farmer in the area or have a staff member in the area that has the equipment to pull it .....Fast. (Of course, one of our FD guys here works for the Coop, so he'd be the one that'd be tagged for that job.) Do we have bleeding stopped? Let's get the Lifepack set up next to the pt and set it to take vitals every 3-5 minutes. This will help us to keep an eye on that while we work on extracation. Watch the fluid levels. Because of the MOI, I want him on a NRB at 15 LPM. It may be about 87 in the shade, but let's get a blanket to at least partially cover the pt. That's still cool enough to have to worry about hypothermia with the amount of blood loss we're looking at. As for a field amputation.....No paramedics on our crew, so we couldn't get away with that anyway. If the doc wants that, we're getting a 2nd amb en route with the doc on board so HE can do it. If the doc's coming out anyway, let's find out if the family knows his blood type and get blood brought out with the doc so that can be started to give him a better chance at survival.

Kaisu, It sounds like you've looked back over the situation and come away with some good insights between you're own QA/QI and what has been commented here. One thing I notice is that you said that the medic who took over knew the pt for 18 yrs. In the system I work in, we are supposed to call in someone else if we know the pt really well. We are a rural eastern CO service, so it's common to know the person. If it's someone that's a close friend or relative, we've found that it's easier to make mistakes because of emotion. That's why it's part of our protocals to call in help or turn the pt over to the other EMT on the call. I have a hard time believing that you're director was so flippant about the drug box, too. That would be something I'd be documenting and keeping track of. Mistakes on meds can get you in legal trouble, so it's your job to watch it. I've seen the stack of paperwork that goes with a messup on something the FDA oversees. It's a B****! Hope things improve with the new hospital.

Woohooo!!!!! We might get to have another Flat Stanley visit!!! Count in the Rat pack!!!!

Prayers to the families and friends of all who perished.

So glad to hear that Cheeky came off the vent yesterday. Hope she gets to feeling better and is back home quickly.

Glad to hear that Cheeky and baby are both doing better. Prayers with you and your family.

Luv ya, spen!!! Depends on which side of the running crazy you're on as to "best" or "worst" joke ever. (And yes, I do know that some dads are able to take the heat and keep up with all of that while some moms aren't.)