DwayneEMTP

I'm truly glad to hear you say that, because now I don't need insurance. I simply need enough money to fly to NZ, right? Screw health insurance, I'm going to bank a few thousand dollars and then if I ever get terribly sick I'll fly over there and exercise my human right to top notch medical care despite my inability to pay. Thanks man!! Yeah, we do hope to some day claw our way out of our mud huts and rub some sticks together for fire or something... I'm a little surprised to hear about the "joy" the Aussies and Kiwis exude when describing the euphoria of giving basic human needs to all. I worked with many people from each country...and don't you both have indigenous populations that you're really not so friggin' happy to be supplying with 'basic human needs?' Seems like I might have heard something like that whispered from time to time... And I was once physically prevented from hitting a male Canadian nurse in Afg when I was told that if a double traumatic Afghani amputee wanted proper pain management four hours post op that 'perhaps he can show me his insurance card?" Easily the least compassionate medicine I witnessed there came from Canada. Is this a symptom of socialized medicine? I don't know, but if it is, then it certainly should be discussed, shouldn't it? (I have only my small little snapshot of Afg NATO medicine, so it's certainly possible that the crews I witnessed were some type of fluke. I simply know that I didn't witness like flukes from any other countries.) Now, I have friends that I love from each of these countries. My point isn't to degrade them but to suggest that if we're actually going to discuss there merits and detriments of socialized medicine then perhaps we might be better served to amputate the nonsensical Kumbaya (sp) dialog from the discussion. Throughout this discussion we've allowed the countries with socialized medicine to present it as if everyone there walks into well lit clinics and hospitals where the staff is waiting for them with a dethorned red rose just gushing over the opportunity to serve them immediately. "OOhhh that mole does look nasty. It should be removed. Well, we have an opening this afternoon if that will suit your purposes?" "Mr. Jones, you will need your knee replaced before we'll be able to get you walking without that terrible pain. Will the day after tomorrow be good for you? Awesome! We'll send someone to pick you up!" Can those of you that come from countries with socialized medicine tell me honestly if these are the conversations you're overhearing when you go to the doctor? This is not the description that I've been given by you all in the past. Why suddenly do we wish to pretend that it's the reality now? We've been through page after page of "We have socialized medicine because we hold basic human rights more dearly than you do!" Any chance we can call this thread a no bullshit zone from this point forward and talk scratch? Dwayne

No need to PM you man, I'll speak to you here where folks can offer opinions. Too bad you sent the below PM, as I actually agreed with you on some of your points above. I received the following PM today... boeingb13 sent you a new conversation Subject: ? Replies: 0 Sent: Today, 08:49 PM I love how you loud mouth internet tough guys get on here and say what ever you want knowing you can hide behind a name. If your ever in north Florida, look me up. We'll discuss your comments in person. Let me break this down for you sport. Hide behind a name? My name happens to be Dwayne. And I happen to be an EMTP. And you may have noticed that my picture is right there by my name. From your response, can I assume that you're real name is boeingb13? (For the record Hotshot, the grownup world capitalizes names.) Because certainly a man like you wouldn't hide behind a pseudonym (a pseudonym is a pretend name used in the place of a real name)...Or would you? And if you would, wouldn't that then not only make you a coward for making your bullshit threats in private, but also the worst kind of hypocrite? The good news is that you've shown yourself to be the exact kind of ignorant coward that I'd predicted you'd be when I responded to Annie. This isn't 4th grate any more shithead. You need to use logic and intelligent debate to make your points here...No one's afraid of you. Good luck with your EMS endeavors. Dwayne (My real name)

Hey brother, welcome. We can always use some new ideas, perspectives, opinions! Jump in, learn, teach, argue..but please participate. Glad to have you! Dwayne

Yeah Annie, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a reply. His type is of a common kind...They spend 2-3 minutes on a frantic mental dry hump and then shoot their verbal load all over the thread but run away before the possibility of hearing the pitter patter of the little feet of debate, and the responsibility that that entails.. It's unfortunate that the fire services, of whom we have many members here that I respect very much, is most often represented by 6th grade spelling, grammar and logic. Dwayne

Yeah, made an acct, tried to post..... "I, as well, don't see the problem here. Well over half of the calls that the firefighters are running are medical. They don't want to be held to professional standards and oversight like the rest of the medical community, so it's simple really. Lay off half of the firemen, replace them with ambulances carrying medical professionals. Then an ambulance will be the first vehicle to arrive when a person needs medical attention and it will be staffed with personnel that have chosen to be on a medical scene instead of someone that finds medical care and the educational and accountability burdens that that entails distasteful. Why make this more difficult than it has to be? Some people want to educate themselves and be held accountable. Those people should survive and flourish, others don't, and they should be eliminated. Of course, there is not a snow balls chance in heck that this bill will pass, so the majority of this will end up to be mental Mast....., you know, at best. But that's not always a bad thing. I'm confident however that there are many fire professionals that study, stay sharp, and have no fear at all of medical oversight. For them I'm sorry, as they'll be painted with the same brush meant for the ignorant yahoos." Got this... "You comment contains a word or words which are considered inappropriate. Please edit your comment and resubmit." Pricks!....(I added the pricks part.) So I changed "Chance in hell" to "chance in heck." Changed "Mental masturbation" to "mental Mast....., you know" changed mental Mast....., you know" to "moot" and I refuse to change ignorant Yahoos to anything else as it just has a nice flavor when speaking about these dipshits. Finally I just gave up. I'm thinking that if "heck" the offending word then I probably don't have the communication style necessary to make my point in that theater. I've discovered I'm really not very good at expressing my opinion when strict censorship is invloved.. :-) but I have no idea what the hell is wrong with the above... Dwayne

I hate these stories and am probably going to get mugged for this opinion. But what the hell? I can see that a habit of this is a problem, but barring the fact that these are a bunch a yahoos and they'll just using this to kick their asses, I don't really see the problem. Dyaln And Babs came to stay for a few days in Trinidad where I work. I let Dylan call us on the car, Dylan,"Trinidad, 3103" , Dispatch,"3103", Dylan,"Good morning. Could you put Womack and XXX on this truck please?" "Copy, and good morning to you!" Now, for those of you that don't know, Dylan is autistic, so this wasn't as smooth in reality is as it in text. Dispatch called a few minutes later to my cell and told me that they thought it was adorable. Now, there certainly was a chance I could have gotten jammed up for inappropriate radio traffic. But you know what? Put the friggin paper in my file...Dylan thought it was cool as hell, and those moments are rare for him, dispatch played along and thought it was cute, response and service was in no way compromised, so screw it. Now, the next time it happens, another time that night, or even next week, when it appears that there is a pattern of disrespect for communications, then it should be an issue. And please folks, I'm begging you, is it possible to forgo the "What if everyone did that!?!" argument? Because everyone isn't doing it, and everyone is never going to. Have a great day all... Dwayne

I hadn't seen the show before, so I asked Babs to record it for me. She said, "I watched a little bit of it..I think you're going to hate it." But you know what? I didn't. Did I see a lot of inaccuracies? Sure, but I see just as many in House, and I love that show. Why didn't I hate it? The folks were dressed decent and were actually able to to speak in full sentences. It showed the fact that some of EMSers believe that intelligence is held in higher esteem than bravado. The pilot guys is all screwed up, and we see those folks, but he's also a cowboy (guessing from peoples' comments towards him) and for a change no one was in awe of the 'cowboy' but held him in disdain. They showed an inexperienced provider, I don't know if he's a new medic or basic, screw up, and actually explained that that is part of EMS. He had to make some decisions, as he'd asked for help and been told to "deal with it", made some poor decisions when he had to, without guidance, and now has to live with it. Often we (at least me) have to make decisions and hope that they are the right ones. Most times they are, sometimes they aren't, but the possibility of really screwing the pooch is there. Can I say it was a bad idea to split the crew from the allergic reaction and the chest pain guy? Sure, I would have managed them both on the lawn. But then the kid wouldn't have been alone, wouldn't have screwed up, and the point wouldn't have been made. They gave us, as professional providers, plenty to bitch about, but I think they also made some effort to give us some things to like if we look for them. Do kids believe that all firemen are heros because they've watched a lifetime of shows that explain the exact angle of attack for a fire? Or because they've watched years of them spending half an hour defining the optimum number of personnel and equipment necessary to fight a structure fire before running in to save the baby? No man, they showed them doing a bunch of nerve wracking, exciting stuff. You all seem to want EMS explained to the masses in these shows. How about being happy that they were presented in professional, intelligent manner when viewed from the uneducated point of view? I was actually shocked after all the comments I've read here to actually see it. We can pick apart the fact that the chick in the backyard was bagging without making a mask seal, that the kid gave three shots of nitro, that some of us would or wouldn't actually work a trauma COR or afterwards be fucked up by it, but all in all it appeared that they tried, from the outside looking in, to present EMS as having an overworked, kind, decent spirit...and for me that's a good thing. Let's watch what they do with the macro impressions and work backwards from there to the micro and see if that isn't a better approach? I look forward to seeing how the show progresses. Dwayne

I gave that nickname to akflightmedic in Afg when we worked together because, if you delete smelly and add hairy, the rest of that description fits him to a T. I made the comment in reference to it making him batshit crazy that we sometimes post to threads that are eons old. Also, though he's big and hairy, if you poke him at just the right time the results can vary from an hours long discussion on why you're a dork to a spontaneous dance routine from your favorite musical while singing the appropriate song, somewhat in tune. (I'm relatively sure that he's the only non gay person I've ever known that knows every dance and all of the words from every musical ever written) The suspense makes the danger worthwhile... :-) Dwayne

Mostly I've just made hosemonkey jokes until Fire won't talk to me or help me lift fat people anymore.... I speak to my coworkers about the politics involved in in the ruckus between fire and EMS but most of the medics I work with are either fire based part timers, volunteer fire, or ex fire working full time now as single role medics, so my opinions are not terribly popular. This really isn't an issue that 'someone' can do something about. It will take years at least to build the organization necessary to get any message out that the IAFF can't squash. But continuing to talk, continuing to educate ourselves is not a bad first step while we wait for the Moses that will lead us out of our Israel of mediocrity and disassociation. Dwayne

Well, when your entire community is practically an assisted living facility I would expect it to be much more of an issue. Though perhaps you're right, it's possible that my experience is unique to my area, though although this population is small, it has a significant geriatric population percentage wise. Wouldn't change my argument however. I'm simply unwilling to remove the rights of those that sacrificed to secure them in the first place. This requires a better solution... Dwayne (And you have to admit, "poke the Yetti" has kind of a cool ring to it!)

From the description it sounds like cellulitis, and not like any isolated bruise I've ever seen. She has multi system pathologies already, and it sounds like she's got issues secondary to regular antibiotic use. It also sounds like this isn't a terribly new onset cellulitis, if in fact that is what it turns out to be. If they don't jump on it really soon I'm not sure how they will treat this pt with cellulitis on an edematous extremity as well as an unrelated vasculopathy. Pretty tough to deliver antibiotics through compromised vasculature that's also being squished by edema. I suppose it's possible that the trauma was deep enough to cause her some compartment issues and the swelling from the two is enough to cause the cellulitis like symptoms, but I would expect that to become cooler to the touch, not warmer. Yeah, I'm going with cellulitis. Plus, you're pretty smart for a girl...I wouldn't bet against you in any case.. :-) Be an interesting case to follow if you're able. Dwayne

I'm not only going to post in this thread to poke the Yeti, (No worries, most won't get it.)(And no, that's not a euphemism.) But because I feel pretty strongly about this topic so I'm glad that it's come back... I was just bitching to my partner David about this thread and he said, "How many accidents do we run on in this age group? I mean, we see plenty of these people driving, but how many do we run on?" And he and I agreed that, though it seems that with the way that they appear to drive at times that they should be killing scads of people daily, it seems to rarely happen when compared to the 50 and under crowd. And when we do they are usually single car accidents or traffic accidents with minor damage and minor to no injuries. He also added, "Of the people that want to take these rights away, how many do you suppose actually run on them, and because of that care for their safety, as opposed to just being pissed off because they have to drive behind or around them?" You all will have to answer that. This is my thought. Many in this age group have lived through two Great Wars, fought, bled, lost husbands/wives/kids, as well as stepped up in many, many named and unnamed 'conflicts.' They've driven the wolf from our door for most of a century. They've survived the Great Depression and rebuilt our country and economy to the point that we are now allowed to sit around getting fat while playing Nintendo between bouts of bitching about them. Soooo, I could give a rats ass if we need to issue lights for the tops of their cars, give them little warning sirens to alert people that they're coming, issue them drivers so that they can maintain their mobility. I hope that if there is a God in heaven, or elsewhere for that matter, that he strikes me dead the day that I feel comfortable telling these folks that they no longer have the right to enjoy the freedoms that they've fought and suffered for. Just my thoughts... Dwayne Edited because it appeared that I'd put a crack addict in charge of punctuation and spelling. No contextual changes made. (Or so my crack addict tells me.)

Hey Gemini, welcome to the City. There are a bunch of us that started late. Of course not as late as Spenac and CrapMagnet, but still... Good to have you. Remember that reading is good, but pales in comparison to the benefit you get if you take chances and participate. Good luck in your new career! Dwayne

God Damn it...I'm just a paramedic..I get confused by all of the small print and flashing lights... Dwayne

As stated above, it will depend on who your school has contracts with. I know a medic that went to a 3 month school that was allowed to do her clinicals with a non transporting fire service. It varies, but I do believe that they must be unpaid. Dwayne

That's ok girl.. :-) Sometimes things like that happen, and I'm certainly not trying to judge how people give merit to other's ideas. I've just never seen anyone get so many points so quickly without something hinky going on so was trying to see if other's had criteria for judging such posts that I was missing. Thanks for participating! It's great to have you here. Dwayne

Wow, what have you gotten, like a hundred popularity points in the last week or so? Pretty amazing when you consider that some of our most popular posters haven't managed to do so in years, with thousands of posts. Congratulations. Could the person that felt that this post was was worthy of extra credit please raise their hand? I'd be interested to know what criteria you use when doing so...Just curious... Dwayne Edited for grammar. No contextual changes made.

I don't think I'd change anything. It was a grandmother and her daughter and granddaughters were there. I explained what had happened, why I had chosen to discontinue resuc attempts, explained what they could expect from this point forward and made sure that they were physically ok. We don't need physicians OK here to choose not to initiate, nor to terminate resuscitative measures, though many choose to get them anyways to CYA. Would I use use a Victim counselor to do this if one was available? Sure. I've helped several family members die, as well as two close friends, so I'm not terribly uncomfortable in that position, but if there is someone that was educated in the needs of these patients and they'd proved in the past to be competent, then I'd use every tool at my disposal to care for those in my charge. I'm not going to allow some yahoo to step up to the plate if they show that they have no skills, but I have no ego involved in being the center of attention. If someone else is better equipped to provide comfort then they will have my full support. Dwayne

A lot of it depends of whether or not they will have adequate support in place for when these people are moved, but in general it is certainly better for the majority of mentally handicapped people. If you want to give damaged people the tools to heal, or if unable to heal then more 'normally' assimilate, one of the easiest ways to do that is to expose them to normally developing people. The more progressive school districts now 'main stream' their special needs kids with an aid. Of course it's much easier to put them all in one classroom with one teacher and several aids, but then they spend their time with others that have developmental issues as well so that, for the most part, is their entire pool of behavior to model from. When exposed to normally developing kids then they have normally developing behaviors to model from as well as the benefit of being exposed to many different types and styles of teaching. I am speaking from my experience with an autistic child only. When you add in the many diagnosis of the people that will be involved perhaps things get queered in some way. I'm not sure. From the autistic point of view, if individual diagnosis are considered and supported, and the if the 'cattle' mentality normally applied to our elderly, infirm and mentally challenged is not allowed to propagate, then I believe that this is an awesome idea. Bottom line is that we know that what we're doing now isn't working. The conditions that these people normally live in is horrendous (speaking in general of course.) and should be criminal. Any intelligent progressive move should be supported. Lots of 'ifs' though, huh? Dwayne

I haven't, but a bunch of people at my service all started it together. I don't think there were any of them that stayed with it that weren't thrilled with the results. They too all loved/hated it. Good on you for taking care of business... Dwayne

Actually there was another two paragraphs, grin, which I was to lazy to recreate. They weren't vital as they only really made the point that though I don't think they created some significant sin by making the show, I did think it was silly to neuter the spirit from EMS and then be shocked that we didn't support it. Might in fact be best as I think I stated somewhere in the orginal post that the show seemed to be made for "Those easily aroused by cute chicks with saline enhanced cleavage and/or the viewer that is likely to clap when exposed to loud noises and/or shiny objects." :-) Yeah, probably best that that got left out. Thanks for you reply. Not being the sharpest knife in the drawer it takes me a bit to create a post, and then when I find out it's been truncated I just wanna spit. But I'm better now... :-) Dwayne

Which member? I recognize the name but can't attach it to a username. I was a great article I thought. I also posted, but if others choose to do so as well there is a length limit. Perhaps I was warned about that and missed it, but it really, really pisses me off when I take time to create a halfway intelligent post only to find that posting removes my line breaks and cuts my post in half. I now have a have baked idiotic looking post on the page...I hate that. Just sayin' that if you want to post, and I always do what Dust tells me, be aware of your post length and know that it will remove your paragraphs. Dwayne

I feel the same. In fact I was just talking to a few other members about this same point a few nights ago. Which got me to thinking.......Anybody up for starting to plan another get together? Mateo, Akflightmedic (Yeti), Dust, Ruff and some others got together in Florida a year or two ago and had the most amazing friggin' time. There truly is something incredible about putting a bunch of like minds together in an environment with very, very limited rules... :-) Maybe if we start planning now we could work something out for two or three months from now?? It truly was a hilarious, inspiring, money well spend experience that ak was kind enough to host. Colorado seems like a good place to host, being in the center of the US and all, but I'll travel wherever if possible. And with my current job it's pretty possible. Let's take this to PM, or perhaps start another thread so as not to hijack this one, but I'd be interested to see if anyones interested. In the interest of staying on topic...New members, this is a good example of community. Become involved, not just intellectually, but emotionally in the community if you'd like to take your support to another level. Hopefully it goes without saying that you must do so carefully, but there truly are friends to be made here. Dwayne

Yeah, man, this chick is in deep shit, and rightly so if the story is accurate. Mom's home remedies might be good for home, but not the field in the vast majority, if any cases. It's hard to imagine that a child with life threatening pneumonia wasn't at least somewhat febrile, and if febrile I can't imagine that sitting in a hot shower was stellar advice. And it seems a through assessment should have found some significant issues with this kid. One thing I like about assessing peds is that when auscultating, their lungs might as well be on the outside of their chests. They are so close to the surface that you can kind of close your eyes, move your stethoscope around and practically build a 3D picture of what's going on inside. I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree by far, and I'm ignorant of just about everything significant that goes on inside of the body, but it's hard to imagine that there were not scary things to be found in this child if you were really looking for them. If we always try and find the reasons that their sick instead trying to prove that they're healthy I think we can avoid much of this heartbreak. Dwayne

The physical demands of this job have much less to do with your physical attributes than you're technique and intelligence. I find that I spend the majority of my time doing nothing significant and then am suddenly in a position to need to lift fat people on a heavy cot and then drag them through a bunch of weird places. At these times it's much more about making sure that I move the load so that I can lift if evenly and safely, use good lifting technique, ask for help if I need it, while the firemen are snickering about what a pussy I am. Screw the whole, "Me and Bubba pride ourselves on never having had a lift assist, not ever." One of the best medics at my service is 5'4" and 115 lbs. If she can't lift she'll ask for help, if she can't ask for help then she'll come up with an intelligent way to get the job done and not get hurt. She's my hero. EMS is sometimes about brawn, but get good now with the fact that you need to focus way more on brains. Brains are at a premium, people trying to prove that they have an unusually long penis can be found running all over EMS scenes. Make sure you're fit, and then stay that way. But know that if you are thinking of getting into EMS and your main focus is on the physical that you're off in the ditch here brother. Welcome to the City! Good to have you. You've been stung a few times about spelling and grammar. Don't let it bother you. Those folks are just poking a little fun at you in the hopes of helping you improve, thus improving your chance of success in EMS and other things. Don't take it personally, but do take it to heart, OK? Dwayne