DwayneEMTP

No worries brother. I've had posts moved and deleted for reasons that make no sense to me. Not saying there was no logic, I just couldn't reach it. Don't let it worry you. It seems that the post gremlins get fired up every now and then, but it will pass. Good questions, good post, let's just keep chugging along on a positive track, OK? Dwayne

Heh...Awesome! Sounds like fun! Dwayne

Holy crap...once again it looks like Barbara did her thing and I might be able to go. Does anyone know if there are still slots available? Probably going to come with a friend from work... Hey Cutie, I'm sure that if you can make it you can room with us/me if you want...What could possibly go wrong?? :-) Dwayne

Another paramedic. Electronically. And there was much more to the description of the pts conditions, but this sentence was part of building my argument that (as this was the third time I'd transported this pt in two hours) this pt was not truly showing seizure activity, to explain my lack of interventions this time around. See? Dwayne

From Site Rules that all claimed to have read and agreed to upon signing up for EMTCity. "Give reasonable attention to your grammar. Although we want to maintain a casual atmosphere here, this is ultimately a PROFESSIONAL forum where members of the public are free to read and draw conclusions about us as a profession. There is an automatic spell checker provided on this forum. Please use it. Do not post messages that appear as if they were taken from a 13 year old girl's AOL chat. "You" is spelled YOU, not "u." "Whatever" is spelled WHATEVER, not "w/e." And punctuation is extremely important to those trying to understand your statements. If you are too pressed for time to type legibly and using punctuation and capitalization, then please come back later when you have more time. AND NEVER POST IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!" It seems to me that this is all that Doc is talking about.... What is so friggin' hard to understand? SA, I'm thinking you've been here much longer than necessary to know that we are not laying in wait to attack those from a different country that make spelling or grammatical errors. Are you really saying that because of the cultural gap you don't understand the paragraph above? We're not asking any to be perfect, only to make a reasonable effort to use adult, high school level spelling and punctuation, right? Many here that preach education are unwilling to do so, so I think this was an awesome topic. Dwayne

Nothing else involved here. This PCR was returned as QA believed that it was an obvious error, and our PCRs are expected to contain correct spelling and grammar. That is one of the things that attracted me to this service, their attitude towards quality in all things. Thanks all for your help. This really was not a big issue. It was sent back to me, I returned it with the explanation "I believe this report to contain proper grammar." and it then just became a fun pissing contest between them and me. Thanks for your help all! 'Specially those that felt I was right.. :-) Dwayne

Nod, but nit picky is their job, and I'm truly grateful that it is. I don't get busted much, but when I do it's always valid, and makes me write better reports. If Laid is more appropriate, how come? (I'm sorry I keep missing you girl! Don't give up!!) Thanks for the feedback! Dwayne

A recent PCR came back to me from QA/QI. Each of our PCRs is reviewed by someone before being saved as a permanent document. In my PCR subjective I used the sentence, "Upon returning to the room staff discovered that the pt had lay down on the couch and 'was twitching." I believe that my sentence is grammatically correct, as they do, but neither of us is able to justify our argument. Anyone here that can say who's right and why? Dwayne

We had a meeting with a state rep and our local hospital a few months back. In Colorado EMT-Paramedics are able to help with vaccinations, and it's my understanding that it's not only in the emergency setting, but any time additional resources would be useful. I do not believe that this is the case at the EMT-Basic level. I have not confirmed this, but am confident that this is how it was explained at the Emergency Planning Meeting. Dwayne

Using Safari on PC, and it's working fine. I had that a while back but discovered that it was because I was leaving a window open at work, or on another computer so that the City hadn't shown me as logged out. Sorry, not very geekish, that's all I've got.. :-) Dwayne

Not an attack at all, but an opinion. Thanks for reinforcing my point... Dwayne I wish I could give that more than one point. Like Dust said, after each call, we review. At first just between myself and my partner, but I've finally tormented the other crews so that we do it in the group now and find it to be a bonding as well as educational experience. Each call review is a thorough review of the case along with, "something we did well, something we did great, something that could be done better next time, something that sucked." I can't always identify something I did great, but filling the "sucked" category seems to come easy to me. This has been a great thread, filled with advice from people much wiser than myself, I hope it's given you what you need. As others have said though, I too believe that you may benefit, as might we all, from being more specific concerning the call. But only if you can do so without getting yourself jammed up legally... Dwayne You so funny....

Though I most often disagree with Spenac as he tends to parrot the more popular opinions expressed by those before him, I do think he makes a half assed decent point here. My first call on my own truck at the service I work for now was a 3 month ped arrest. First friggin' call. In fact it was relatively famous locally. I got pulses back but the child died when removed from life support two days later. There were tears all around me, but what did I feel? Nothing but an intense need to review my personal performance as well as my direction of the team. I was told by others that I would be damaged after I had a chance to think, but thanks to Akflightmedic I'd had Afg to refer to and knew differently. This child was in a trouble not of my making, and though I did the best that I could, I made many significant errors in treatment. But, on this day, it was my best. One of the many debts I owe to EMTCity, Dustdevil, Ak and many others is that I entered that situation with the knowledge that it was unhealthy to let other, non psychiatric professionals, tell me how I should react to that situation. You did, in my opinion, exceptionally well with your pain. EMS is going to bring pain sometimes. We know that, and should accept it I believe. But deciding whether to seek sympathy, or instead find the help we need to stay healthy and then move forward separates the men from the boys. I'm glad you let us see, hear, and thus learn from your experience. It was brave, and we're all the better for it. Look me up if you get to Colorado. Dwayne

LOL...given the clumbsy language used in the reply, I'd say it was intentional. Kudos to the Govenor. Dwayne

Good for you brother. I'm grateful you took my comments in the spirit intended. I too think that you will do outstanding. Sometimes we get kicked in the boys and need to rely on our friends to tell us to stop, think, then rethink, and then get back to work. I'm practically a mistake factory. What keeps me up and running is identifying what I would have liked to have done differently, make a plan to help insure that I do so in the future, and then refuse to waste a bunch of mental energy, that my patients can use, telling myself what an idiot I am. I'm proud of you for deciding to be a professional, to take a little time to be confused, accept that that's sometimes necessary, seeking help, steering yourself back up out of the ditch and onto the road and going back to work. Good for you man... Dwayne

I think it's important to decide why you messed up, and why it's effecting you so severely? I mess up something on every call. I know, as I find something else I wish I would have done, or asked, or discovered while reviewing them later. That doesn't destroy me for two reasons. One, I'm never likely to be perfect, so I review each call to help guarantee that I'll be the best that I know how to be next time. Second, in my opinion, EMS is a learning environment. On the most critical calls I rarely have as much time as I'd like, nor access to the amount of competent help that would allow me to perform at the level that I would like. But you know what? It's the gig I signed on for, I don't really deserve the luxury of having people pat me on the back for my mistakes...I learn from them, make sure others have the benefit of learning from them, and then move on. Did you miss something because you don't have a good plan for running calls? Were you tunnel visioned by one thing, causing you to ignore something else? Did you trust part of care to someone else that didn't follow through? All of these are correctable, none of them should cause the kind of angst you're showing here. Why did you miss what you missed? Answer that question, and then follow Kaisu's advice and make sure you don't do it again. That's kind of how this game works brother. I'm not sure what level you're working at, medic/intermediate/basic but I'm guessing that you may be overstating things just a bit as well, and that's certainly easy to do if you don't have a lot of experience. It's a rare thing when we make a massive difference in the mortality of our patients in pre hospital environment, and even more rare when a 'slight error' (.01 % I think you said?) would have made any difference at all. Is it possible that what you're agonizing over is the difference between your treatment and following the protocols to the letter? If so, then you should stop that. It's simply making you miserable and not producing anything positive. I'm sorry I don't have more sympathetic things to say, but not discussing the call really only leaves room for general advice and shotgun sympathy. The first I gave my best shot, the second won't really do anything but make you a weaker person and less potent provider, so I'll let it alone. I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for. Dwayne

Ditto Ruff's sentiment. I am home now, safe and sound at a rural service in Colorado. No rockets here... Dwayne

Anyone else think that this guys presents as a neurological pathology, or combo neurological/ETOH pathology as opposed to simple intoxication? Dwayne

Do many feel differently that I do when giving/taking points? That it's not based (as it is for me) on the quality of the post, or whether or not an opinion is expressed to the best of the posters ability, but that it's based on the popularity of the opinion?? I'm finding that many of the posts I see that have been given negative numbers simply have ideas that may not be popular, but that the posts themselves fulfill the standard set down by the Admin as well as the standards of many of us here. If this is KooK's experience, then why should s/he not say so that we can be exposed to this point of view and discuss it? And, if the above has been this poster's experience, then I believe that the opinion certainly belongs in a thread based on professionalism, right? This post has good spelling, punctuation, decent grammar, actually used the accurate word 'derided' instead of resorting to 'treated shitty' or some such language, and expressed an opinion on behavior that is too often exhibited in EMS. Can someone that gave a negative rating please take a moment and explain why you chose to do so? I'm not saying it was an incorrect thing to do, only that I don't understand it. Thanks in advance. Dwayne Note: If I could vote for myself I immediately give this post a -1 for lousy sentence structure, but then give it right back for breaking the world record for the most commas used in a single post. But it's late, and I'm lazy, and I'm willing to take my beating rather than reword everything.

Of course I can't say for sure what she meant, but it stands to reason that if you've got a frigid pussy at home then you're more likely to wonder? C'mon! Stop it! You know someone had to say it! Dwayne

And with all due respect to you as well, though I see your point, the quoted text as strongly supports stupidity, arrogance, and/or altered mentation, as it does suicide. I'm not doubting the officer's sworn statement, but the things that you've deduced from it. Dwayne

Hell man, I keep watching the negative reports piling up, but, for the record I have no idea what problem people are having with this. There's no one in this business that doesn't know what you're referring to, and it seems obvious to me that you don't like it much. Don't take off. This wasn't a great post, but not bad either. For some reason you're just the whipping boy in this thread...but this too shall pass. :-) Dwayne

I see where you're going man, but I think you mean that it was one of their theories, but not, at this point backed by proofs. Dwayne

Nod, I agree. I was simply trying to play Devil's advocate. Being overseas is a good place to learn that a gunshot wound, nor a dead or dying pt are always (rarely?) as they appear. It's incredible to see what some people are able to live through. For example; http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=832_1250780068 (Link is terribly, grossly graphic) We once had a man, ANA (Afghan National Army) shot 5 times that had been placed with the dead bodies to be dealt with at a later time. It was 30hrs later, when someone heard him ask for water, that it was discovered he was still alive. R humorus approx vertical center, R distal femur, L shoulder, L lateral lower quad abd, and the last, center punch on his umbilicus. Of course he died several days later secondary to, I believe kidney failure. Another child, 8-9 maybe, shot through the R eye, exited behind left ear (I think, can't remember for sure) came to us intubated, RR68 and report from those delivering him that he'd been that way for 48hrs without further treatment (I know that seems unlikely, but welcome to Afg). Finally brought to the base because he simply wouldn't die. Eventually he did. I can understand this error in Afg, but there is certainly no reason for it here... Dwayne

Yeah, man, the whole stalking thing sucks. You can't watch a stalker every second, you can't lock them up for ever when they've not usually broken any laws, and attempts at prevention is likely to make the situation worse, as you've stated. It's just a bag bag of luck. But I do think it would be interesting to view this dickheads behavior from the stalking point of view and see if it fits. If he was hounding these damaged people into submission, or simply took individual moments of opportunity and got 'lucky' from time to time, finding someone ripe for his encouragement. Dwayne

Hmmm...I didn't reread the thread, but I'm not sure where it was said that anyone would do this. It's my belief that most that do clear c-spine in the field do so via the Nexus criterium. Certainly an unresponsive head trauma won't meet that standard. Dwayne