ALERT Medic

Actually, according to his original post, I think he was justified in applying a traction splint. He believed that the posibility of a mid shaft femur fracture was present and better to err on the side of the patient and cover you own ass and just apply the splint. Anyway, the original question was how we would handle the situation about the doc. And you're right, femur fractures don't get sent home but he also said that no x-rays had been taken at that point. I don't feel like he got the whole story but from a patient care point, he did the right thing. Femur fractures are serious and require surgery to repair. He recognized the great potential for a femur fracture and treated accordingly. I agree with everyone else that a can of worms was opened and he should have spoken with his supervisor first. Follow a chain of command. It is our policy that anytime we have an issue with allied health care personnel, we make a report in writing to our supervisor and see what happens. Usually it's taken care of from there.

Good point. I've met people like this and I can assure you that they are substandard EMT's and Firefighters. They would rather use a personal vehicle like this idiot to show what they are part of an organization that provides a service to the community. It makes them feel important. I would just about bet the farm that the rest of the people on the FD where he's at can't stand him. He'll be showing up in the local news for doing something stupid probably in the near future.

That guy's a nut job. We used to have a guy on the volly dept that went all out on his car too. Only exception was that he actually bought a crown vic and had it decked out like an unmarked cop. He had about 3 different scanners, an 800mhz radio and all kinds of other crap in it. Plus this guy would always (even off duty) wear his EMS pants, a fire dept shirt with his stethoscope around his neck and his "batman" belt full of pouches, radios, pagers and cell phones. People like this are just stupid in general but they're also dangerous. They think all that crap is cool and they just about go into a seizure when the pager goes off for a call just so they can impress anyone who gives a crap while they respond to a call. And most of them are useless anyway.

Good luck.

I've treated patients with asthma who have had inspiratory and expriatory wheezing. They are usually the ones who have been out of their meds for who knows how long and are just at the point that they can't take it anymore. It's not always present but it does happen. Sounds to me if your friend doesn't take her albuterol when she needs it, she probably doesn't talk to her doctor much either.

Wail

Yeah, just relax. Enjoy your last weekend of freedom. You'll have plenty of time to read assignments but don't read ahead. It'll just frustrate you more if you start reading ahead. Plus, make sure you understand what's been assigned to you before proceeding to the next section. I'm sure you'll do just fine but don't worry so much you develop an ulcer over it. Good luck and feel free to ask any of us questions along the way.

now, how'd we do that?

door

Never heard of that one before.

I guess you have to ask yourself the question....'Which of his/her problems will kill him/her faster, unstable bradycardia not paced or pain caused by pacing?'. Our service does not carry versed but we do carry valium and the way the protocol is written states that if time permits, pre-medicate before pacing. As far as once you get them going with the juice, it's a question of what is comfortable for the patient. I agree that benzo's don't have any analgesic properties but I see it like this, if they're doped up with a good sedative and don't seem to be bothered by the pain, they can wait the 10-12 min it's gonna take me to get them to a MD for further care/treatment.

Best advice I can give you is to work out all your issues with your new partner right up front. Let him/her know where your areas of weakness are and express to them your concerns. They should be receptive to you being assertive enough to tell them up front instead of letting them find out at the worst time. Plus, they might be a little more eager to work with you right from the start. And did I read your reply right? You only rode 3rd out for 60hrs? Doesn't seem like a lot of time for a new employee to get familiar with the area and system. Our new employees have to ride a MINIMUM of 20 shifts (mostly 12 hr shifts) before they are even considered to be released. If you're honest from the get go, then your partner will probably have an easier time trusting you when the ca ca hits the fan. Good luck and welcome to the site.

Too many to choose. You can never go wrong with a little Metallica, Rammstein, NIN, AC/DC, and all the others listed. Sorry, don't mean to steal everyone else's songs but they're too good to pass up. Later

Although I think it's pretty messed up too, Nate does have a point....at least about the other games he mentioned.

I don't know what is taught in your state but you should at least learn CPR, some basic anatomy and physiology, how to take a set of vitals, listen to breath sounds, and some first aid that you won't learn going to the AHA. As far as you being in high school, I started my EMT classes about two weeks before my senior year started. I know where you are and I can say for a fact, you're going to have to prove yourself to a lot of people. I'm not trying to discourage you at all but people in EMS see someone so young and can only assume that you're immature. Not everyone is but unfortunately, there have been too many people in your shoes come along and just mess it up for the others like yourself. If you have a volly service near you that provides first responder services, I urge you to at least get some expierence there. Rid is right, there aren't a lot of places willing to hire someone under 21 but you'll just have to do some research in your area to see how you can get your foot in the door. That's what I had to do. Good luck with your classes. Take care.

I've hurt my back several times while trying to catch myself from falling due to wreckless driving.

I'll offer this suggestion. If you have any power to do anything about it, look into Fitch and Associates. Not everyone at my agency liked the idea of them coming in and re-arranging things but Fitch helped mold our service into what it is today. I can say I'm proud of where I work.

I'll offer this suggestion. If you have any power to do anything about it, look into Fitch and Associates. Not everyone at my agency liked the idea of them coming in and re-arranging things but Fitch helped mold our service into what it is today. I can say I'm proud of where I work.

I worked for AMR for about 6 months but all we did was convalescent care. I hated it. I don't really know much about AMR as a 911 provider though but anyway, good luck and I hope everything works out well for you. On another note, our executive director we have now came from AMR as a VP. I've been with this agency for 8 years and don't regret any minute of it. I don't know if he brought any of his AMR mentality with him or not but either way, I've been happy here.

You think I made a threat? WOW! I sure as hell didn't threaten him. He threatened me! Too bad you didn't get to see the threats he threw my way. Not even close to what you're calling a threat, pal.

Good point, but once you have your treatment areas set up, you should have enough help there so you wouldn't have to use the same blade multiple times...theoretically that is. I work in a rather large system so that if we did have a big event we'd have our mass casuality unit, multiple other ems units and more than likely our logistics staff present at some time during the event. I know not every system has that available to them but that's how we do it here.

Damn Ruff, that's awful. Sorry you had to go through that. I like the idea of other inmates doing the dirty work. Maybe that will be a big enough deterrent to keep them out of prison again. Then again, it might spark some new form of entertainment for them too. I don't know...just a thought.

Thanks for the clarification mike, I couldn't remember with 100% certainty but I thought it was calcium. As far as you disagreeing with my comments on it not being a big deal, I think you misunderstood me. It's not a big deal to teach someone how to start a line and perform whatever procedure goes along with lethal injection as far as the end result goes now that becomes an issue of semantics and I won't discuss that with anyone on this or any other forum. Thanks again for the clarification but the initial procedure is the same as doing RSI and most services do have standing orders to administer those meds. Take care.

I agree with Rid on this one. These people are convicted felons. I'm all about rehabilitation but on some cases such as rape, murder, molestation and things of that nature, I say let them rot away. These people shouldn't be rehabilitated. For the "low risk" criminals as I've seen it put in here, ok, teach them a few things about how to take care of people in the most basic of ways....that's all fine and everything but these people will not be able to get a job once they are on the outside. I can't believe that any ems, fire or police service is going to hire a convicted felon, regardless of the crime they commited. Bottom line, this crap that Georgia is trying to do is stupid. In my opinion, it just adds to the stigma that southerners are a bunch of dumb-ass backwoods rednecks. Thanks Georgia for making it that much more difficult for the rest of us in the south....we don't have enough going against us as it is already.