Eydawn

As someone much wiser than myself told me in response to me "How the HELL are we supposed to get all XYZ done in 5 minutes"... if you're taking 3 sets of vitals, initiating O2, starting an IV, getting a history, initiating interventions and documenting "change" in the 5 minute period it takes to get from the pt's house to the hospital, you're not practicing medicine... You're just rushing through everything because it's what you're "supposed to do" to remain available for other calls. I think you can get an awful lot more done and actually do your patient some good if you slow down a bit and initiate some stuff before you get to the truck, or at the very least, in the back of the truck before you get moving. But that's me. Wendy CO EMT-B

I called bullshit on the OP, crotch, not you... You're dead on... and I was saying it was ridiculous that the OP was insinuating that his partner leaving him with the patient was abandonment... haha! Yes, paramedics get to delegate and allow basics to tech certain calls. Absolutely. They also get to send the basic to take care of a patient or two at an MVA while they deal with the guy who's totally screwed. That's the point of being able to delegate... Wendy CO EMT-B

Bullshit. Pardon me for being so blunt... with that sort of logic, one partner should never leave a lower level partner with a patient for any reason... which is utter horse-hockey. What was the nature of the call? What were you transporting the original patient for? Was it life-threatening and were you returning emergent? Or was it a more tame call that one could justify telling the patient "Hang out here for a minute, stay comfortable, holler if you need anything- your mom is not feeling so hot and I'm going to go check on her" ?? *facepalm* Wendy CO EMT-B

If that's the case in MN, why did you even ask? You knew the answer already! I think you can jump out as long as you have full visual on your pt here in CO... which is where my train of thought was coming from. Wendy CO EMT-B

Let me see if I'm reading this right before I respond to the situation. You're taking a patient to the hospital and their family is following you POV. You are the driver. Family starts having chest pain, calls dispatch, dispatch tells you family is having trouble, and both of you pull over. You call for another ambulance and your partner gets out of the back of the ambulance and goes to the family's car to check them out. Your partner and the pt's family then get into the ambulance, and you are now transporting 2 patients. Yes? Here's my question. Was your partner ALS? Were there ALS interventions in place (12 lead, IV with meds) etc ongoing when your partner left the rig? Did you have visual contact with both your partner and the original patient the entire time? If it was pretty simple and you were right there to jump into the back to provide care if necessary while your partner was assessing the pt in the car, I'd say there was no abandonment. If ALS interventions were left unattended and it took a really freakin' long time, then it's more of a grey zone leaning towards abandonment... And crotchity, there was a huge thread on whether you stop at an MVC or not. Usually the answer is, if you are already transporting or already committed to a call, you call dispatch and let them sort out who's closer to which in order that everyone still gets care. You don't just roll up on an MVC and stop when you're transporting someone... Wendy CO EMT-B

First of all, a 10 year old is old enough to learn the lesson that if one chucks one's prized possessions over a cliff, one can expect to not get them back. Secondly, this is an obvious parent-FAIL on many levels. Why are you outside at 9pm in the middle of winter arguing with your kid? Why hasn't your kid been locked in his room to vent his anger on his own and cool off a bit? WHAT were you THINKING when you decided to climb don a gorrram CLIFF to get a friggin TEDDY BEAR?! I think the kid and parents should get a bill for the rescue and the kid should pay half of it out of his own allowance. I also think they should ALL go to counseling... the parents so they learn some coping skills and grow some balls, and the kid so he learns some appropriate anger management behavior.... Obviously, these parents using physical discipline on this kid is a joke... might be effective, but the physical force is only an extension of the emotional force used by the parents... obviously these folks have none. Wendy CO EMT-B

I have to tell you folks... Matt and Dwayne are really something else. I'm blessed to have two such wonderful men in my life who are willing to be my friend. And Spenac, WTF are you bitching about? --Wendy

Regardless of how slowly you may be operating your vehicle on icy roads, there is always the possibility that you will spin out. You can have chains, studs, anything you want... the possibility is still there. However, it bears noting that one should definitely decrease speed as well as tripling or quadrupling stopping distance when the road is obviously icy and people are sliding around you. Following distance needs to be increased as well. This video demonstrates two things: faster speed than should have been used (sometimes it's hard to know it was too fast till too late, in defense of the crew... nobody was hurt and you can be damn sure they'll probably slow it down thereafter) and a moron who has no concept of adverse weather following distance intervals... Wendy CO EMT-B

CB, you might want to attribute the above quote to Chris Collins, who actually typed it... the way you quoted Dwayne and then had a quote with no tag on it makes it seem like you're quoting Dwayne twice and the second one doesn't make a lotta sense. Wendy CO EMT-B

Remember that these kids probably *DID* learn some valuable lessons, and that no matter what the other team says or does, they will always know that they got trounced 100-0. I am all for fair contests and knowing when you lost. But I am also for helping people to learn lessons about humility, fair conduct and being aware when there is a huge discrepancy. It's like playing "go-fish" with a 3 year old... we could all absolutely humiliate that 3 year old every single time we play because we're much older and smarter and in that case, have the natural advantage. A good coach knows to tell his or her players to back off a tad when the score margin becomes huge. We had one such soccer game in high school in which we wanted to contest to continue, so instead of continuing to shoot goals against the other team, we worked on good skills like possession, passes at odd angles, difficult/far out shots. Of course, the instructions were that if the win were to be threatened, we were to revert to pounding mercilessly... but when you're up 10-1 in soccer, it's pretty unlikely that the other team will make a comeback. To continue shooting baskets just because you can against a team that is obviously vastly inferior to yours teaches the winning team nothing. That would have been an ample opportunity to hone skills that will be needed in a contest against a better team, rather than inflating the girls' self perception as athletes. Like I said... anyone can beat a 3 year old at "go fish." Do you exult and celebrate wildly, or remember that there are better opponents out there? Do you grind the 3 year old mercilessly so all they ever learn is defeat? Of course not. It's like playing with pups... occasionally, you gotta let them win tug-of-war or they give up. Wendy CO EMT-B

I like the HALT idea... thanks, Kaisu. I guess what's really getting me is not so much the pediatric call anymore... but the loss of my coworker. I have so many conflicting emotions... sadness, guilt (because I didn't even know him for that long!), anger (not at God... but not necessarily NOT at God either), a sense of just kind of lostness. That on top of still remembering the peds call is what is getting me. It was so sudden. One night I was telling him to have a safe shift and getting teased because I didn't remember his name as he came to relieve us of duty, two days later I was getting pages about his passing. He was only 30. Thanks for all the input folks... I really appreciate it. Wendy CO EMT-B

No, I certainly shouldn't be doing IV's as a basic, nor should I be able to give Narcan and D-50. I hate that all of those are in my protocols as a basic where I work. I need to go to paramedic school. That's all there is to it... Wendy CO EMT-B

Does anyone else feel overwhelmed by death sometimes? I don't mean in the "I'm going to end it" type manner... but just dealing with death like we do in EMS. I guess it's just been difficult to process lately with having my first pediatric code and then a coworker passing away within a few days of one another. She was so beautiful and tiny... only 11 months (and still only a pink on the Broselow) and he was so full of life and humor and genuine kindness... I'm just kind of at a loss, really. It's not that I'm not dealing with it... I'm processing OK I think... just don't want to sit down and really think about all of it (avoidance?) I just wish I were stronger. --Wendy

Wow. That was really funny! Go durex, lol... Wendy CO EMT-B

Sad thing is, I didn't even bother to look in the DSM-IV... I just used what I knew from experience and the references I had while working with individuals WITH that particular condition in the developmentally disabled population. *shrugs* since we're speculating, figured I'd add in my own thoughts. I sincerely hope that those needing help get it. Wendy CO EMT-B

The whole grandeur thing sounds more like undiagnosed personality disorder. WILDLY wonderful or TERRIFICALLY tragic... both appealing in the attention that they garner. Hallmark of that condition... Wendy CO EMT-B

Wow. That is an image that will NEVER leave my brain. Duly noted... if I can see that, it goes BACK INSIDE! Wendy CO EMT-B

You all are telling ME! lol.... --Wendy

And that's what I get for leaving my screenname open where Matt can get it. Poor Matt... I think wii need to cut off the ice cream cake... he's starting to get a wii bit giddy. --Wendy

Oh...My...God..... I'd heard Dwayne was a babe....but now that I've met him...I simply must have him!! Yummy!

I'm not think as you drunk I am. So far, only "wee" is Wii... Wii would like to say hi.... --Wendy

So if I take a picture of myself and send it to someone it's pornography? If I'm a minor and they're a minor it's CHILD pornography? Administrator and justice system FAIL. Lawyers will have a field day with that one. Wendy CO EMT-B

Dwayne, this brings up the old nature vs nurture argument. Yes, people can definitely be reinforced into negative behavior patterns and often do so. However, there are some children who just simply fail to respond to intentional (or unintentional!) behavior conditioning, either negative or positive. It's like the old story of twins raised by loving parents and one twin goes off the deep end and rapes and kills his girlfriend. Same environment, same parents with the same parenting strategy.... While it is important to recognize that many parents fail to provide the proper environment and training for their children, it is also very unfair to place all of the blame on any parent. The child is an independent entity capable of making decisions and as such should be held responsible for those decisions. I am not saying that circumstance should not be considered, but it should never be a wholly exonerating factor. Some children are just damaged. And they could be perfectly "biologically sound" but still intellectually and emotionally damaged. Skinner had a lot of valid points... but I don't think he had the entire picture nailed down. To reduce everything to behavioral studies is to leave out the most important aspect of human existence- free will and freedom of choice. You can explain that many pedophiles were assaulted themselves as children and conditioned to be predatory... but that doesn't explain the pedophile who was never touched... you can explain that many abused children learned that behavior module and grew up to be abusers, but that doesn't explain the child who was abused who CHOSE to never become like his or her parents... who CHOSE to give their own children much better lives. Not all children become who they are raised to be. Many are raised to be good citizens, empathic, morally upright... and become some of the most depraved individuals one could ever hope not to meet. Many are raised in an environment where one would expect them to become deranged axe-murderers, and instead are pillars of the community. There are no absolutes where humans are concerned. Wendy CO EMT-B

Interesting. It's basically a statistics analyzer that evaluates the probability of a new call location based on past calls. It will be very interesting to see how well it actually works, since even the slightest demographic or geographic change can completely change how accurate the model is... I'd have liked the article better if it hadn't been written by a 6th grader... no less than 4 very distracting problems in there, but the idea of the module is cool. Wendy CO EMT-B

Yeah, and road salt is a pain too! Oh the joys of the grinding noise as the wheels clunk in and scrape up the floor... Wendy CO EMT-B