nypamedic43

Thank you for letting us know Brett. What a loss to his community. Sending love and light to his family.

her mom said it was diabetes related. I'm not sure, I talked to her just a couple of hours before she was found by her son Nick. We talked daily and I miss her so very much. As for Don, he hasn't been around Jess or Nick since she left him, so I don't know how he is doing.

I haven't been here in ages either. Hi everyone!

Not really a viable alternative in this case though. I wouldn't have been able to write anything down that he would understand because he was still postictal although fighting us. I'm not even sure that he was able to read lips...which would have been something anyway.

I had a call yesterday for a seizure. When we got there, we found a posdictal male patient laying on the floor. Staff stated that he had been having focal seizures for about 45 minutes before he ended up having a grand mal seizure. His caretaker, told us that the patient was deaf, mute, mildly mentally retarded and knew limited sign language. I did my work up and when I poked him for the IV, he had a very strong pain reflex and I lost the site. I erred on the side of caution, as his vital signs were fairly stable, elevated but stable, to not try for another IV. I am glad I didn't. Once the patient became fully awake, he started to fight. It took 2 of us to keep him on the stretcher. I actually ended up sitting on his legs for the last mile or so to the hospital. I know some sign language but the signs we were told to use were not American Sign. I couldnt communicate with him, he was scared and I was frustrated because I couldn't calm him down in a way that he could understand. With all the wrestling we did in the back of the ambulance, I haave found muscles that I had forgotten I had. Has anyone else been in a situation similar to this? How do we rectify such situations, when normal means of communication are null and void?

I have read a couple of articles in the last couple days that were interesting. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/gunman-behavior-shootings-indicates-planning-control-former-fbi-180620270.html http://www.examiner.com/article/a-killer-s-profile-why-adam-lanza-killed-innocent-children http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-sandy-hook-gunman-tried-to-buy-rifile-days-before-20121215,0,5913090.story I think the US truly needs to examine the way that mental health issues are treated. I think we need to take away the stigma of mental health issues. We need better diagnosis, treatment plans and counseling. These people need help and too many times they fall through the cracks. Children who have mental health issues, and I'm not talking about just depression, I am talking about bi-polar, schizophrenia, oppositional defiant syndrome etc. Parents of children who have these issues have little help available to them....UNTIL the child tries to hurt themselves or someone else. Then psychologists and the "establishments" are all over it. Adam Lanza ( and it pains me to say or type his name, because I dont think he deserves to be remembered at all) had issues his whole life. The first article states that he was in complete control of himself. He planned this very carefully. He destroyed his computer hard drives so that police wouldnt be able to get to "know" him. He had hundreds of rounds stock piled and with him. He planned to wipe out that entire school....and we will never know why. Not really. I know the topic is about gun control and while my heart is broken for the victims families, I have to say this. Yes guns have been the weapon of choice for the last few shootings that have occured. I dont think that banning guns entirely is the solution. I dont know why people feel the need to own automatic weapons and multi round clips. But McVey used fertilizer and jet fuel in Oklahoma City and when that bomb went off...19 children under the age of 6 were killed. Yet, a debate over controlling the sale of fertilizer and jet fuel never occured. We all look for the easy scapegoat. In this case it is guns. I really think the mental health issue needs to be seriously addressed. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=depression-surpasses-asthma-as-top-disability-problem-amongst-us-and-canadian-teens I disagree with part of the article that states that there is better diagnosis and documentation. The parents of the shooter knew he had problems and his mother, in the divorce proceedings, stated that she would take care of him for the rest of his life if he needed it. She ended up shot in the face, in her pajamas in bed and he went on to kill 27 other people including himself. She knew he had issues. The question that needs to be answered is this....what, besides banning all guns, will keep this from happening again?

Nothing and I do mean nothing could ever ever prepare me for dealing with this kind of thing. I cannot even imagine it. I know without a doubt that if this kind of thing ever happened here...it would be my last day of work in EMS. My thoughts and prayers to the victims families and to our EMS brothers and sisters.

Hey Bernhard!! I've been missing you and wondering where you got too! Welcome back my friend.....and V...wheres my train ride ticket??! hmmm??

busy!!!! haha!! welcome back!

AHA is a national standard...and you dont follow it?? I guess the science is invalid in Washington....And I thought NY was backwards in some things. I allow basic students to do whatever they can...splinting, bandaging, vital signs, administering aspirin or albuterol. If they have been taught how in class, then I let them do it in the field. If they arent comfortable then I do it and they can observe. The only way to learn is to do in this field and most people in the basic class have never had any kind of contact with this kind of work. Never had real contact with trauma or critically ill patients. So why not let them practice taking vital signs on Gramma who stubbed her toe? I've had nursing students and medic students flip the f**& out in the back of my ambulance because they are completely unprepared to deal with patients on the streets and I had to make the driver pull over and put them in the front seat. I just don't see why basic EMT students cant do what they have been trained in class to do. Its one thing to put a traction splint on a leg that isnt fractured in class...quite another to actually see the effects of a fractured femur and the relief that the traction splint gives in the field. To the OP...if you really want to do what you have been taught in class, then you need to be more aggressive in asking the crew you are riding with for the opportunity. Be a go-getter and be unafraid when asking...even if your scared shitless. The best advice I ever got in medic school was this...be the duck, smooth on the surface and paddling like hell underneath. Dont let 'em see you sweat. Good luck to you and I hope you are able to get some practice in.

Our glucometers only read to 600, after that they read "HI". In medic school, doing ER time, a 17 yr old came in with his mom. She stated that he had lost about 30 pounds in 2 weeks, drank alot of water but was still thirsty. The young man looked like a skeleton with skin stretched over it and dark circles around his eyes. Blood test revealed a blood glucose of 2250 mg/dcl. He spent a few days in the ICU and got a brand new insulin pump.