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.

I dont even go to the grocery store on black friday. I have however gotten some good deals online...and will shop more on monday.

How about a recruiting campaign? You can get funding to pay for the classes anyone would need. Advertising might help as well. I really have no other ideas for ya. Good luck!

Thoughts and prayers Richard.

good way to start rumors kat....however AK's real name isnt Wayland. Welcome back firedoc!

to baileya16... Posted 04 September 2012 - 02:50 PM 83 on my final exam for an overall final average of 88... I passed ... Not trying to knock ya kiddo but it helps if you read ALL the replies in a thread before you post. Just a thought.....

I was going to ask if you had inspected his chest. But I am guessing that you didnt...which is no big deal. I have seen this same thing...the face/head was black and the neck and chest, from the nipple line up was red and mottled. When I talked to the doc about it and explained it to him, he told me that sometimes, not all the time, that kind of coloring can come from the left ventricle blowing out. Considering how long this person had been down before being found, it could also be part of the decomp process with the way he was fell over.

The tibial tuberosity is my preferred site but we can also access the humerous if need be.

I don't know about Kansas but in NY we have what they call Certificates of Need. They are issued by the state to ambulance companies and they define the territories that they cover. The company that I work for in Chemung County hold the CON for the whole county and for the northwest corner of Bradford County in PA and the northeast corner of Tioga County in PA. We contract out the eastern most part of our county to Greater Valley because they are much closer to those communities than we are. Because of this both companies have to be dual state certified. Arctickat, I'm not sure the reasoning behind the community in between the BLS units and your ALS units, being in court for ALS coverage. Could you explain? because I really am interested As for 10 codes, they did go the way of the dodo with NIMS. Everyone is supposed to use clear text...I realize that some places don't. I slip every once in a while and use them, even after all this time. Our system works like this, Chemung County 911 receives an emergency call. The dispatcher calls our dispatcher and then our dispatcher dispatches the closest ambulance to the call. Our dispatch frequency is 154.505...so we use 5 codes internally, mostly because the scanner land. For example...5-18 is a DOA, 5-4 is in service, 5-7 is cancelled or refusal of treatment/transport. But we only use those codes on our own frequency, we use clear text on the county channels. Now, as to the OP. I understand where you are coming from, given the dispatch information. However, with that being said, a person has the right to call any ambulance service in the area that they so choose. Just as they have the right to refuse treatment from anyone else, regardless of whether or not they are the closer unit. With multiple companies in the immediate (50 mile radius)area it becomes confusing and the lines blur a bit. They probably called the other service because they have had a good experience or experiences with that company,not just because they are out of the same town as the hospital the family wants the patient to go to. Hospice can get really tricky. IF the patient is going for something that is out of the scope of their being on hospice, they actually go OFF hospice for that ER visit and any subsequent stay in the hospital. When they get discharged from the hospital, they have to reapply to hospice. Sounds kinda tedius huh....

We leave our equipment with the patient. It's all labled with our name and phone number. We are busy enough that if we waited until the equipment is removed...we would be even busier, trying to catch up. We also have extra KED's and traction splints at the main station so that we arent out of service any longer than it takes to drive there from the ED to get the replacement. I'm not sure that your company has the patients best interests at heart....not to mention providing patient care that "does no harm"