Richard B the EMT

He is a Rapper music artist/Actor, currently playing one of the Special Victims Unit detectives, "Fin Tutuola". Funny he plays a cop, he got a lot of nasty notariety some years ago, when he did a "rap" on "bustin' caps into cops" (shooting at LEOs). For a bit of mental bubble gum, rent the movie "Tank Girl". He portrays one of the genetically altered half man/half Kangaroo/ all soldier creatures (I won't try to explain it, the movie barely does) who befriends lead actress Lori Petty.

I can take credit for writing it, but I didn't. I am on the JustHelicopters mailing list, from when I asked a question of them related to something to do with helicopters, which I posted here, and this was a part of their Christmas/New Years E-Mail to me, actually the first I have gotten from them.

As some of you know, I bought a new minivan last spring, a Nissan Quest. Prior to purchase, I did a lot of online searching, including Dodge. I just got an e-mail ad from Dodge, went to the link to unsubscribe, and then got another e-mail confirming the unsubscribing! I thought unsubscribing meant you didn't get any more e-mail ads?

I have already made mention that you might just get the person who has "ICE-T" on the cellphone, and you end up connected to the actor who plays "Fin" on Law and Order-Special Victims Unit. Also, worst case scenario, bomb blast victim, touch the cellphone and detonate the secondary device. At an MCI, is the phone that of the victim nearest it? And, I DON'T have a cellphone!

From www.JustHelicopters.com, after I had registered with them re a helo related question... </H1>

Not restricted to Fire Fighters!

In another string on an apparent abandonment of a patient, who did eventually get unsuccessful help from personnel wearing clothing saying they were FDNY, I mentioned they might have gotten such apparel from a newspaper stand off the lobby of the FDNY HQ building. I thought, of those who might be interested in purchasing FDNY apparel, they might want to check out the "Fire Zone", a non-profit store connected with, and using logos by the permission of, the FDNY. Link to http://www.firezonestore.org/. While I have not gone to the store, whose address shows in the link, I have purchased from them at a booth set up as a part of EMS Week, and at the lobby news stand, previously mentioned.

Now that you've implied that you use carrier pigeons, I'm reporting you to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals! LOL. As for my postings on Facebook, I have only mentioned feeling the loss of parts of my childhood, with the deaths of wrestler "Captain" Lou Albano, TV personality Soupy Sales, and singer Mary Travers (of "Peter, Paul and Mary"), and that I got stuck in a snowdrift with my new (from June) minivan, in Saturday night's foot deep snowstorm. A side observation: In a recent episode of NCIS-LA, the computer nerd stated he had just gotten 1,000 "friends", with #500 being the NCIS Director. This, from a guy working what is indirectly a spy/counterintellegence agency?

1) These were EMTs, apparently, and not Paramedics. 2) When I left what would become FDNY EMS EMD in 1996, unless there were some major problem in progress, like a Computer Assisted Dispatch system crash, we'd get 2 twenty minute breaks, and a 40 minute meal break, during an 8 hour tour. The 2 twenties were never to be during the first or final hours of the tour. EMD was probably the only area almost assured of getting scheduled breaks. Field-side, there was no guarentee of a break, and you could be called off a break to handle assignments. As far as I know, this continues today. 3) As of this time, first you are an EMT BEFORE they train you as a call taker, and then a dispatcher (possibly to be changed, as they are trying the Unified Call Takers protocols for the NYC 9-1-1 system, where the callers would talk with a PD "Communications Tech"). 4) As members of the FDNY, they would be in uniform, or in pullover shirts, or "workshirts" that say FDNY EMD. I doubt if they would change out of the uniform just for a break or meal. 5) The FDNY HQ building has a newspaper stand off of the lobby, where they also sell FDNY workshirts. As they don't say Fire Fighter, EMT, or Paramedic, I know some of the HQ civilian staffers wear them. 6) All uniformed members of the FDNY, from the person in their first day of the academy, to Chief of Department Salvadore Cassano, either have CPR and First Aid training, or will get it before they can wear the full uniform. Obviously, EMTs and Paramedics will have more training than that. 6-A) Chief Cassano is going to be the new Fire Commissioner, January 1, 2010, as current commissioner Nicholas Scopetta steps down. 7) Fire Fighters are "repped" by different unions than the EMS people. However, if it becomes clear that any member of any of these unions did something that puts the department, or the union, into "disrepute", the union leadership might actually hold the door open as the department kicks the individuals out that door. Disclaimer: The views I express in this posting may not reflect the viewpoints of either the FDNY, or Local 2507 of DC 37 AFSCME, although I am a member of both.

This may be the case I mentioned, the details sound like it.

I previously mentioned that I hoped I didn't know these personnel, and as it turns out, I don't. <BR>Someone on this string implied that the union would try and sweep it under the rug. Not the case, as the President of Local 2507 (EMTs Paramedics and Fire Inspectors of the FDNY), DC 37, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees was quoted in the original NY Post article... <BR>

On duty? Respond! Duty to act! In uniform? Respond! Duty to act! On meal break? Asked to help? Break over, unfortunately. Respond! Duty to act! As for a private ambulance service responding to the MetroTech complex? The district is that of a hospital subcontracted private EMS provider, as a part of the NYC 9-1-1 system. When the patient is known to be a uniformed member of the FDNY (including FDNY EMS, or FDNY EMS EMD), the EMD tries to get a department ambulance for the response. 'S'matter of fact, the same exists for the FDNY EMS Academy, following ME being the patient at the academy, and being transported by a hospital based 9-1-1 system provider to the hospital. What I read in the link reminds me, again, of a Pre-Merger EMS team in the Bronx, just got their sandwiches, and told folks running up to them to call 9-1-1, even though they were close enough to the call scene to see CPR being performed! Both crewmen were initially placed on "No patient contact" work details at EMS HQ, and eventually both fired, and stripped of their "certs" by the NY State DoH. As the newspapers described the ambulance by it's shop number, the vehicle was actually taken out of service and stored at the HQ building for a month, that Bronx locals would not attack any crew in that vehicle, believing them to be the non-responding crew. The unit's radio designation was "Two One David", so the unit ended up being referred to, and nastilly, as I recall, as "Two One Deli". As for the EMD personnel involved, I just hope I do NOT know them, as I spent my first 11 of my almost 25 years in municipal EMS service working in the EMD. Understandably, I don't want to see friends in this situation, if they are innocent, nor do I want them as friends if they are guilty.

As I am still feeling hurt due to his unprovoked attacks on my character, may I Dis-recommend Kevbutnotbacon?

That is almost as strange as the duo of dunderheads, who placed their deceased buddy into a rolling office chair, and rolled him around NYC, as they tried to cash checks, allegedly written by their buddy "who couldn't walk, and is just outside the door; don't you see him sitting there?" It actually became a part of a Law and Order episode. Actually, this would have made your 2008 list, Happiness.

I cannot control others onscene who might have cameras, most of the time. However, some years ago, prior to HIPAA being enacted, my crew and I responded to a nasty multiple alarm fire in Far Rockaway. One patient we handled, eventually removing to the Burn Center at New York-Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, had burns to the forearms under her heavy bracelets. The NYPD entered my ambulance to use a K-12 power saw to remove the bracelets from her. Doing so created a lot of sparks, which lit up the immediate area as seen through the open doors to the ambulance. We couldn't close the doors, as the K-12 is powered by a small gas engine. A freelance news photographer was almost standing in the ambulance door, doing his job of photographing this. I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, and commented to him: " I am trying to protect the privacy of my patient, without preventing you from doing your job. Perhaps we could reach common grounds by having you not photograph from so close?" He agreed, and backed up about 30 feet, where the patient's photograph would not have given details as to who the patient was.

Before Ben answers (and I wanna know, also), what did McGyver make with the Clam Juice, the butcher's twine, and the toothpicks?

Notify the local Law Enforcement Officers! That man is wanted for questioning regarding the hit and run case where Grandma got run over by a reindeer!

CHOMP!!CRUNCH!!

I have sometimes had that amount of trouble, and more, getting a basic history from patients. However, this is the first time in months I have heard the story of Jerry the Gerbil inferred.

Per my brother-in-law, the Radiation Technician working the MRI unit:

OK, so does any of this come into the equasion when figuring out Feet under Sea Water, even before figuring in "Bottom Time?" Or, is that just a distraction for folks like me who never had a Bends patient, or a mixed gas diver poisioning case, again, like me.

I am unsure of specifics, but it is my understanding that a lawsuit is in progress regarding the mother of a lady killed in a DWI accident (the lady in question was not the driver), where some unfeeling person keeps sending pictures of the deceased lady, still in the wrecked car, to the mother. The LEOs have been trying to find the source of the original picture, probably someone's cell phone camera, but every time they shut down a posted copy of the accident on the internet, another page goes up, and a link sent to the mother. HIPAA or not, the deceased person's rights continue to be violated, causing emotional hurt to her mother. Then, there was a string, here on EMT City, showing people continuing to have a good time on a beach in Italy, scant yards away from a dead person who had not yet been removed by the authorities. Some commented on this as directed disrespect towards the deceased, because she was a "Gypsy", or a "Roma", kind of like the deceased was some kind of non human entity, and unworthy of respect.

FSW is Feet of Sea Water? Is there a difference between depth in salt water as opposed to fresh water? Perhaps there is a difference between Atlantic and Pacific Ocean sea water, as I read somewhere, in grade school perhaps, that the saline density is different between the 2 oceans. Just asking. Besides, my area is an hour drive time from the main recompression chambers in this city, but no more than 10 minutes for a helicopter from any one point to any other point. Over 35 years, never had a Bends patient, plus, I'm BLS not ALS.

1) As a precaution, I would also transport the dive buddy. If it is the "Bends" (spell it as a plural, by the way), there is a chance the dive buddy may not yet be exhibiting symptoms. 2) As I have now one definite and one possible, once we actually transport, destination would be the center with the multi-place recompression chamber, even though it is, per information supplied in this string, about 8 minutes further out from the rescue LZ than the one place recompression chamber center. Air transport would be as near to a rooftop/treetop altitude as the pilot can maintain safely. Please translate "FSW". I am presuming the "F" is feet. That number of "1-919-684-4DAN" is, I think, the US contact number of the "Diver's Alerting Network"? Did anyone mention "Narcosis of the Deep"? I have read that, below certain depths, when the gas mixture is off, either tanked air, combination gasses, or re breathers, it is kind of a narcotic or euphoric effect on the diver, causing him "to feel like taking off his mask and giving it to a passing fish" (Quote remembered from a Jacques Cousteau TV show from back in the late 1960s or early 1970s).

Some basic questions by me: Was it a shark attack? Was it a commercial diver job related injury, suffered underwater? Did the diver surface too quickly, thereby causing him/herself a case of "The Bends"/"Caissons Disease"/"Barometric Trauma"? If anything related to that last, how low can the pilot fly the helicopter safely, as not to aggravate the condition? chbare must have posted even as I was still typing.