Richard B the EMT

I just remember hearing a lot of negative comments on "'Reactive' instead of 'Proactive'" directed at the agency.

NYC EMS (pre-merger) used to devote a full 40 hours EVOC, driving on an old closed airport runway with off service ambulances as a part of the 4 week NEOP (New Employee Orientation Program). Some failed, and were separated from the program, but all passed after taking the next full NEOP. I think we got to know these hundreds of traffic cones by name!

1) When I was still in single digit years old, I saw a triangle formation of 3 lights leaving luminous trails flying in a westerly direction, perhaps 10 at night local time. When they were viewed at about a 45 degree angle upwards from my eastern exposure window, the three lights seemed to bounce off some unseen wall, at a 90 degree angle, luminous trails crossing, but maintaining the triangle formation, as they then headed north, over the Jamaica Bay, towards Canarsie, Brooklyn. I watched until they went behind the house just north of me. I mention that I live near Kennedy International Airport, then still called Idlewild International Airport, and the then still active Floyd Bennett Naval Air Station, better known as Naval Air Station-Brooklyn, and now the command unit of Gateway National Recreation Area. Only the NYPD Helicopters fly from there routinely nowadays, with well publicized flights landing on their one available runway every few months. (When the USS Intrepid Sea/Air/Space Museum underwent it's renovations, they kept the Concorde SST at this airfield, brought there, and moved away on the museum's reopening, by barge.) 2) I once read a sci-fi book, which had a Jewish Earth girl getting married to a Martian. The family objected, until they met the Martian, who was wearing a Jewish prayer shawl and cap. Turned out he was a nice Jewish boy, just one from Mars! So, for the religious amongst us, perhaps we can say God truly is everywhere?

That country obviously has no equivalent of the HIPAA rules.

2012 is the next cycle for the election of the American President, and after all this country went through to get through 2008...

Great! We think for ourselves, and someone turns it around into a complaint against you, your partner, and your agency. Believe me, suddenly there will be a protocol in place. Years ago, a Medical Anti Shock Garment (MAST) was applied to a stabbing victim, as per the protocols then in place. The device did what it was designed to do, keep blood available specifically for the heart/lung/brain "circuit", but the nationally followed protocols didn't take into account for penetrating chest trauma, and the patient died from exanguination (multiple spell checks and I still don't know if that is how it is spelled). For those who don't watch the CSI shows, the guy bled out. The EMS got sued for following the existing protocols, and protocols got changed within a month.

I am a bit unsure on this one. There is "Raceway Park" which sounds a bit like the "elves" of the old "Rip Van Winkle" song from back in the 1950s, and I also remember some race course, or drag strip in Englishtown, both in New Jersey. Can anyone from the New Jersey contingent give a confirmation if they are 2 places, or the one is located in the other? As for the "Sunday SUNDAY SUNDAY!" bit, even Today Show weatherman Al Roker uses that, with an echo chamber, for the weekend weather report.

Until the policy changes I mentioned went into effect, the only way the NYC-EMS bosses would allow that B&E by our crews, was if the crew could actually see the patient on the floor, through a window in or near the front door.

PS, the crew and EMD folks involved were declared not negligent, but the operating policy changed to what I described.

Sometime between 1985 and the FDNY/EMS merger, a woman called 9-1-1 for herself, for an asthma attack. Like the woman in the OP quoted story, she collapsed trying to get to the door. The crew advised EMD nobody answered the door, EMD called back her number (the crew heard the phone ringing through the door), got the answering machine, left a message that we had been there, and the crew made it an unfounded, and went back available. The woman's family found both the corpse and the message the next day. Following that incident, the NYPD will be summoned to both do the forced entry (even if FDNY actually forces the door open), and security on the opened house or apartment. If a patient is found, we the EMS do our thang, pronounce as a DOA, otherwise, we advise EMD that the place is unoccupied and go back available.

It is backed up by hardcopy, specifically, the call report, and the written complaint, one each from both team members on the involved ambulance.

Nope!

EMTs and Paramedics here in NY State, like so many others, are mandated reporters. The FDNY EMS Command actually has at least one person per tour assigned to a desk in the EMD, who must be contacted by the field crew, who then notes all the particulars, and then notifies the New York State office in charge with those particulars. A paperwork trail, including a copy of the E-PCR (Electronic Pre-hospital Care Report) and the state form reporting the child or elder abuse, will be followed up on. NYPD has a similar format.

A mutual "frienemy" said you (generic) were not fit to eat with pigs, and I defended you, saying that you were. And that's how the fight started.

Has anyone confirmed if the chase vehicle was another ambulance, a fire department vehicle, a LEO vehicle with a dash cam, or some independent news videographer looking to sell a video of whatever the spin-out truck was initially responding to?

1) I have been in a POV with snow and ice on the ground, stopped for several moments waiting for the light to change to green, when we were struck from behind. The driver that ran into us complained we stopped too quickly. Too quickly? The light was one that stays red for a full 60 seconds, and we had been stopped for over a half minute. 2) In my Mustang, I was on a downslope at the light (different year, different car), with a steady drizzle rain falling for at least an hour prior. The light turned green, I started up, was perhaps up to 10 MPH and moved 25 feet, when, as best I recall, the 'Stang just spun out the 360 degrees of a circle and and another 180 degrees in one smooth flat spin, ending up facing back at the oncoming traffic. I turned on my dash beacon, saw all the other drivers looking at me, and all stopped waiting for whatever move I might make. I turned the 'Stang back to the traffic lane direction, and pulled over for at least 5 minutes waiting for my breathing and heart rate to go back to some semblance of normal. I had not been hit, had not jazzed the gas pedal, and truly had no warning that I was going to lose control, until I started spinning.

The first one will ONLY be seen in the US on YouTube. As for the second one, when I got the idea he was supposed to be slamming the car door in his privates, I shut it down, and broke out in a cold sweat, in fear. I think that is a common fear of most guys, damage to particular parts of the male anatomy. I am not looking at that second video again!

I didn't mention in my previous posting, the ambulance and crew sit on their Cross Street Location (CSL) for the majority of their 8 hour (in some cases, soon to be 12 hour) tours. The only time they don't sit there is when going somewhere reasonably close for a meal break, a toilet break, a refueling stop, start of and end of tour (at the station), and, of course, when actively doing a response. Niftymedi911 wrote: Perhaps I should have my union negotiators talk with your union negotiators for pointers.

Zzyzx, I'm taking 2 guesses, either former presidents "W", or Clinton.

...And if the Highway Patrol is looking for you, how long? (LOL)

The FDNY EMS ambulances have a built in cabinet with sleeves for 3 D cylinders, covered by a hinged, securable lid, alongside the "captain's chair". The tanks are in the sleeves in an upright position, without regulators attached. There are also 2 Ds, each in it's own carry bag, with some supplies (masks, canulas and connecting tubing, and in my ambulance, an adult Bag-valve-Mask), held in an equipment cabinet that is accessible from either outside the vehicle via a hinged door, or inside from a roll up door.

Those who are unable to swallow pills or tablets, if the med is in a hard form, that pill can be crushed and mixed into something else for easy ingestion. Jam? I'm used to hearing applesauce, but, whatever works. However, that does not make it a liquid form, just a suspension in the applesauce or jam. Yes, I am arguing semantics, however, I have a feeling numerous meds can be obtained in a liquid form, both prescription and over the counter. A suspension is not for intravenous. I have no information on acetaminophen in form for injection or infusion.

I'm guessing a "case by case" evaluation, either reinstated, or in a different department.

Theoretical: The doctor is busted, and you catch grief for NOT reporting it. There is no clear path here, as I see it. A now former member of the department was the patient, for a drug overdose in his own home. He worked with the senior tech on the responding ambulance. A newbie tech wrote up the report, including the admission of the illegal recreational pharmaceutical usage by the off duty member, the senior on duty tech didn't "clean up" the call report to "protect" the off duty member, and everyone ended up in trouble. I was not on the crew, or that call, but had, and have, worked with all involved. I had no prior knowledge the now former member was using.

Are you talking meds, therapy, a combination, or something else?