Richard B the EMT

Firedoc5 beat me in with that comment!

It is funny, but also accurate!

Obviously, you have never used "Fortran Statement Punchcards".

I now give a negative review on a type, not brand name, of hand held flashlights. Avoid, if you can, any of the lights that you can charge up by shaking the flashlight. They usually say they use a Faraday type "generator", where a shuttlecock magnet gets moved, by the shaking, throught a coil, causing an electrical current, that gets stored in a capacitor, and then used to power up an LED (light emitting diode). These things do not hold a charge while in storage, and the active usage before you need to "Shake Your Booty" (thanks, KC and the Sunshine Band) to recharge, is usually short. If you're working a call in a bedroom where the lights are from down the hallway, this can be tiring. Also, it must be shut down while shaking it to recharge. It might be OK for you if you don't mind standing in darkness for over a minute while shaking it, after any period of over an hour's usage or storage. Then, there is what it looks like. You either look like you're shaking dice at the craps tables on that Native American "Rez" casino, or it looks like you are masturbating. I remember the weird looks I was getting during the time I was using the thing, so that I was already planning on going back to the older style Streamlights, Maglights, or even one from Radio Shack, before the Eastern Seaboard Blackout a few years ago.

4Kids wrote Possibly because it took this long for the lawsuit to be developed. I was in court as a witness a few weeks ago for a case I handled at least 3 years prior. The guy slipped and fell on a sidewalk that had not been cleared of ice and snow in January. The court date was in July. 4Kids then wrote Sarcasm noted. Note also, please, that while possibly not here, sometimes they do get it right.

You might want to contact the New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center. They used to have a specialty preemie ambulance, a motor home, actually, that was so well set up, they could, and probably did do, surgery inside the vehicle, (This was around 1980, they might not have anything like that, now)

Had to doublecheck, but yes, Mel Brooks, for the TV show. "Lower the cone of silence!"

"The code is: One, Two, Three!" (same movie) "Oh, no! Not again!" "Check, Please" (Yet again) "May the Schwartz be with you!" (Final for this round) "They shot my hair!!"

All I know is they advertise heavily in JEMS.

Wait one moment, here. The Mexican Army (!) dispatched troops to assist in Katrina recovery to, if memory serves me, Mississippi. (Not one tried to stay) Just hope the damn storm churns and turns out to unoccupied ocean, and blows itself out, harmlessly. Might be too late for harmlessly, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Haiti already have reported fatalities. Oh, long as I got youse guyz attention: What is/are "GOHSEP"?

Try using this link to FEMA, for the USARs. that is the Urban Search And Rescue teams. http://www.fema.gov/emergency/usr/index.shtm While having no knowledge if they are temporarily Federal employees on the Fed payroll, or continued municipal paychecks, I do know the USAR TF1 NYC (Task Force One, New York City) is made up of NYPD LEOs, FDNY fire fighters, and FDNY EMS EMTs and Paramedics. There is possibility that the TF1-NY members are placed into either paid or unpaid vacation status, burning off vacation time, while using equipment supplied by their respective NYC agencies, and flown into whatever the disaster area by the New York Air National Guard's C-130 and C-150 aircraft. Due to probable lack of hotels in the disaster area, I think they also haul a lot of camping gear. I cannot camp out, as I am a Sleep Apnea patient, attached to a CPAP machine when trying to sleep, needing electrical power attached to it, or I would have tried out for it.

"Mongo just a pawn in grand scheme of things"

Glasgow Coma Scale of "Zero?" Yipes! Last time I checked, even a decapitation vic rates a 3, so just how bad was this patient to get the zero rating? lol

Was that crackling sound I just heard your stretching the thread a bit? lol

Kind of reminds me of a news crew error a few years ago. Local news crew covering a story of a battered woman's shelter, but had the camera positioned in a bad place...showing the street address! Compounding this, the reporter said, "From ***** Street, this is ***** reporting". That was the 5 PM news. At the 5:30 continuation, they showed the residents, hiding their faces, as they ran to a line of unmarked cars, possibly car service vehicles, which were leaving as soon as filled, burning rubber. By the 6 PM report, the door stood open, and the lights inside extinguished, literally, nobody home. By the time of the 11 PM news, the reporter, now in the studios, apologized to anyone who the story had hurt, advised viewers that the shelter had been abandoned, and that the cameraman and sound tech had been fired. I never saw that reporter again, on any of the New York area TV stations.

I spent 11 years as an NYC EMS 9-1-1 call taker. Perhaps it is the infamous NYC "attitude", but just asking what is going on that an ambulance is needed, is sometimes enough for you to be verbally abused on the telephones. Likewise, trying to confirm the address, cross streets, or offering instructions of what to do until the ambulance gets there. I had been yelled at by callers for "wasting the patient's time" by asking a bunch of damnfool questions, like "Is the patient breathing?", "Is the patient awake?", or even "Confirm the address, please, is it..." As for the pre-arrival instructions, "That is NOT MY job, that is YOURS, now get here! I'm freakin' timing your ass". One caller actually ordered me to get off my butt, off the telephone, get into the ambulance, and drive the half a block from the hospital to the patient. Admittedly, there was no way of the caller knowing that I was in the communications center, in a different borough, and that the hospital in question neither ran 9-1-1 ambulances, or inter-facility transfer ambulances, and any private ambulances he might have seen at that ER dock probably were not under the 9-1-1 system's control. Regrettably, you cannot take the time, on a 9-1-1 call, to educate them.

OK, looked up Marfans Syndrome, and this is one of the sites that got googled up... http://www.marfan.org/nmf/index.jsp

EMT-I (intermediate) is neither offered, or recognized, within the New York City limits.

New York city started with one area code, 212, figuring the short number for the dial to return, before the touch tone phones. Roughly 1980, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island were severed from 212, and given 718. Due to the explosion of cell phones and what not, the Bronx was eventually split from 212, and joined 718, and most recently, we now have area code "overlay", which means New York City now has possibly 4 different area codes for the same geographic city block. It doesn't matter if you're hard wired, or using a cell phone. By the way, when the 212/718 first happened, the ones who made out like bandits were the people who painted the advertisements, including the phone numbers, on the sides of service vehicles, either adding or changing the area codes.

Unfortunately, Arizonaffcep, this ends up with the ongoing problem of 9-1-1 being called for everything from stubbed toes to the radiation burns from the Martian Invaders' ray guns (don't ask, that one is a regular caller of at least one time a week), to the actual witnessed Cardiac Arrests with CPR in progress. It falls on the call takers and/or dispatchers to sort it out, and they are not always successful.

Sandmedic said If we end up with a Bee situation, we got a few LEOs in the ESU (Emergency Services Unit) trained as bee keepers, or have bee keepers on call. So... Dish soap in the water tank trick? Somebody please elaborate for this City Boy, with thanks in advance?

If the husband gained weight like the wife, as has been reported in numerous cases of pregnancy, why not? (Not a personal attack, as I am "gravitationally challenged," and sometimes do double duty as escort and anchor for my girlfriend in a high onshore wind)

Legal reminder: WNL does NOT mean "Within Normal Limits" when used for vital signs. As per the lawyers, it means "We Never Looked." Also not recommended: phrase "No sails on the horizon", meaning the EKG shows asystole, particularly if family is within earshot.

In the string "Carrying Oxygen Off Duty", someone mentioned Oxygen Bars, to which I had posted : I was doing some long overdue "housecleaning", when I found the o2 bar's card, which gave me this link, for anyone wants to watch their video on Youtube. If you want to get their services, or not, I just provided the link. At least enjoy the video. http://www.bikramyogarvc.com/o2barny/movie.htm

Wow, new home, just home from the hospital...You and yours are going to be busy. Don't overextend yourself, Cheeky, but enjoy.