Richard B the EMT

The original of this has to be at least 25 years old, but keeps getting updated. I think it originally appeared in "Emergency Product News", which was owned by the company that made the original "Hare Traction Splint". I have a copy...somewhere!

A former girlfriend of mine served as a volunteer combat medic in the Israeli Army during the 1973 "Yom Kippur" war. (That is pronounced "Yohm KeePOOR", by the way)

ANY loss of life is one too many. Don't limit watching out just to children. Per your report, the "boy" was 18, which is legal age for contract signing, amongst other things. Adults can drown, due to believed familiarity with the water. You're talking about a pond, I am including oceanfront water, due to constantly changing currents, and the more than occasional "rip" current.

OK, that video shows the clip I mentioned, only the boat got put on it's side, not completely rolled over, as I had originally thought. It also shows a vessel similar to either retired harbor cutters Point Huron and Cape Strait (spelling?), which used to be at the former US Coast Guard Station - Rockaway, New York. I think I recall one being a 95 footer, the other an 87 footer. For those who like factoids, the smaller USCG boats have a 5 digit number on the hull, of which the first 2 indicate it's length. Pity they only had the one still shot of USCGC Eagle! I have visited her at the South Street Seaport Museum in lower Manhattan, NY, on previous visits. Not bad for a former German Navy sail powered war ship. I also used to have a 2 foot long plastic model of her, that my brother had built! For anyone wondering what the heck I am talking about, follow the link! http://www.hnsa.org/ships/eagle.htm

In my over 30 years on ambulances, I have had patients with really low BPs, on both Systolic and Diastolic readings. On several, I actually caught a Diastolic of ZERO mm. The first one, on a "Chest Pain" call, after taking the BP twice, as I didn't believe it, I reported my findings to the EMT in charge of the call (Systolic was, if I recall correctly 198 mm), who didn't believe me, until he followed my suggestion to try for himself. So, a double barrel question: One) Have any of you had any calls where the reading was "...over zero on the BP"? (Don't include any "...over 'Palp'" for this discussion, please.) Two) Does anyone have any knowledge of what could cause that condition in a patient who is still with a palpable heart rate? The floor is open to the discussion. (FYI, that call I mentioned was back in 1974, the patient was an elderly female, and alert as to who, where, and "when" she was. Other than placing her on Hi-Con Oxygen via Non Re-Breather, I don't really recall any other history or findings from that assignment.)

Tiedyedbeth: As some know, the US Coast Guard is the combined Revenue Enforcement and Lifeboat services. While they have fewer vessels than the US Navy, and some called them the "Bathtub Navy", those landing craft that brought ashore most of the American troops at the Normandy Beach "D" Day invasion were piloted by Coasties. I have a favorite video, which I temporarily cannot locate, showing a "self-bailer" getting rolled over and righting itself, in heavy surf at the Petaluma "A" school. It was a good show of what the boats can take, but I understand the student pilot failed the class BECAUSE he allowed the boat to be rolled. I repeat myself from a string discussing "The Guardian", that if a student and instructor got into such competition with each other at a training facility, one or both would end up reassigned!

Perhaps Dennis Franz (as Andy Sipowitz) carried him better than most suspected?

Send the father to boil a lot of water. reason? Keeps him from being under foot to the midwife, nurses, doctors, Paramedics, and EMTs!

OK, perhaps an arrogance to hide the fear? Just thinking out loud. So this former "Coastie" joins the ranks of EMTs, Paramedics, cab drivers, fire fighters, LEOs, Flight Cabin Attendants (formerly "Stewardesses"), train crew personnel, and at least one 6 year old who I read about who helped her mom deliver her sister, who have assisted at an out of hospital baby birth. I think that we are all in agreement that, in a normal delivery, even a premature one, the mom does all the work, and anyone assisting is doing just that: assisting. We stand there with a catcher's mitt on, and say encouraging things until (pop) "It's a girl!"

As for advising the receiving hospital that the ambulance is inbound with an arrest, CPR in progress, and getting asked for vital signs... That has actually happened to me, when I was dispatching my VAC one time. Whoever answered in the ER wasn't satisfied until I finally told her "Zero over zero BP, pulse rate zero, total assisted respirations."

George used to ask a question, that now will forever go unanswered:

I state anecdotally, most drivers in non emergency vehicles drive as if they have no emergency vehicles at all operating within a 10 mile circle from their vehicle.

As I have stated before, I work in New York City, a city of roughly 8 million souls (and as may heels...LOL), with about another 2 million transients during any given 24 hour period. Take a lesson from something I mentioned in the "funniest thing heard on radio/scanner" string: Boro Dispatcher: "Unit XXXX, handle the call at ********". Unit: "Dispatch, that call is outside our PAR (Primary Area of Responsibility)". Dispatch Supervisor: "Unit XXXX, if you look down at that patch on your sleeve, it says 'City of New York'. THAT is your PAR!. Are you 10-63 (on the way to the call), or 10-62 (off service) to explain that to a Boro Chief? Unit: "Uhhh, we're 10-63!"

It is my understanding that "Skel" is a put-down phrase, usually of homeless or publicly intoxicated street people, who seem to believe that they have no responsibilities to the immediate world, and that the same immediate world has every responsibility to them. Another version I've heard is that they are a skeletal part of society. I don't know for sure, but these are things I have heard for years. (Spell-Check seems to not be working)

Can anyone confirm if this is the "Fifth Protocol" or the "Fifth Discipline"? If it is "Discipline", here's a link, which admittedly I did a rush lookup on. http://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Organization/dp/0385517254/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

Comment to nobody in particular: Both an "Arrogant Twit" and a "Simpleton", can be correct on any given subject, but don't reject the correct answer because they are given by an "Arrogant Twit" and a "Simpleton".

If the individual had everything, the individual already has one of those babies!

I've been in E-mail contact with the webmaster, and suggested, while keeping the same concept, calling it "Good and Welfare". This is my running it up the flagpole, and seeing who salutes.

"Fruit", "Brown", "Vampire", or "Louisville slugger"?

That last sounds kind of what I was told for NYC Corrections Officers operating at the Rikers Island Prisons. If any Officer should use the term "Guard" on the radio referring to themselves, as they officially despise the word, it is a disguised request for immediate help, Stat and Forthwith!

OK, for my purposes, at least, the class was an EVOC.

String Hijack Alert! What did Hawkeye Pierce keep giving Frank Burns that turned his urine Blue?

Wow, local laws are sure different. Hit a deer in NY state, you cannot take the meat, the beast is usually buried at the roadside. Vehicle damage is usually severe, dependent on the vehicle speed at time of impact, and has had, even with straight-on hits, killed the vehicle occupants. As for my local area, vehicles hit dogs, cats, squirrels, and the once in a while raccoon and possum. In the Jamaica Bird Sanctuary, I saw the remnants of a rabbit one time.

Firedoc5, what you seem to be describing sounds more like an EVOC, or Emergency Vehicle Operating Course, than Defensive Driving Class. The DDC gets most Americans a small discount on their car insurance for 3 years, and takes 7 hours in a classroom (actually 8 hours, but we break for lunch) Part of my classes at NYC EMS was a 5 day EVOC. It also afforded me a discount on my car insurance, but most civilians don't take that, they take the DDC. Please clarify which one, by those descriptions, you are actually referring to?

"Sick" can still be funny, but this one ain't going into my dinner table joke book.