Richard B the EMT

I don't consider myself too squeamish in regards to snakes, but a breed of hooded cobra and a crawling baby on the same carpet? To the best of my knowledge, snakes are not trainable to "play nice". Remove the fangs, and the snake dies. Admittedly, my snake knowledge is potentially with holes in it big enough to drive a B-52 Bomber through them. That video frightened and angered me, enough to file child abuse charges if it was filmed in the US!

I will be presumptuous that the AC EMS has a voice recorder on their radio system, as does, in fact, the FDNY EMS, and possibly the majority of municipal EMS represented by members of EMT City. In the Crown Heights case that I referred to earlier, Hatsoloh doesn't have such recording system in place. However, if a LEO wants you to do something against your protocols, rules, regulations, or laws, or even if you just feel a bit "hinkey" about it, the radio voice recorder record, for CYA purposes, always seems like a good idea.

This is not the Atlantic City call, but draw your own parallels, if you feel they are there. In Brooklyn, NY, there was a 5 year old black male, who got hit by a car knocked out of control, from a collision, onto the sidewalk. The car was a part of a convoy. The boy had been riding his tricycle on the sidewalk. The driver, a Jewish male, was, understandably in shock, as he had hit a child. The ambulance that was summoned, from the Hatzoloh Shevra service, which was not a local 9-1-1 system unit, transported...THE DRIVER. Allegations abound, for over fifteen years from the incident, as to if the ambulance crew checked the child or not, or were told by the LEOs NOT to take the child. The child died before the municipal ambulance arrived. A large group of black local residents, understandably upset, with a somewhat long history of neighborhood problems between the 2 groups, follows one loudmouth's incitement to riot, subsequently attacked an Australian rabbinical student. The Aussie student was stabbed, with possible mistakes made on the part of the hospital's own triage, resulting in him dying from bleeding out. This mess resulted in the "Crown Heights Riots", that lasted for a week before hostilities stopped. I was not there. I can only report on what was mentioned in the newspapers at the time. Could the ambulance, in this accident, have transported both patients? All these years later, I can but guess that they probably could have. Should they have transported both? Again, in retrospect, yes, they should have, even with the common practice of not transporting patients from opposite sides (for lack of a better terminology) of an accident. But, again, that is just my humble opinion, and, as I already stated, I was not there at that time.

Gives me vague memories of a person who fell on a small patch of ice in front of a bank after a snowfall, sued the bank, and what he believed to be a company responsible for shoveling the snow from in front of the bank. Turned out the "company" was one 10 year old boy, who was bewildered at being sued for several million dollars for a $40.00, one shot assignment. The judge threw out both lawsuits, both the one against the bank and the boy.

I don't know. Don't necessarily dismiss those who do so as Wankers, as there just might be a background story you are unaware of. I recall reading, from multiple sources, of LEOs, from various jurisdictions, in many different marathon races, running in full uniform of the day, including sidearm and radio. The reported theory was supposed to have been that's how the LEO would have been attired while chasing an alleged perpetrator, so why not a marathon? As for running a race in full fire fighting attire, either "bunker", "turnout" or whatever it is called by you, we will always have the tale of the FDNY fire fighter, who ran through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, between Brooklyn and the Battery Park section of Manhattan. The fire fighter did just that, to join up with his company comrades, and, unfortunately, died with them when the World Trade Center fell on them. There is a race to raise funds for a WTC victims survivors group now, each year, run through the tunnel.

3 old ladies, all friends, met at the street corner. Said the first one, Said the second, Said the third,

Trixie is Speed's girlfriend? I thought she was his sister, and his "spotter" from her helicopter. From what I understand, with the pre-release publicity, she is actually employed by a competitor race sponsor, but changes to the Racer family camp when she falls in love with Speed, which is gonna be unrequited, as racing is always first to Speed.

I refer you to a string from last year, which might or might not be of assistance. Why did you wait until the month of EMS Week to ask? EMS Week 2007

So...Is this what they mean when they say ??????????????????????????

Rat115 said Please clarify that one: The ambulance entrance is actually inside a garage door and "bay", into which one backs the ambulance? Neat, great protection against inclement weather, but lousy if there is a power failure as you arrive, and the internal power hasn't kicked in yet (or, for that matter, getting back out and available...wait one...uh...)

I, for one, have never heard of this "wake effect", at least in that wording, but I have seen the effects. A taxi stopped, on hearing my siren, and some unlucky driver slammed into the taxi's rear bumper. I am not a boater, but the driver of a boat or ship is, per what I have vague recall of reading years ago, responsible for any damage caused by the wake from the vessel being driven. Perhaps that is the source of the phrase.

Paying someone to be on "door monitor duty" would make sense to anyone but that CEO, as mentioned, but remember, I live and work in New York City, where anyone who works for a municipal employee union, and there's a lot of us, can tell you,

I find it interesting that, while we glove up for almost everything, does anyone have any protection against the Emergency Room accessing keypad, that one punches in a code to open the doors? The keypads have probably got the most disgusting collection of who knows what, due to every ambulance crew coming into that ER, not to mention civilians who access the building via that doorway, spreading the collection of who knows what to who knows where, on the hands of whoever pushed those keys on the numbers keypad. While I have seen the housekeeping staff clean blood and vomitus off of bathroom fixtures, walls, floors, and due to a projectile vomiting episode, even the ceiling, but I have never seen them clean the keys on that keypad. (Also, couldn't the folks who program the keypads think of a better code than "911*" or "911#"? DUH! Even the dumbest of the dumb could figure that one out.)

Somehow, I have the feeling that whatever suction, or negative pressure applied to that tank car, was a lot over the recommended 300 Millimeters of Mercury my Laerdal can produce.

The way I was taught, similarly, if you can clear the airway by forcing the Foreign Body Obstruction into the opening for one lung, at least you will be getting air into the other one. One blocked is better than both blocked.

I believe you have a more recent copy of the triple K standards than do I. Thanks.

O M G

Must have been a different parrot... I purchased, for a sizable sum, a talking parrot, even though I was warned he had a really vulgar vocabulary. After the parrot called my girlfriend a whore, and me a pimp, in a fit of anger, I thrust the bird into the freezer, telling him, as I did so, it was because of his awful language. I calmed down after 10 minutes, and opened the freezer. The parrot looked me in the eye, and said to me,"I'm truly sorry for my use of those words, as I actually do know better. I will never use such bad language again". I said, "OK, but you will always be on probation, so do not do it again." "I do have a question, sir, if I may?" "What?" "I know what I did, and why you stuffed me into the freezer. I am curious, though, sir, What did that poor turkey do?"

Dahlio, could you elaborate as to why it is not covered under KKK-A-1822(whatever letter we are up to now)?

referring to an ax Witch Hazel, just before chasing, again, Bugs Bunny. Sorry, I forget the title of this particular Bugs Bunny cartoon.

If both a BLS and ALS crew treat, no matter who actually transports, both crews fill out call reports, and both are supposed to have the report number, as well as the radio identifier, from the other unit. Our ePCRs are all individually numbered by the company that manufactures them, and each call has an assignment number on it from the Computer Assisted Dispatch system.

The 3 year "certs" were, and probably will continue to be, without the option of the CMEs, strictly the full "Refresher" class.

1) As already mentioned, the doors on all FDNY EMS ambulances (except to the cab) remain locked at all times. Close the door, it is locked, against theft of contents, against all except those authorized to be aboard, regulated by the crew with the keys. That way, one can keep out interfering family members and bystanders. Another reason is, if the patient is an "evil-doer", or was perceived as one, who is now a patient because the bystanders issued "street justice", and want to issue a reinforcement lesson, they cannot get in. I have been in that situation, and it ain't pretty. 2) I have mentioned that the New York City 9-1-1 system is, in addition to Engine company Certified First Responder-Defibrillator, EMT BLS, and Paramedic ALS, we have a mixed bag of providers at both BLS and ALS level. "Primary", and here I go with the department and Union "line", is units of the FDNY EMS Command. Then, there are hospital based "Voluntaries", so called, as 30+ years ago, then NYC Mayor Abraham Beame cut back on all municipal services, including the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation EMS, as a part of a budget cutback, and some "private", non HHC hospitals "Volunteered" to put their own ambulances into the 9-1-1 system. The crews are usually union members (local 1199) paid by their base hospitals. Still as a part of the 9-1-1 system, a few years ago, several other private hospitals managed to get contracts with the city, to provide ambulances to the 9-1-1 system, but did something without advising the city until after the contracts were signed. These hospitals then turned around, and sub-contracted with private ambulance services that until this time, had never provided 9-1-1 service within NYC. Like the "Voluntaries", they have the name of the hospital on the side, but also have the name of the private service provider, using Saint Barnabas Hospital/Metro-Care Ambulance Service, who were the first to do this, as an example. AMR also has some units in the system in this way. To the best of my knowledge, none of the private ambulance services thus "back-doored" into the 9-1-1 system, are union shops, nor do they have any medical "Bennies" if their crews should get hurt, unlike the FDNY EMS and "Voluntaries" crews. Now, on a tangent, if an FDNY EMS crew makes a mistake, they will have a supervisor on their back within 24 hours, so any mistakes will still be fresh in their minds as they get correction or punishment, as witnessed by the crew mentioned in the newspaper article that sparked this string. As a part of the contract with the "Voluntaries" an FDNY EMS supervisor can approach a hospital based crew and give correction for errors they made in the field, or address the appropriate hospital supervisor to do it. However, these "private contractor" service ambulance crews can ignore the FDNY EMS, or hospital supervisors with impunity. It can be over a month before the State DoH can contact the crew, and advise them of whatever errors they made in the field, by which time, the crew probably has forgotten the errors they were accused of doing. Kind of at the bottom of the list, are the community-based "Volunteer" ambulance services. I make distinction here between "Voluntaries" and "Volunteer", as the former are paid, the latter are unpaid "charity workers" but all personnel mentioned here are DoH certified. Volunteers either self dispatch, respond to direct phone calls, or are dispatched by the FDNY EMS EMD, as units of the "MARS", or Mutual Aid Radio System. What I witness, for the most part, is respect between the FDNY EMS and hospital employed "Voluntaries", but it also seems to be a lack of respect towards any and all of the "private contractor" ambulance crews. A mention: Most of the "private contractor" ambulance crews just do Inter-Facility Transfers, with the occasional emergency call. They also have specific crews that are dedicated to doing the 9-1-1 calls, with their own FDNY EMS EMD radio designations and assigned territories, as do the FDNY and hospital based units.

New York State recently decided to go for CME (Continuing Medical Education) training, extending the 3 year EMT certification to 5 year. As I write this, there is a great deal of "flux", as everyone tries to figure out what the devil it is, that we are doing, on a statewide basis. As most here know, I am in the FDNYs EMS Command. We have our own Academy, where, under the 3 year "cert", I would sit for some 45 hours of class time every 2 .5 years, to get my refresher training. I get paid to sit in these classes, by the way. Now, under the 5 year plan (my wording, not an official one), we have to sit for periodic "Core Training" one day every couple of months, for several lectures, and a bit of practical skills practice, at the EMS Academy, and one 1 hour lecture (sometimes with practical skills during that hour) every month, taught by a department supervisor at the member's assigned stations. Most of these supervisors, ranging from Lieutenants to Deputy Chiefs, don't have any EMS Academy teaching time, as far as I know (over my time in the department from June 1985). They do, however, have to sign my training session attendance/completion log. Most of you also know, I got my start in a community based volunteer ambulance corps, from 1973 to 1996. The VAC was a member-squad of the New York State Volunteer Ambulance and Rescue Association, of which I was a delegate from my VAC, and am still an individual member. With my membership in the NYSVARA, I attend their annual Convention, Educational Conference, and Trade Show, for some CME classes, and seeing some of the stuff that might be in my ambulance next year, as well as meeting up with a bunch of nice people I only see at these gatherings. I do this at my own expense, and file the expenses for tax purposes as a "Cost Of Doing Business." Some of the instructors, whose lecture sessions I attend, are either past or present instructors, or Instructor-Coordinators, from the FDNY EMS Academy. All of the lectures are supposed to be accepted as authorized CME hours by the NY State Department of Health, Bureau of Emergency Medical Services. Indeed, one of the lecturers is Mr. Ed Wronsky, who is the New York State DoH "authorized signature" on my EMT card. Does anyone else feel it unusual, that the State DoH accepts the CME credits from the NYSVARA Convention lectures, but the FDNY EMS does NOT? One more thing: FDNY EMS Command requires members, as an employment requirement, to maintain their EMT or Paramedic certifications, even if one is working one of the assignments that doesn't have you doing "patient contact", such as working in the Bureau of Investigations and Trials. If you are not doing a "patient contact" assignment, you are supposed to not be eligible for the 5 year "cert", just the 3 year "cert". There is discussion going on at the FDNY EMS EMD, as the EMTs and Paramedics who work taking the calls from the 9-1-1 system, and entering the calls into the Computer Assisted Dispatch system, are considered to be doing "patient contact", but the EMTs and Paramedics, who work as dispatchers, directing the ambulance crews to go where needed, are not. We hope to come to some kind of conclusion on this topic, hopefully with all EMS personnel getting the 5 year "certs". I do not know if the Fire Fighters in the FDNY have a 3 or 5 year recertification for their Certified First Responder-Defibrillator training, so if I address that, it will be in another string. Within, or between, your City/County/State/Provence/Country's DoH agencies, and your EMS agency, do you have such problems?