Richard B the EMT

Oh. Thanks. Would that be what I keep hearing from the Paramedics as a "Central Line", but a different name for the same? Or is the central line something else entirely? As mentioned, I am BLS, so the only thing with the Jugular Vein I am usually aware of, is "JVD", Jugular Vein Distention.

Yes, I am, but don't call me Shirley! (Thanks for the too easy setup!)

Which will be more important, the medical Tricorder, or the Hypo-Spray? Just keep the hypo-spray filled with Tri-Ox, for when you go to Spock's home world of Vulcan, as the air, by Earth standards, is thinner than in the "mile-high" city of Denver, Colorado.

I read, a couple of years ago, in a Sci-Fi magazine, the dilemma faced by the actual husband of the female human who modeled for the most popular sex partner robot in use on the planet. Can you imagine being married to the woman that the majority of the men in the world are now screwing, if only in robotic form? Small wonder he ends up killing her, even though she was faithful to him.

I went back and looked in the original posting several times, looking for any indication that the original parent, specifically, the father, was divorced or separated from the second parent, the mother. Did I still miss such indication? Father requested the crew to save his child, and CPR was started. Mother, whom I will speculate was not originally on the scene, arrived following commencement of CPR, and presents the crew with a DNR order. This is definitely in the posting. I admit I now speak from emotion, not "the book". I'd continue CPR, and try, quick, for On Line Medical Control to sort it out, while transporting, CPR in progress. Of course, if the OLMC tells my crew to discontinue CPR, I would have to, otherwise, the decision to stop (or not) would come from the ED MD on our arrival.

BLS is monitoring the proceedings. What is an "EJ"? And now, BLS commentary: I have seen some very good Paramedics try twice on each arm to start an IV, and fail, and then the partner makes the attempt. Usually, somebody gets the good "flash", and then they continue with the rest of the protocols. Nobody hits it good all the time. If the Paramedic under discussion repeatedly tried to get the IV started, and didn't shift to a slightly different location, or the other arm, perhaps it is not "tunnel vision", but bullheadedness instead? "I was taught to start an IV with the needle entering at this specific inch of the arm. I cannot, indeed, I WILL NOT fail in my endeavor to start the IV exactly at this spot!" (PS: Spell Check confirmed the spelling of "bullheadedness", which surprised me immensely)

It would appear, Riblett, we have different frames of reference. Nothing wrong with that, but, where I am from, and via my life experiences, a "Class 'A' Uniform" is, or are, the uniform you wear when representing your organization at a formal dinner, marching in a parade, or, regrettably, at a "Departmental Funeral". With the seemingly routine abuse of the uniform you described, that seems to be more the "uniform of the day" than a "Class 'A'", as one doesn't normally wear the fancy "A"s to get blood, Dr Pepper, or lipstick on them (well, maybe the lipstick, from some "uniform junkie", of which I've met a few).

If she went as the lower GI, best watch out for that rectal exam. Rectum? We damn near killed her!

I used to wear the Medic Alert Bracelet, but the damn thing fell off. I am now, after almost 30 years, on my second necklace (in use for 7 or so years). As a mention, when I am the "patient" in class, I mention to the instructors and whoever is assigned to "examine" me, if they found the necklace. Regrettably, few seem to care. Furthermore, when I was hospitalized from the EMS Academy with a case of SOB (Spring, 2007), I mentioned the necklace, which holds a dog tag sized tag, to both the crew that transported me, and even to the ED crew, as I have on record my meds, and the dosages of same, which I didn't remember, and nobody checked to find out those dosages with the Medic Alert Foundation. Go figure.

Hey, where did you get this photo of uncle Fred?

There is also a reverse logic that sometimes is applicable. Train and drill for some specific, and you'll never get that as your call. Admittedly, that is not always workable, as witness the Kansas City Plane crash, where the news cameras caught the aircraft cartwheeling down the runway. They had held a multiple agency drill less than a month before the accident, so at least everybody knew what to do, and not do.

Now we know Ruffems' true identity: Elmer Fudd (millionaire, he owns a mansion and a yacht)!

I'm a City Kid, as mentioned in several dozen strings on the site, and never understood how fast a time was represented by "quicker than two shakes of a lambs tail". For me, the fasted moment of time is the interval from when the traffic light goes from red to green, and the cab driver behind you starts sounding his horn! This is the famous New York Minute, of 1 nanosecond duration.

"Car" pronounced like "saw"? I thought it was "Bostonspeak" pronounced "Cahh"!

That one is...well, words fail me (NOTIFY THE NEW YORK TIMES THAT RICHARD B WAS SPEECHLESS!). The computer scannable call report that the FDNY EMS uses is 2 pages. Depending on the activity of the call, 2 pages is way too much, or way too little space to fill out.

There used to be, back in, I think, 1968, a black comedian by the name of George Wallace, who's main part of his act was referencing his namesake, the racist, white, then candidate for POTUS! (President Of The United States)

Doesn't the department you ride/work for supply some kind of "pre-hospital care" form, or "ambulance call report? If they don't, a Google search might help you find some commercial format available for purchase.

In the FDNY EMS, contractually, an EMT or Paramedic cannot work more than 18 hours consecutively. That is x2 eight hour tours. The paperwork is processed Saturday into Sunday. Some of our "Overtime Hounds" used to do a bit of craziness. On Saturday, they would work the 18 hour "Double", then work the first 8 hours of Sunday. Technically, it was on 2 separate weeks. Or, they'd work the 1600 to 2400 hour tour Saturday, then do the double on Sunday, 0000 to 1600. In essence, they'd be doing a full 24 hours long tour, no sleep included, as we stage from street corners, as mentioned in other strings.

That won't work. When American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in my neighborhood, all businesses closed down for the day. The bars hadn't even gotten to opening time yet, and never opened. The local restaurant closed, paid for their "in the house" diner's meals themselves, and then supplied food to the rescuers from food in stock, until he ran out. No restock from "inland", as the LEOs closed down all 3 bridges into Rockaway, and the main roads in from Nassau County. The only way in or out, including residents, was by emergency vehicle, NYPD Aviation Helicopter, or boat to the launching ramp at Beach Channel High School, where they brought the jet's tail fin ashore.

The vehicle used is an AMBULANCE. Whoever purchases the vehicle for use will determine if it will be utilized as a 9-1-1 Emergency Responder vehicle, an Inter-Facility-Transfer vehicle, or used either way as needed by call type and/or call volume. Also, while the number of IFT patients I have transported (between 1975 and 1985, in private, non-9-1-1 ambulance service) had few patients go sour on me, those who do are still going to be reason not to remove the L&S from the vehicle. Actually, the biggest number of non-emergent patients, and I emphasize here, in MY experience, are wheelchair-bound and limited walking ability patients, transported in "Ambulettes", a Northern East United States word for a "wheelchair coach". Most that I see of them have either what appears to be private vehicle licence plates, taxi-cab plates, or, here in New York City, special "Taxi and Limousine Commission" (TLC) plates. Ambulances have "Ambulance" plates, or, if run by a municipality, the county or the State of New York, have "Official" plates, or one of those plates issued by their department.

Note: I was a horrible student, all topics, first thru 12 grade, and on thru my 3rd and final year in college. What the heck, I failed finger painting in kindergarten, as I was all thumbs! Lately, I seem to be a good student. My mom is always asking me, "Who are you, and what have you done with my son?"

Arlene!

As someone who has been working on ambulances for 34 years, I started out as an admitted arrogant young punk, and now I am an admittedly arrogant old fark! When did I make that transition? If you can get the training upgrades, and feel that you can handle the work, and a potential employer agrees that you can handle the work, pal, go for it!

This seems to me, that it should be not a discussion of unpaid versus paid EMS personnel, but one of upgradeable technology that didn't get upgraded. In Brooklyn, New York, there is a section known as Paerdegat Basin, with the streets known as Paerdegat 1st through 20th Streets. My girlfriend's high school BFF used to live on Paerdegat 11th Street, so the streets do exist, even if at that time, the computers said they didn't. After the NYC Public Safety Answering Point at One Police Plaza was established, and went computerized, supposedly with every possible address in New York City in the computer, even into 1990 (I was using the EMS CAD from 1985 to 1996), the damn computers didn't recognize any of the Paerdegat streets, and would have to be "over-ridden" by the supervisors, before either an NYPD patrol car, or an EMS ambulance, could respond. I feel that, if the computer assisted dispatch system programmers are advised that an entire geographic area is not in the CAD, and that the system still doesn't get upgraded to include that area, now THAT is criminal!

The article by Mr. Becker says However, in the verbal history of the first organized ambulance service, from over 100 years ago, out of Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, New York, that is exactly what the first ambulances did. If the non-medically trained crew, or the intern that sometimes rode along, felt a patient was of an emergent nature, they'd leave the route and proceed directly to the ED. I was told, by a colleague (again, from before the EMS/FDNY merger), that his ambulance was called directly over an NYPD radio, to "get the 'bus' to" where someone had been shot. My friend, who is, if you can believe it, a bigger joke-maker than myself, responded back, "I'm going to be delayed en route, because I have to stop at the transit depot to pick up a bus: I'm drivin' a ambulance!"