Richard B the EMT

LadyBear, I'll presume you to be Paramedic, and I advise that I am an EMT of 34 years experience. Under local protocols (New York City, New York), we are instructed, with at least hyperventilation, never to have the patient re-breath their air using a bag or glove. (I had an instructor actually say "Bags? Bad!, " to which I responded, "The bag isn't bad, just misunderstood", to a lol from everyone including the instructor.) Could you elaborate a bit on your local protocol that, if I am reading correctly, seems to say to use the re-breather method?

As usual, I'm going to look at this with my Noo Yawk mindset, which might give false readings outside of my state of residence and mind. I used to be a call taker at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation EMS EMD (pre-merger into FDNY), and if we got 2 or more calls for a location that were in the same hundred number block, like Brooklyn's 212, 214 and 225 Throop Avenue, and we would presume it, if a street side call, to be one and the same. If the number was significantly different, both locations would be entered as separate jobs. The Computer Assisted Dispatch system would ask the operators if the call was one and the same. Then, it would be a judgment call of the call takers, to "dupe" the call to a similar address, or enter it as a different call. The Florida call referenced here has both 770 Gulf Blvd, and 500 Gulf Blvd. Not knowing how Florida, or Lee County, addresses run, that seems to be almost 200 numbers difference, and should have been entered as 2 separate assignments into their system. Regrettably, this could happen within any system, even those with a CAD system. It did happen, roughly a decade ago, in a main shopping area in Queens county. We had a bad guys/NYPD running gun battle, with several shot, including some not on either "side", which ran for several blocks. When entered into the systems (NYPD's SPRINT, and EMS' MEDSTAR), initially, only 2 locations were responded to, and several locations in between did not, until people ran up to where the NYPD and/or the EMS went, demanding help for those at the other locations. Suffice to say, it was a fustercluck, and held the headlines for several days.

From that studio, also came "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties". It is my understanding that Do-Right was nowhere near as popular "up north", than he was, here in the United States. Any Canadians care to comment, either way?

Someone back me on this, please. The "falling through the ceiling" bit may also have been used in a Denzel Washington movie, with, I think, a LEO falling out of the air conditioning system, while Washington held an ED hostage, trying to get a heart transplant for his son. I am short on a movie title, so any help, here?

May I suggest something like Home Depot? They have large top loading bins with wheels, that you can put whatever you want into them, and can wheel them to the tent, or whatever, that you would be operating out of. I am presuming that you are wanting to set up for something like a lighting gaffer falling off of a light bridge, or something, but get the majority of calls being paper cuts. If not Home Depot, some similar type store, perhaps? I also think I have seen wheeled bins of this generic type at Costco, Staples, and other office supply stores, so you might also want to check them out.

The return to this thread got me to thinking about the old Kingston Trio Song, "Super Skier". The Youtube site was cooperative, and gave up this offering on skiing.

So you're the bastid stole my jacket! lol

I almost hate to bring it up, but... Have you looked at your partner lately? lol

I'd like to comment on possible delay of care, when the patient is a minor aged one. If the child is unaccompanied, and not emancipated, it is considered to be "Implied Consent", and the patient can be cared for and transported. FDNY policy is, do the care and transport, and request the NYPD meet you at the receiving ED. Then, the PD will have the responsibility of "Protective Custody" until the responsible family member(s) can be contacted, or child welfare agencies.

Sitting in a hallway, and getting paid for it? I'll be presumptive that it involves taking vital signs at set intervals, and possibly getting patient medical histories. With my bad back and knees, and the cardiac stent, if this position doesn't involve lifting, sounds like a great "light duty" posting, not offered here at any New York City hospital.

Somewhere in my basement, I still have a Plano 727 box, in orange. I don't know if it has any sort of stock in it. I also used to have a Dyna Med "Trauma One" box. The "Trauma Two" had the clip on lower storage box area. I said "used to", as someone broke into my ambulance while we were returning a patient to a nursing home, and stole it. The box didn't want to stay latched closed, and I had a "jewelry box" lock on it to keep it shut, and the thief might have thought it was a drug box. Someone on North Portland Avenue in Brooklyn must have been disappointed to only find the drug "Syrup of Ipecac". This was sometime back 1975 to 1977.

I am not a small person, so I use a seat belt extender strap. It's all of a foot long, and the nice people at Ford Motor Company dealerships' parts departments usually have them in stock, for no charge. At least they are no charge for someone identifying themselves as an EMT, and needing it for use in a Ford chassis ambulance. Looks kind of like the strap the airline attendants use in the pre-flight safety demonstration. Wait one: The last time I flew, after the safety lecture, I asked for a seat belt extender, and the attendant gave me the belt she had just used in the demonstration!

I think I heard it described as "X-Over" strapping, where the straps end up forming a series of "X" over the patient, kind of like the laces on a shoe crossing over the shoe's tongue. There's probably other names for the protocol, used in different localities.

Going strictly from memory, and not having activated the links, I seem to recall that, some years ago, airplane passengers, originally in the Tokyo Airport, could, for a price, get 5 minutes of o2 via a nasal cannula, against the air pollution of Tokyo. At a fund raiser for a local politician by me, they had an Oxygen Bar set up at the catering hall, no charge, for a set amount of time with an "aromatherapy" "flavor" added, in what looked like a humidifier chamber, again by nasal cannula. I did not partake.

The guy just fell into my arms! I had no warning, I just caught the dude. Besides, although not AT work, I WAS heading in to work after I was to get my money from that bank. On not working or volunteering when out on Line Of Duty Injury/Compensation: One of the guys from my EMS Academy class was supposed to have been out on Workers Comp, when someone in the Comp Board office found a second filing, seemingly for a second incident hours after the first was supposed to have occurred. One was for the NYC EMS, the other for this classmate's VFD/VAS! Workers Comp contacted NYC EMS on the discrepancy, and an investigative unit within the EMS had an unmarked car following the Member Of Service, obviously without the MOS' knowledge. While staking out his house, the VFD/VAS sirens went off, and they videotaped the MOS leaving his house while donning his Personal Protective Equipment (Bunker Gear?), jumping into his car, and then first followed him to the fire house, and then to a house fire. The MOS was videoed going up a ladder company "stick" and doing such that a fire fighter is supposed to do at a fire scene. They then followed him back to the fire house, and then again to his residence, where he was seen getting out of the PPE as he went back into his house. The MOS was brought up on State charges of defrauding the Comp Board, lost his "bennies", ordered to pay back the comp board, and then was fired from both NYC EMS and the VFD/VAS. I am told the investigative unit people got some good action shots of the VFD/VAS, too.

Try this one: I was coming from physical therapy, and went into a bank for some cash, prior to going to my light duty posting, after I tore my meniscus, but prior to surgery. I was wearing the duty jacket, which says FDNY and EMT on it. The guy on the line ahead of me suddenly collapsed, and fell backwards! I somehow managed to catch him, and ease him to the floor, then gave bank staffers orders to call 9-1-1, as I positioned him. As the bank people told 9-1-1 that an off duty personnel was working the patient, they sent both BLS, ALS, and the area supervisor. It is a bit awkward, being on one knee, taking a pulse with one hand, while balancing yourself with a cane in the other, when one is not supposed to be doing any active patient care, and both EMTs and the supervisor know you, as you used to partner with them! Fun! They understood the position I was in, and played it down, although I spoke with the Line Of Duty Injury coordinator later that same day to make sure I had not risked my benefits by that guy falling into my arms. Hey, what would youze guyz had done, under like circumstances, let the guy fall?

As for "Understanding the lingo", while my girlfriend was a First Responder, her previous medical training had been as a medical technologist (she is now a teacher on the NYC Department of Education). One of my Paramedics was talking with her about the Anatomy and Physiology classes she (the Paramedic) was taking as a part of Nursing school. My girlfriend started talking of some specifics of A&P with the Paramedic, who had a look of shock that my girlfriend would know any of that, and is above my current level of understanding. One never knows, do one!

I have a suspicion that, in that month, a lot of unnamed folks gave you a lot of uncomfortable grief.

Perhaps she got the idea from an episode of ER?

Link on this one for dropping a different type tube down the throat. I am amazed this woman doesn't gag.

"Wish you were her"? Begins to sound like time to make some coffee, as that could be grounds for divorce! Actually, when I complained to the waiter that the coffee tasted like mud, he couldn't understand why it did. "It was only ground this morning."

I am not able to state my sources, but I seem to remember seeing, not "Once a fire fighter..." but more along the lines of either a "retired to pasture" fire horse, starting to where he would be hooked up to pull the fire apparatus when hearing the alarm bells, or a war horse, doing similar on hearing bugle calls.

WANTYNU, I remember the incident you refer to. Every TV station in NYC had coverage of it on their 10 or 11 PM newscast. A candle was lit in honor for each of them at the "Pulse Check" New York State Volunteer Ambulance and Rescue Association's annual convention, educational conference, and trade show last September. BVESBC, I think you were given some male bovine excrement samples, with that line that the FDNY EMS ambulances have speed governors on them. I have had the FDNY EMS ambulances up to 70 MPH, in short spurts. I don't feel comfortable going that fast, even when I am the one driving, so I slow down.

Were these vehicles previously owned by the FDNY EMS? I should have asked that before.

Didn't youse guyz read da fine print? Being crazy is a prerequisite of the job.