Richard B the EMT

An EMS Train? Needs train tracks. As I see it, the tornado, hurricane, or tsunami blew or washed the tracks away, and the earthquake broke a 50 foot wide gap in them. Also presumes there were tracks near the incident in the first place.

Must be the quarter I dropped and lost, it broke when it hit the floor! I dropped it at 5th and Main, but looked for it at 6th and Avenue Q, the lighting was better there that night.

What are you talking about, no Lifepack 12? I have an FR2! Joking!

Patient has AED attached to them, CPR in progress. Depress "analyse" button, and the machine insists we should attach the electrodes to the patient, even after 4 tries. Afterwards, even though it meant a lot of paperwork, my partner and I insisted the field supervisor respond to the hospital with a replacement AED, and the paperwork forms so we could write down the incident while fresh in our minds. The replacement AED was so the other one could be "bagged and tagged" back to our equipment repair, and, if needed, to the manufacturer. We now, systemwide in FDNY EMS, use a different brand AED. The patient was pronounced after working on him for 10 minutes in the ED.

I am 34+ years working, mostly with Ferno #30 T/C types. FDNY recently started using "roll-in" types, but still is Ferno brand.

We interrupt this contest for the following message: Looks like a quick education for some younger people might be needed, here. Cell phones are fancy 2 way RADIOS that automatically do something called a phone patch. The older HAM Radio operators and Shortwave Radio monitors and listeners (I am registered monitoring station KNY2SC, so I'm one of them) remember when it had to be done manually. Cell phones CONNECT to the hard-wired telephone system via that radio signal, in the 800 to 1000 MHz range. When older HAMs, who were mobile or isolated, used to ask another radio operator, from their radio room's telephone, to dial a number for them, and put the radio's audio over the telephone, and transmit the called person's audio back to them, that was the aforementioned "phone 'patch'". We now return you to the contest, still in progress.

That is the time to teach a new partner about when a patient leaves the scene via other means than your ambulance. A unit activity log entry, perhaps, but no Pre-Hospital Care Report, at least in my jurisdiction, is required.

Punched by a drunk because I tried to fasten the seat belt on him. Kicked in the stomach by a cuffed prisoner, she had an ingested mix of ETOH, unspecified recreational pharmaceuticals, and pepper spray to the eyes, on board, and was simply not happy to have been placed "under", or brought to the ED.

If greedy little me didn't spend it on myself, a good idea for the million would be a fund for EMS or Medical Education for survivors of agency members Killed in the line of duty.

Unfortunately, so it has been, and so it will continue!

I was thinking of getting that pen, so others borrowing it wouldn't walk off with it, but then realized it wouldn't fit in my uniform pocket. Actually, one multiple purpose piece of equipment is the pillow, with cravat folded triangle bandages, really good for both cushioning and splinting!

The "A" Team? Not McGyver?

How many of us use the short spineboard as a writing desk during transport of the patients, to do the call report? I don't think I am the only one.

The only trouble with kittens is that... Eventually, they grow into a cat! (Ogden Nash?)

Hey, Asysin2leads, perhaps I'll see you next summer on Eastern Parkway at the parade!

I previously mentioned the MoPeds for a subway strike in 1980, and the Cushman Carts for the Statue of Liberty Centennial in 1986? Both were before the merger into the FDNY in 1996. The John Deere "Gators" were post-merger. (I am from the old NYC EMS from 1985, and under FDNY management after March 17, 1996 to posting date) I have mentioned that some Fire Departments ASKED to be given EMS responsibilities, others had the decision FORCED on them. Please do not lump them together. In either case, there are success and failure stories on both ends of the issue, and that issue is not what this string was started for.

I remember seeing a long spine board that had specific cutouts. The VFD that had the board told me it was hand-holds to use the board as a battering ram, or as a short ladder.

2 guys camping in the woods, wake up, and find themselves looking at a bear. One of the guys starts lacing on his sneakers. "You think you can outrun it?"asks the barefooted one, and the now sneaker clad guy says, "I don't have to, just got to outrun YOU!"

As for my bad joke, well, I am simply known for bad jokes. It was not done in any intent of nastiness, and if it offended, I deeply apologize! Believe me, if I was intentionally being nasty, the world would know it.

If I remember correctly, toy guns are supposed to have an obvious red or orange plug in the end of the barrels. These do. However, in an attempt to hide in plain sight, what if I paint the muzzles of my AK-47s a bright orange? (This is figuratively speaking. Like a lot of us, I have been to too many shootings to even think of weapons ownership for myself. I know and recognize others on this web site are more comfortable with them than I am. So be it!) As for seeing obvious weapons, I had a call where one entire wall was covered with a large assortment of swords, broadswords, rapiers, 2-handers, basket hilt, gladius, samurai/ninja, daggers, and throwing stars, as well as some weapons I don't recall type by name, but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles probably would have had a field day with them. I'm ready to call for NYPD backup, when the patient turns to me, and asked me how my girlfriend, Johanna, was, by name, as she hadn't been to the Dojo in a few weeks! Turns out, he was a black belt student of Shogotan Karate at the same self defence school (Dojo) Johanna, a purple belt, had temporarily dropped due to an injury. So, while exercising caution, remember that things might not be what they seem! Follow your instincts, and, if you were wrong, apologize. If you were right, hopefully, you and your partner(s) will be safe.

Or a stuffed teddy bear.

I would love to help you out. Which way did you come in? LOL

Yipes!

Pre-merger into the FDNY, NYC EMS used to display their badges on the outermost garment, per the regs. If earned, an enamel pin, which we called a "ribbon", was worn over the badge, and the name tag below. I had a New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Vice President's Unit Citation, and another one for, while off duty, holding the hands, in essence, of 2 old women in a spun out car from a hit and run with no real injuries (they wrote a nice letter), and under FDNY, I have a "Lifesaver" pin for a pre-hospital save, and a service "Campaign Ribbon" for just being in the department on September 11, 2001 (no stars, if 1 star, means worked the Trade Center for the first 72 hours after the collapses, if 2, were there from the time the first plane hit to the second collapse). Nowadays, the pre-hospital save and campaign ribbon are only allowed on the special occasion "Class 'A' Dress Blues" uniform. Badge is only for ID, not used on any FDNY uniforms, and let's not hijack this string for badge/no badge discussions already in progress elsewhere on the EMT City site. Also, I was one of many wearing commemorative ribbons for NYPD and an EMS Officers killed in the Line Of Duty, which the FDNY stopped us from doing. PS: I have seen some members of the FDNY, Fire Fighters, Fire Marshals, EMTs and Paramedics, who wear some small pins or service ribbons from the military on their class "A's". Most of them are also reservists who have been to either Iraq or Afghanistan, and some have been there several times. PPS: Many members wear commemorative T-shirts for an FDNY Lieutenant/Reservist Army Sargent who was killed in action in Iraq.

Something like 20 plus years ago, the pre-merger NYC EMS was having a problem. Someone was calling in with low priority calls, of a type that, per protocols then in place, did not require the NYPD also respond. As pieced together afterwards, the bad guys would call in these low priority calls to locations where nobody lived, but also where the crews would not be seen from the streets, as in apartment buildings. After finding nobody home, and no answer or a non working callback phone number, the crew would start to leave, turn around, and find themselves looking down the gun barrels of the bad guys. The bad guys would relieve the crews of their personal monies, their 2 way portable radios, and the keys to the ambulances. After the NYPD started responding to all calls in that area, they finally found the bastards doing the evil deed, and arrested them. Seems the bad guys were stealing the radios, that they might change the radio frequencies, and use them, of all things, as a 2 way radio system for a SECURITY SERVICE they were trying to start up. Stealing the cash was a dividend. And stealing the keys was so the crews couldn't use the ambulance mobile radios that quickly to summon the NYPD. One of the crews so robbed included a female member of my volunteer ambulance, who also worked for the NYC EMS. No EMS personnel, thank goodness, were injured during the assaults. Now, imagine the same scenario being used to steal an ambulance, and possibly the uniforms of the crews. It is too easy to change the shop number on the side of an ambulance, so if an ambulance based from my station were stolen,, I wouldn't see a familiar number on the side, therefore negating my observation that an unfamiliar crew was in my local paramedic's vehicle. "I don't recognize that vehicle or crew, perhaps it is from another station, covering in my area while MY paramedics seem to be taking so long on that BS call I heard them being dispatched on a while ago." Did I mention that the NYPD doesn't respond to every call type the FDNY EMS responds to?