Richard B the EMT

If that avatar is what I think it is, it is from a photo supplied from Universal Studios, showing Los Angeles County Fire Department "Station 51" from the 1970s TV show, "Emergency!", which was on Saturday nights on NBC-TV. The small rescue truck shown is "Rescue 51", manned by Fire Fighter/Paramedics Johnny Gage (Randolph Mantooth), and Roy DeSoto (sorry, blanking for now on who played the role), in a show from production company "Mark 7", owned by Jack Webb. Webb was also behind "Dragnet", and "Adam 12", also shown on NBC TV. Webb was the actor played Detective Sargent Joe Friday, on Dragnet. "Emergency!" was the reason for a lot of folks from when I started becoming Fire Fighters, EMTs, and Paramedics, while Adam 12 and Dragnet were the reason many joined their local Law Enforcement Agencies.

I'll play devil's advocate here: Can this not result in someone, in effect, saying to you, "Aren't you a member of that agency where that bad person works? In my mind's eye, I now equate you with the alleged evil deeds of that person".

I am going to presume the word "bougie" is something from the ALS area. What is it?

I have to go through my records, but I think I remember only paying $90.00 (USD) for the external wear carrier. And at those prices, so what if it's $90 or 100 dollars? The 10 buck difference isn't gonna break your bank, is it?

The picture shown on the link looks a lot like the Combi-Tubes I always handle at my refresher classes. Again, as I said prior, I am awaiting the pilot program that my level of EMS, the EMT-B, will be allowed to use it.

after many years, I am still waiting for the NYS DoH pilot program for the Combi-Tube. Until your posting, I had never heard of a "King" tube. What is it, a different manufacturer, or different style tube?

Comparing notes here. Is a CON for you what it is in NY State, a Certificate Of Need? This is a form issued by NYS DoH saying that there is sufficient need for a service provider to operate within specified geographic/political areas.

My service area has several predominantly black and hispanic "Projects", public housing apartment building complexes, so this one was kind of funny... On NYPD Division: "One Oh One Anticrime, report of a suspicious brown Crown Vic with blacked out windows, between buildings 5 and 6 on the footpath. Occupied by 4 white males." "Central, oh one anticrime. That Crown Vic is identified. It's US!" My partner and I, monitoring from our ambulance, nearly fell out of the ambulance, laughing!

I cannot post from work. My FDNY computer is strictly a department intra-net, not inter-net, computer. I could get into trouble, were I to access, somehow, the internet. Remember, someone got fired for playing Solitaire, on a city computer, because the Mayor of New York, Mike Bloomberg, happened to see the screen. ALL of my postings are from my home computer, and I try to plan a specific minimum time online to do so, per day. See how many postings I have, as listed next to my Picachu Icon? I just came back, on an edit, to mention this has been my #3639th posting. Perhaps I DO have too much time on my hands?

I have spoken English (United States of America variety) all my life. I read these words, and am frightened to find out how true the old joke of being divided by a common language, really is! I have not a clue what any of that meant.

Perhaps it is just my viewpoint, but if a patient goes "south" during one of those "non-emergency" transports, is not the patient now an emergency case? The training in my area has no distinction between what here has been described as "Emergency Medical Technicians" and "Medical Transfer Technicians." Now, on a different look at the issue, what happens when there are no Medical Transfer ambulance services? Right, a front line "Emergency" responder ambulance becomes unavailable for an "Emergency" run, because someone has to take Grandma home from the dentist. There is, also, what I know as "Ambulette" services. These are mostly vans with ways of securing down an occupied wheelchair, or several wheelchairs, for totally non-emergent transfers and transports. Their clientèle needs the assisted transport, but are stable enough not to need anything other than, perhaps, a boost into the vehicle. 2 companies I used to work for had "combination" vans. Carried everything to meet the state EMS minimum supply and equipment lists, plus a full wheelchair, with the aforementioned ways of securing the occupied chairs down, and the occupants of the chairs to the chairs. As we sometimes took a stretcher patient with 3 wheelchair patients at a time for an inter facility transfer (THIRTY YEARS AGO), I am so glad, as far as I know, that nobody still does that craziness.

The last time I worked the NYC Marathon, I worked about 12 hours at time and a half pay on my day off, to stand, sit, and walk a medical patrol around a block long section of street bordering Central Park. No patients in my sector, thank you very much. Of course, on my own time, I was the first in to an overturned car on the highway, on my journey home. Can't ignore something that happens less than 100 feet ahead of you, can you?

As has been mentioned in many of the strings, I live in traffic congested, overcrowded New York city. While I have that fascination with "Big" vehicles, too, I must presume that this is for usage where there is not too much other traffic, as this must be a be-yotch to maneuver in tight street situations like my city streets. If you notice in news videos from NYC, one does not see too many "Tiller man" ladder companies anymore, but the really old hands mention their maneuvering ability, again, on the narrow streets, due to that guy on the far rear of the vehicle. The Maytag Repairman is the loneliest guy in town? Not to me, it's a fire department tiller man doing his job! Also, something that size might be better utilized as a medium rescue. Seems to have the storage space for whatever you might need. For a mention, I have never ridden in one of those things, just climbed aboard for a look around at various conventions where the dealers/venders are trying to sell you and your department on purchasing one from them.

Who is Nancy Grace? There were 3 retired store keepers living in a retirement community. Discussing things of the world, the first one stated he had been the owner of a failing clothing store, which had a water pipe break, ruined all of his stock, and made the building uninhabitable. He had retired on the insurance settlement check. The second one gleefully told how his candy store, which had been losing a lot of money, had a late night gas pipe explosion and fire, which destroyed the building. He had retired on the insurance settlement check. The third one said he had owned a failing restaurant, but the building had been totally destroyed by a tornado, and he had retired on the insurance settlement check. The first 2 men looked at each other, and whispered to each other, "How do you start a tornado?"

Speaking of going to the Psychiatrist, if you had a nonproductive time with one, seek out another one, and if need be, yet another one. Not all of them are pill pushers, with a different colored pill for each day of the week, and hour of the day. Although a different scenario, I was robbed at gunpoint in the stairwell of a public housing project, while returning from a date with my girlfriend, who then lived in that particular building. It is 15+ years later, but, with proper psychiatric help, I don't have the nightmare, with open eyes (!) of being back in that stairwell.

It seems that we are in some semblance of agreement that it may not be any actual wrongdoing by any member of an agency, but the perception of wrongdoing by the public. If the public thinks something is going on, then something is going on. Presumption of guilt until proven innocent in a court of law. It ain't right, but we all know it happens.

I wish I could find the link for it. Some years ago, I had a picture of 2 people in a private car, with a dash beacon, wearing volunteer fire uniforms, with the LEO walking up on them from his patrol car. The caption read, "Wait until he asks us if we were on our way to a fire!" On a serious note, something over 30 years ago, a Volunteer Ambulance Corps unit from somewhere in Queens County, NYC, , was working up a CPR call, and had left the Cadillac Ambulance in a bus stop while doing it. A local NYPD team appeared on the scene, and were told to "Move the truck" out of the bus stop (for the uninformed, presuming other local laws, in NYC, it is illegal to even stop, let alone park, in a bus stop.) The Crew Chief (EMT in charge on the unit) told the LEOs exactly what they were doing: "We're doing CPR here!" The LEOs just repeated to move the ambulance, and left. When the crew returned to the vehicle, they found a parking ticket on it! Let's see, a Caddy-lance, with a 4 bulb rotating main beacon, 4 revolving corner lights, a crew doing CPR, as witnessed by the NYPD, and a ticket? You know that a picture of the VAC president holding the ticket while standing next to the ambulance appeared in the New York Daily News. With the bad publicity towards the LEOs, the ticket got tossed out. Now, my VAC, in it's first year of operating (1974), had 3 ambulances, but usually only crews for one at a time. We had our "Ambulance Only" parking zone across the street from us, in front of a Pizzeria. The owner was always giving us grief for parking there, as it was possible to view it as not only in front of the store, but FOR the store. We had taken to putting two of the 3 ambulances on the side street, joined by the third when we went off service. For whatever the reason, with one on the side street, the second one actively on a call, the third one was left in front of the Pizzeria. The owner came across the street, and yelled at the dispatcher to move the ambulance right then and there. No, the dispatcher was not about to move the ambulance, for one thing, he was maintaining contact with the ambulance on the call, and second, he was not an authorized VAC driver. He did tell the store owner that the ambulance would be moved as soon as the crew returned. Not good enough. The store owner called the precinct, and the Sargent responded, and gave the ticket to the ambulance for...wait for it...illegally parking an ambulance in a marked ambulance zone! Moments later, the crew returned, as well as an off duty member, who was talking with his friend, a Daily News reporter/photographer! We now had enough driver qualified people to drive all three ambulances, even though we only had a full team for the "on duty" unit. They proceeded, with the "newsie" aboard, down to the precinct house, where, per the dispatcher (still maintaining his post) reported the scanner telling the sargent to return FORTHWITH to the precinct house. A very upset sargent, obviously under orders of his commanding captain, was forced to cancel the ticket, and apologize to the crews, in front of the "newsie", who was snapping away with his camera.

Difficulty hearing: 3 women met on a street corner. The first one said, "Windy, isn't it?" The second one said, "No, it's Thursday." Said the third, "So am I. Let's go to my house for a spot of tea!"

ExCUSE ME? They WOULDN'T let the EMS crew have the patient? Here in New York City, if a patient needs an ambulance, anyone standing in the way of the responders, Certified First Responder-Defib Fire Fighters, EMTs, or Paramedics, trying to deny the patient their medical care, will be arrested by the NYPD for interfering with (an) emergency crew(s). I smell a large lawsuit, at least as per my NYC sensibilities, against the doctor's office. I figure Wrongful Death, Manslaughter, Malpractice, and perhaps some that you can come up with that I don't know about!

I don't think I am a killjoy, I just stated an opinion, not a cast iron order. If you are going to do it, you will. I would not. Personal choice, is all.

Could that have been caused by an overdose of "Peanut Butter Balls?" (a mispronouncement of Phenobarbital)

Personally, I don't think moving your lips simulating talking is a good idea. First off, they might really think they lost their hearing, and will start panicking, meaning they will be moving their head, neck, shoulders and back, just what you don't want them to move while immobilizing them. On a different track, they probably can hear the vehicle engines, the 2 way radios, the buzz of the bystanders talking about the accident, so if they cannot hear you, they might think nasty thoughts of someone trying that, and complain to your supervisors at earliest opportunity following getting out of the hospital.

Just as a cold-read news story, I don't think even the Week End News Update people at Saturday Night Live could have kept a straight face reading that one. Perhaps that does give some credence to the "Urban Folk Tale", or is that "Tail" (pun intended) of a homosexual person having either a Gerbil, a Hamster, a Ginny Pig, or a mouse, up their rectum ("Rectum? It didn't just rectum, it damn near killed him!").

Ruffems is attempting to hijack Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down To Georgia", originally about the Devil and a local Fiddler in a music "play-off" of wining a golden violin, or losing the players' soul to the devil! Hey, I may be a "City-Folk," but I do, more than once in a while, listen to good ol' amped up Country music!

Oy, POTUS? President Of The United States! That is one patient, no matter who holds the office, that I would definitively NOT want to have, due to a whole big loadup of issues, too numerous to mention here!