Richard B the EMT

As we observe the 11th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Attack on America, I remember (my EMS Academy classmate) Carlos Lillo, FDNY EMS EMT-P, and (acquaintance from seeing at the local Emergency Rooms) Mark Schwartz, Hunter Ambulance Service EMT and "night manager", as well as all other EMS providers, Fire Fighters, Law Enforcement Officers, Court Officers, Security Officers, Military Personnel, and all who perished in the aircraft crashes and building collapses of the World trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania.

You must always balance the Need For Speed, with the Ride that's a Glide. Hey, there it is, again, in my "signature".

Any of our German or Bavarian City members want to chime in with statistics from no top speed autobahns?

Most of us in EMT City, even if not an FD based EMS provider, sing praises for their local FD (emphasis: MOST). Having said that... Welcome to the EMT City. (goes to his prepared speech...ahem...) If you use either initials or acronyms to indicate either illnesses or treatments, please realize they are not universal. Please spell out what the initials stand for. If one says the patients vital signs were "WNL", meaning "within normal limits", remember the lawyers will say it stands for "we never looked". We pride ourselves on professionalism. It's all right to disagree, if presenting what you perceive as facts. NEVER say "You're wrong because you're stoopid (deliberate misspelling)." Again, WELCOME ABOARD!

Arctickat, I must presume your area is wide open spaces, like either farmland or wilderness (or equivalent), but I know you'll correct me if I am inaccurate on that. Most of my entries refer to responses in NYC, a city of 8,000,000. All FDNY EMS portable radios work through a repeater network, so a call put on the air from Far Rockaway would be heard by all on the Queens East frequency, even those listening in from 50 miles distance (or more). Commenting in general, sometimes the delay between parking in front of the patient's building, and getting to the patient's side, or the LEOs getting upstairs to the crews, is waiting for an elevator in a 30 or more story building. In my service area, the tallest building is "only" 25 stories tall. The tallest buildings are libraries, due to all the stories...lol.

Back to living situations: If we feel the patient is living in dangerous conditions, such as no heat in midwinter, I might ask the Emergency Room crew at the recieving hospital to get someone from Social Services involved. On the matter of "EMS Crew Safety": Many LEO and EMS radio systems have automatic signalling devices embedded in their portables. they transmit, the radio, and the unit assigned that radio, come up on the Computer Assisted Dispatch display screen at the communications center. Push a particular button on the portable, the unit ID shows on the screen, a different color indicating emergency signal activation, along with an audible alarm. Depending on agency policies, LEOs get dispatched, or dispatchers ask the unit if they have an emergency. If requested, or if no verbal response, LEOs get requested on the forthwith. They even have an "app" on some cheap kid's radios, hit the button, an emergency audible signal is transmitted, and anything audible near the radio also gets transmitted for the next 30 seconds. (I own a set, cost me $50, in the General Mobile Radio Service)

Then, there's the "El". Those are any elevated train lines running in New York or Chicago. Trains running every few minutes, right outside your 3rd story windows? Don't know how my dad's mom did that, in Boro Park, Brooklyn, for so many years.

Your train runs through a market. Mine runs through the middle of the house.

At least there's no worry about a "third rail" electrocution, or the overhead tarps coming in contact with train power lines. Both are at 500 to 600 volts DC. I'm presuming you to be a train watcher, yes?

PattonEMT, quick question. As a field Paramedic with your county EMS, if first in, did you have transport capability, or are you in a "Fly Car/First Responder" unit, and have to wait for someone with transport capability? As I am not familier with your local system, do all EMS agencies in your service area, with the obvious exception of FD engine and truck companies, have transport capabilities?

A short while back, EMT City was hit with a "Copyright Infringement" lawsuit. I just found, via "Face Book", an overextension of enforcement on the copyrights of a televised Sci-Fi "Hugo" Awards Ceremony, by an automated system. For your perusal and enjoyment, follow the link... http://io9.com/5940036/how-copyright-enforcement-robots-killed-the-hugo-awards

Waiting a year? Sounds like finding out how things work, before advancing training. Prior to the merger, no matter if EMT or Paramedic, the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation EMS policy was, everyone rode as an EMT for minimally a year, to learn. After the year, you could apply to the department's Paramedic School, and, as with the EMTs, be taught the right way, the wrong way, and the Department's way, no matter where they'd been trained prior to employment. After NYC EMS became FDNY EMS, newly hired Paramedics could possibly be hired the day after finishing at a Paramedic "Patch-Mill". While I am an almost 39 year experience EMT, I think the older method was better.

I previously posted what the FDNY assigns as uniform to the EMTs and Paramedics. One more item, undergoing review, as the previous manufacturer went out of business, and a new supplier not yet secured (per what I've read), is "soft body armour", as in the so-called "bullet proof vest". At personal expense ($90.00, last I checked), an "over the uniform" "carrier" for the ballistic plates is available, if desired. Ain't NO vest be totally bulletproof, or stab proof. If hit by a bullet, the kinetic energy will still hurt you, possibly break bones, knock you down. Nobody here is from the destroyed planet Krypton, so don't use the vest to play being Superman, you'll get hurt or killed, and possibly cause similar to those who are following you to rescue YOU.

If memory serves, a crew should TRY to transport parents and children together, if it doesn't compromise patient care. Failing that, attempt to have them transported to the same recieving facility. My answer to a patient asking about others also involved in the incident is, "I (we) will try and find out after we get you to the hospital, or have someone at the hospital advise you". I'll even stick to that answer, knowing there might be fatalities.

"I lost you at the bakery" (Dick Martin, "Rowan and Martin't Laugh-In", circa 1967-69) Weclome aboard, soon to be "Longtimer"!

There's several uniform and equipment stores. Just look them up, and compare. As for Galls selling the actual ambulances, they don't...YET!

The 9-1-1 call taker had someone tell him that he'd been shot, so the operator sent Police, Fire Rescue, and EMS to the scene, where they discovered the man had a 2 hour stomach ache. He also hadn't lied, as he HAD been shot. Outside Da Nang, South Viet Nam, in 1969, while actively in the USMC!

I've responded to many calls in churches and synagogues, also responded to both Muslim and Hindu private residences. Usually, I note the lack of shoes in the homes after attending to the patient. On the observation, I'd usually comment to a household member that, due to the needs of the patient, I felt the time to remove the boots (no zippers in the model boots FDNY EMS then used) could be better used in patient care, and that I didn't intend to offend by not taking them off. Nobody has ever complained. On a different take at religion and EMS/FD/Rescue, the story is told that 2 friends, a Jew and a non Jew, taking a walk on a Sabbath afternoon, came on an abandoned building, from which the cries of a child, stuck inside, could be heard. The Jewish man, who was younger and more agile, sent the non Jewish friend to get additional help, and entered the building, and assisted the child as best he could, until additional rescuers arrived. The child was saved. Someone complained to the town's chief Rabbi, that the man had violated the Sabbath by rescuing the child, and the man had to appear at a religious "hearing". The Rabbi, after hearing testimony that, if not for the actions of the man violating the Sabbath, the child would have died, made his ruling: One could "break" the Sabbath to save a life.

I just got an update from Facebook. Possibility exists that the deceased Paramedic's fiancee, on a trip to Europe, may not have been notified as of this hour, more than 24 hours after the collision. I know the fiancee, not sure if I knew the Paramedic.For reasons of propriety, not naming either person, or country being traveled.

JEMS did a direct copy of the Associated Press article. Both JEMS and the AP should know better.

High Flight Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . . Up, up the long, delirious burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or ever eagle flew — And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God. — John Gillespie Magee, Jr Mission Secured, Neal Armstrong. Well done!

I would add to the list of dual duty LEO/EMS personnel, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department. As they operate on both sides of the Hudson River, at Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty International airports, and the major river crossings, they maintain dual state reciprocity, at Paramedic level.

No matter how many times I read this same stuff, I have to decide if it's not funny but true, or hilarious!

Welcome BACK, my friend. (@ Kaisu: I'm 58, on the ambulances from 1973. Medically retired, due to bad knees and back, from the FDNY EMS from October 2010, but with an active EMT "cert" in my wallet that's good until Spring, 2015, and taking all sorts of EMS related Continuing Medical Education lectures, seminars, "webinars" and webcasts. Gonna kick MY ass for discussing age?)

As an EMT since 1974, I thought I'd look up what the NY State Certified First Responders need to know for their "certs". Looks like even the folks on the CFR-D (defibrillator) engine company get trained more than 2 days worth, per the link. Same page shows for EMT-B, and several levels to EMT-P http://www.health.ny.gov/nysdoh/ems/educ.htm