Richard B the EMT

This comment is towards the paid for service providers, not the unpaid volunteers. Look at it this way: Even with the really non emergent patients calling, and yes, it can be an annoyance, it keeps me and my colleagues employed. If they didn't request our help, my boss might not need me, excise me out of the company, and I want to keep food on the table.

Past personal experience, and remember this is the NYC experience: When folks call 9-1-1 for help, they think things work like the old time movies, where the butler hears a noise, and finds that old man Smithens fell down the stairs. He walks 3 steps to a phone, clicks a few times, and tells the operator, "This is the Smithens residence. There's been a terrible accident. Please send an ambulance immediately. Thank you." Modern day callers, who have no idea how a 9-1-1 system works, and have never heard of a PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point), are suddenly, with my scenario in their heads, being asked if the patient is breathing, is the patient conscious, what is going on with the patient, do you (the caller) know anything about the patient, please confirm the address, is that between these 2 cross streets? The caller wants help, and thinks the EMD person is standing in the way of an ambulance responding by asking all these "damfool" questions. I had actually been told to get the (censored) off the phone and get into the ambulance, or the caller states that the hospital is only a few blocks away, where is the ambulance, for a hospital that doesn't even run ambulances. I've offered the flip card instructions, only to be told by the caller, "that ain't my job to help them, it be yours, now get the devil here!" They get possessive of the neighborhood, and will argue with you that the car crash is NOT at Fifth and Main, but at Main and Fifth, and repeat the address without confirming cross streets, as it is the middle of the block, not a cross street. FDNY did me a favor when they moved me out of the EMD (then Communications bureau), as I don't know how I didn't go nuts during those 11 years. On the other hand, there was the guy asked to be taken to a specific psychiatric hospital, as they had the equipment to hide his life signs from the crew of the Crystal Starship. When the crew arrived, they signaled "Unfounded, no patient found." Either the guy changed his mind and left, or the Klingons got to him first?

Someone just dissed a group of my friends. Within the five counties that make up the city of New York, there are several volunteer fire departments; in Queens County alone, we have the Broad Channel VFD & EMS, Point Breeze VFD, Rockaway Point VFD & EMS, Roxbury VFD & EMS, and West Hamilton Beach VFD & EMS. Kings County, better known as BROOKLYN, has Gerritsen Beach VFD & EMS. I am told of, but don't recall the names, two VFDs in Richmond County, AKA Staten Island, and I think there is another VFD/VAS in the City Island area of "Da Bronx!" (For my convenience, I have called their ambulance sections "EMS", they may be listed as "First Aid Squad", "Volunteer Ambulance Service/Corps/Squad" on their registration and letterheads. No offence to these agencies was intended by calling them as I did.) I also wish to address something else. The NYC 9-1-1 System EMS is under the control of the FDNY EMS, via the EMD, located a few buildings away from FDNY HQ. They control FDNY ambulances, operated by union personnel, and ambulances from Diocean and private hospitals, that we of the FDNY EMS call "Voluntaries". The vehicles are marked with the hospital name on the side, and a patch on the door indicating that they are a participant of the FDNY EMS. The personnel are paid by the hospital, not NYC, although the hospital is paid for the participation by NYC, and the personnel are in one or another union. A few of the hospitals in the program subcontract out to private, proprietary ambulance services, like Metrocare (Metro-"Scare"). These vehicles have the hospital name, the service provider, and the participant patch on the door or side. They are still referred to as "voluntaries" (and a few other choice names by the FDNY EMS unions, but that is a topic for another narrative). Next, there are the community based Volunteer Ambulance Services. There are still about 30 or so of them in all five counties, with some of them being from the VFDs I mentioned in the first paragraph. They run 9-1-1 calls, but only those direct called into their dispatchers. Most of them, if not all of them, are members of the Mutual Aid Radio System (M.A.R.S), which is used when FDNY EMD calls them up to handle a response within the VAS' service area, or close to it, via a radio that was issued to them by the FDNY, or in a few cases, by the old NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation EMS, prior to the FDNY/EMS merger of 1996. Except for some "MCI Drills" of late, the relation between Municipal (FDNY), Voluntary, and Volunteer, at least in the field, seems to be pretty good, while the unions play it up as nobody but union people should be on an ambulance.. Then, you have the "Privates", the proprietary ambulance services. Except for their units already described as being under direct FDNY EMD control, they are self-dispatched, mostly to do the prescheduled ambulance/ambulette clinic transport work, and seem to not have any union representation at all. They might do an Emergency run, but these are as privately requested by their customers (a bad example is, some "Rave" operators have a private ambulance service do standby work, so if they transport a drug case, the public won't know it was from their location, a local issue being addressed by the NYPD and the ATF).

Time it for the annual Officer's Installation Dinner/Dance, or whatever the name your agency would call it. Most hours a year is always good. Then, as I never could get that, as stated due to school, employment, or other distractions of the non EMS world, there is a special award you could offer: Life Member. This was a gold departmental badge with the title in place of a badge number. Reserve this for individuals who, even if they don't give the maximum numbers of hours served, use the time they are there to do really good stuff. My now gone VAS only gave out 4 of them over it's 23 year history. I was one of the recipients.

What? No mention of the Interstate 95 corridor, or is that just for illegal interstate transport of firearms? Someone already mentioned the catch-all name for all illegal drugs as "Dope". Some also call it "Shit" for what it does to an individual, but there are also some who call it "Recreational Pharmaceuticals". I have lost a bunch of friends who took Dope as a Recreational Pharmaceutical, they died, and now I feel like Shit. The computer sensored what I said, but everyone here knows what I meant.

As apparently neither one of us has actually heard of, or seen one, is kind of why I asked in the first place. Yes, I am, sure there is one out there, still in R&D, or a created prototype. There was a prototype 4WD Ambulance used on a test for soft sand off road, on the NYC beaches, something like 20 years ago. If memory serves me correctly, it was a Horton on a Jeep chassis, worked 2 weeks each on 4 of the 5 county's beaches within NYC. Insides too small, was the most often heard complaint, again if I remember correctly.

Perhaps I am just stirring the pot, as it were, but I believe some departments or agencies only allow their personnel to attend funerals in uniform, by permission of the department, unless it is a "Departmental Funeral", meaning it was someone from the agency, or agencies that also work the general area of the county. I use as an example, a member died at Volunteer Ambulance Service "A", and members of that agency attended in uniform, as well as uniformed members of VAS "B", "C", Volunteer Fire Department "Z", and the county Sheriffs office.

Perhaps a clarification: "I have attended the funerals of patients, but only those known to me from off the job." Those, I do not go in uniform. "As for members of the service, or their family members, I try to attend, in my "Class 'A' Dress" uniform." I will probably not be the only one in uniform, and we probably will be standing or sitting in some kind of official departmental formation.

A good point. There are several other points that I will not be mentioning in this forum, as in my humble opinion, would be detracting from the string. I'll start a "Self Guided Comparative Religion" 101 class sometime in the future, as a different topic and string.

I have attended the funerals of patients, but only those known to me from off the job. As for members of the service, or their family members, I try to attend, in my "Class 'A' Dress" uniform.

I would guess that I am not the only EMS person awaiting the development of the "Hovercraft Stretcher".

For those who don't know, Matzo is the unleavened bread that the Israelites were able to make, then load onto their wagons or "pack" animals as they got the heck out of Egypt following the final biblical plague of the death of the first born. This is actually the same type "Bread" that Jesus of Nazareth told his followers to eat in memory of him, in what is now "Communion". (On a personal aside, why is it that the paintings and depictions of "The Last Supper", a Passover seder, almost always show loaves of bread? Jesus was most likely to have used only Matzo, as the seder celebrates the Israelites leaving Egypt in such a rush that the bread already in the ovens was not allowed to rise?)

Just as a mention, and I do not know if this applies to other than the state of New York, on the reverse, any ticket gotten while using a department vehicle can NOT be used as reason for the individual's PERSONAL insurance (for their own privately owned vehicle) to have the rates rased. Just thought I would throw that in.

What? No eye of newt, and knee of frog?

I was looking at the pic of the strecher elevator/lift, and have a question: As the device seems as narrow as the strecher being lifted/lowered, and has been described as being slow, Where do the technicians stand while doing CPR while the lifting/lowering is in progress?

Add my applause, ERDoc! Oh, by the way, a long time ago, my VAC's dispatch training officer was doing a review of calls received and documented on the dispatch slips. Seems somebody called in requesting an ambulance to go to the hospital, with stated claim of injury/illness of "I'm not really feeling very chipper"!

O-M-G! I totally forgot about the Basselope Weapons Delivery System!

I thought it was either "I'm glad to hear you're a personal friend of the Chief of Police," or "the Mayor". "Next time you see him (her?), let him (her) know that I was doing my job."

If Wal-Mart keeps lowering their prices, won't the time come that you get paid by them for buying the item?

Perhaps I have no real understanding of this, but, private, municipal, county, state, or federal employee employee, isn't this initially covered by some form of Worker's Compensation Death and Dismemberment policies?

Not the original poster here, but the version I heard was, the person hit his head after the kittycat attack, knocking himself unconscious. On hearing what had happened, the paramedics dropped the patient, on the long backboard, as they were laughing so hard, causing him further injury of a broken arm!

Would someone living in the state of California please answer this question: Here in New York State, one cannot take a motorized vehicle onto a public roadway legally, unless the vehicle (inclusive all motorized, licenced vehicles) has some kind of insurance. This insurance usually has some kind of rider for covering injuries of both vehicle operator, and anyone the driver might injure, in an accident. Without insurance, you cannot even register the vehicle, with the Department of Motor Vehicles, for the licence plates. Does California not have any similar law, that includes motorcycle? As for delay awaiting care in an Emergency department, I once broke a tooth with a really powerful sneeze, while at work. My lieutenant called the local ED, asked if they had an on duty or on call dentist, and on getting an affirmative answer, had one of my colleagues take me to that ED in a company car. This was at about 5 PM on a Saturday. I was processes by the admissions office for the ED, but was not seen until almost 1 AM early Sunday morning. While I admit I was no major trauma case, I was kind of shocked by the delay. Then, the worst thing happened. An intern finally stuck a tongue depressor into my mouth, and then tells me that, yes, I have a broken tooth, but he would make an appointment for me to be seen in their clinic sometime Monday afternoon! I told him where he could put that appointment, and he signed me out. I finally got back to my work location about 1:30 AM, and signed out. Sunday, I was unable to eat anything except hard boiled eggs. I was disgusted, as was my lieutenant on finding out my ordeal. Monday, my car had to be seen by my mechanic, so I called the union's dental office from the mechanic's shop. They were unable to handle me, but referred me to the dentist's office group that I now use, who a few hours later, did a root canal on me. The reports I have heard about root canal work either was totally unfounded, or I just got lucky to really get a "Painless" dentist, as I actually had no pain from the procedure.

Let me try to sum up this string: Those who feel a badge is needed as a symbol of training or authority, use an appropriate one. Those who feel a badge is NOT needed as a symbol of training or authority, don't use one. For whichever school of thought you follow, you would be correct. Fineto!

Have to add that under NYS DoH rules, an ambulance can take no more patients than 2 EMTs can actively care for at a time (even if one of them is driving).

I have been doing ambulance work for ages, but never thought I'd see MY "meatwagon", my very first ambulance, on display. Thanks for the photo posting. (lol) That seeming German (?) mobile home ambulance? Where I come from (New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation EMS, and now the FDNY EMS), that is a MIRV, or Major Incident Response Vehicle, which is an outgrowth of the older MERV, or Mobile Emergency Room Vehicle. Such vehicles can take care of up to 6 patients at one time, where a normal ambulance/rig/unit/bus/truck/" 'bolance' " is only allowed 2 strecher cases at a time.