Richard B the EMT

Now my two cents: If you have 2 or more emergency vehicles in convoy while travelling in emergency mode (L&S), first, remember that the civilians will usually be visually affixed to whatever vehicle is in the lead, think that the siren from the next vehicle is simply an echo from the first vehicle, then can and will pull out without looking into the next vehicle's path. If you MUST convoy (officially discouraged by the FDNY, for just that reason, by the way), make sure that whatever siren setting the first vehicle is using, use a different one! Vehicle one is "yelping," vehicle two should be either "Hi/Low" or "Wail". Vehicle three should be on whatever is left over, or rapidly switching between all settings, with some airhorn thrown in for good measure. Although it goes without saying, I'm still going to say, "Driving an Emergency vehicle at Emergency status requires more attention to the traffic than not at emergency status. If in convoy at emergency status, assume another layer of traffic observation for everyone's safety."

So how did the General get his/her knowledge, and what about the Admiral? lol

The old uniform of the New York City (Health and Hospitals Corporation) EMS was Forest Green pants, clip on tie, and jacket, with a white shirt. Winter alternate uniform was a black turtleneck under the white uniform shirt. Topping the ensemble was a forest green baseball cap with the NYC EMS patch on the front. Left shoulder patch was the NYC EMS orange "half moon" , and the right was either a specific NYS EMT patch, or a specific NYC EMS Paramedic patch. The badge was worn on the outermost garment, with the nametag underneath. For "Dress Uniform", add a forest green "8 point" Garrison Cap with a NYC emblematic pin. Now post merger, the work uniform is Navy blue pants, jacket, shirt, and baseball hat, the patches are the FDNY, a NYS EMT patch with FDNY rocker at the top, or FDNY EMS paramedic patch, with a large FDNY patch on the back (white letters on navy background), with either an EMT or Paramedic patch on the back (also white letters on navy background) . Lieutenants wear a light blue shirt with no patches on the back. Dress uniform is Navy blue pants, a type single breasted jacket somehow called a "blouse" (I have no idea of the origin of that terminology), a light blue shirt for EMTs and Paramedics, and a navy blue "Bell Cap" with a "Star of Life" cap device attached to the front. Lieutenants and above wear a white shirt, a double breasted blouse, and the band on the bell cap is silver or gold. Captains and above always wear white shirts, and chiefs wear white bell caps with gold bands and scrambled eggs on the brim. (We had to fight to have FDNY allow our EMS chiefs to wear the white bell caps, they wanted to keep the EMS chiefs in blue caps with the other bricabrac on them)

My problem with the dark blue uniforms of the FDNY is that it hides droplets of blood. They then went and changed some of the equipment bags to red in color. How are you going to know that you have had even a minor blood contamination of your stuff, if the very color of the stuff hides it, with red on red?

The last private service I ran with, prior to municipal service, had one of these systems. It was based on "driving with low forces". 2 ranges of force would be indicated by different tones, for accelerating too quickly, braking too hard, or turning too suddenly. The first tone would not register until the 5th beep, the second tone would count after each 2nd. There is a roadway between Brooklyn and Queens, known as the "Interboro Parkway", now renamed the "Jackie Robinson Parkway". There is a section in the middle of a "cemetery row" where the road has several sharp repeating "S" turns, and at even 10 miles below posted speed, the device would start counting the harder force. As we would be awarded a small financial bonus for the lowest forces totaled during the week, we hated that roadway! When I initially took the training with that company, I spoke with the creator/designer/owner of the company, as did all of us in that first class. The creator had told us that it had originally been tested with cross-country bus lines (if I remember correctly, it might have been "Greyhound" lines), but our argument was, due to the unexpected maneuvers that ambulances can and do make, as other traffic either reacts, or doesn't react, to the lights and sirens, that it was a bad idea. We were employees, the boss ruled, we were overruled, and the minor bonuses started coming in. Just for making the bonuses, for the more financially hardshipped amongst us, many requested to be driving the wheelchair coaches, as they never needed to drive at an ambulance's style. One funny story about those machines: One of the wheelchair coach drivers saw someone who had just broken into his van and broke the device from it's floor mounting under the drivers seat, running down the street, punching the device to make it shut up it's beeping, as he had it tucked under his arm on a tilt! While the thief was arrested, the device was never found. I have this thought that, until it's battery died, that it kept beeping at the bottom of the landfill.

1) We used to have a patient, who, every time he had an argument with his wive, he'd call 9-1-1. He lived just down the street from a local ED. On several occasions that I know about, he'd call, be seen and transported by the nearest EMS unit to the ED, and then go back home again to call 9-1-1, because he felt he had not been seen quickly enough in the ED! At least he had a diagnosed cardiac condition. 2) There are several patients in extended care facilities, who bypass the staff at those facilities, by using the payphones at those facilities to call 9-1-1. Staff is usually surprised to find the EMS at the lobby desk. 3) NYC 9-1-1 only accepts inter-hospital requests for transfers from EDs that call directly into the dispatch center, not via 9-1-1, and has to be cleared by the communications center commander, and the on-duty medical control doctor.

Including that she was rambling, Shira and I agree!

Would someone translate "PCT"?

I must remind everyone that I am from FDNY EMS Station 47. We also have FDNY Battalion 47, Engine 265, and Ladder 121 in the same building. We were the very first "Combined" house of Firefighters and EMS in the New York City. Yes, a wall was erected between the Engine and Ladder Officer's office, and the EMS Officer's office, but that was so if either a firefighter or EMT or Paramedic wanted to discuss anything in private with their respective officer(s), the other officers would not have to be chased out of their offices to allow it. In 3rd Watch, they often showed pranks being pulled by Firefighters on the Paramedics, and the reverse. In my combined house, the assorted supervisors would frown on that, no matter who was the instigator. For convenience, we have 2 refrigerators, one "Fire" the other "EMS". There's an additional one for the not frequently used refrigerated items. We have separate "communal" Men's and Ladies locker rooms, but the EMS folks are requested not to enter the bed areas of the house. Would you want someone coming into your bedroom, except immediate family? There is no "big brass pole", as safety measures implemented prior to the building's construction wouldn't allow one to be installed. And perhaps the biggest difference between "Reel" life and "Real" life is, no ambulance crew is supposed to be at the firehouse between calls, they all have specific street corners that they are supposed to be at, pursuant to a computer matrix that supposedly shows, by probability, where the population is, versus where the possible next call will be coming in from. This actually has some units pointed north on their intersection for the midnight to 8, east for the 8 to 4, and south for the 4 to midnight tours. We call it "Staging", like at a Multiple Casualty Incident. We don't like it, but it seems to work, most of the time.

Is not "Alice" the same person who, on her first trip to New York City, scratched at the Broadway and West 42nd Street pavement with her boot, and said, "It's just as well they built a city here, this ground is too hard to plow!" Story goes, during WW2, a city boy and a country boy ended up in the same Army infantry patrol all the time in the Italy campaign. They came into a farm, where they found a man milking a cow. The city kid spoke Italian, and, translated what the man said, that "this was his farm" and other stuff. The two infantrymen started to leave, when the country boy spun around, and shot the farmer, who had stood up with a pistol in his hand! "Hey, 'Country', how did you know he was not a farmer?" "Well, 'Brooklyn', he was milking the cow from the wrong side!" (So I'm a city kid, I admit I wouldn't be able to survive in the country without some serious retraining.)

If they would put pockets into the polo shirts... Until then, I'll use the older style 2 pocket with badge holes style (we don't use badges on the job) as previously discussed in a long dormant string, as I use those pockets! Oops, that is the short sleeve style used in warmer weather, the long sleeve style that we use is as I described for the preferred by me is winter. When it comes down to it, I'll get the long sleeve, and have a tailor cut them down to short sleeve.

I now show my age, again, because I remember an episode of "Emergency!" where one old man broke the other old man's ribs doing a way incorrect precordial thump. This geezer was so proud of himself, until the guy who at least was having an MI called him over to whisper something into his ear, and cold cocked him in the face!

It is my hope, for the EMS crew's sake, that the patient is NOT the one who leaves!

It is alleged that Albert Einstein once said that all people are smart in some areas and complete idiots in others. I may have paraphrased, or quoted the wrong person.

This story was covered by WABC/TV 7 in New York, and followed it the next day with a story about a different amputee who was working in another New Jersey town's Fire Department. It looks like the 2 individuals are able to do the job. Keep the one, hire the other, as I see it.

You just reminded me of a "call" I had a few years ago. 2 boys, one on a bicycle, pulled up to where my ambulance was sitting at roadside (we "stage" for any and all calls on specific street corners for the tour). One of the boys, both looking like pre-teens, had a somewhat deep cut on his arm, allegedly from a fall. We notified dispatch we were treating a "flagdown", got an assignment number, and started treating. As we finished treating, but prior to starting to write a call report, a car pulled up alongside the ambulance, a woman got out, identified as the mother, yanked the bandaging off the injury site, pronounced it as minor (it probably was), then grabbed the child, put him into the car, and screeched off! By the way, when the "mother" started in with my partner and me, the other youth convieniently disappeared. I requested my supervisor for a streetside meetup, and he responded quickly. We asked if a call report should be issued, considering we had no name for the patient, had not transported, but had a report number officially issued to the "assignment". He told us to cover our bets, and generate a call report, with all that transpired mentioned in the comments, with the "final signal" to the call being an RMA (see previous posting of mine), with documentation that no signature was obtained, and why.

"I used to drink for no reason. Now, with my lifestyle, I have a reason." (That is an attempt at humor, I don't remember the exact quote, or whom I am quoting)

Does the 13 year old have proof of being imancipated? If yes, the youth can sign off on their own RMA (Refused Medical Attention). If not, any minor aged patient, per my local protocols (my mantra?), I have to contact Medical Control for authorization on my part to accept the "uncle's" RMA on the minor's behalf. If need be, I might need my EMS supervisor, and/or a Law Enforcement intervention

I noted in the video that this guy has a Police ID in the window. From my friends in the NYPD Highway Patrol, I am advised that even police officers who need lights and sirens installed in their personal vehicles have to get special permission from the department to do so. If a member of a volunteer ambulance service wants to install l&s in their personal vehicle, the vehicle has to be certified by the NY State DoH as an "Ambulance Emergency Service Vehicle", with an accompanying letter of authorization from the chief or president of the vollie ambulance agency, and a specific equipment list of minimum supplies/equipment that have to be carried onboard (the rules might have changed over the last 10 years, when I was so authorized, with my Toyota wagon, as a "First Responder" unit). Even with the authorization, as mentioned in several other strings, I got ticketed for "Unauthorized Red Light", and had to go to court, successfully fighting the charge. Unauthorized Red Light is considered a Felony.

I protest #22. After years of replacing the cords on my blinds, they have the controlling cords on either side, not restricted to any one side! Newer sets can be ordered for either the left OR right!

If you were trying to quack me up with that posting, you succeeded!

POINT OF ORDER!!! Maverick had 2 RIOs, the first was "Goose", killed while ejecting from the F-14. Was the second one "Sundown"? "Goose" was played by Anthony Edwards, who would go on to play "Dr. Mark Green" on "ER".

Proof positive that I am out of the loop... "Boondock Saints"? Never heard of it. Who's in it, what is it about?

Lt, those are exactly the stated reasons why the union fought the Mensa Medic concept for so many years. Now, apparently, they feel the system's needs, or the union's, have changed. I do know, even with her not being the CMO of FDNY EMS, Dr Giordano (former chief medical officer of the FDNY EMS, for anyone not from the FDNY or even the HHC EMS) is still vehemently against the Mensa Medics.

If I may (and even if I am not allowed), I must mention that when I listen to the scanner when off duty, I'm not listening because I have to, I'm listening because I WANT to. I am a radio hobbyist, subcategory "Scannist". Besides, I also listen to my local division of the NYPD, my borough frequency of the FDNY, J F Kennedy International Airport's control tower, and the nearest precincts of the Nassau County PD. While programed in, and not usually listened to on a regular basis, I also have most, if not all, NYPD divisions, several NYPD specialty units, all 5 boroughs (counties) and "Citywide" of the FDNY, likewise the Nassau County PD, the volunteer fire departments of Nassau County, the New York Power Authority (during a blackout, when is the juice coming back on?), the US Secret Service, the FBI, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (if I hear anything on those channels, I'm digging a hole in which to hide, and pull it in after me), and the US Coast Guard. If the Federal agencies have anything heavy going on, it will probably be a scrambled or encrypted signal, which I might pick up, but not be able to hear, as it will probably seem like noise on my radios. My radios have an off switch. I do know how to use it, and frequently do.