Richard B the EMT

I'm in the FDNY's first combined "Fire Suppression" and EMS operations "house." However, I'll restrict my response to the EMS side. Of 52 personnel (EMTs, Paramedics, Lieutenants, and a Captain) for 3 BLS, 2 ALS, a"Conditions" (supervisor's) Car, and the captain, we have 2 lady Paramedics, and one EMT.

Thinking back to 1974, I just remembered an "almost" incident. I stepped up to a person who tripped and fell at the mall. I was wearing my VAC jacket, and someone who saw the Star Of Life on the back, unknowingly asked my mother, seeing the design, if I was a member of the Ku Klux Clan, a hate group that is still around from after the end of the US Civil War (1865?)

I was born about ten thousand years ago, There ain't nuthin' in this world that I don't know. I saw Peter, Paul, and Moses Playin' "Ring Around The Roses" And I'll whup the guy what says it isn't so! (Possibly the Kingston Trio, or the Chad Mitchell Trio, from back in the early 1960s, the song, "The Great Historical Bum" who's highly educated through the history he has come)

Most of my male colleagues who use the "chrome dome" hairstyle hide it under a baseball cap. I wouldn't shave my head, as, due to my weight, people would expect me to run around, going "Woo Woo Woo", "Oh, Wise Guy, huh?" and "Why soitenly, Moe!" (and dancing the Curly Shuffle)

FDNY EMS assigns both EMTs and Paramedics a "Jump Kit" which has to be stocked to department specs, to carry in to the patient's side. I carry that off duty also, and another one set up similarly, in my POV.

I forget who it is, but there's someone on the site older than I am.

Never say, of a call type, that "it's been a while since we had one of that type", because, almost instantly, that will be your next call!

To specifics: May, 1954, so if you're REALLY interested, and so I don't have to keep updating, YOU do the math!

As a BLS provider, I concur. This should be protocol for all ERs. Admittedly, we have "Stroke Centers" here in NYC, but it should be the ER Crews should all be trained, not a transportation decision that I always seem to be getting questioned on by the ER Docs at the local hospital so designated. Our Paramedics follow the same "Stroke Center" patient designation.

With the source not remembered, I recall reading somewhere, that the swastika with the arms reversed was supposed to be a Native American emblem. It was actually used by the Boy Scouts of America, as the "Order of the White Swastika" but with the advent of the use by the Nazi Party, was changed to the current "Order of the Arrow.

As I see it, if you earn your money primarily through Ambulance/EMS (employment agency notwithstanding) you are a career person, If you do Ambulance/EMS with absolutely no expectation of pay, you're a volunteer. However, if you earn your money primarily through EMS, but get paid a very low scale of payment, you must be my partner! (LOL)

No charge for those covered by health insurance? Wow. I would think that getting paid from third party insurers, like Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Medicare, Medicaid, Medi-Cal (in California) and others, even though it may not be fully what the EMS agency is billing for, is always something of a "given" to pay for ambulance transportation and patient care.

Please understand that I don't recognize the reference. Here in New York City, Con Ed is the power company, Consolidated Edison. What is your reference to Con-Ed, something like CME, spelled out as Continued Medical Education?

Years ago, the Jackson Heights (Queens County, NY) VAC had a mascot named "Narcan!" So, why not a family pet?

In that line of thinking, does the patient also know yours? It would sound reasonable.

I am posting this as food for thought, only, and am not implying anything towards anybody on this panel. Over a decade ago, a couple from a VAC, both EMTs, got married. One of them, the female, went to work for the municipal EMS. Her husband, while remaining in the VAC (both continued there), worked in another line of gainful employment. The female and her male EMS partner were robbed at gunpoint, by a gang that was stealing the EMS radios to convert them to a different frequency for their own use. They were not the only EMS team that had fallen victim to these robbers, but they were the only male/female team victimized, the others were either male/male or female/female. (The robbers would call in a phony low priority call, that they knew the LEOs would not be assigned to, just EMS, and would have the EMS teams respond to various addresses in apartment buildings in unoccupied apartments. When EMS didn't get an answer at the door, under protocols in place at that time, they'd simply leave, and report "no answer to the door" to dispatch) The psychological impact of the incident drew the EMS team too close together (critical incident stress syndrome?), and they started having an affair, resulting in pregnancy, and the dissolution of her marriage (to the male VAC EMT). I am uncertain of facts here, as to whether the male EMS EMT was married at the time, or not. The 2 municipal EMS EMTs did eventually get married, following her divorce from the VAC EMT. Both halves of the divorce left the VAC. Nowadays, there is Critical Incident Stress Debriefing available to the members of the municipal EMS, as well as counseling for anything bothering any of the employees. On a side note, I met my girlfriend (from 1989!) at my VAC. We're still together, but the VAC is gone.

OK, even the dictionary definitions of Treason are hazy, as I was going to put one of them onto this string. So he's a French citizen. We've tried foreign nationals before, in both civilian courts, and military tribunals. If I understand what I read (subject to further reading for a correct answer, if this is incorrect), doing an act to overthrow or disable the functions of a government of a country, either by a native, or a foreigner, that individual is committing treason against that country. If a foreigner, more likely the individual could probably also be tried as a spy, as well as the native.

Just tell me, please, You're not going to do the "Rescue 77" stunt of doing the handstand on the paddles, are you?

I wasn't involved with this one: Someone shot on the street, around the corner from an ER, to which the patient, in Traumatic Arrest was transported, instead of the 20 minute trip to a Trauma Center. Happens way too often in the "inner city" areas. However, this Project Housing Development shooting took place right outside the NYPD Housing Bureau "satellite" office, and the shooters were gone from view before the cops could get out the door!

I wouldn't do that, as most small animals I know of as pets, are dues paying members of the "Tooth and Claw" club, and they end up having long memories. It may take a while, but they will retaliate, and I have the scars from the cat scratches, over 20 years later, to prove it! (PS: Preference is still canines over felines, but I now know how to deal with the cats so they never think of me as some enemy.) (PPS: I never pulled a cat's tail when I was a child. I just hung on, the cat did all the pulling!)

If he goes into the correctional system, you can bet he'll be more isolated than John Gotti was, as per my previous statement about Prison Gangs cooperating, and going after him. Did anyone ever see that old B&W movie, "M"? Starred Peter Lorre, filmed in his native Germany, in the German language, sometime between the world wars. In it, the German gangs catch Lorre's child murderer character, put him on trial, and sentence him to death. Before sentence can be implemented, the LEOs bust the gang kangaroo court, and try him in a real court. The "civilized" court sentences him to life imprisonment. The question implied is, which group made the correct decision?

Oh. We run the whole spectrum in New York City, HF, VHF, UHF, UHF-T, Microwave. Just depends on which agency, and some of them are on several. As for actual frequencies, I usually share, but usually when that individual is personally known to me, like someone working with me. Yes, I know of several on-line listings, and have several frequency books, updated at both regular and irregular intervals, so little old me isn't going to stop anyone with getting them for Osama, just, they ain't getting it from me, if I can help it.

On second thought, if I could change my vote, I'd go with life imprisonment. We kill the bastard, he ends up being a martyred rallying point for those who would kill us merely for NOT being one of THEM (insert name of group).

Perhaps it is not a scientific survey, but most LEO agencies try not to have too many people off during full moon periods, to the point of canceling leaves for full moon nights that are also Friday the 13th. Also, on origin of the word? Where do you think we got the word, Lunacy?

FDNY is supposed to be going to a computer scannable PCR (we call the paper an Ambulance Call Report). We tried one variety of it before, and are supposedly looking at a different system.