Richard B the EMT

Perhaps the reference is that the Doctor is under the misconception we're "unedumakated".

Why, did the Paramedic forget to get a cup of coffee for the patient? LOL.

I have had many occasions when involved in a dual level response, where, after determining that the ALS intervention was not required, I've transported patients, freeing up the Paramedics for whatever next call might be needint their limited resource response. Most times, I offered, only a few where they ordered me to do the transport. I also recall one call where the driving Paramedic requested BLS, just to drive his vehicle while he joined his partner in the back to treat while enroute to the ER. Goes with the territory, and I didn't mind doing it.

Crikey! Why not feed the crocs to the Great Whites, or the Great Whites to the crocs?

HLPP, again, I EMPHASIZE THAT SERVICE ANIMALS ARE NOT PETS!!! Someone, earlier on, mentioned a wheelchair bound patient on the street, versus in the patient's residence. In residence, I ask the patient, family, or facility staff if I can leave the chair behind, as the hospital might inadvertantly borrow it (permanently). I actually, by accident, stole a privately owned wheelchair to bring someone in from the ambulance. If the call is streetside, unless the chair is marked as being from a facility, it's the patient's property, and I am not getting charged the $600 or more to replace it by leaving it in the streets. Seatbelts can secure more than people, in the type 1 ambulances I had at FDNY EMS. As for the training for service animals, I'll directly quote from a fundraiser letter from one of the training agencies, when I get a bit more time to do so, probably tomorrow

Just a mention that when north of the equator is in winter, Austrailia and New Zealand are in their summer.

AKA Diesel Drip, Diesel Infusion, Motion Lotion Application...

No appointment, a 150 mile trip, for a sleep study with no appointment? Just with no appointment for the study, that went to heavy on "BOGUS' on the BS meter. I say this, as having had 3 such studies related to my Acute Sleep Apnea, all by appointment (even the first 2 with the technician doing the test in my house!).

Pre FDNY/EMS Merger, we used to have a pot-luck at the EMD. I don't really cook, so I supplied the soda (purchased at Costco, a "big box" store for those not in the US). Afterwards, I'd take any leftovers, with everyone else's approval, to a local (by me) soup kitchen, where they became the next day's meal.

My "Lady J" has no "T&A" to speak of, at 5 foot 3 inch and 97 pounds (she claims 105), but I was attracted to her face, and a philisophical attitude she displayed. She seems to be in the gym every day, for at least an hour, for keeping herself toned.

I remember a physical test, where we had a time limit to run up 3 stories, grab a "Heavy Harry" Mannequen, of about 125 pounds, and run it back down the stairs, litterally carrying "him" in our arms, solo. As for the obtaining of an RNs signature, that is the legal documentation that the hospital has "taken over" the patient's care, even if the patient is still on the ambulance stretcher. If no signature, claim can be made against the crew for "Patient Abandonment". ( I almost said "the hospital has 'assumed' the patient's care", and we all know about THAT word!)

First and foremost, a service animal IS NOT A PET! It is an animal TRAINED to assist a handicapped person in doing whatever the handicap causes him or her to be otherwise limited or unable in doing. Dogs usually assist in blind people getting around town, acting as hands to open doors for those who are wheelchair-bound with upper extremity paralysis, and I've heard of a few trained to push a button activating a medical alerting device to call either a central station alarm company, or 9-1-1. Some animals seem to be able to sense when "their person" is having a siezure, and alert this to others in the area Most, if not all, service animals actually wear a form of ID, such as a thing that looks like a vest that has wording on it, such as "Service Animal, Do Not Pet". The service animals used by blind folks are usually in a harness that has a hard raised handle, which I equate to appearing like a handle for a wheeled suitcase. On a secondary note re the vest or harness: most agencies that train the animal/human teams have the animal under some kind of understanding, through the training, that they're "on duty" when wearing that harness. "Playtime" begins when the harness is removed. Don't many of us, when going on duty, refer to it as going into the harness? Momma B, in person, and myself via TV, have seen a rather unusual service animal. Would you believe a blind woman being led by a miniature horse?

Directed at MattMatt... First off, welcome aboard the city! Second, just know that "local" protocols can differ by town, county, parrish, state, provence, and nation. Some of what I can do in NYC as an EMT-B, I'd be in trouble for doing in Inwood, Nassau County, just over the county line from me, and the reverse is also true of an EMT-A from Inwood VFD's EMS.

Contacting the hospital for updates on conditions of a patient transported would seem to be within HIPAA, but contacting the patient directly without the permission of said patient goes into dangerous territory.

I posted the following in the Firehouse comments, and relayed it to the Long Island Chapter President of the National Federation of the blind. Incredible! The local EMS violates national law by separating a service animal, in this case, a "seeing eye" dog from the person the dog is supposed to stay with, no matter what. This, in the city where the headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind is situated? I forsee a bunch of lawsuits against the department, for such neglect in following that specific of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which had input and influence from the NFB. As a mention, "Seeing Eye" is just one school that trains blind persons and their dogs as teams. In disclosure, I am a sighted associate of the Long Island, NY, chapter of the NFB, as well as a NY State EMT for the last 38 years.

I have attended a few lectures recently, by Doctors just back from "in theater" field hospitals. All have CATs to show around, and encourage their use. I'm on the ambulances, or operating in their support, for 38 years, and never applied any. I have been updated, from time to time, on how to make one with crevats (folded "triangle bandages") and tongue depressers.

1) "I can't describe it, but I know it when I see it" was the statement used in the pornography trial of Lenny Bruce. 2) If the company has written policy of not using company computers for non company usage, let alone viewing porn, the team should have been written up, if second time, review foir termination.

String Hijack: Easily offended? When I was a child, I was always made the focus of jokes. Teachers were no help, as they always used that stupid poetry of "Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me". Nowadays, we know that words can and do hurt. If enough times a child hears, even from parents, that (s)he is stupid, the child believes it themself. String now returned to rightful owners.

I've mentioned this a few years back, that I grabbed my mail out of my home letterbox, leaving Momma B's mail in the box, and took my mail with me to work, which was in the Pre FDNY/EMS merger's EMD. One item was a Playboy magazine. There was a separate page ad for something a co-worker was interested in, inside the wrapper, and I took the ad to him (a Samarai Warrior outfit, if memory serves), but on return, found a lady Lieutenant, whom I had never met prior, threatening me with a non specific sexual harrassment suit, as I had left the magazine on my desk.She was holding my Playboy, which I had left face down. I countered with, what was she doing going through (A) my mail, and ( my personal stuff? It went to the tour captain, who told me to put the magazine into my bag until after the tour, and please refrain from bringing in more copies in that manner again. (A few days later, I "anonymously" left a can of surfboard wax on that lieutenant's desk. It was "Mr. Zogg's Sex Wax", by name! <everyone recalls that I live in a beachfront community that has surfing?>)

As long as we keep getting sick drunks insisting to the triage nurses that they're actively having a Cardiac Arrest...

DFIB, the way you seem to be using it, it'll become the newest get-an-ambulance-quick buzz-phrase, as "heart attack" already is.

I went back to review the first posting in this string. I also read, quickly, the entire string, but will probably repeat other postings. 1) I am unaware of automatic dual agency responses in the area in question, as the area is unidentified. If certain calls elicit a dual response of EMS and the LEOs, both sides should be aware of what their respective responsibilities are, in relation to the other side. 2) Posting 1 never stated dispatch information indicating a violent patient, or if the LEOs had been dispatched. 3) If dual agency, does the EMS have standing orders on those "particular" call types for the EMS to "stage" until the LEOs clear as safe? 4) I, and past partners, have listened to that little voice saying "someting is off, here." I know I have requested NYPD on one call where there usually would not have been LEO accompanyment, proved me to just be nervous, but the responding LEOs understood.

In which case, SEMPER FI!!!

Have her also try for the US Military Academy at West Point, NY (GO ARMY!), or US Air Force Academy in Colorado. All good schools, as is Annapolis (MD) Naval Academy, and on total government dime.

Interesting thing, the original Ghettos were where people in Europe, who were in power, forced the Jewish people to live. Easier to have Russian/Cossack anti Jewish Pogroms, circa 1910, without disturbing the rest of the neighbors, perhaps? Then, of course, there was Kristalnacht, in late 1930s Germany, and 3 cars set on fire, on Ocean Avenue, in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, NY, on the annivirsary of Kristalnacht, earlier the week I made this posting, with KKK and Nazi Swastickas painted on the nearby park benches.