Richard B the EMT

...Which is where we should be keeping our thoughts!

I caught an old Norris movie, "Breaker, Breaker". If I were him, I'd use some of his money and buy up all the prints, that we can see and recall him in better stuff he's done since then. Everyone was doing CB Radio related movies back circa 1975.

As has been previously demonstrated, in different colors, too!

Just a thought, but BLS, at least in my area, don't handle drugs. Paramedics do, including Narcotics, hence, they probably get a higher level of scrutiny.

By that description, Annie, it seems you might have experienced something called "Astral Projection". My friends that claim to have some psychic ability, say they can control it, to visit places, sometimes at great distance from where their body is, physically. If you can do this, theoretically, I won't see you here in Belle Harbor, NY, but you'd see me, Lady J, and Momma B in my living room, while your physical body would still be (insert name of your home community), sitting in the La-Z Boy recliner, seemingly passed out.

The "Near Death" experiences, as not witnessed by Lone Star, but witnessed by others, go from the White Light, voices saying go to, others saying run from, dead family members telling them "It's not your time", some claim to be floating above their own bodies as resuscitation efforts continue. I've never been that close to that situation, so I really don't know what to say, that I haven't said already.

From the allegedly humorous: If I can't take it with me when I go, I ain't going! With all the people telling me they are going to dance on my grave, I've left orders to be buried at sea! An acquaintance of mine says he's coming back from the grave to "get me". I'm going to have him buried face down, so let him dig! At age 110, I'm going to be shot in bed, with someone else's wife, by the jealous husband. From the more realistic: I'm signed up as an organ donor. When I go, the transplanted parts will live on in someone else, therefore I have a small chance at some immortality.

My girlfriend, "Lady J" has 2 "tats" on her arm, which she voluntarily keeps covered with long sleeves when working as a teacher. She got them after she had been working for several years. The only problem she had with them was not the schools: it was with me, as I felt that she shouldn't have gotten them. However, our love is stronger than that. As already stated, check with the agencies you're thinking of applying to, re their stand or handling of tattooed personnel. I'm still on a "Student Deferment" draft card, issued in the early 1970s, but mom and dad met during WW2 in the Army at Fort Knox, but please accept both my "Garry Owen" and "Semper Fi"!

Wait a minute, here! You get big bucks? (The sound you hear is the dripping of sarcasm)

This, once again, is addressing the issue of LEGAL Duty To Act or Respond, versus MORAL Duty To Act or Respond, when off duty. The debate has been going on for years, and probably will continue for longer. I will also mention that some who hold one viewpoint can reverse themselves, if only on item specific calls. Many of the EMTs and Paramedics at my station had told me, when off duty, "the blinders go on". However, when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in my neighborhood and EMS Station's coverage area (Monday, November 13, 2001) everyone, including folks on their days off, and from other tours, was on the scene for most of the day.

FDNY Headquarters is located roughly 2 blocks from both the building with the Au Bon Pain and EMD in it, and the nearest fire house, which is in the opposite direction. I am unsure where either the nearest FDNY EMS station, or street corner that one of our ambulances is staged at, in relation to the Au Bon Pain. The nearest hospital, which also supplies a few BLS and ALS ambulances to the NYC 9-1-1 system, is roughly a mile away. It was a hospital based ambulance that eventually responded, from that hospital. Per a New York Post article on the incident, when the FDNY ALS ambulance arrived, they found the crew from the hospital based BLS in the process of running back to their ambulance to get the Defib, in violation of the rules of the NYC 9-1-1 system, that the Defib is to be brought in on ALL calls.

Interesting. This seems to be similar to discussions I have heard and read, that the Emergency Services don't have any obligation to try and save anybody. I am undecided if I support that concept.

Actually, I have a copy of the order, I just forgot I had that copy.

Ohhhhh Kaaaayyyyyyyyyy.....?

Also, Driver, could you explain to me how on a one lane per direction road, in an area where drivers are supposed to pull to the right, possibly into a parking lane, how it becomes a failure of the emergency vehicle driver not to be able to get past this errant driver, especially when the same rules say the ambulance shouldn't use the parking lane, as someone attempting to follow the law might then end up cutting the E.V off, and forcing them off the road?

Driver: 1) Are you a member of an Emergency Medical Service, or any emergency service? 2) How long have you been with that service? 3) In that service, have you gone through an Emergency Vehicle Operator's Course, or an equivalent class? From what I have seen of your postings, I believe the answer to these questions is a resounding NO. (Speaking from 37 years of New York City area ambulance crew experience, and my Aussie friend from at least 5 , and probably more, years of experience)

So, by your refusal to pull over and let an emergency vehicle, traveling at emergency status, with all authorized emergency lights, sirens and air horns engaged, you get your jollies by potentially hurting strangers whom the emergency vehicle is attempting to get to, by deliberately and maliciously delaying said emergency vehicle's response?

I did forget to mention that the car and ambulance were eastbound on a divided roadway, that there was no traffic from the north due to it being a bulkhead wall to Jamaica Bay, and as to traffic from the south, a supermarket parking lot, well, there was none at that moment. I was on the wheel of the ambulance in question, and this happened on a clear Sunday mid afternoon. The ambulance was also equipped with forward facing red flashing lights at a height that could presumably be seen in the woman's rear view mirror.

Someone posted Texas law, I now add from the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Laws:

Regrettably, "Driver" is essentially correct. Here in NY, the LEOs have to witness the transgression before a ticket can be issued. Even a dash cam shows the offending car, that isn't pulling over, from the rear, unlike the red light camera ticket, which IS issued to the owner of the vehicle. A generalized thought I have often heard is, most drivers pull over when they see that big grill of an engine or truck company, as they are so big, they can put a hurting on the offending vehicle, and it's people. As stated, a cop car's crews can ticket an offending driver, but we in the ambulances do not seem to have any recourse. I was planning on using the PA system to request drivers to pull to the right, saying, "we might be responding to your family", but another tech reminded me, "what if that driver is in a fight with the other family members, and (s)he wishes them ill?" One beautiful moment was, a driver refused to get out of my ambulance's way, at a traffic light where the direction of both the car and ambulance was the same. She waited until the light changed, then pulled SLOWLY to the right. It was so satisfying to see the lights of a cop car start up behind her and pull her over. The cops normally sat, just out of obvious view of the street, to ticket the cars that pass the red light, and had witnessed the entire thing!

My experiences in the old communications center at (HHC) EMS Headquarters was, we got two 20 minute breaks, and a 40 minute meal break. The breaks were, per published orders, never in the first or last hour of the 8 hour tour. The only time we canceled breaks or meals, was when the CAD (Computer Assisted Dispatch) system crashed. We'd go to a system of handwritten cards on a belt delivery system, one per borough (county), and one for returning calls to the screening nurses. When the belt was removed during a renovation, we'd have personnel assigned to act as runners between the call takers and the dispatchers in the next room. If you were already outside the building, you were envied, but if not, you'd work until relieved, or after a short period when we'd match up the cards with the CAD, to try to insure nobody who called had been missed, on the CAD.

EMTs and Paramedics don't always work on ambulances. I, for one, worked the first 11 of my 25 years in municipal EMS, in the EMD, where, in the following article, from the time of the alleged refusal of the 2 EMTs on December 9, 2009, and datelined as Tuesday, December 22, 2009 , shows where they were then assigned, as I have highlighted in red. </h1>http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/12/22/2009-12-22_call_911_emts_are_suspended.html

Oops, I forgot about that Ops order.

No. I don't have cable or "Sat-dish", all I have is antennas for broadcast. thus, no Cinemax. Also, as stated, I saw it on PBS Channel Thirteen WNET.

As far as I recall, my VAC only checked out my driving record, after I had been in for several years, never a Police check. When I was hired by the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, I was checked out by the NYC Department of Investigation...after I had been working for at least a year! If there was a background check done on me when I, and all already in the HHC EMS, was and were "grandfathered in" to the FDNY, I was not informed either that one was done, or that I had passed such testing. This EMT was hired a good time following the merger into the FDNY, and may have had a clean record until now, simply due to not having been caught. Someone else already stated the case, that after employment, he "went bad". (FYI, I have a copy of that key, too. Everyone at my station had one within 2 years of us becoming FDNY, but not through the department. One of the guys in a VFD/VAC made us all copies, at his expense, declining my offer, at least, for reimbursement for my copy.)