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I have not been to this site in months. Since I am no longer working in EMS, I felt that I had less to contribute, and frankly for a long time, it made me bitter. I feel like I needed to explain my hiatus, vent, maybe even gain some advice. Let me start at the beginning. March of 2010 I got a new job that I thought was going to be great. So I thought. I got hired by a private ambulance company that had several locations in different states, to be part of their critical care transport team at the local children's hospital. Good pay, Benefits, close to my house, I was very excited. There was a lot of hoops I had to jump through to start working there. Since the hospital is very close to 4 states, they require EMT-B certifications in PA, MD, DE and NJ. Pennsylvania is my home state, and NJ is a no brainer because NJ gives automatic reciprocity to PA licenses. For MD, I had to go take a refresher course, given at the company's headquarters in Maryland. I had to pay for the course, 200$, which should have been my first clue about the company. The refresher course allowed me to apply to get my National Registry exam, that is required for DE certification. Then I went through a one day orientation, for which I did not get paid. Since I had never driven before, and the hospital requires it, I did a 30 minute video driving course, then they threw me behind the wheel on the road. I drove for about 10-15 minutes, and the instructor signed off on the driver's training papers, certifying that I had taken the course and driven for at least an hour, which I hadn't. I did not take EVOC. I was suposed to do some shifts at the corporate headquarters, to get used to driving. (Corporate was about an hour and 15 minutes from my house, on a good day.) I was picking up as many open shifts as I could, and when I asked about when I was going to be sent to the hospital, I was given a line about oh they weren't going to send me there yet and if I wanted a job, I could work at corporate. So i continued on, with several other incidents that I won't go into for sake of length. My partner and I arrived to take a patient to dialysis. The patient seemed much larger then the page had stated, 285. Anything over 300 is a bariatric patient and gets manpower and the bariatric truck. The staff said to us, are you sure you 2 ladies can get him? He weighs like 350!(He is also a quadrapilegic). I asked for manpower, and was denied, the dispatched said he was evaluated recently and is not over 300, and that I better take him. With help of the staff, we transferred him and transported to dialysis. When we weighed him, he was indeed around 350 lbs. When we got back my partner wrote up an incident report. 2 weeks later, I got a call for this patient again. Since I had so much trouble before, I notified dispatch that I wasn't sure I could lift this patient, as he was 350 lbs. They told me that wasn't true, and that since I had a different partner today, I needed to take the patient or no longer have a job, in less words. So I figured i needed to suck it up, and I would be fine. Boy was I wrong. I never would have thought that one call could change my life forever. We managed to get the patient transferred onto the stretcher, even though the bed was malfunctioning and we could not get the bed up at the proper height. I was already stretching to try to bring him over while leaning over. Then came time to get the stretcher up. On the count of 3, I lifted, and her end of the stretcher didn't go. She couldn't lift it. My mid back was already burning, but i knew we had to get the stretcher up. She apologized and said that she would be able to lift it this time. Second time was much much worse. I lifted and when her end didn't move, she let the stretcher drop down all the way to the floor. I felt a pop in my muscles and I almost burst out in tears. with the help of a nurse, we got the stretcher up partially, but not all the way. At that point the patient was freaking out at us, I did not think i had much left, so i figured we could just get the stretcher in the way it was. We lifted it up and got it in. Got to dialysis, got help to transfer the patient and I alerted my supervisor that I was hurt. I was in tears most of the way back to the office. I had to get someone to take me to Occupational health. It was all downhill from there. I have 2 herniated discs, severe muscle and nerve damage in my thoracic and lumbar regions, and down my right leg. I have almost constant muscle spasms, and nerve pain in my leg. The incident was August 17th, 2010. The company kept going back and forth whether I could do light duty or not, and from August to December I was not offered light duty or being paid for lost time, although I was being seen by their workers comp doctor. I contacted a lawyer and that day, my workers comp case was closed. I could not find out why, or what, but it was denied. 16 months later, I am unable to work or do any job due to the back injuries and my inability to sit for more then a few minutes without pain. I have been unable to reopen my claim, and have not received a cent. The lawyer told me that the company knew how to play the system, and there wasn't much he could do. I received a letter in the mail informing me that I no longer had a EMS certification in Maryland, due to no affiliation with a company. The reason was given as termination from the company. I had no idea. I have no clue where to go from here... I have had numerous medical treatments, injections, 4 sets of physical therapy, I see a chiropractor, nothing helps. I have no idea what my recourse is from here. Does anybody have any ideas on my situation. Sorry for the long, drawn out post, I needed to vent!!!