Mountain out of a molehill?

[zzyzx]

I think it's odd that you got so worked up about this call. Do you think that you will never find yourself in a position where you've made a mistake and feel like an ass? I'm sure the doctor felt pretty stupid afterwards. Why do you feel the need to punish her?

[katbemeEMT-B]

As has already been said, you will find this same situation or a similar one many times when doing transfers. I have seen this coming from the clinic and the hospitals. I have also seen the other side of the picture. Just recently we were called for a transfer from the clinic for a "68 y/o/f, bring monitor and O2". When we got to the patient, she was sitting on the exam table talking eighty miles a minute smelling like she had just smoked a carton of cigarettes. The doc came in with her EKG which showed sinus arrythmia with multiple PVCs. She told us she had been having chest pain on and off for the last ten days but had been pain free that day. We loaded her and headed for the hospital. When we rolled into the ED, we were met by the level 1 team. They asked why we hadn't come in code 3. We told them the patient was stable with no pain. As we said that, we heard the bird landing. The ED nurse told us the clinic doc called it in as a level 1. The ED doc was not a happy camper. The patient wasn't level one and didn't have to be flown. The clinic doc didn't know the difference between a cardiac patient and a level 1 cardiac patient.

My advice to you would be, take your experience, learn from it, and make yourself a better care provider from it.

[john51071]

Am I the only one who caught on to the words "agonal respirations", and then the patient was placed on a nonrebreather??? This does not qualify anyone to question someone for poor treatment...or to take care of patients. True agonal breathing is equal to no breathing. You have to breathe for them. Luckily someone else showed up to take over before it was too late. No, I don't apologize for being caustic. Either the poster does not know his medical terminology, or does not know his ABC's. Either way, keep wondering why EMS providers aren't treated as professionals...feel free to flame away.