Just Plain Ruff Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 No offense taken mate Of course the concern is there, I would be lying if I said it wouldn't be and quite rightly so! Phew OK so we've started an IV and got him nice and tubed, now, who is gonna drive? I think it should be two midget firefighters both with Masters degrees in EMS and firefighting. The one manning the foot petals should be tactily challenged and the driver should both be deaf and blind in one eye. The medic in the back needs to have a pirate patch over his left eye and the other eye needs a monocle lens. The patient is the only one not handicapped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwiology Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 (edited) I think it should be two midget firefighters both with Masters degrees in EMS and firefighting. The one manning the foot petals should be tactily challenged and the driver should both be deaf and blind in one eye. The medic in the back needs to have a pirate patch over his left eye and the other eye needs a monocle lens. The patient is the only one not handicapped LMAO!! There is a midget Firefighter somewhere in Maine if I remember rightly Seriously I have known one or two monocular medics and they do fine For what its worth you can be totally deaf here and still get a CDL, not that you require one to drive an ambo, only a fire truck (weight) Edited February 11, 2010 by kiwimedic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard B the EMT Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 Youse guyz just reminded me of a former partner from an IFT company I used to work for, over 25 years ago. Jim was an excellent EMT and vehicle operator at the now defunct Nassau Ambulance/Ambulette Service (Nassau County, NY). When he was accepted to the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) EMS, he actually advanced to Paramedic. Then, someone at HHC EMS found out he had been hired despite having a prosthetic eye. I actually didn't know about it, until the story made the newspapers. Anyway, "They" placed him on medical leave, "Until the condition could be corrected". Did they think he was Claire Bennett, from "Heroes" (the "indestructible cheerleader"), and was going to grow a new eye? Anyway, when he ran out of banked sick and other leave times, and the eye hadn't regrown, they fired him. He took them to court, and eventually won, getting any and all back pay due, worked the traditional one day, and quit. Here was a guy who they knew only had one eye, hired, invested in the advanced training, and discharged from the service. Perhaps the OP still has hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TylerHastings Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 And just what are you implying by that? I assume everyone here has 20/20 (normal) or 20/15 (fighter pilot) vision, and I would assume Kiwi will not take kindly to you referring to him/her/it as "blind" so please clarify. As for myself, I have no problem referring to myself as a half-blind ambulance driver, as in the best case, that is exactly what I will be. It will be an accurate description. I am not one hundred percent sure what kiwi's vision is but I do know that it is not 20/20 and if Ben and I were not decent friends I would not harass him about it as for my self I am not afraid to call my self blind or half blind because with out my glasses that is exactly what I am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwiology Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 (edited) And just what are you implying by that? I assume everyone here has 20/20 (normal) or 20/15 (fighter pilot) vision, and I would assume Kiwi will not take kindly to you referring to him/her/it as "blind" so please clarify. hey i am not an it! aw shucks my one weakness how did you know 20/200 (6/60) R ~20/80 (6/24) L Edited February 12, 2010 by kiwimedic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOCMOB Posted February 12, 2010 Author Share Posted February 12, 2010 Well, thanks all, quite an interesting thread. I'm not gonna go into all the stuff I've done on motorcycles, in cars'n'trucks, planes. etc. I don't even want to go into details regarding an Olympic sport I did rather well in, that's considered to be somewhat eyesight-dependent. I feel I compensate OK. I don't wear cokebottle glasses, I can't stand glasses and just wear a corrective contact lens in my correctable eye. I figure intubating people is a bit harder than dogs because .... see a dog's got a nice long upper and lower jaw, you can hold the mouth open easy lol. But it's looking for the cords, etc. I dunno that's medic stuff I'm working on EMT first. As for an IV puncture, that's not highly eyesight-dependent, a lot of it is feel and good manual dexterity. I seem to be OK in this area. Thanks for all the input folks, I think I'm just gonna go ahead and see how far I can get and stop worrying about it so much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wb7ptr Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 I can't say much about the registry requirements and vision but I can comment on driving. I'm fully sighted myself but years ago I took flying lessons to get a private pilot license and one of my flight instructors was completely blind in one eye. I had my doubts but I got a the cockpit with this guy and he was one of the best flight instructors ever had and he did have to get a waiver to get a commercial pilots license himself. It sounds very similar to your own situation and I suspect a waiver is also available for you. I haven't seen this flight instructor in many years but I do know that he was after a job with the airlines and they're almost as strict as the military about vision. And be interested to know whether he was able to get the job. How he compensated for his lack of depth perception was he noticed the change in relative size of objects and he saw them move toward or away from him and learned to work with that. It takes practice but it seemed to be a very good way compensate for no depth perception. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Plain Ruff Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 I've never been asked about my vision for my paramedic license. Driver's license, that's a different story. The only thing they wanted on my license was if I needed corrective lenses to read the screen of pictures. If I couldn't read them without glasses then they told me to put my glasses on. If I couldn't read them with my glasses then I don't know what happens because my glasses always did the trick. I'm not sure what happens if you can't read the signs with glasses on. honestly, I for one don't really want to work with a blind partner. Kind of need to see to do things like read medication labels (hate to reach of valium and grab Sux or Vec. Kind of hard to intubate someone if you can't see the chords. So I'm kind of on the side of if you cannot see to do this job then you really need to consider doing a different job, and don't even consider driving if you can't see. but that should be a given. I was just thinking about Kiwi the other day and then this thread pops up. Anyone know where the mad new zealander went? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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