What would you do?

[Just Plain Ruff]

The first thread was speculation and in this thread, the person witnessed a drinking game. Not quite time to pull the pin on society. Now, if you want to talk about common sense and the increasing use of cell phones in an ambulance while patients are on board, well, you've got something there.

True dat Neup. But take a look around and tell me that common sense hasn't left most of this younger generation. I mean it was quickly exiting my generation but it's fleeing without looking back on the one we call the younger generation. But then again, I'm an old fuddy duddy.

But this person who witnessed the drinking game has co-workers who think that it's not an issue to be drunk and do a surgical airway. something to ponder on the common sense situation.

But I do see redeeming qualities all over as well.

Edited July 1, 2013 by Captain ToHellWithItAll

[DwayneEMTP]

Yeah, I think that if you get most of your opinions of the 'younger generation' off of Youtube, or goofy FB pics, then things look pretty dreary...but that's just not what I see when I look around at the real world.

It's the same rah rah bullshit of those that knew that the Elvis generation was going to destroy the world because they were willing to swivel their hips.

I've got a boatload of neices and nephews, neighbor kids, and younger EMS providers that I'm very familiar with and they are certainly more tolerant, open minded, and educated than the vast majority of those that I know in my generation.

Carl Sagan, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs in the scientific community, and plenty of others from any number of ntellectual and creative arts have crowed about the value of LSD and weed in their lives, lived on communes, been arrested, sported mullets/long hair (the 70's and 80's equivalent of wearing your pants hanging off of your ass) and we're all still here.

And man, if you see the marshmallow game as extreme, then you and I lived completely different younger lives. I've been arrested for drinking and fighting, got a DUI 30 odd years ago, have more scars and healed fractures from "Hey, watch this!" moments than I care to remember and yet, though still a work in progress, have turned into a halfway responsible adult. Kids do kid stuff until they are cursed with a clearer sense of mortality, and then they become older, and way less interesting, like us. :-)

I don't see the world failing because of the younger generation, I see the younger generation doing what kids do, pissing off the old folks so that they can be left alone to walk their own path, in their own way. Exactly what kids are supposed to do. But more importantly I see them repairing and preparing to repair a ton of the physical and emotional damage done by their "betters" from previous generations.

I think that's cool as hell, and I look forward to the world that they are going to create...

[mikeymedic1984]

Just to play devil's advocate, how far do you take your "no treatment" stance because you have ingested alcohol ? No finger sweeps of airway, no heimlich, no CPR ? And what do you tell all of your friends at the party, as the only trained medical professional in the room chooses not to use their training and wait on 911 ? Doing nothing may be worse than doing too much (not advocating a trach with a kitchen knife, just saying you can't stand there and watch them die).

[scubanurse]

What would you say to your friends when you inappropriately performed CPR? Didn't check for a pulse properly because your coordination and vision is altered? Fact remains....if you drink, you don't work. Plain and simple. No arguments.

Example: Your friend simply passes out drunk, you intoxicated believe he has coded. You start performing CPR over the abdomen or worse xyphoid process, and end up causing a fatal injury.

Either don't drink or don't perform more than first aid.

I honestly can not see why this is such a debate???

[Just Plain Ruff]

I would do bls on the choking patient and bls on any patient but I'd leave the ALS to the trained providers. Plus I'm off duty so I'm not performing als skills anyway because I'm not covered under my medical directors licensure. And Mikey I agree doing nothing might be worse than doing too much, but that's a situation by situation basis and I'm sure that in that particular scenario judgement would take over and anyone of us here would do the right thing. At least I hope that those of us here on the CITY are smart enough to know what is the right amount to do and that NOT a single one of us here would overstep our bounds and do something that would get us 1) in trouble and 2) put in jail. Right?

But to cover Dwaynes points, I do see many many tons of redeeming qualities of young people out there. Just the other day I witnessed a couple of young kids helping out in a food pantry and then I watched another couple of kids just screwing around and helping out a elderly couple sweep their yard and mow their lawn. Both times they accepted no payment.

I also witnessed about 6 months ago a couple of kids following my wife and I and our two young daughters while we were walking down the street and all they could say were cuss words. When I told them to stop cussing they told me to well you know what they said. Then they started on the really nasty cuss words like the C*&nt word and the N word and I finally had enough. I told them to stop and the older of the kids started to get violent and really nasty and thats when the wife called the cops. By the time the cops had arrived the fight was over and the kid was on the ground. The cops arrested the kid and that's when the kids parents showed up. Several neighbors all corroborated my story of his taking the first swing at me and the parents were pissed at him and the police officers told the parents that they could pick him up at the county jail. I pressed charges of course.

My generation also pissed the hell out of the grown ups around us and I'm sure that the grey hair that I gave my elders is being given to me in return for what I gave them.

I don't look at facebook and say "hey look at where this world is going, down the damn tubes I tell you" but I do wonder where some of these kids role models are?

Dwayne, I grew up with a 10 foot tall and bullet proof mentality, I drove my bike down hills that should never have been ridden down, I didn't wear a helment until I was 39, I tried all sorts of drugs in high school (don't tell the NSA), I pirated videos and music, I drove fast, and drunk while in high school until one of my best friends was killed while I was driving behind him( I tried to take the keys, He decked me and ran to his car), I stole stuff, I ate things I probably shouldn't have, I sometimes didn't wear condoms and I actually got a girl pregnant(she aborted it).

I cheated on multiple high school tests, got caught plagiarizing in college, Got so drunk a couple of times at a frat party that I'm surprised I woke up and was in so many fights with my frat buddies that I probably should have been killed. I should have joined the military but I didn't and I survived multiple other things in life.

I'm a work in progress still till today and I find things that in my past should have killed me but didn't.

I've been there, done that and the one thing that I don't believe in is repeating the same mistake. I can honestly say that I've only made a couple of the same mistakes twice and never the same mistake three times.

the younger generation will always piss me off to the point of wanting to help them make better decisions as I believe it's the older folks job to teach the younger folks about the lessons of our past and how not to repeat those lessons. Sometimes those younger folks need to learn those lessons on their own but many times we can help them make a bad situation less of one.

[Richard B the EMT]

My generation also pissed the hell out of the grown ups around us and I'm sure that the grey hair that I gave my elders is being given to me in return for what I gave them.

When I was a child, my mother tried to make me behave by telling me every time I did something wrong, I gave her another grey hair.

That wording stopped when I commented "Mommy, you must have been a real terror. Look at Grandma's hair!"

[yakc130]

It's all a matter of perspective.

How drunk are you? Can you even do BLS skills, or are you that hammered? Who are you with? Is it other EMS/fire/police folks, or civilians? Does anyone else there know what you do for a living?

It's up to you, but I wouldn't do anything that I can't do in my service, and I damn sure wouldn't attempt any ALS stuff.

Sometimes it just comes down to "play stupid games, win stupid prizes." A cleaning of the gene pool, if you will.

And Captain, I like that term "automagically."

Edited July 2, 2013 by yakc130

[ERDoc]

Mickey, to answer your question, it depends. If you are so drunk you cannot walk straight, do nothing. If you are a little tipsy I think you are in a gray area. You will be faulted if you do nothing. You will be faulted if you do something and screw it up. I think you are safe keeping it on a first aid level but anything more than that and you are asking for trouble. Alcohol and sharp object should never be mixed.

[island emt]

It's a whole lot easier to not put ourselves in a place where where stupid drinking games or behaviors are taking place.

Pretend to be an adult once in a while.

[ERDoc]

It's a whole lot easier to not put ourselves in a place where where stupid drinking games or behaviors are taking place.

Pretend to be an adult once in a while.

That's a good point but this could happen to any of us. It could easily happen at a family BBQ or a Super Bowl party.