Good ways to kill patients

[srothig]

Being over confident in your work and getting complacent, Not doing a full assessment every 5 for a non-stable P/T and not seeing something you missed in the initial and secondary.. Not paying attention enough to SPO2 sat and thinking your P/T is just getting sleepy..

[systemet]

Being so concentrated on your ALS that you forget to apply BLS and the patient suffers. A "Paramedic" is an EMT-I with more tools and needs to remember that.

Happened to me the other day. I was drawing up my ket and sux, and my EMT kept on bothering me, and I couldn't understand why, and then I realised that the patient had actually been decapitated, so it was completely unnecessary to RSI him. We had a dig around, and ultimately found his trachea and stuck a tube in it, then my EMT was bothering me again, and I realised we were blowing air out his hemisected torso. It was a bit embarrassing.

[scubanurse]

Are you not doing a full assessment on your patients?! Or was that sarcasm?

[Just Plain Ruff]

Are you not doing a full assessment on your patients?! Or was that sarcasm?

You have to ask?

[scubanurse]

I don't get sarcasm sometimes and I was really really tired at 0300 local time.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I don't get sarcasm sometimes and I was really really tired at 0300 local time.

I hear ya, Did ya hear about the guy VOODOO medic who recently passed away. One of the jovial stories about how great a medic he was is that he was walking down the stairs with an open laryngoscope and 5 expired ET Tubes and he tripped and on the way down he accidentally intubated 5 people.

Apparantly VooDoo Medic was a great guy and great medic. I'll get the link about his exploits.

[scubanurse]

My brain is now closed after 5 12's in a row.

[ERDoc]

Looking forward to the VooDoo medic info

[firemedic37]

Pushing the wrong drug is probably one of the biggest mistakes I have seen medics make. I think it is a lack of field supervision and the medics thinking that they know it all since they graduated Paramedic school and passed their exams or have been a paramedic for "X" years. I have had at least three new medics and even a "seasoned" one push the wrong (or concentration/route) drug over just the last year and half. If in doubt look it up to see the right medication, dose, route and administration time.

Forgetting to put the pt on O2 in the rig and your portable runs out and you wonder why your pt is desaturating. I always remind my partner to change over since I have seen this happen way to many times.

Thinking that you have enough fuel to take that one run that was just a little too far from the hospital . . .

Don't leave your keys in your ambulance, they do get stolen. (PS this has not happened to me personally, yet . . .)

And most importantly not asking the RIGHT questions before an intervention or transfer. The more you know about the pt the better off you are (just don't get carried away with it though).

[RomeViking09]

Scoop & go vs doing a real assessment that mets the complaint. Last week I was double medic, went to a guy for 45 y/o male Chest Pain with no prior history, it was my turn to tech I did my normal and held on scene longer than my partner that day seemed to want to at first.... Inferior MI with HR in the 40s. I had the time to transmit a 12 lead get ASA, NTG, and have a line before transport, our total time from PT contact to cath table was 25 min (including transport and the elevator ride to the cath lab). Had we just scooped and run I would not have done the 12-lead until we where at the door had not time to transmit and guy would have been delayed in the ER because another crew had just arrived with ROSC on a code 3mon before us. After the call my partner noted that my "longer" on scene times benefit the patient because I have a real idea what I am working with (note: many times I have also got to the patient and had an oh shit he needs the ER not me and scoop and run and do what I can in route) don't let scene time goals or policies prevent you from doing a good assessment and any needed treatment (side note I have very short hospital times on patients I stay on scene with so if your worried about times for pay raises it all balances out in the end if you do your job)