you know you're in urban ems if...

[EMT001]

You know your in urban EMS when the hospitals are all so busy they keep shunting you to the next one... (happened many times)

...Or, as a corollary, they make you wait for over thirty minutes before a nurse can see you.

[danieljones87]

When you can get 25 calls a night and never leave a 3 mile radius.

[lemonlimeEMT]

...Or, as a corollary, they make you wait for over thirty minutes before a nurse can see you.

one day, and not even a particularly busy day, I waited in the ER with a patient for 87 minutes (we got bored and decided to time it), the worst part was it was about 3 am when we got there....

[AJ]

had back in feb, all the hospitals in the county were packed....and on divert....so of course they were all open, we had a crew took a pt in for an assault (bls)...get sent to triage/aka waiting room, they went to sit the pt up off the litter and she started complaining of nausea/dizziness/worsening symptoms, the medic went back and talked to the doc then spent an hour treating the pt (upgraded to als, got MS, and i think phenergan too) in the waiting room with her on their litter till a bed opened up. worst part was it was the end of their shift when they got to the hospital....

[THE_DITCH_DOCTOR]

At least they weren't shooting at you.

Prince George's County MD.....I used to ride along with one of the local VFD's (I couldn't actually join the fire department because my AF commander had to approve it and she refused "because it's too dangerous" :roll: ) and we went to a scene of a shooting one night. The cops were there but as was the norm they were still sitting in their cars (read as "no scene control"). One of the medics hollered for an additional backboard (apparently they had found another shooting victim- bringing the tally up to 3) and I hear a voice behind me say "I got it dawg!" and I turn to see one of the victim's buddies (I know this because he had a gun sticking out of the back of his pants :shock: ) open the compartment on the ambulance and pull out a backboard and take it to the medic who asked for it. I looked at the EMT I was friends with and asked, "How does he know where those are kept?" The response? "We run down here all the time. They just learn where stuff is at." :shock: :?

Remind me why I am glad I don't live in Maryland anymore.

[tunnelrat83]

lol no thats great.. i am just waiting for that to happen... I run in an area where MS13 is big... and other fun stuff... i think that ought to be amusing... lol

[Summit]

Daaaang USAF. That's a story!

tunnelrat watch out those 13ers are daaaaaaaaangerous mothas

[tunnelrat83]

yea... fortunately I haven't run any serious things yet... they are fauily tame as far as MS13 goes.. but they have been getting more and more rambunctious (sp?) lately... oh well... thats what the brown canaries are for...

[AmbulanceNerd]

Both your sleeves, your chest, and your back say "FDNY" =P

You laugh at the thought of having to clear a landing zone.

You wonder how people could be dispatched by pagers.

[strippel]

When you can get 25 calls a night and never leave a 3 mile radius.

Change it to 14 in 12 hours, and it sounds like us. 8)

AJ, you will have to remind me about that one. Was it VPS/the Morphine Queen, when you covered for me last week?