How do you handle first responders?

[tunnelrat83]

Hey I stopped at an MVA last night on my way home... car had been hit and spun 180. guy hit windshield was wearing seatbelt. A0x3. - airbag

c/o L hip pain, stiff neck, and his wrists were hurting...

When i got there they had already called the police, thought the assignment was on the way... 30 mins later the police show up.. and then he has to request a BLS truck once onscene... (there was a huge ped struck w/ fly out that was going on at the same time so things where a bit hectic)

upon my arrival... i turned off the car that had the damage, put the break on.... found out if everyone was okay.... got the information about the pts. ... and all the other good stuff we do...

by the time the BLS truck had arrived.. I already had gotten an initial assesment done, found had NKDA, No Medications, No History, etc.

and taken C-SPINE

Now here is the question i have for everyone.... what would you have done if you were the responding BLS unit. Do you just ignore the person sitting there holding C-Spine, and talk only to the pt. or do you find out who they are and what they know? and also talk to the pt? just wondering what yall would have done...

***on a side note the a common theme for this Counties EMS agency (not mine next one over) is one of a paragod (whether they are medics or not) syndrome*** just wondering what yall would have done

[emtnerd]

I would talk to everyone, the more info I can get the better I can help my patients. Also, I would give any first responders a huge thank you for stopping and helping out, not only does it help me out but I'm sure it makes a huge difference to the people who really needed it - the patients.

[tunnelrat83]

thats what i thought/.... but oh well anyone else got comments?

[RichmondMedik]

had a minor fender bender with an EMT on scene -- got up to the car and found out he stopped after PD was on scene -- he tells me she was unconscious and moaning --pt states " NO I was not -- I was crying " the EMT then proceeds to tell me the patient is a trauma alert--she wasn't .he then told me the patient is to go to the level 1 trauma center and no where else -- at that point the patient started to cry --- I calmed the patient down,had my student take up c-spine and thanked the emt for his help -- all very nice --- the emt stuck around and continued to offer his advice on how we should treat the patient and he will pre-alert the trauma hospital --- at that point ( after telling him for the 3rd time we were all set and he could leave) I called over PD and had the emt escorted off the scene

If you are going to stop and help 1st make sure they need help and when the on duty crews or who ever is in charge says thank you we got it from here,then leave

so the condition of the vehicle was she got hit in front of passenger door and the window broke -- no airbag deployment -- patient had no injuries other than a panic attack

Paul

[tunnelrat83]

ah.. sounds like fun... yeah... i am not one to be itching to fly them or anything.... Guy denyed loss of conciousness... therefore he denied loss of conciousness.... and soon as the arriving unit was there I handed it over to them and faded into the night... :-D after being blown off... it was only the cop who said thanks...

[Ridryder 911]

It depends.. if the off duty EMT seems reasonable, I will listen, & continue to ask the patient questions as well. I will use their help, if needed & seems to be helpful. However; if they are apparently lacking in knowledge or like the above scenarios, I inform them ,we have it under control. Like Richmondmedik, I ask them 3x's; after that there outta there. There is a Lot of wanna-a-be's. Ones who only run a couple calls a year & gets excited about anything.

On the other side I have stopped off-duty & became disgruntled. This is one of the reasons I don't stop off duty. Sometimes I find on-coming crews that are responding not very well trained or educated. All I do is offer my assistance & bite my tongue. After several years of this, all I got was a sore tongue, & ulcers. I have since ceased stopping off-duty, & notify 9-1-1.

Be safe,

Ridryder 911

[Guest]

Talk to everyone at the scene. The more info you have the better.

[lemonlimeEMT]

Around here there is some kind of law about stopping when you are off duty; if you are in a car with some kind of EMT identification (i.e. sticker thing on windshield), you are required to stop and offer assistance if police or other rescue crews are not already on scene. The other day I was with a fellow EMT, and we heard on his scanner about an MVA down the road, we decided not to stop since the ambulance should be ariving in a minute or so. As we kept driving, we saw the MVA; it was in a different location than where the ambulance was dispatched to. So we stopped, told the cops to radio dispatch, and offered help. We took initial assessment, baseline vitals and c-spine by the time the ambulance got there. We told them what info we had, and stuck around (out of the way) to see if they needed any extra help. Turns out both patients need to be back boarded, and we were around to help load the patients. If I stop on scene, that's what I usually do: what I can until the ambulance gets there, and then offer help any way I can-if they don't need it, I leave.

[CanadaEMT]

I would get a brief history from the pt then ask people on scene/person holding c-spine. everyone knows usually everyones story is different

[brentoli]

Holy

Batman