"Paramedic's save lives, EMT's save Paramedics"

[spenac]

See BLS does save ALS.

[Just Plain Ruff]

i do belive that b/c as a basic we can see maybe something that they missed adn let them know well this is what i think and if u have a good medic not one of thoes dam azz paragods they should listen to what u think and trust a baisc. Ive worked with a few medics that thye thout someting and i saw something eles that they didnt and i let them know well maybe this mite be the problem and 9 put of 10 they do listen. So maybe a basic can maite a medic look better and that is what i try to do with my medics that i work with to make them look better

OH MY GOODNESS, it doesn't even seem like this one tried to be coherent.

Here's what I found, a total of 15 spelling and grammar errors.

Makes me wonder if he even cared, or is he just trying to make the worst medic look better than he?

Class, this is a prime example of what you don't want to strive to be. But at least you'll look good!

[AnthonyM83]

I would like to point out that there has been very little response from non-medics in this thread despite how often we hear this saying....

I would post, but I'm waiting to hear from back from medic001918 about my last reply to him http://www.emtcity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=131016#131016

[medic001918]

Sorry, I missed your post until your last one. So I just read it. There is plenty of justification for having a partner, I agree with you about that. And partner's are supposed to catch each other. But then where does the saying come into play with regard to EMT's saving medics? That's a separate issue. How does an EMT save a medic? And where are these stories to get an idea of where the saying comes from? So opening the whole saying back up to interpretation, just how does an EMT save a paramedic? Partner's saving partner's I can understand. But still, I don't see the EMT's saving medics.

Shane

NREMT-P

[AnthonyM83]

So opening the whole saying back up to interpretation, just how does an EMT save a paramedic? Partner's saving partner's I can understand. But still, I don't see the EMT's saving medics.

Okay, now I can answer. Had to set it up right, so I wouldn't come off as trying to say EMTs could be on par with paramedic partners.

When I first heard the quote, it was in the context of EMTs being there to maintain BLS for a patient when their medic was getting too wrapped up in the ALS. And this makes sense, if one person in zoned in on a specific skill, he partner who has moved back to allow the medic to work is likely to have a big picture view. Other times, the medic could be very good, but due to nature of the call be spread thin and could miss something vital.

It's just a line used to say "hey, I might just be an EMT, but I'm still helpful to my EMT partner." And they're right....it's just that a paramedic partner would be even MORE useful....provided they both knew their roles and both didn't get wrapped up in something and forget big picture.

Here are the examples finally:

-Catching that our auto vs. ped was pregnant....catching that our motorcyclist who dropped his bike was actually hit and thrown...catching that a patient has Hep...caught that another EMT had setup the 3-lead wires wrong...was able to ID some pills in an ALOC pt's car...a ride-along noticed tracheal deviation on an SOB...my partner noticed an extra bullet wound en-route to trauma center...caught an altered pt's arm and preventing a bloody hand print across my medic's face....when medic told fire crew to hold CPR after awhile asking if he still wanted it help (reply was "oh!? yes, keep it going!")

So, like I said, all of these are things a good medic partner would have caught, as well...and even more. I included some that were just being a bad/inexperienced medic, some scenes were just chaotic enough it'd be hard for anyone to catch it, some are things I just considered on my own based on medical presentation...

Some of the consequences would have been bigger...looking stupid in front of a trauma team....some caught eventually like the lead wires....some potentially serious...bloody diseased hand on your face...

But all of that only justifies having a partner. And using the phrase "EMTs save paramedics" is still pretentious and makes you look bad...unless you use it only in joking as I do.

I'm not defending the line. I just wanted to reply to your specific challenge...because it was definitely answerable. The issue isn't who saves who....of course every long-term partner is going to end up saving his partner, whether medic or EMT...sometimes just from a write-up, sometimes from seriously compromising his patient's tx, sometimes actually a physical save from harm.

The actual issue is the attitude surrounding it and self-importance EMTs have. It's good to feel valuable and be confident, just know that you're training level is holding you back from saving your medic partner even more...the number of medic 'saves' you have is not justification for EMTs because medics would have even more medic saves

[Lumbajackman]

I think what it comes down to is not saving the medic in a physical sense, but in a more general sense, especially when in contact with a patient. I originally heard this quote from you of the most humble medics I have ever met, definitely not the "para-god" type at all. He has found that EMT's are the best partners to have because they are so good at the basics, whereas paramedics often times forget about alot of the basic skills and focus only on their advanced skills. I once worked a cardiac arrest with a paramedic who was so focused on administering drugs and getting a line started that they completely forgot about ABC's. EMT's are helpful to have around because so often paramedics get tunnel vision about all the advanced skills they do and can forget about the basic level skills that are able to suffice in 99% of the calls.

[ERDoc]

+1 for the necro bump of 9 years.

If you are working with paramedics that you describe, they are useless idiots that should not be working.  Please explain how they forgot about the ABCs.

[Just Plain Ruff]

10 hours ago, Lumbajackman said:

I think what it comes down to is not saving the medic in a physical sense, but in a more general sense, especially when in contact with a patient. I originally heard this quote from you of the most humble medics I have ever met, definitely not the "para-god" type at all. He has found that EMT's are the best partners to have because they are so good at the basics, whereas paramedics often times forget about alot of the basic skills and focus only on their advanced skills. I once worked a cardiac arrest with a paramedic who was so focused on administering drugs and getting a line started that they completely forgot about ABC's. EMT's are helpful to have around because so often paramedics get tunnel vision about all the advanced skills they do and can forget about the basic level skills that are able to suffice in 99% of the calls.

OH MY GOD, not this again, and before anyone says it,  can we stop beating this long dead diseased and rotted carcass of a horse.  

 

This mantra that EMT's save medics.  This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  I've saved just as many EMT's so nanny nanny boo boo.  

Edited April 21, 2016 by Ruffmeister Paramedic

[ghostmed3]

Sounds like an egotistical ass.Things like this are reason many folks have a bad impression of what a paramedic is. Way to help improve our profession....

On 10/4/2007 at 8:31 AM, Ruffmeister Paramedic said:

I warned everybody in a previous thread about my goin postal if I heard this stupid saying one more time.

 

Well I'm goin to the post office to get some of those lifetime stamps.

 

How's that for goin postal.

 

I was the one originally who asked Wynter (one of the posters on a different thread) just how she/he had saved her paramedic partner. It sounded like it happened on a regular basis. I threw down the gauntlet for anyone to post giving examples of how they saved their paramedic partner and I don't believe anyone took me up on that challenge.

 

So come on all you basics out there who believe this line of chicken coop crap. Just how have you saved your paramedic partner.

 

The only way you could have saved him/her are the following -

1. you used an AED on them when they went into cardiac arrest

2. you kept them from walking into traffic

3. you kept them from getting killed by a madman with a gun by throwing yourself in front of the bullets and effectively using your bullet proof vest as a shield.

4. You saved him from some other life threat that he/she was unaware of.

 

Those are really the only way an EMT or a medic partner could save their medic partner.

 

So come on, get off this bandwagon of "emt's save paramedics"

 

[Just Plain Ruff]

I hate that saying, I hate it, hate it hate it,  just like the saying  Diesel bolus.  and many others.  

I literally save my emt's life, yep, yep I did.  Ask me how we did it,  it's a fun story.  Scary as hell when it happened.  But I did.  He was sick, real sick with the shit's/pukes.  We started a bananna bag on him,  the minute the fluid went in him, he had an anaphylactic reaction to the dye in the bag.  He nearly coded, but I gave him 0.3 epi and some benadryl and thus saved his life.  

That's it, thats how I saved his life.  Not fancy, I didn't get a medal.  

But that's all I did.