ballistics vests for EMS providers?

[p3medic]

I just wet myself

[Dustdevil]

"Fucktard" shall be the rallying cry for free speech! God bless the DustDevil and God Bless America.

LMAO!

I wonder if I could get away with making that my new signature line?

[brentoli]

Dust, I flagged your post. I think we need admin to give you a prompt reply.

[EMT City Administrator]

Umm.. no.

LMAO!

I wonder if I could get away with making that my new signature line?

[AnthonyM83]

My agency just a got a few dozen of them, I believe through a grant (seems like you can get all sorts of things in the name of homeland security nowadays). But only supervisor units carry them and they're to distribute them while staging for GSWs....which is freaking stupid, as 1) they're bright blue (aka great target) though they do say EMS (which a bad guy would probably mistake as an acronym for SWAT or ERT/HRT 2) By the time the supervisor gets there we've usually already been cleared to enter the scene 3) They have the bulky covering.

I think the main purpose, though, is in case of civil unrest (they have extras to hand out to most on-duty crews in the certain areas).

[brentoli]

Wow

Anthony, that is incredibly stupid.

I don't have a vest, but it is something I am considering a purchase on, for reasons other than EMS also.

But I definately wouldnt keep it in my trunk.

[SSG G-man]

I can not imagine my system ever getting them, but it would not be a bad idea. What has injured more EMS workers? Gunshots/stab/etc or WMD? But we have several glow worm suits in the back of our unit. Can not say we have had very much training with them. We have a county hazmat team which has EMT-Bs and EMT-Ps, so let them do the the dirty work.

Just mu $.02!!

[p3medic]

Our system purchases them for all field members, and replaces them when need be.

[Redcell19512]

We also received grant money to purchase vests. Sadly the vests that were purchased are less than ideal.

It's an over the clothing style vest with a plastic/nylon zipper running right up the center. The two front panels overlap less than an inch when the vest is closed. The kevlar panels are permanently sewn into the carrier. So if you get blood or vomit on the vest you can't wash it. If the vest gets wet it's also tough to make sure the kevlar dries out fully. The vests are cut too long. Management felt that this was a good thing. The longer vest covers more of your body. True. But the vest extends below your belt line meaning that you can not bend at the waste while wearing the vest, unless you open the front of the vest. You can't sit in the ambulance with the vest on because it rides up and chokes you. You also can't carry anything on your belt, like a radio. I thought it would be a good idea to have a radio pocket sewn onto the vest but there was concern that we'd look like a "SWAT" team.

Oh, no one knows what threat level they purchased either. All they know is that it's made of kevlar. While I'm happy that my company cares enough to supply us with body armor i wish some research had been done before hand. No one wears these vests because you can not function in them.

On a side note, one of our vests was stolen from an unlocked side compartment on our ambulance. We think the theft occurred at the hospital but we're not sure. We are in PA. The vest turned up in a raid in Georgia about 9 months later.

[Richard B the EMT]

I was under the impression that the vests are supposed to be delivered with an instruction book on the care and feeding...oops, the care and maintenance of said item. This information includes washing instructions, how to put the vest on, storage of the vest, and definitely the threat protection level the vest is supposed to supply.

If there's a name of a manufacturer on the vest, and more importantly a model/serial number, contact the manufacturer and request a copy of the vest's ops guide. You can probably Google it.