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today. Seriously. ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE.
I was woke up by my pager at about 0600, multiple victims assualted by a broom handle(and maybe a brick). Blood alcohol of .352, .308, and .251. Sounds more like a gun caliber than what a blood alcohol should be. Of course, no one wanted treatment. Of course, we treated them all.
I then got home, took off my boots, and the pager went off. Again. This time it was for a 84yo who fell at the nursing home, 3 hours prior. Easy Peasy.
After about a 2 hour nap I was again woke by the god awful sounds of the pager. This time it was to a 60yo male who passed out at the Casino. We get there, he looks just fine. No hx of syncopal episodes, minor cardiac hx. He has a BP of 105/63, pulse 58, and looks absolutely fine. Somehow though, my partner is convinced that these numbers are horrible.
Again, TREAT THE PATIENT, NOT THE MONITOR. Neither of those numbers is cause for alarm. Hell, if I had a BP of 105 I’d be extatic. Whatever. Finally I convince him that if they don’t want US to transport them that we have to honor that, and they go to the ED.
We went behind them, because my partner is still concerned that this guy is going to code. Being a small hospital, if that were to happen, we’d be called anyway. Whatever, the only thing I had going on was a sweet nap. We get there, I sit in the waiting room and watch some Discovery Channel, all while my partner gets all worked up cause now that the patient is relaxed his pulse is in the high forties. Guess what, patient is still fine–looks fine, feels fine, not really worried.
About 45 minutes later he finally decides that if they need us they will call us. He is convinced we will be transporting this guy to the heart hospital in Sorta Big Town. Guess what–2 hours later–no pager tones.
alkjdasf;lkajsdf;lkjasdf! Seriously. The only thing that frustrates me more than trying to talk a patient that doesn’t want(or need) us to transport them in our $800 taxi is someone who doesn’t even realize the patient doesn’t need us. Oh, and Versed is NOT an analgesic.
More to follow. 60 hours left of my 168 hours of paramedical glory.
This is a continuation of my previous post, No ALS Needed. I will likely stumble and rant myself into a corner, in which case EE or one of my classmates will come in and school me like the little girl that I am(only on the inside, as I am neither little, nor girly). Yes, I drive a Beetle, but that is a different discussion for a different day. See, I’m off topic already.
In our line of work we constantly battle a thousand different things so that we simply do our jobs. We have to wade through paperwork, protocol(well, sort of), supervisors, and all while covering our asses.
Yup. While I’m treating your grandmother who has Congestive Heart Failure, Diabetes, pneumonia, bronchitis, pink eye, and TB I am thinking of everything I can do to not end up getting sued, losing my job, losing my license, or all of the above. Thats the way it works these days. Ask your Doctor–they’ve got it worse yet. It isn’t good enough that my service has insurance to cover my ass–I’ve got to have my OWN insurance to cover my ass just in case my service’s insurance provider decides that I was acting against our “protocols” or as an individual not affiliated with my service(which, in a small county I could easily come to an accident prior to getting paged out. Should I pass it and get the ambulance, or stay and wait for my partner to bring the ambulance?). Sounds like fun, huh?
So, we’re supposed to be taking care of a patient, all while making sure we get the appropriate signatures, duplicate forms, copies of insurance cards, and documenting all events of the call, PLUS we get to cover our asses so we can make a measily 6 bucks an hour(not exactly) so that I can feed my wife, dogs, and my future child–but can I pay the rest of the bills? Sometimes. On this I am preaching to the choir as EMS in general is overworked, underpaid, and much abused.
We are the ugly red-headed-step-child of Public Service. Everyone thinks Law Enforcement Officers are macho, gung ho, and tough. Lots of people don’t like them, but everyone knows who they are and what they are supposed to do. Firefighters are all glory. In the campaigns I worked on, the most valuable thing we could do was to get firefighters to say they loved us. Who in the world can look at a firefighter and say they are full of shit(unless you actually know some… like all people, firefighters are capable of being full of shit)? Who ever thinks that a firefighter gets paid too much, or a LEO gets too much credit? But where does EMS–the Ambulance fall into this?
Well, for one, I am a Paramedic. I am not an Ambulance driver. Despite AD’s glorification of his title, I HATE it. I did spend a decent amount of time in school to get my certification. I then passed it all on the first try and work my ass off now to keep that title.
Number 2–LEO’s piss on us like it is there job. They make us take their drunks, and “psych” cases(read: patients that might think about saying they would kill themselves if you were to ask them over, and over, and over, and over–maybe if you left them alone you could just arrest them peacefully). I’m not saying all cops are bad. I need them to like me. But they need us every now and again too. God forbid I’m in a pinch I need them there. And God forbid, they are injured, they need us too. Give us some damn respect.
Firefighters look at us like we’re slow, fat, and don’t care(just because I didn’t RUN into the house, and didn’t instantly throw the patient to the ambulance so we could fly off with lights and sirens, does not mean we don’t care. It just means we’re going to not rush things and screw up–and rarely does a patient justify me risking life and limb to get them to the hospital 3 minutes faster). I might be fat, but I am not slow and I do care. End of discussion.
When it comes down to budgets, we are always the last to get noticed(I know, I work for a county, I shouldn’t complain–private services have it tougher). The fire departments in my county got a 4% increase for FY2009 budget. The ambulance, however, got an 11% decrease. Yup. Somehow we are supposed to do everything we do now for cheaper next year. They have also decided to NOT put money into the capital fund for a new ambulance that will likely be needed in 1-2 years to replace our 8 year old backup rig(or our brand new piece of crap).
So where do we fit in? I’m not looking for glory and fame. If I was I would have stayed in politics
kissing the asses of increadibly rich people all day long. I do this because I care, because I like helping people, and frankly I get a bit of a rush out of it. It also gives me a little bit of baggage, but that again is a different topic. I do this work because I WANT to. When there comes a time when I don’t want to go to work anymore, I will find a new line of work–Likely with the Golden Arches.
I guess the point of all of this is simple: Realize that the more we overcomplicate this crap, the less we are treating our patients. Rather than focusing on how much of our job sucks, focus on the good parts. Focus on the times where what you did actually did matter. Even if it was only a little. Focus on treating your PATIENTS, and if you are doing your job right, you won’t have to worry about covering your ass. You might still have to worry a bit about doing paperwork right–as it is, and will always be a pain in our collective health care ass.
And, if when you wake up in the morning and dread going to work–get a new job, Dumb Ass.
Rogue Medic‘s ranting “New Series of Rants follow up” inspired me a little. BS and bureaucracy did the rest.
In EMS–hell, in ALL of medicine–we are plagued by many diseases. No, I’m not talking about TB, HIV, Hep C. I’m talking about BS and Bureaucracy. I’m talking about what “The Book” says and what real life says. I’m talking about protocols, text books, insurance companies, and lawyers say. I am NOT talking about reality. I am talking about the world where we overcomplicate, over-treat, and under-assess our patients. I am talking about why our healthcare system sucks.
As a Paramedic the glory of my job is supposed to be trauma, blood, guts and gore. It is supposed to be that awesome “save”(we will discuss the diference between a “save” and actually living later), or that super cool gun shot/stabbing/ice pick in the eye with a case of DKA with SVT and a GCS of 4. But for me, it isn’t. The glory of my job is actually treating patients–any patient–and improving their condition.
Now, I am a little more(or much less) fortunate that many of my fellow EMS bloggers. I have no protocols. I am God. I am not a paragod. But I am the end all. If I decide that I want to cardiovert–I do it. I don’t have to call 3 doctors and beg for permission. I don’t have to justify it so I can convince someone. Lets face it. If you are calling to OLMC to ask to do something, you are going to give the signs that should convince them it is ok. You aren’t going to give them the signs you missed that contraindicate your treatment. Even worse–if you call OLMC and don’t have a clue what to do, the Doc is usually going to tell you to get your ass into the ED and don’t kill them. Thats it.
So… We’ve established that I can do whatever I want. This is likely bad. I don’t even have a protocol book to follow for those wierd cases. I have ACLS, AMLS, PHTLS, PALS, PEPP, NRP, and the good ‘ol NREMT for my guidance. Don’t mind that damn near every one of them has a different standard. Look it up: How much blood can be lost in a closed femur fracture? When do we apply tourniquets? The list of discrepencies goes on, and on, and on, and on… So, While I don’t have to beg for permission to do something, I have to decide which set of standards and guidelines I’m going to use. Yippee!
Like the rest of my fellow EMS/Medical bloggers, I am plagued with the other thorns in my ass that they are. I have to make sure every word on my chart is perfect and that I make sure it is CLEAR that it was an emergency–all so that Medicare can underpay my service anyways. I have to get 3 signatures for a PRS. Many places even have a fancy Refusal Flow Chart. As a matter of fact, not only does the patient sign their life away, but I have to sign my life away twice to allow a patient to refuse care. Seriously.
So, we have to sort through a lot of BULL to do our jobs. I have to make sure the patient WANTS our help, I then have to assess the patient and determine how the patient NEEDS our help, and then have to determine WHICH treatment is appropriate. Like a responsible Medic, I start with the obvious. I do a BLS assessment—Airway, Breathing, Circulation. If they don’t have an airway, I give them one(and I’d just assume shove an oral airway or combitube in rather than an ET Tube–do you have any idea how much extra cleaning and paperwork I have to do if I use the ET Kit?!?!?). If they ain’t breathing, I breathe for them(honestly, I usually make a firefighter do it. I AM a MEDIC(all kidding asside, usually a FF is the one doing the bagging… and the compressions)). And if they have no circulation, I thump on their chest(or, as stated before, have a FF do it). If they are bleeding out, I stop it.
Where in those very basic things did it say: Start an IV, Run a 12 lead, intubate, blah, blah blah? An EMT-B can do every one of those things, and that is what every damn medic should be doing. There are plenty of cases where ALS skills are great–but rarely do we save someone in the field with ALS skills that couldn’t have been saved in the hospital with ALS skills.
Sure. Cardiac Arrests. We can push drugs that EMT-B’s can’t. Honestly, I don’t know why. Why is it that a EMT-B can’t flush some EPI down a combitube for someone in Asystole or VF? Why? What are they going to do? Kill them? I think not.
There are times where us giving drugs earlier can HELP the outcome of a patient. Early Nitro, Narcan, glucose for someone with low BS, etc, etc, etc. But MOST of what we do is BLS. I should rephrase that–Most of what we SHOULD do is BLS.
If we were doing BLS most of the time, I bet we could reduce the number of other BS factors that fall into line with our jobs. Speaking of which… I have to write a chart. More to follow tonight or tomorrow morning!
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Well, as I have made very much apparent–I live in a small town. We have:
- 1 Grocery Store
- 2 Sub shops–1 is a gas station
- 2 pizza shops–1 is the same gas station as above
- 1 Casino–Tribal and all
- 2 restaurants–1 is at the Casino Above
- 4 Gas stations–1 same as 1 sub shop and 1 pizza shop
- 4 bars–all next door to each other
- 1 bed in our ER
- 87 beds in our Nursing home
- 16 beds in our “hospital”
- 3 doctors
- 9 nurses(TOTAL)
- 3 paramedics
- 2 ambulances–1 staffed 24/7, 1 backup(OH SHIT, we have two calls at once?!?!)
- 4 Churches
So, as you can see there isn’t a LOT here. Mostly, I do transfers from itty bitty hospital to Pretty Big deal hospital. Usually between 0800-1700, Monday through Friday. Sometimes, we actually get 911 calls.
Today was one of them. I got a CVA at the CASINO(note, because this is a small town, your 911 calls are either at a home, or at one of the very few above locations).
What I found so interesting was when I came in through the front door of the Casino(it is a rather large casino for a county of 6,000 people). I asked security where to go and they directed me straight through the casino floor, past slots, blackjack, poker, and more slots. In most situations, people gawk at us the whole way. People gather. They stop and watch. NOT at Casinos. No one seemed to even notice us.
That is until I let go of the stretcher(I was in back) and it bumped a chair occupied by a little old 80ish year old gray haired grandma. What is it that you think she said?
“What the F*#@ is your problem?!?!” she states boldly. I just look at her. “F*&%ing @ssh*le!” she yells as I walk away.
I couldn’t even type those words out–not after hearing someone who looked like my grandmother–but grayer hair and shorter–get so PO’d about me lightly bumping her chair…
Apparently this is common. About a month before I started they were working a code on the Floor of the casino and had the first in bag on a chair next to the scene. A casino patron was infuriated that they would take his friends seat–he did NOT seem to be concerned that someone was dead 4 feet away and 2 medics and 5 fire fighters were taking their turn pounding on his chest and shocking him with a couple hundred joules.
Whatever.
The recent outbreak of stupid google.com referals to my site have led me to this Dilbert Cartoon:
RIP Dave Freeman. Dave Freeman, Author of “100 Things to Do Before You Die” passed away Aug 17th after a fall at his home. He was 47. Scott Adams(Of Dilbert fame) let me know about it. See Scott seems fascinated by celebrities who are struck by some sort of disease/untimely death:
As most of you know, I draw a comic featuring a guy who inexplicably has no mouth, who lives with a cartoon dog that inexplicably has no mouth. And I end up with Spasmodic Dysphonia, a condition that prevents me from speaking.
Today in the news, the author of the book “100 Things to Do Before You Die” died at the age of 47 after hitting his head at home. That probably wasn’t on the list
I guess there is some irony there, and in the rest of his post.
It always makes you wonder about the things we see doctors doing… usually right after treating a patient who was doing something similar… Ie riding a motorcycle without a helmet, or speeding on the freeway, or running a red light. How many of us in health care end up dying from something we treated–and thought was stupid?
Anyways… hope ya like the new Theme. Not sure who I feel about it yet.
Today I applied for the Healthcare Blogger Code of Ethics. It represents everything we as healthcare bloggers should be doing. Here it is:
- Clear representation of perspective – readers must understand the training and overall perspective of the author of a blog. Certainly bloggers can have opinions on subjects outside of their training, and these opinions may be true, but readers must have a place to look on a blog to get an idea of where this author is coming from. This also encompasses the idea of the distinction between advertisement and content. This does not preclude anonymous blogging, but it asks that even anonymous bloggers share the professional perspective from which they are blogging.
- Confidentiality – Bloggers must respect the nature of the relationship between patient and medical professionals and the clear need for confidentiality. All discussions of patients must be done in a way in which patients’ identity cannot be inferred. A patient’s name can only be revealed in a way that is in keeping with the laws that govern that practice (HIPPA, Informed Consent).
- Commercial Disclosure – the presence or absence of commercial ties of the author must be made clear for the readers. If the author is using their blog to pitch a product, it must be clear that they are doing that. Any ties to device manufacturer and/or pharmaceutical company ties must be clearly stated.
- Reliability of Information – citing sources when appropriate and changing inaccuracies when they are pointed out
- Courtesy – Bloggers should not engage in personal attacks, nor should they allow their commenters to do so. Debate and discussion of ideas is one of the major purposes of blogging. While the ideas people hold should be criticized and even confronted, the overall purpose is a discussion of ideas, not those who hold ideas.
Sorry… I ate half of it before I took the pic…. Best part about it is that pan–as bad as it looks, pretty much wipes clean.
So I do the cooking around our house… Partly because I love to cook, and partly because my wife HATES to cook. It doesn’t bother me one bit. I make lots of “new” things, and rarely follow recipes–which only has one downside–duplicating is next to impossible.
I’ve made things that were awesome, and some things that were just…. ew… Tonight though, I made the BEST pot roast EVER. It all started today at 1030. I melted butter with olive oil in my pot. Then cranked the heat up and let it start to sizzle, then braised my roast(I should note, the best ingredients are free–and by free I mean come straight from your parents freezer…) on all sides until a nice golden brown was formed.
When the braising was done I turned down the heat, added about 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce. Lea & Perrins is the only acceptable Worcestershire sauce. Do not substitute!
I then added 3 cups of water, some garlic powder, salt, and 2 Tbsp of Steak Sauce–the brand of this does NOT matter…
Set Oven to 275 degrees, put lid on pot, and place in oven. After 5 hours I added some carrots, and a pinch of minced garlic. 2 hours later, I served it with Mashed Tators and all was well…
It definitely meets this medics standards!
Actually, all was heavenly. Seriously. I don’t brag about my food much to my wife, but I HAD to inform her that she is damn lucky to have married me!
Now we must prepare for 7 days of glory and fun!
I got to:
1. Hear baby’s heartbeat again-plus
2. Shop for maternity clothes-draw
3. Watch my wife get a haircut-draw…ish
4. Get free dinner out of my parents-plus!!
Sent from my BlackBerry 8330
Not sure? Check HERE.
No Really… The Happy Hospitalist pointed me towards THIS.
Seriously… That isn’t even funny. The whole story is hillarious though. This is the making of a UK style Trailer Park. Not only does she recieve government aid, but it cost the Government/Hospital £200,000.
The Mirror columnist Sue Carroll has a great point though.…
But one question remains. If it takes this amount of technology to get the babies out of Leanne, how on earth did they ever get in?
She insists her size has never affected her sex life. Hmm.
I think I’d need a diagram to understand this. Drawn up, preferably, by someone with a degree in engineering.
And people wonder why we have special trucks now that can handle “Bariatric” Patients. We now have stretchers that handle 800 lbs, special ramps, and a new set of Trucks that can handle the extra weight. And people wonder why health care costs so much more–you do realize an ambulance can EASILY run 90,000 bucks, right? And now we have to have special trucks for people who can’t manage to stay under 500 lbs…
Below you’ll see a comparison of normal stretchers to the Bariatric setups.
All I have to say… Blood Glucose of 863.
Just testing out Blogger Mobile from my new BlackBerry Curve 8330! Good deals are always OK!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Two Georgia men claim to have found Bigfoot in the northern woods of the state. They say they have a body, photos of the body, and DNA evidence which will be revealed this Friday, Aug. 15, at a news conference in Palo Alto, Calif. DNA evidence? Wait a minute, there is no comparison specimen, so there is no DNA analysis that can definitively identify Bigfoot tissue.
Right up there with the Tooth Fairy, Santa and the Easter Bunny — the giant man/ape known as Bigfoot has been reported sighted but never proven to exist. Until now, possibly.
If they didn’t find bigfoot, I hope they can atleast find the Easter Bunny. That little bastard owes me some Cadburry Eggs.
It has to be wrong…
Some jokes I’ve had passed along over the last year:
Jim and Edna are patients at a mental health institution. One day, they are walking by the pool when Jim jumps in the deep end, sinks straight to the bottom and just sits there. Edna jumps in after him, pulls him out and takes him to his room. Upon hearing the heroics of Edna, the administrator decides that she is well enough to be released. She goes to Edna’s room and says, “Edna, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that your heroic act shows me that you are well enough to be released! The bad news is that Jim, the patient you saved, hung himself with the belt from his robe.” To which Edna replies, “Oh, he didn’t hang himself, I put him there to dry!”
Ems Miranda
You have the right to be spinal immobilized, despite the fact that you were only hit at the speed equivalent to that of a sloth on Valium.
If you give up this right to abuse the system, any attempt to fake neck pain later on can and will be used against you in the course of me starting multiple, painful, large-bore IVs.
You have the right to distract the ER physician from treating any real patients and to have an attorney present, which is why the ER staff will do needless tests and procedures to begin with, just so they can cover their own butts.
If you cannot afford a new car, a new car will be won for you by your unethical, ambulance-chasing, low-life, blood-sucking lawyer—by tying up the judicial system for years in the hopes that the poor bastard who tapped your back bumper will settle out of court, at no cost to you.
If you understand these rights as read to you, please nod your head violently up and down.
The light bulb:
Q: How many paramedics does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: 1, He holds the light bulb and the world revolves around him.
But my patients seem to be.
Today I was sitting in the office, doing some busy work when I hear the 911 line ring. It has a ringer that sounds like sirens… Usually this isn’t a problem. Most calls are not for us. Then, as I go back to my business a Deputy runs past my door. I get the chance to utter out “what the hell” and he just shouts “ROLLOVER”.
I stand up and my pager and radio both shout out tones. “Signal 1 on northbound interstate at other small town exit.”
Crap. Why me? Today I’m on with one of our “volunteers”. They are paid on call EMT-B’s that fill in for us 3 fulltimers. My volunteer today is a former career firefighter, and a damn good EMT. So that comforts my uneasy stomach a bit.
I hurry to the rig, pull it out and wait for my partner. 2 minutes later we are enroute and headed lights and sirens to the scene nearly 15 miles away. I hear some radio chatter, the local FD has arrived, the deputy, HP, and now the tow truck–all beat us there. When we are about a mile out the FD Chief gets on the horn to let us know we can tone it down–which really just means I turned off lights and sirens and continued at the same pace.
Upon arrival I cross the median, and pull in. We see a Chrysler Pacifica on its’ side, having obviously rolled atleast once. I start to grab the trauma pack and First In bag and a FF yells “save your back, you won’t need that”. So, with my cot in tow we walk up to the rescue rig and see our patients. 1 30ish woman and a 5yo girl in her lap. The mother has blood on her body, but no bleeding. FD has her left arm wrapped in gauze, apparently several small lacs there. The litter girl is not crying–nor does she appear to have been crying… AT ALL. She has a smile on her face. I poke, prod, and try to assess her and there is apparently not a thing wrong with her. Mom is a bit shook up, but complains of no pain other than the obvious source of the blood on her clothes. She denies head injury, neck pain, responds great, etc.
Apparently she and little girl were up walking when rescue got there. Still, I attempt to persuade my somehow intact patients to get on backboards. Mom refuses. She actually states little girl needs no care from us–we end up PRSing the 5 yo and I’m barely able to convince mom she should take a ride with us to the ED.
So, we take a little trip. Vitals good. Nothing else found in assessment. Drop her off, still in disbelief at how they managed to walk away from this–a 75+ mph rollover that missed two other vehicles by about 2 feet–and they have one injury to complain of between them, and mom didn’t want to even go to the ED.
So, about 1.5 hrs later I’m back to itty bitty ED with a Chest Pain and low and behold Mommy and little girl have been discharged.
Are you serious? Not a single problem? She didn’t even get stitches.
Please, please, PLEASE do NOT say the “Q” word. I’m on the train again till 0600 next Friday and I’m hoping for a calm shift. You can pretty much say any word you want. Just not the “Q” word. The last time I heard it dispatch didn’t let me take a break to pee for 11 hours.
So, here is the list of tolerable words:
calm, demure, dormant, dumbstruck, gentle, halcyon, hushed, inaudible, inconspicuous, inoffensive, introspective, low-key, low-profile, meek, modest, motionless, mute, noiseless, pacific, passive, pensive, placid, quiescent, reflective, reposeful, reserved, reticent, retired, retiring, secluded, sedate, sequestered, serene, silent, stagnant, staid, still, subdued, taciturn, tranquil, unassuming, uncommunicative, undemonstrative, undisturbed, unfrequented, unmolested, unmoved, unobtrusive, unruffled
Ok… So maybe a few them might need some reconsideration… but my Thesaurus spat them out, so that is what you get!
So, every day or two I check my sitemeter referrals… I don’t know why. I just do. Well, today got one that I couldn’t help but comment on:
“the national registry test is stupid”
What makes me feel better though… is that I was the first result in that question.
I’ve seen a few things come through google.com that I was confused by… but this one… Seriously guys, if you are going to Google a statement, please use punctuation and capitalization.
I am looking for some things to help guide me as I try to make some changes towards the 21st century for my service. I’d like examples so I can present them, adjust them, tweak them, and make them better.
Some things I’d really like to see that my fellow EMS folks might have:
Daily Check lists
Stocking check lists
PROTOCOLS–WE HAVE NONE… And I’m trying, but I’d like to be able to “sample” some others to get some of what we need.
Tips on writing reports
Ambulance stock lists
Drug count forms
And anything else that you can think of!
Thanks for your help in advance! You can send these items via email to dailydoa.blogspot.com@gmail.com
For most paramedics is rather steep. You get thrown in to medic school with some basic knowledge and are rapidly climbing through pages of Human physiology, anatomy, then pharmacology, cardiology, and the dreaded medical. The odd part about paramedic school as opposed to a traditional 4 year degree is that we don’t learn a “lot” about much.
We learn a little bit about a ton of things. We learn just enough physiology to help us understand pharmacology and medical. We learn just enough about cardiology to do the few things that we do.
The one thing that really lacks in paramedic school–and only because it is the hardest skill–is patient interaction. Interacting with your classmates as patients is NOT anything like interacting with real patients. This I will say is the one place where I am truly envious of my classmates who have experience as EMT-B’s, techs, etc. Most of them far surpass my abilities to interact with patients, though, gladly I can say I have little problems NOW.
Two weeks ago is an entirely different story. I fumbled, messed up words, got nervous and generally made an ass out of myself. Today I feel comfortable. I am respected by my peers, and the hospital actually calls on US for help.(Last week they had a chest pain come in to itty bitty ED at 2300–1 nurse, 1 tech, no doc… they freaked. We came, we conquered, we moved on).
One thing I didn’t expect to have to learn how to do though…. was how to be a PUBLIC figure. Very public. I made the front page of the local paper this week. Picture, story and all. Mind you this is below the fold… but still… FRONT PAGE. I went to the gas station next door today for a soda and 5(FIVE) people greeted me by name. I don’t know them. I’ve never met them. But their on the table in the “dining” area was the paper, opened flat, with my ugly mug shining for everyone to see.
Seriously?!?! I am NOT news. None-the-less I have found myself a public servant, in a very public way.
Oh the things I get myself in to….
I’ve got some bad news for you. A continuation of my not-so-weekly addition to the blog. You’ll notice the good news a little lacking this week. The bad news was actually cut short–I got sick of going through it after about an hour… So… here you have it. EE and her cronies can back off now!
Good News:
Ambulance whittles the gap between need and aid
EMTS receive award for work during the Crandall Canyon disaster
West Point cadets’ proving ground: A day with FDNY
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS APPROVES TORRICO BILL TO CREATE EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN REGISTRY
Pending further review/news we will call this Good news. BG checks, etc are great. How much crap is going to get in the way will determine the real outcome.
Medics Cut Off Trapped Man’s Arm
Bet ya didn’t see that one coming… Whenever we can do what is right–regardless of protocol–and not get destroyed for it, then it is damn good news.
Bad News:
Fatal Crash 3rd in 3 months for Volunteer Pilots
As good as the news could get here…
Make excuses as we may, the public will never understand. Answer and move on.
Moving 911 into Age of Texting
Some may love this Idea. I however think it is stupid, and therefore means BAD NEWS.
Newark EMS Answers Calls, and Questions
This one looks like it will be on the bad news roll for a while…
3 Southern California Hospitals Accused of Fraud
Yeah, um… I’m not gonna go there…
Great Falls man dies after crash with EMS – South Carolina
EMS Struggles Under Burden of Fuel Prices, Budget Woes
Every time we talk about money and healthcare, we lose.
Fulton 911 Operator Slept On The Job, According To File
Hearing for EMT who recently filed whistle-blower suit ends abruptly
More child pornography charges for Lubbock paramedic
EMS lieutenant: Stripper says mayor’s wife beat her
Bradford EMS Director Arrested
Mars ambulance service vanishes, leaving questions unanswered
This one is almost funny… But alas, no good.
Pickup, ambulance collide at Viewpoint/89A intersection
Amulance crashes do not make good news. No matter whose fault it is…
Not so good, not so bad, mostly just sad:
Infant’s Mauling Troubled Medics
So I return from the abyss that is “no posts in forever” land. The last week has been very interesting and I expect to have Good News/Bad News back up later today.
In the last week I have had:
1 femur fracture–ALS intercept–not imobilized. Imagine the screams…
1 OD. Insulin, Morhpine, and ETOH. GCS of 7–and get this–appropriate responses to all questions. Do the math there…
2 Half-assed suicide attempts. 8 benedryl does not make a suicide attempt. It makes for a long nap.
2 assaults–both by family members.
1 car accident–The whole family made it to the scene before we did.
5 transfers–a AAA, two AMIs, and some “sick” people.
Yup. That was my week. How about you!?
I know, I’m not good about weekly. Expect an update about my week and the Good News/Bad news on Sunday or Monday. I’ve got lots of good stories too!
PS, I’d like to thank all of my patients for NOT dying this week. Despite their best efforts, they are still here today.
