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Title:                  Paramedic
Name:                   Paul D. Holmes
Age:                    37
Date of Death:          December 28, 2009
Date of Funeral:        TBA
Cause of Death:         Ambulance Involved MVC

About the deceased’s EMS Agency:

Agency:                 Douglas County Fire Department
Agency City:            Douglasville
Agency State:           GA

Comments:

Paramedic Holmes was responding to a call on Saturday evening when the
collision occurred. He was transported to Atlanta for treatment where he
succumb to his injuries earlier today. Funeral and Memorial Fund
information is forthcoming and will be posted as a follow-up to this
notification once released.

URL:

http://www.celebratedouglascounty.com/view/news/view1news/&cnews=3D431

Posted in LODD, line-of-duty

Tagged

Comments Posted by medicTHREE on December 28, 2009

Colleague

colleague (plural colleagues)

Pronunciation: \ˈkä-(ˌ)lēg\

  1. A fellow member of a profession, staff, academic faculty or other organization; anassociate

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/colleague

The EMS definition of Colleague:

colleague (plural dumb asses)

  1. Another EMS provider who will hang you out to dry in an attempt to make themselves look better and feel smarter
  2. An EMS provider who is burnt out, unprofessional, and condescending to other EMS providers and patients.

Bet you can take a guess how I feel about some of mine…

Posted in ems-topics

Tagged

Comments Posted by medicTHREE on December 11, 2009

False Hope.

As EMS providers, we have a very limited scope of tools to help our patients. We are obligated to follow our protocols and treat was is evident from our assessment. This means your assessment is likely the most powerful tool you have in providing medical care. Ironically our most powerful tool, communication, is often completely forgotten by EMS providers.

The hardest part about our job is being honest with patients and their families. Often times we are present in end of life situations. These are difficult in controlled atmospheres–let alone the seemingly claustrophobic nature of EMS scenes. When a patient is dying we need to be honest with them and their loved ones. We need not be brutally honest, but most certainly we can not allow false hope.

False hope is a natural defense mechanism in the grieving process. Denial. Even as EMS providers we sometimes hold on to false hope in difficult calls to get by–but this is neither practical nor healthy in the end. Allowing and providing for false hope will create more shock when reality strikes. Death is a natural process–not always a pleasant process–but natural none the less.

As providers it is our duty to assist our patients and their families in understanding the reality of their situation. Does this mean saying “you’re going to die”? Not at all. But it does mean being clear that the patient is very ill, and you are doing all you can but 1) they need higher level of care 2) they may not make it to that higher level.

Does this make the process of dying easier? Absolutely not. For patients and their loved ones knowing their impending doom can be equally troubling. But it is still our duty to be truthful with our patients. Where I believe this honesty to provide an important relief to EMS is in the all to difficult cease or withholding of resuscitation talk we find ourselves in during these types of calls. Being honest with a patient and their family gives them more time, possibly only seconds, for reality to sink in.

When termination of resuscitation becomes part of the discussion, patients families are often unprepared. Giving them the truthful answers to questions about the reality of the condition of their loved ones will certainly help them to make the decisions to terminate care when necessary.

How do you handle these difficult moments in patient communication?

Posted in Coping, ems-topics, medic, patient-management

Tagged

Comments Posted by medicTHREE on December 11, 2009

Stuck in mud.

As you might have noticed I haven’t posted a great deal lately. Over the last few months I have tried to cut back on overtime since I felt like I was missing a huge chunk of my little guy’s life. The drawback is that created financial stress on my wife and I that added a whole different problem.

That being said, work just hasn’t been that exciting lately. I haven’t had a “good” call in weeks. Run of the mill, drunks, flunks and morons occupy most of my nights. The last 4 shifts have had a total of 5 calls for our crew, which is wayyyyy below the norm. Sometimes the break is nice, but it really leads to boredom. I’ve attempted to write several posts and I seem to get stuck about halfway through every time.

For one I feel like my head is clouded all the time. Do I have ADD? Maybe. Something really messes with my focus and has for years. I get stuck in a pattern that just repeats and repeats and repeats. Well…. I’m doing what I can to stop this cycle. First, my wife and I are starting back up on P90x. I plan to make a quick post about it everyday, but using the recent past of medicthree.com might make it easy to realize I will likely fail at this.

Second, my wife and I are going to talk with someone about our budget, and more importantly our debt. The combination of several horrible financial decisions, in combination with several piss poor decisions in college have left us in a heap of debt. Almost enough to buy a decent house.  We’ve decided we can not handle ignoring this any more and it is time to do something about it before we set this as an example for Asher. Admitting this to myself was hard. Admitting this to you all was next to impossible and in the even that I hit “publish” with this intact, don’t judge me too strongly…

The last year has been tough on Mrs. Medicthree and I. Our marriage is stronger than ever, but so many changes–my jobs, her job, having a son, moving, moving again, being broke, being really broke, and the list goes on–will take a toll on any relationship. Without her, I couldn’t have done any of this. I wouldn’t be able to do the job I do. Coming home to her and Asher is what makes my day. Work is just work. Coming home is my life and all I really care about. I know I don’t get to tell her this enough, but it really is.

If you follow me on twitter you might have seen that I went deer hunting in November. I got both my Buck and a Doe. My Whitetail buck was by far the best deer I’ve ever shot. At 7×7 it isn’t huge by whitetail standards, but considering he was shot smack in the middle of Mule Deer country makes it pretty impressive to me. I convinced the Mrs. to let me get it mounted(European style) and I’m damn excited about that.

Anyways, enough of my worthless ramblings. It is breakfast time here in the land of M3. Lets see if I can accomplish something worth posting about in the next few days.

Posted in Boredom, father, husband, medic

Comments Posted by medicTHREE on December 6, 2009