Here’s Part 1: The Man Who Wouldn’t Die Now Part 2: So I’m just sitting around thinking I’ve been doing nothing but routine EMS calls — lots of elderly flu, dehydration, falls, psychiatric, TIA type calls with nothing much to write about despite being so busy when the tones go off and we are sent…
Month: January 2007
State of the Union
10 calls today starting with two minutes after the moment I laid my head down after checking my gear. I’m on my fourth different crew of the day and I admit I am getting cranky. The goal is to reach a zen-like state where you can do each call 100% with full attention and senses…
A Tale of Two Codes
The Chain of Survival After finishing my paperwork I come out of the ER and sit in the front seat of the ambulance. My partner, who is in the back putting linen away, says, “About five minutes ago they sent an ambulance up to Pilson Way for a call where they are doing CPR.” “We should…
Why Can’t They Fix it
The suburban town where I work three days a week abuts the northern border of the city. It begins with a lower middle class black neighborhood, small one story homes tightly packed together. As you head north the houses get gradually bigger. On the mountain that lines the north and west of the town are…
Regional Meetings
On the second Tuesday of every month, I spend four hours at our regional educational standards and medical advisory meetings. I am not a meeting guy, but we have a good group of people and we get things accomplished, although as with any group sometimes it seems we are always rearguing the same issues. In…
Musings
It’s been very busy lately(five days in a row) — nothing exceptional, just the meat and potatoes of EMS — vomiting, hip fractures, asthma, hypoglycemics, lift assists, seizures, TIAs, MVAs. *** Some of our syringes have retracting needles. After you use them, you hit a button and the needle zips back into the syringe. I…
Helpless
A week ago I responded to a fall, a little eighty-year-old lady with failing balance, tripped and fell on the bedroom carpet. She was laying on her right side and couldn’t get up, she said. Her right arm was at an odd angle, but when I repositioned her arm, she had full range of motion….
Baby Medic – EMS Blog
I ran into a medic yesterday who tipped me off to a new EMS blog being written by an EMT/medic student who works for us. I have just read all the entries — it is excellent. So far it is about his ride time as a medic student, but I am hoping he continues it…
Bare Wrist
90-year-old man, unresponsive. The medical dispatch updates us, unresponsive, aides not certain if he is breathing. As I walk across the dark lawn in the rain I see in the picture window two large police officers lifting an old man out of a wheelchair and starting to lower him toward the floor. “The aide says…
Change
This week we had a training session to introduce us to the new CPAP machines we are getting, as well as to review intubation and surgical crichs. It all set me thinking about the changes I have seen since I became an EMT in 1989 and a paramedic in 1993. (I’m sure people who have…