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Author: medicscribe

Killer Angels

Posted on April 30, 2022April 30, 2022 by medicscribe

One of my lifelong heroes is Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.  He was the Maine school teacher who volunteered to fight in the Civil War and found himself leading the 20th Maine on Little Round Top, a rocky hill at the end of the Union line at Gettysburg.  After repulsing several attacks, his battle weary men were…

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An EMT

Posted on April 22, 2022April 22, 2022 by medicscribe

A number of winters ago, I responded for the “welfare check” in a local apartment building.  Carrying my gear I trudged through the snow to the door where the super met us and we walked through the bare lobby. He told us “his hands and feet are all blue.” By the way he said it,…

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Paramedic! Paramedic!

Posted on April 16, 2022April 16, 2022 by medicscribe

When I first started in EMS I was almost always the first on scene because our local fire department only responded to jaws of life calls and the PD usually only responded to reports of violence assaults. I loved getting their first.  The scene was pristine.  Sure I had a dispatch subject, but from early on…

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Manifesto

Posted on April 14, 2022April 16, 2022 by medicscribe

According to the latest data from the Connecticut Medical Examiner’s office, 2021 opioid deaths rose 11% over 2020, marking the third year in a row of increases.  Opioid deaths have increased in 8 of the last 9 years in the state.  Fentanyl deaths have increased every year, with Fentanyl deaths representing 93% of all opioid…

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TV Interviews

Posted on March 25, 2022March 25, 2022 by medicscribe

I have been interviewed quite a bit over the last year both as a result of my book, Killing Season: A Paramedic’s Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic, and my role as part of the state’s overdose surveillance system.  There have been times when I thought I was truly eloquent, but when…

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Mortal Men

Posted on March 7, 2022March 7, 2022 by medicscribe

Below is an excerpt from my novel, Mortal Men: Paramedics on the Streets of Hartford, that came out in 2012, and is still available on Kindle. In the book, while the main characters had fictional names, I used the names of real people who worked the streets as extras. I did it because I wanted…

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What Do You Do With the Drugs?

Posted on March 6, 2022March 6, 2022 by medicscribe

You are on scene of an overdose.  You have just resuscitated a man who was apneic and now admits to snorting heroin he was given by a friend.  He just got out of jail and hadn’t used for over two years.  You explain both the danger of the fentanyl that is on the street in…

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Lasting Gift

Posted on March 3, 2022March 3, 2022 by medicscribe

Someone you care about is graduating from paramedic school.  What is the best gift you buy them? Only two choices in this exercise.  1. A high quality stethoscope with their name etched on it.  2.  A good pair of boots. When I graduated from paramedic school, I bought myself a Littmann cardiology 2.  It was…

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A Review

Posted on February 20, 2022February 20, 2022 by medicscribe

When my book Killing Season came out, Amazon chose it as one of the best nonfiction books of April 2021.  The book was also profiled on CSPAN books and I was interviewed by major networks including the BBC and ABC.  I was hoping for a review in the New York Times Book Review, but no…

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Soul Jumper

Posted on February 13, 2022February 13, 2022 by medicscribe

I want to make it to 72.  I want to be a 72-year old paramedic.  I would like to live much longer of course.  84 sounds good.  Or older would be even better as long (as I am reasonably healthy), but I want to be working as a paramedic at 72, even if I am…

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Fentanyl-Contaminated Marijuana?

Posted on February 11, 2022February 11, 2022 by medicscribe

From July to November 2021, the Connecticut Poison Control Center (CPCC) received 39 reports from emergency medical service (EMS) responders of overdose patients with opioid toxidrome syndrome (depressed consciousness, apnea or agonal breathing and pinpoint pupils) who EMS resuscitated with naloxone, but who afterwards stated they only used marijuana and denied opioid use. Three of…

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Hartford Incident

Posted on January 29, 2022January 29, 2022 by medicscribe

As many are aware, recently in Hartford there was a tragic fentanyl overdose at a Hartford middle/secondary school that resulted in the death of a 13-year old and two other 13-year-olds being transported to the hospital after being “exposed” to fentanyl (Police: Teen who overdosed on fentanyl at Hartford school has died).  The news reports…

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Naloxone in Schools

Posted on January 23, 2022January 23, 2022 by medicscribe

Several years ago I sat in a meeting of an overdose committee and listened to a woman argue that we should have naloxone in all the middle schools.  I am a data person and I pointed out that middle schools are not where people are overdosing.  If you only have a limited amount of resources,…

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Two Red Lines

Posted on January 22, 2022January 22, 2022 by medicscribe

They say the omicron wave is past its peak here in Connecticut.  The infection rate is declining as are dailey cases.  Even wastewater measurements seem to say the wave is receding. While we didn’t have the deaths we saw with the first wave (thank you vaccines), our hospital had record numbers of admitted hospitalized patients…

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13

Posted on January 17, 2022January 17, 2022 by medicscribe

This past week in Hartford, a 13-year old boy brought some bags of fentanyl to school.  He later collapsed and received CPR from a school teacher.  EMS arrived and resuscitated the child, who died two days later in the hospital.  Bags of fentanyl were recovered from the scene and the boy tested positive for fentanyl. …

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COVID Non-Transport Protocol

Posted on January 9, 2022January 9, 2022 by medicscribe

The patient has a fever, headache and cough.  He can’t smell anything and he can’t taste his food.  He feels too short of breath to even get out of his chair. He sits there with his hand over his eyes as if not seeing might make how sick he feels go away. His sister says…

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Recerts

Posted on January 8, 2022January 8, 2022 by medicscribe

I’m recerting PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support), ACLS (Advanced Life Support) and CPR today in one all-day session. After this, I’ll be good for another two years. If you are in EMS, you can measure your career by how many American Heart Association recerts you have taken.  For me this is the 15th time for…

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Omicron Thoughts

Posted on January 4, 2022January 4, 2022 by medicscribe

Our ED has seen record volumes of patients in recent weeks, many with COVID.  Most of these COVID positive patients recently tested positive, and not feeling well with minor shortness of breath fever or body aches, come to the ED where they are evaluated and sent home.  Our in hospital COVID admissions are only 50%…

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Change is Gonna Come?

Posted on January 3, 2022January 6, 2022 by medicscribe

Overdose on the avenue — a woman in a tattered hoodie and black winter coat lays on the sidewalk next to a streetlight, with bystanders surrounding her.  The woman, who looks to be in her forties, was talking to them and then she slowly collapsed against the pole and then to the ground.  If I…

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Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2021December 25, 2021 by medicscribe

These are two old Christmas posts I wrote years ago, reposted now. ***Fifteen on the Scale It’s Christmas eve. We get called to one of the local nursing homes for rib pain. The room number sounds familiar. As we wheel our stretcher through the lobby, “Good King Wencelous” plays through the speakers. Gently shone the…

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