Sponge Bob, Elmo and the Devil’s Son hanging out at recess. Found these three bags of fentanyl in the school yard on Williams Street in Hartford. Come on, dealers! If you are going to sell Fentanyl on the city streets, sell Tombstone, Stairway to Heaven, Scorpion, King of Death, or Stranger Danger, but please not…
I have had two pairs of boots that have lasted me many years in this business. They are both Danner Fort Lewis’s. Great boots that I have had resoled. Lately, my feet have been bothering me. If I wear too thick socks, the friction leaves my feet inflamed. Sometimes a day or so after a…
Fatal overdoses have been dropping precipitously both in Connecticut and nationwide. While Connecticut, after a steady decline in the latter half of 2024, did see a steady rise in overdoses earlier this year culminating in a peak in June, the overdoses have since resumed their downward plummet. According to CDC data, fatal overdoses were down…
A hearing was held at the state Capitol yesterday to focus on ending stigma. Senator Saud Anwar and John Lally who put the meeting together are true forces for change. Listen to the stories of those who lost ones. https://ct-n.com/ctnplayer.asp?odID=25603
Code 3, starring Rainn Wilson (Dwight of the Office) is a great EMS movie. It is an action comedy that packs an emotional punch and while at times exaggerating, still hits the bullseye when it comes to the truth of the job. It is not a dumb slapstick movie that makes EMS look like a bunch…
This is a powerful video, depicting the effects of stigma in the emergency health care system.
Check out this interview on the MCHD Podcast where I discuss the opioid epidemic with ED MD Casey Patrick. Thanks to Dr. Patrick for the interview and thoughtful conversation about EMS and the opioid epidemic. Highly recommend following his EMS podcast.
Great news out of Kentucky! The medics who administered antivenom to a man bitten by a deadly mamba snake will not face discipline for their actions. Antivenom is not an approved medication for paramedics to administer. The medics found themselves in the situation where a snake expert was bitten by a deadly snake. The man…
The CDC just released a priorities statement critical of harm reduction and safe consumption sites. It includes this passage: CDC grants will prioritize evidence-based programs and deprioritize programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called “harm reduction” or “safe consumption” efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm. This statement is…
You are dispatched to the zoo for a snake bite. There you find the reptile keeper in extremis. He says he has been bitten by a deadly mamba snake and if he is not soon administered the antivenom, he will die. You don’t carry antivenom in your med box, but there is antivenom there at…
Titrate Naloxone to effect. The effect is restoration of breathing. Not return to consciousness. Too much naloxone can cause a person dependent on opioids to suffer withdrawal symptoms. A person put in sudden withdrawal can suffer from horrible pain, nausea, vomiting, tremors, rapid heart rate, excessive sweating and other unpleasant symptoms. A person put in…
“Endotracheal Intubation is the insertion of a tube in the trachea. Tracheal intubation is the definitive method of airway management. Endotracheal intubation allows the greatest control of the airway. It is a skill that requires extensive training and is subject to degradation if not practiced appropriately.” Advanced Airway Management, Charles Stewart MD, FACEP, Prentice Hall…
I recerted the American Heart Association’s PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) today for the 18th time. Last week I recerted ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) for the same. For those not in health care, everyone in EMS and most everyone in emergency departments and likely in other areas of the hospital have to take these…
People don’t read books much anymore. I don’t read books much anymore. I used to read all the time. When I wasn’t reading I was hunting through used book stores to find more books to read. The walls of my room were lined with bookshelves, many double layered. Now most of my books are in…
Filter magazine has a great article “Overdoses Should Be Termed “Prohibition-Related Deaths” that argues that our overdose deaths are caused by the prohibition environment that makes drugs more dangerous than they should be and drives drug users into the shadows where they use in places where they are unlikely to be found if they overdose….
Many years ago… A police officer sits next to me on the bench seat and interrogates my patient as we ride lights and sirens to the hospital. He has second and third degree burns on his chest and right arm. I put in an IV and start running fluid. The man needs pain medicine. The…
Last night I attended an Overdose Awareness Day event hosted by Today I Matter, an organization founded by a father in memory of his son, Timothy Lally. Today I Matter’s mission is “to reduce the stigma and shame of mental illness and addiction, and to promote the physical, emotional, and mental health of our community.”…
With the release of Netflix’s new Documentary Come Hell or Highwater, 20 years after Hurricane Katrina, I thought I would revisit my experiences responding to the aftermath of the hurricane in Gulfport, Mississippi. Most of the news always centers on the devastation in New Orleans, but the coast to the east of the city was…
I worked a 12-hour shift last week and was busy. I have to think a bit to remember what I did — nothing that required going to the hospital lights and sirens. Two hot humid day triggered asthmas who got breathing treatments and solumedrol. An abd pain in a patient with dementia who felt better…