I was honored to be asked to write an essay that was included in the new anthology –Voices from the Front Line: The Pandemic and the Humanities edited by by Katherine Ratzan Peeler and Richard M. Ratzan and published the University of California Health Humanities Press. Here is the description of the book from Amazon: What are the limits of…
I was honored to be the keynote speaker at the recent symposium held at Eastern Connecticut College, Moving Forward: Community Dialogues on the Opioid Epidemic. Thanks to the organizers for putting on a great event. I was impressed at the almost universal recognition among the participants that the best way out of this crisis was…
Connecticut opioid-related deaths declined for the second year in a row, down 14% from their 2021 high of 1431 opioid deaths, according to the latest statistics from the Connecticut Office of the Medical Examiner (OCME). Opioid deaths represented 92% of all overdose deaths in Connecticut. Fentanyl was present in 92% of opioid deaths and 85% of…
One study showed naloxone stayed viable even after thirty years of storage in a less than ideal setting.
While the news often focuses on the dangers of fentanyl to youth, what I see on the street and what the data shows is that the group that is seeing the biggest increase in overdoses is the elderly.
In an age of accountability, slamming naloxone for the purpose of punishing a patient should be considered criminal assault.
Stigma causes people to hide their addiction, preventing them from seeking help. The stigma of being an “addict” implies that person is to blame for their actions. The words we use to describe someone not only affects how we view that person, but how that person comes to view themselves. When I started as a…
I recerted CPR, ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) and PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) late in December. The certs are good for two years. That means it was the 17th time I had recerted each of these mandatory certifications. Our sponsor hospital, like all sponsor hospitals in Connecticut, requires their paramedics to have these certifications…
Many years ago I was asked if I wanted to be an expert witness/consultant in court cases involving paramedics. I declined. One of the reasons I declined was because I wrote a blog about being a paramedic that included descriptions of calls where things didn’t go as they do on TV (or as the public…
This is an old Christmas story I wrote years ago, that I often repost on Christamas. ***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…
I was one of the last people to get a cell phone. My partner Arthur had a flip phone and he used to get so angry when he had to use it to call operations because he was paying by the minute. I remember working with a young partner one day who was on her…
If you have enjoyed my blog over the years, please considered buying some of my books this Christmas, either as gifts or to read yourself. Johns Hopkins Press is holding a big sale on my book Killing Season: A Paramedic’s Dispatches from the Font Lines of the Opioid Epidemic. Only $6.95 in hardcover. My first…
“I can’t wake him up!” The mother says as we come into the bedroom. Her voice and hands are shaking. “He was fine when I went out for groceries. Now he won’t respond.” She is crying. “Honey! Honey!” she says. Her son lies limply back on his bed, breathing only about four times a…
We’re dispatched to an overdose on Ashley Street. I am in the fly car and a BLS crew is in the ambulance. We’re driving around looking for the victim. I don’t see anyone on two passes, but then I hear the BLS unit radio they’ve found him. I swing around to where they are now…
The woman watched the man’s head fall back and his mouth open, but he didn’t slip from his seat on the city bus. He began to snore, but it was irregular and somewhat gasping, then he was quiet. “I wish I could sleep like that,” the man sitting across from her said. She wasn’t the…
I am a member of Connecticut’s Overdose Fatality Review Panel. We meet on a regular basis to review selected cases of people who have died of overdose. We receive a file on each person that includes their age, gender and race, death location details and circumstances of their death, the autopsy and toxicology findings, their…
Thanks to everyone who has reached out to wonder if I am okay since I last posted 4 months ago. Yes, I am doing well. I have been very busy working on a new book, as well as with work, both as an EMS Coordinator and a road paramedic. I still hit the streets once…
Arthur Gasparrini, my old partner from over twenty years ago, passed away this week at the age of 80. I’d lost touch with many years ago, only occasionally hearing updates. About ten years ago, I’d heard he’d had a stroke and was living in Florida. The obituary said he was living in Indiana. He was…
When I was a new paramedic, I wanted to be the greatest paramedic ever. I took pride in never missing work. When I was at work, if I got a late call, I didn’t care. I welcomed it in fact. Cardiac arrest five minutes before my out time, send me! I took as many overtime…
Could it be that xylazine, the latest hyped scourge of the opioid epidemic, might possibly lead to fewer opioid deaths instead of more? The story line has been that xylazine potentiates the effects of fentanyl making the two drugs together a lethal combo. And there is no doubt that the two drugs have been found…