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…
Category: EMS in City
Outcry
An ambulance is late. Someone dies. There is public outcry. Calls for an investigation. If you want to understand how this could happen, here are some questions you will want answered. Who provides ambulance coverage in your town. It is a full-time municipal service with pensioned employees. Is it a volunteer service? Or does the…
Thief
It’s been a bad year for EMS. Between the Illinois crew charged with first degree murder for their treatment of a man in alcohol withdrawal who died of restraint asphyxia to the new story of the Shameless paramedic filmed stealing £60 from woman, 94, moments after she collapsed and DIED, it has not been a…
War Stories
I joined Twitter a year or so ago, and while I am not crazy for the app, every now and then, there is a really good thread. Recently I found one started by HighPerformance EMS. One of the greatest privileges of this job is having conversations with your patients who have lived amazing lives. There…
The Dark Places
Two paramedics in Illinois were charged with first degree murder of their patient, a 35-year-old man reportedly experiencing alcohol withdrawal. The paramedics did not put a Berretta to the man’s head and pull the trigger nor did they stab him repeatedly with a Bowie knife. Police body camera footage shows they were rude to him,…
EMS Life: Pro and Con
Many people retired from EMS lament their past as some of the best times of their lives and state how much they miss working the road. Why did they stop? Injury, Age, Working Conditions, Lack of Upward Mobility, Time Away From Family and Money or combination of the six are the likeliest explanations. Otherwise, why…
Lasting Gift
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…
Recerts
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…
Change is Gonna Come?
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…
Solo
For the last year I have worked primarily in a rapid response vehicle or “fly car.” There are many benefits to such a position. I do almost exclusively 911 calls. I self dispatch based on calls I hear over the fire and EMS radios. I am often the first on scene. My day is never…
The City
“You’re covering the city,” dispatch says to us, when we clear Saint Francis after an early morning cardiac arrest. We park on Albany Avenue. The sun isn’t up yet, but the black birds are stirring. We’re on for another ten hours. By midday, we’ll have twenty ambulances on, but right now it is only us. …
Murals of Hartford
When I started as a paramedic in Hartford, many of my coworkers referred to the city as a shit hole. They said this as they put on or took off their bullet proof vests at our base and swapped stories about the populace they encountered in the inner city, drunks and deadbeats, and addicts and…
City Scene
A firefighter has already bandaged the patient’s head by the time I arrive in the fly car. The man sits on the front stoop looking like the fifer in the revolutionary war painting of the three marching wounded soldiers the way his head is wrapped. The firefighter points out the puddle of blood in the…
Origin Story
For many of us in EMS, our origin story began with watching the TV show Emergency. The decent paramedics Johnny and Roy, the wise Drs. Brackett and Early, and the beautiful unflappable nurse, Dixie McCall. Together they stood for all that was good in the world. They were role models for us in showing us…
Paramedics Indicted
No one ever said being a medic was easy. Do the best you can. Know your protocols. Use sedation with caution. Act on your patient’s behalf.
Apparition
Tim was working for the company when I started. As tall as me and twice as broad, he was a strong EMT — a good lifter, quiet sense of humor, hard worker, gentle with patients. And if he was standing behind you, no one would think of causing trouble. One night fifteen years ago, he…
Old Friends
We used to (25 years ago) pick Darryl up every night around 10:00 PM. He’d call from the pay phone on Barbour Street. He was drunk and cold and wanted a ride to the hospital where they would put him in the waiting room and he would fall asleep in one of the chairs. He…
Men With Guns
I was a new paramedic. The senior medic briefed me. They took two guys out of a basement apartment with high carbon monoxide readings after a dryer caught on fire. Ones already on the way to the hospital for evaluation. Your patient is the guy over by the building door arguing with the police officer. …
Dead
As I approach the house with my medic pack over my shoulder and my monitor and isolation bag in my hands, two boys, maybe fifteen or sixteen, stand on the sidewalk out front of the building, and look at me expectantly. “He’s not alive? Is he? Is he still alive?” the shorter one asks. I…
Thanksgiving
I wrote this post on Thanksgiving 2005. *** It’s Thanksgiving morning. I awake at 5:10, shower and dress, then open up the garage door to see a couple inches of snow on the ground. It’s beautiful, but I hate winter, hate the cold weather, hate driving in snow. When I get to the base, I can see…