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…
Last week my partner and I were called Baby Killers on a call. We haven’t been the only crew to have names shouted at us in the last two weeks. This all stems from a news story about a delayed ambulance response — the implication being if the ambulance had arrived quickly the patient would…
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…
The on-field cardiac arrest of 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin on Monday Night Football captured the attention of our sports-watching nation. The TV producers were hailed for their decision not to continually reshow the clip or show closeups of the rescue on the field. I understand medical privacy rights and as a working paramedic…
In 1988, from my second story apartment over a liquor store on Springfield’s Main Street, I watched a paramedic and his partner attend to the chaos at the accident scene below as the red strobes of their ambulance lights illuminated the street. Then for just a moment, the paramedic, a tall roughened man in his…
A fellow medic told me about a cardiac arrest he did recently where in the middle of CPR, the patient opened his eyes and flailed his arms. He and his partner stopped CPR thinking they had achieved Return of Spontaneous Circulation (ROSC), but the patient slowly went unresponsive, and when he checked for a pulse,…
So I finally got to watch the Ambulance movie, now that it is available for free streaming on Amazon Prime. I did not have high expectations for the thriller (having seen the trailer), but I am always interested in how EMS is portrayed by Hollywood. The movie is simply one long chase scene as the…
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…
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…
When I first became an EMT, a friend asked me why I liked the job so much. When I come through the door, people look at me like I am an angel, I said. What is it like driving lights and sirens? Another friend asked. Awesome — I feel all powerful. I hit wail and…
How do you want to be known as a Paramedic/EMT? A. Reliable B. Frequently wrong According to a recent article in JEMS, Ditch the Machine to Improve Accuracy in Blood Pressure Measurement and Diagnostics, “automated blood pressure readings are frequently inaccurate.” Is this a surprise to anyone? Yet, many of us continue to relay on automated…
I wrote an op-ed this month that was published by the Hartford Courant. Insight: I See What Heroin Does. Let People Shoot Up Safely Included was a checklist: 5 Things to Know About Heroin Addiction I read an article a few days later that said that when called an “overdose prevention site,” as opposed to…
The use of epinephrine in prehospital cardiac arrest showed no difference versus placebo in determining favorable neurological outcome according to a long awaited randomized controlled study published yesterday (July 18, 2018) in the New England Medical Journal. The trial showed epinephrine produced a higher rate of survival at 30 days than placebo, but that was…
Hartford Cops: Rash of Heroin Overdoses Part of Upward Trend After a lull of a few weeks, the overdoses started going out again this week. An hour after I left work Tuesday night, there was a triple OD that is widely being reported in the news, along with two other overdoses not long after. The…
Some heroin dealers in Hartford have switched up their drug stamps to celebrate Halloween. Drug Users are being treated to brands such as Killer Clowns, Freddy vs. Jason and Casper (the Friendly Ghost). The question for the users on Halloween (and one every day they buy): is their special envelope a trick or treat?Are they…
I mentioned that we had a patient this week who said she stayed away from the white powdered heroin because of her fear of Fentanyl. Powdered Fentanyl is white and very hard to distinguish visually from white powdered heroin. A number of years ago drug dealers started enhancing their heroin with Fentanyl. Fentanyl is stronger…
Two weeks ago, it was Black Jack. This week it is OMG. Oh, My G**. The woman lays on a parking lot sidewalk behind the school. Her face is blue and she is only breathing one or two times a minute. She is wearing tight spandex and bright pink tank top. She has tattoos on…
I did three heroin ODs on one shift last week. Another medic did four in a shift the day before. Lots of OD calls going out. All three of these ODs used the same brand. Black Jack. For years, dealers in the Northeast have been branding their supply, stamping or printing it on the glassine…
The heroin epidemic continues unabated in Hartford. I called the time on two fatal overdoses in a recent week. Both men were in their 40’s. One was in a low-rate motel. He sat by the window in his breeze-less room, the curtains pulled just enough so he could see the cars rolling past on the…
Conrad Castonguay died this week at 81. In 1992-93, he helped teach my paramedic class. Pharmacology was his specialty. He wasn’t a paramedic, but he knew what he was talking about and we paid him mind. He was a challenging instructor, and took his work seriously. It became an honor for paramedics to say they…