It’s your first day here. You might be a new volunteer, a paramedic student, or a fresh hire. This may be your first time in an ambulance or maybe you worked ten years for a service in another state. You might be nervous or you could have so much confidence you had trouble fitting your…
Category: Street Lessons
Paramedics and EMTs
Back in 1995 when I started working fulltime as a paramedic in the city, paramedics got to choose their own partners. This was great for the paramedics and could also be great for the EMT partners. You worked three twelve hour shifts together and you always knew what to expect. You picked someone you were…
Kevin Andrews
In EMS, we cannot help but be shaped by our earliest partners. They are the ones who show us the way. I was lucky in that regard. Kevin Andrews was one of my first partners. This was back in 1989. I was a spanking new EMT — so fresh I didn’t even have my certification…
Had This Call Before
Obese septic patient from SNF 29 diagnoses including dementialabored breathing, gurgley rhonchi throughoutDiaphoretic, temp of 104.1Doesn’t fit on stretcher, keeps falling to the sideYankeur suctioning thick brown sputumGloves ripElectrodes won’t stay stuckCan’t get an IV.Can’t read the writing on the W10CMED radio on fritz“We didn’t copy your patch, you keep cutting out.”Not regular partner hitting…
The Years
If I ever had a call – a double shooting or a status seizure — where I could look back and say here is where it all came together, then I have forgotten it. What I remember from my earlier years as a medic is not so much one specific call, but rather gradual realizations…
Respect
We went to a doctor’s office for an unknown. The secretary led us to an exam room where a man in his sixties sat in a wheelchair, his chin on his chest, eyes closed, looking very tired. He had a huge distended abdomen and a hint of a yellow tinge to his skin. His wife…
That Narcan Shit
What follows first is fiction: “482. Lawrence Street. 2nd Floor, unknown on a one. PD on the way. Advise when you get there.” We were around the corner having just cleared Hartford Hospital. “Shouldn’t we wait for the cops?” I said, as Troy grabbed his house bag and monitor from the side door. “No, it’s shift…
Collar-Applying and Other Paramedic Skills
I was talking with a hospital management person the other day about how much I love being a street paramedic, and how I didn’t think I could do my new job – a part-time position as a clinical coordinator at the hospital if I wasn’t still working in the street. The manager’s response was I…
Betrayed
My old partner Arthur once said I was too nice — that I believed everything my patients told me. I didn’t really agree with him. I was actually sort of torqued he said it because he told it to a newspaper reporter who was riding along with us that day to do a story. I…
Family
Sometimes it takes back-to-back calls to help you understand lessons you might not otherwise have thought about. There are family members on scene of most of all calls and they often ask if they can ride along with us. In most cases, we are not traveling to the hospital lights and sirens so we might…
Advice to a New Preceptee
A year ago I wrote a post called Letter to a New Preceptee, offering reassurance to a new paramedic. Today I am supplementing that with “Advice to a New Preceptee.” Note: This letter is not directed to anyone in particular, but rather meant for preceptees in general. *** Dear Preceptee, I have been precepting new paramedics…
Size Up
This is a call I did a few months back. I wrote about it then, but didn’t post the story. Part of the reason I didn’t is because while I want to write honestly about being a medic, I have some restrictions. I can’t trash the company I work for or anybody who works for…