When I started as a paramedic in Hartford in January of 1995, I was given a 100-page protocol book to memorize. There were fewer than 50 protocols in the book, along with pages for 24 medications and 8 procedures. The book was approved by the two largest hospitals in Hartford. Looking through the book today,…
There is a new “ER” style show on Max called The Pitt that stars Noah Wylie, the guy who played Carter, the young doctor on ER. Wylie now portrays Dr. Rabinavitch (“Dr. Robby”), the senior attending in a busy Pittsburgh emergency department, who goes from patient to patient, emergency to emergency, overseeing a cast of…
I was talking to a doctor friend about the movie Asphalt City. He mentioned the scene where the old crackhead lady was relentlessly berating the young paramedic who just sat there saying nothing, looking all burnt to hell already, not two months into the job. We talked about burnout. Burnout comes in waves, I said. …
President Joe Biden today commuted the sentences of almost 2500 people doing hard time for nonviolent drug offenses. The action was aimed at righting injustice. Old sentencing guidelines provided disproportionately harsh sentences for those found with crack cocaine (largely blacks) while those found with powdered cocaine (largely whites) received much more lenient sentences. Biden, who…
The latest CDC provisional 12-month rolling numbers (through August 2024) are out for fatal overdoses and the news continues to be promising. The US reported overdose fatal numbers are down 23.2 % from the August 2023 high. * In Connecticut reported overdoses are down 29.9% from our November 2021 high, a level equivalent to July…
It all started on a hot summer day. My local supermarket was selling generic Kool-pops — a box of 100 for about $5. I bought a couple boxes and started stocking the small refrigerator in our hospital’s EMS room that previously only carried ginger ale and orange and cranberry juice. The pops were a hit! …
“What do you feel like eating today,” my partner Erica asked when we cleared the hospital from a sick call. “I don’t know,” I said. Some days I don’t eat, others I like to take advantage of the myriad of culinary offerings in the city, Jamaican, Dominican, and Vietnamese among my favorites. A number of…
In a recent post I wrote about the movie Asphalt City and how many of the calls were reminiscent of my own. The only exception being when there was an asthmatic trapped in a burning house, I never went into the house to intubate the patient, I waited for fire (in full gear with respirators)…
Last night, I watched Asphalt City, a movie about paramedics in New York City starring Sean Penn as a burnt out medic with a failed family life and Tye Sheriden as the young rookie medic studying at night for his medical school entrance exams. The movie is based on the novel Black Flies by Shannon…
Irked. The headline Irked me. Alzheimer’s Mortality Lowest for Taxi, Ambulance Drivers Some researchers out of Harvard Medical School did a study of over 443 occupations and found that taxi drivers and ambulance drivers had the lowest rates of dying from Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease mortality among taxi and ambulance drivers: population based cross sectional study…
In October of 2023, there were curious headlines out of Mexico that the Sinaola Cartel was getting out of the fentanyl business. Mexican Sinaloa Cartel’s Message to Members: Stop Making Fentanyl or Die blared the headline in the Wall Street Journal expose. According to the report, this written warning appeared throughout Sinaloa: “In Sinaloa, the…
Why are overdoses fatalities dropping? There has been much speculation and the answer probably doesn’t lie with one factor but with many, including increased availability of naloxone, the efforts of harm reduction workers, the end of the COVID isolation, the trend away from injecting to snorting or smoking, a less toxic drug supply, and expanded…
I was giving a data presentation to the statewide Harm Reduction Advocacy Group and after reviewing the EMS data I had, I touched on the latest CDC numbers that show a 24.1% decrease in overdoses in Connecticut since November 2021 based on rolling 12-month averages with the latest 12-month period ending June 2024. After the…
There have been a lot of changes in EMS over the years that I have chronicled. New meds, new equipment, new procedures, new trends, etc. One distinct change is the patient or their family’s level of suspicion over giving out their information. Name, date of birth and social security number. We try to get this…
The latest CDC data released today show US overdose deaths are down 16.74% from the reported rolling 12-month high of 111,802 in August of 2023 to the reported June 2024 count of 93,087 (the latest reported provisional data available). The CDC also reports overdose deaths in Connecticut are down 24.14% from the state rolling 12-month…
The day I thought Donald Trump might really win was several months ago when I attended a gathering of people who had or had had family members in prison and were interested in humane drug policy. One of the leaders of the group, said he wasn’t buying Kamala. “A prosecutor is a prosecutor is a…
I always enjoying giving a new medicine, using a new gadget or following a new procedure for the first time. I clearly remember the first time I gave Ativan on standing order, the first time I gave Cardizem, fentanyl, zofran, and ketamine, all new meds at one time. I remember the first time I did a…
Across the nation states are passing initiatives to allow EMS services to leave naloxone kits on scene with at risk patients, their family, friends or bystanders. In Connecticut, kits may be left with a patient who refuses treatment/transport, a patient family member or friend when a patient is transported, as replacement for bystander/layperson who provided…
My Dad was born in 1934. He grew up in White Plains, New York in a modest house with a small yard enclosed by a white picket fence. His father worked for the telephone company and his mother was a nurse. He had a younger brother and sister, Peter and Helen, who he looked out…
I-TEAM: EMS union concerned speed bumps hurt patients. An EMS union in Cleveland was concerned enough about a municipal plan to add more speed bumps to the city streets that they went to the city council to let them know that speed bumps cause harm to patients in pain. They said, while they appreciated the…