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…
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…
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…
On March 22, 2023, the Connecticut Public Health Committee held a hearing on a series of bills it was debating. One of the bills was to create pilot overdose prevention sites in Connecticut. Two hundred and seventeen people signed up to speak that day on a variety of issues, but a good many of them…
I am proud to be a paramedic. I believe paramedics save lives. If I or one of my family members were critically ill, I would want a seasoned paramedic taking care of me rather than a brand new basic EMT. When I say paramedic, i mean that in the sense of a health care provider…
“XYLAZINE, A DEADLY SKIN-ROTTING ZOMBIE DRUG, OFTEN MIXED W FENTANYL, IS ON THE DOORSTEP …ALREADY FUELING A HORRIFIC WAVE OF OVERDOSES.”” America has a history of hysteria over the drug war. From Reefer Madness to the insanity of telling people they could die from just touching fentanyl or that dealers are giving rainbow fentanyl to…
I went home injured a couple weeks ago. This wasn’t the first time I was injured on the job, but the first time I couldn’t finish a shift. How it happened is embarrassing. I coughed and didn’t splint myself properly. I pulled a muscle in my lower back on the left side. I couldn’t bend…
I recently had a patient who still had his discharge papers on him from a recent trip to the ED following an overdose. The instructions were fairly simple. Please do not use fentanyl again. If you are looking for any sponsors or help we do recommend that you purse Narcotics Anonymous. He admitted that he…
I participated in a powerful documentary about the Fentanyl epidemic in Hartford. The documentary is part of the Frontlines docuseries by Kennard Ray exploring life in Hartford. It focuses on the frontline harm reduction workers and their clients in the battle to keep people alive.
With Emergency Departments becoming increasingly crowded and extended EMS wall time becoming more common, I raise the question should EMS ever bring their equipment into the hospital to treat their patient while waiting for bed assignment and transfer of care? I am not talking about continuing treatments such as oxygen or a medication drip started…
This is an old Christmas story I wrote years ago, reposted now. ***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 speakers. Gently shone the…
When I see murals in the city, it makes me feel love and joy for life and the people of Hartford. And these Below, gone, but not forgotten.
I received a book in the mail about a month ago. I slipped it into my briefcase to read while in between calls in the rapid response vehicle in Hartford. It sat there in its unopened package for weeks as I was too busy between calls and writing PCRs to take it out. Yesterday, Saturday,…
“You need to get that checked out,” I said. “I’m not going to the hospital. They treat me like shit there.” “I’m sorry they do, but that’s not getting better.” The woman has a nasty necrotic ulceration in her AC that has eaten away the skin and some of the tissue underneath. It is black…
A young EMT saw me at the hospital this week as we were both bringing patients in. She had a present for me, she said. After I got my patient situated in their assigned bed in the hallway and gave a report to the nurse, I went back outside and met the EMT. She reached…
In EMS, we are eyewitnesses to the inevitable decline of the human body and to death. That’s why when a young person dies it shakes us deeply. They are not supposed to die. It is hard to disassociate yourself from such an event. On those rare occasions that my Pandora’s box of bad EMS memories…
When I first started in EMS I was almost always the first on scene because our local fire department only responded to jaws of life calls and the PD usually only responded to reports of violence assaults. I loved getting their first. The scene was pristine. Sure I had a dispatch subject, but from early on…
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…