Working at the hospital and on the ambulance, it has been heavy duty Ebola lately. Memos, flyers, posters, policies, and lots of questions. I have written power points, given talks and had many conversations on Ebola. Every day I read the CDC site for updates, which are numerous. I have even, along with two of…
We find our patient by the elevator doors in a public building. He is on all fours, dry heaving, and shaking. He says he is in terrible pain. Security tells us he is a visitor to this public building. They don’t know anything about him other than that he has been screaming that he is…
This is the first I have written since May. I did not mean to stop writing. I had many thoughts, but just never got around to putting them down. Why no posts? A variety of reasons, primarily time. As I get older I find myself less sure of myself and my ideas. I can spout…
Many of us in EMS love gadgets I remember when I started another EMT sold me a “whup kit,” which was a holster that attached to my belt to hold my tools. I didn’t get a big one, just a modest sized one. It held a pen light, trauma shears, bandage scissors, tweezers, and a…
Yesterday the Connecticut Emergency Medical Services Medical Advisory Committee reversed its position from a year ago and voted to approve Intranasal Narcan as a sponsor hospital option for first responders and BLS services in the state. This does not mean that all first responders and BLS responders will be giving Narcan. It only means that…
We can all agree that these are goals of a perfect EMS system. 1. A paramedic on every priority one emergency call2. A run form completed before leaving the hospital3. A living wage for every paramedic Ever since I have been in EMS — 24 years now — I have heard the discussions about ambulance…
Sickle cell anemia is a horrible, painful disease. Over the years I have gone from viewing sickle cell anemia patients as drug-seekers (here I blame the EMS culture at the time) who I did nothing more than put on the stretcher and take to the hospital to human beings suffering from a painful disease who…
We were dropping off a regular patient at one of the hospitals the other day. A chronic PCP user. The “crusty” old nurse in the psych ward threw a fit complaining that she had just dealt with him two nights before. The fit was not good-natured banter, but clearly a I’m being imposed upon and…
A handsome boy plays guitar in his garage band, thick black hair down to his shoulders. Man is he in to the music. The drummer in the background is also smiling, the kid on the bass is into it too. The photo colors are faded. I’m thinking 1970. In front of the 3X5 photo in…
I work Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, 12-hour city shifts. I took the day off today (Tuesday) to go to the monthly regional EMS meetings for my clinical coordinator job that fall on the 2nd Tuesday of every month. I was excited for the meeting because we were going to be voting of our new spinal…
I am conflicted. I am having doubts about some of the benefits of medicine. Let me be more specific. In our state, we are told to advise a patient at least three times to go with us to the hospital before we can accept a refusal of care against medical advice (AMA). (For legal purposes…
In the nursing home, Mrs. Brown sits in her wheelchair, two feet from the television in her darkened room. The blue hues illuminate her face. Our stretcher rolls past in the hallway. Each door is open. The story on every channel. In stillness, they watch. We are still young, the children call to them. Craddle…
She has become a regular. She calls early Sunday morning. “923, respond for the abdominal pain.” The dispatcher gives the street and apartment number. It’s always her. We have stopped bringing the gear in. We just wheel the stretcher in and leave it in the hallway, and then walk up the three flights of the…
My favorite stories are when medics talk about great medics from their past. The stories can be made up, exaggerated or true, but with telling they achieve the status of folklore and the medics in them are our Paul Bunyans and Davy Crockets, our Supermen and our Columbos (the great TV detective played by Peter…
Christian Schmeck passed away a few days ago at 59. I saw his obituary posted in the EMS room at a local hospital. I suspect most of the newer EMTs who saw it didn’t know who he was. I first met Chris over twenty years ago when I worked at the state health department. He…
The call is for an unresponsive in a wheelchair on a street corner in front of a social services agency. A woman who works at the agency flags us down. She says she has a man in a wheelchair who is unresponsive. She does not know him. He is not a client there. She says…
A reader (Lucus) queried me about what I carry on my when I am on duty: I have a stethoscope around my neck. In my right shirt pocket, I have four small blank index cards. In my left pocket I have a pen, a pack of gum, and my I-phone. I have trauma shears on…
Many years ago, I was a taxi cab driver. Us cabbies used to talk about cab towns. What was a good cab town and what was a bad cab town? A good cab town was always hopping. People used cabs instead of cars. There were no traffic jams. The rides were of conversation distance. You…
I wish there was a happy pill I could take. Or better yet, since I am all into good health and clean living, I wish there was a happy pill I could give my partners. Let me explain. I had a great EMS day recently. I did a cardiac arrest, an SVT, a respiratory arrest…
Let me say right from the outset that I love being a paramedic and dread that day that I can no longer do this work. That said I have had two moments in my career where I have glimpsed that day. These moments are not moments that you would expect. It was not a bloody,…