Connecticut recently added supraglottic airways to the BLS scope of practice. That means basic EMTs (emergency medical technicians with considerably less training than paramedics) with the approval of their sponsor hospital medical director, no longer have to rely on bag-valve-mask ventilation to breathe for patients in cardiac arrest. Bag valve mask ventilation for those not…
There is a new documentary about EMS called Honorable but Broken that highlights the crisis in EMS of high stress, low pay and lack of financial support from society. The film aims to reach the general public who are largely unaware of what most of us in EMS know too well. A noble profession and…
People ask me if I still work the road, and many are surprised when I say I still do, qualifying it with “just one day a week.” They shake their heads and smile and say, “good for you!” While I do generally work one day a week, I didn’t work at all in July due…
Drug overdose deaths are down 3.1% nationwide according to the latest figures from the CDC. 107,543 people died of drug overdoses in 2023 down from 111,029 in 2022. Here in Connecticut, drug overdose deaths have been decreasing for the last two years (down 14% in 2023 from the 2021 high). Preliminary data I have seen…
The AP recently published a story about EMS sedation of patients during police encounters — Dozens of deaths reveal risks of injecting sedatives into people restrained by police. I was interviewed for it back in February of 2023, and the final story includes a small quote from me. “I don’t believe he was a candidate…
I was honored to be asked to write an essay that was included in the new anthology –Voices from the Front Line: The Pandemic and the Humanities edited by by Katherine Ratzan Peeler and Richard M. Ratzan and published the University of California Health Humanities Press. Here is the description of the book from Amazon: What are the limits of…
I was honored to be the keynote speaker at the recent symposium held at Eastern Connecticut College, Moving Forward: Community Dialogues on the Opioid Epidemic. Thanks to the organizers for putting on a great event. I was impressed at the almost universal recognition among the participants that the best way out of this crisis was…
Connecticut opioid-related deaths declined for the second year in a row, down 14% from their 2021 high of 1431 opioid deaths, according to the latest statistics from the Connecticut Office of the Medical Examiner (OCME). Opioid deaths represented 92% of all overdose deaths in Connecticut. Fentanyl was present in 92% of opioid deaths and 85% of…
One study showed naloxone stayed viable even after thirty years of storage in a less than ideal setting.
While the news often focuses on the dangers of fentanyl to youth, what I see on the street and what the data shows is that the group that is seeing the biggest increase in overdoses is the elderly.
In an age of accountability, slamming naloxone for the purpose of punishing a patient should be considered criminal assault.
Stigma causes people to hide their addiction, preventing them from seeking help. The stigma of being an “addict” implies that person is to blame for their actions. The words we use to describe someone not only affects how we view that person, but how that person comes to view themselves. When I started as a…
I recerted CPR, ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) and PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) late in December. The certs are good for two years. That means it was the 17th time I had recerted each of these mandatory certifications. Our sponsor hospital, like all sponsor hospitals in Connecticut, requires their paramedics to have these certifications…
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…
If you have enjoyed my blog over the years, please considered buying some of my books this Christmas, either as gifts or to read yourself. Johns Hopkins Press is holding a big sale on my book Killing Season: A Paramedic’s Dispatches from the Font Lines of the Opioid Epidemic. Only $6.95 in hardcover. My first…
“I can’t wake him up!” The mother says as we come into the bedroom. Her voice and hands are shaking. “He was fine when I went out for groceries. Now he won’t respond.” She is crying. “Honey! Honey!” she says. Her son lies limply back on his bed, breathing only about four times a…
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…
The woman watched the man’s head fall back and his mouth open, but he didn’t slip from his seat on the city bus. He began to snore, but it was irregular and somewhat gasping, then he was quiet. “I wish I could sleep like that,” the man sitting across from her said. She wasn’t the…