We spent the first three hours of the shift covering a suburban town while their ambulance was on a call. There were reports of gunshots in the city, but when the ambulance got there the supposed victim had fled. Nothing else was going on anywhere, so it wasn’t like we missed a lot. My preceptee…
Who Mash Me Up
I carry a small digital camera in my pocket. I’ve written about it before in New Frontier. It is great for taking mechanism of injury shots – the smashed up car, bent steering wheel, picture of the roof the patient fell off showing the height of the fall. The trauma team loves to see the pictures…
Tickets to the Ball
Yesterday we did a low speed MVA involving a police officer, who we took in for lower back pain. Another officer followed us in his squad car. I don’t know if I am the only one, but I always get paranoid when I am driving to the hospital with a cop on my tail. I…
Dispatchers
I worked yesterday with an EMT with extensive dispatch experience, and as always, it was interesting to hear his perspective on the dispatcher’s job. Sometimes there is a natural antagonism between road crews and dispatchers because the dispatcher is the bear of bad news, but should not neccessarily be shot for it. (Oddly, while working…
Words
Last night I gave my capnography CME. There was about thirty people there. I think it went over okay. It is hard to tell when you are standing up behind a podium and giving a presentation for the first time how well it is being recieved. Our medical control physician thought it was very good…
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…
Waiting
I go back to work tomorrow morning at six. I last worked the Wednesday overnight in the suburbs, which really wasn’t like working because I slept all night in a bed, and only did one call at five-thirty in the morning, and I didn’t even have to tech that one. I was planning to work…
Patience
Preceptees come in all types, ranging from those who are so smart you have to reread your books at night just to keep up with them to those who think the excuse “well, we didn’t go over that in class” covers them from any need to improve further. I’ve had preceptees for whom, on arriving…
Living Alone
The call is for a man on the ground, not injured just needs help getting up. Been there all night. The front door should be open. The stink hits us when we go in. There he is lying on the floor in a nearly empty house, shit on the rug, shit crusted on his underwear….
Beam Away
We’re on the third floor of an apartment building whose elevator doesn’t work. In the tiny efficiency apartment, layered with dirt, an old skinny man with dreadlocks says he didn’t call us, and why are we bothering him. The man’s body reminds me of a Biafrin child’s it is so emaciated. We’re here because a…
The Line
You’re a paramedic. You’re on your knees. A naked obese patient lies in front of you, their flaccid head in your hands as you try to position their mouth open. Watery vomit flows from between their lips. The monitor shows flat line. Every time your partner does compressions, more warm vomit spews onto your hands….
Troublesome, Unformed Idea
Since I closed down my daily blog I have been trying to increase the number of posts to Street Watch, which I have always thought of as my weekly blog. I am hoping to post at least three or four times a week. Since I will not always be able to write the type of…
Fair Enough
A few days ago I promised I would try to write something true about lights and sirens response in EMS. I believe I have come up with something, but first I want to outline a call this morning. The horn goes off. The call is for an unresponsive at a nursing home, history of diabetes….
American Summer
It’s been over ten years I’ve been working in the city. Driving around in the ambulance, you can see the changes. None of the book stores I used to stop at are still in business. The barbeque place in the north end where they sold cornbread muffins for twenty-five cents is gone. The Lion’s Den…
Thoughts on Blogging
Hello Everyone. I hope you are all having great summers. I am writing this entry today because I lack the energy to write well about a funny call I did recently. I have been working quite a lot — 84 hours in seven days this past week –and am finding it hard to keep up…
New Frontier
They said she was vomiting and nauseous and having seizures. I asked what the seizures looked like and the patient’s friend who had witnessed them, said the patient shook all over with her arms and legs out. It didn’t sound like a seizure. She said they had done all kinds of tests, but hadn’t been…
CPR
I did a code last week which ended the longest drought of my career when it comes to cardiac arrests. When I came back from the EMS Conference in Baltimore all excited to try the new CPR, I had no opportunities. Not to sound morbid, but when I walked into the basement bedroom and saw…
SAVED (TNT)
Okay. The new TNT paramedic show SAVED. So what do I think about it? First, here’s the link to My Hollywood Adventure, which details how the producers of the show had read my books in preparing the pilot for the show and how I was then asked to be a technical advisor/possible writer and how in…
National Registry Project Trip Report
My relief comes in two hours early so I can get to the airport — I am headed the Ohio to serve on a committee for the National Registry looking into paramedics competencies — whatever that means. I will soon find out. The flight is on time, but the plane is small and rattles when…
Competencies and Components
A couple months ago I recieved the following letter: Dear Mr. Canning, The National Registry of EMTs is forming a committee to help define the essential competencies of paramedic practice. This committee will consist of paramedics from around the country who will participate in a focus group lead by faculty members from The Ohio State…