The Hartford Courant this week noticed what most everyone else around here has– panhandlers are on nearly every corner of big intersections these days. Many carry the standard signs drawn on ripped cardboard “Homeless and Hungry.” Some wear masks, others don’t. Some make eye contact, others look down at their feet. They almost universally say…
Tap Tap Tap
Years ago, I did all of my writing at a desk in a lonely room. I would write on yellow legal pads and then when I had something, I would type it out on my portable smith corona. When my daughter was little, I showed her my old typewriter and she was fascinated with it….
Connecticut EMS Overdose Data
In Connecticut, when EMS responds to an opioid overdose, after they have taken the patient to the hospital, accepted a refusal, or presumed a patient dead, they are required to contact the state poison control center and answer a series of questions about the overdose. The program, known as SWORD (Statewide Opioid Reporting Directive), that…
Nalmefene
I heard today that Opiant, the company behind the 4 mg Narcan Intranasal spray, is at work on a new product to combat opioid overdose — Intranasal Nalmefene. Nalmefene Nasal Spray Nalmefene is an FDA approved medication to reverse opioid overdoses when used intravenously. It has yet to be approved in a nasal form suitable for…
Ventilation and Prolonged Exposure
We are told to keep six feet of distance from each other, but how effective is this the distance in preventing the spread of COVID-19? The answer may well be, yes, it helps, but it is not the full answer. In a new article published in the British medical Journal provides a fuller view of…
Trapped
In 2013, I wrote a post called Get Another Job. Here’s how it went: 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…
Part-Time
For over twenty-five years I was a full time street medic. I have been part-time now for only a few months. I have tried to work at least 20 hours a week, but there have been a couple of weeks when I have only worked once, and one week where I did not work at…
Bizarre Foods Hartford
From 2012-2014, I kept up a blog called A Paramedic’s Guide to Take out in Hartford. I haven’t updated it since then, but am considering doing so. In the meantime, I came across this old entry called Bizarre Foods Hartford, and since all five restaurants are still operating (open for carryout), I thought I’d post…
The Chair
Last week, (due to medic vacations) the company put me into a volunteer town as the paid paramedic (on an ambulance staffed with volunteers) for my shifts. Many years ago, I worked three days a week in the same town in addition to three days of overtime in the city back in the days when…
Forced Sedation
Interesting article on NBC news about the use of ketamine for sedating patients in police custody. Elijah McClain was injected with ketamine while handcuffed. Some medical experts worry about its use during police calls. The reporter centers the story around the tragic case of Elijah McClain, who was apparently walking down the street, wearing a…
A Boy
In 1999, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Hartford Courant about a police shooting in the city. The newspaper reported that an unarmed 14-year old black boy had been shot in the back by a white police officer. They put the story on the front page under the headline Family, Police Want Answers: No Weapon…
Harm Reduction
Connecticut’s harm reduction workers are out on the street everyday trying to make the world safer for those caught in substance use. This is particularly important in this time of COVID-19. I am often questioned whether or not harm reduction – syringe services, community naloxone, overdose prevention sites, drop-in centers– are not just enabling users….
A Complaint
I was accused of being racist. This was about fifteen years ago. At the time my main assignment was working as a contract paramedic for a volunteer service in Bloomfield, a volunteer town to the north of Hartford that like Hartford had a predominantly black population. I was working that day with a black partner/friend…
Kevin Andrews
With all that is going on these days, I thought of Kevin Andrews, one of my first partners in EMS. I first posted this in January of 2011. *** In EMS, we cannot help but be shaped by our earliest partners. They are the ones who show us the way. I was lucky in that…
Wild
Many years ago, I watched a long video of a police scene in California, where a man who was reported to be on “angel dust” (PCP), was being held down by police officers. The officers chatted among themselves while the camera focused in on the man who was pleading for help. I watched as the…
I Can’t Breathe
I have heard many people say “I can’t breathe.” Sometimes the people are full of it, other times they are dying. I have also heard the response line, “You’re talking fine.” I’ve heard EMS say it and I’ve heard police say it. On May 25, 2020 , George Floyd said to officer Derek Chauvin, I…
A Visit
He is an old man with a stooped back, wearing tan work pants and shirt with his name on the right breast and his company’s name on the left. He has gotten out of his old Pontiac, and wearing a face mask, walks toward us as we come out of the dialysis center with an…
Surgical Masks and Aerosolization
COVID-19 is spread primarily in respiratory droplets. Here’s why you need to put a surgical mask on your patients and why we should all be wearing masks ourselves when we are in public. These illustrations come from a study by Vapotherm. COVID-19 Transmission Assessment Report
Shower
The fire department had three of their men in full gowns when we arrived. The patient was up on the fourth floor, unable to walk, they said. They weren’t certain what was wrong with him — he wasn’t answering questions–but he had been shaking and vomiting all morning, and he had just gotten out of…
A Home
A beautiful spring day. The sky is robin’s egg blue. The air smells like fresh cut grass. We cut our sirens on approach, and are driving now through the residential neighborhood. Kids are out on their bikes. There are joggers aplenty. Nearly every house has someone out beautifying their yard. Neighbors talk and laugh with…