craig

I think this is the big question right here. This is hugely relevant. Sure, some bad decisions were made leading up to this incident. Firefighters were put in a position where they had their apparatus available but not their PPE. (God, I hope their PPE was unavailable.) Oopps. We can sort that out later.

But why did this fire need to be put out? The comments about, "Hey they're firefighters. You can't expect them to do nothing! It's in their blood. We respond even when it involves risk." really burn me. Risk a little to save a little. Risk a lot to save a lot. Risk NOTHING to save NOTHING. (Sorry for shouting in here but it seems so hard to get this point across sometimes.) Why do we have such a hard time making this distinction?

Why did we need to fight this fire? That car was totaled the minute the engine caught fire. Couldn't we just push / pull / move the other vehicles out of the way and let it burn until some firefighters could put on their PPE and put it out properly? Take a window if you need to. Our just let the other cars burn until a proper response could be initiated. There was no life safety risk here. There was very little unburned property of any value at risk.

If life is at risk then do what you need to do. If no life and very little property is at risk then stand there in your chiffon dress and let the insurance company sort it out.

could not agree more.........

what was the net benifit of these guys attempting to put out the fire. If the car was fully engrosed then of what value did it have pumping water on to it.....unless it was to save a life or vast amounts of other property.

But then again in litigous USA, maybe they were worried about being sued for not attempting to put it out.

I didn't watch the vid, but I get your point. My off time on Saturday was 1800, we got a call at 1705 for a transfer from a hospital to a nursing home about 4 miles away. We showed up and made pt contact, only to find that we needed the bariatric cot. Another crew had the cot, so we had to wait for them to finish their call. Then, they had to bring us the cot and leave right away, so we had to wait for another unit to come out for a lift-assist. All said and done, we cleared the station at 2030, 2.5hrs after our scheduled off time.

sweet....2.5 hours O/T........2 hours at time and a half and then half hour at double time,,,,as well as a meal penalty for going past 2 hours after end of shift.........$$$$$$$$$

Just to clarify,

Paramedics (our basics) can give

- Adrenaline 1:10 000 in cardiac arrest IV

- Adrenaline 1: 1 000 in Anaphylaxis IV/IM/ Neb

- Atropine Auto injector for CBR/NBC incidents

- Glucose gel for Hypoglycemics

- Glucogon for the same

- Glyceryl Trinitrate for ACS

- Hartmann's Soln. (ringers lactate)

- Lignocaine 1% (local anaesthesia)

- Metaclopramide

- Morphine for pain

- Naloxone

- salbutamol (Neb) adult and paed.

- Aspirin (ACS)

- Midazolam (fitting) IM / IV/ IN

- Methoxyflurane

- oxygen

- Paracetamol

- Ipratropium bromide (adult & paed.)

- fentyanl IN

- Benzyl Penicillian

- Influenza vaccine

- Ibruprofen

- Tenecteplase (selected officers currently, rolled out as standard by end of 2012)

- Enoxaparin Sodium (selected officers currently, rolled out as standard by end of 2012)

- Clopidogrel (selected officers currently, rolled out as standard by end of 2012)

- glucose 10%

- Ondansetron

- fexofenadine

- Obidoxime (CBR/NBC)

and skills are 12 lead egc, LMA, OPA, NPA, IVI,IN, IMI, SCI, BGL, Laryngascope & magill forceps

just to name a few.

the ICP can do more and give a few things more as well..

Fur Suvun Nine hundheld calls Sudnee ... I still don't like my partner, when is my new one coming? Hang on, hey Craig why are you driving off without me? Poo, not again!

The question is sort of redundant here really since both Officers alternate driving and attending unless the patient is critically unwell (if the patient is stable it doesn't matter if they've been loaded up on morphine (for example) the lower qualified Officer e.g. Technician can attend to them) and there really is not a whole hell of a lot of difference between our levels; there is some obviously

sounds the same as it is here kiwi, except we dont say it with a funny accent,..........

thanks for posting the reply kiwi, saves me doing it

I say what i did dfib, because of the differing level that ou guys have in the states, the 'basic' ambo has very little to go with.

the basic qualified level we have here in nsw is what kiwi has put up, give or take....

the only level lower than paramedic (P1) here is trainee/intern and they can not work without a qualified officer

hope that helps a little to understand

very similar here to kiwiland though

only there are more of us...........lol

guys

from my experience of a rural community it really dont matter

I am the only ICP on my station and therefore work with everyone else, however our "basics" are a little more advanced than basics in most areas of the states.

we take turn about each day as to who drives and who treats, If the patient requires paramedical interventions then i will step in and do what is required, but other than that I am happy to drive whilst the other guy treats.....

Craig, obviously I am not from NSW, so what is/are "bikies"?

bikies = bisciuts =cookies to you

old term in Aus.....tea and bikies means that you have to have a chat with the boss...on the carpet so to speak

2.) So you are saying every over zealous new EMT or FF who was responding too fast to a call (a silly mistake) that hits a tree and is killed should be known as a "Idiot, Moron"? I hope that is not what you think as a matter of fact I am sure that I am now taking what you mean out of context, if so, I am sorry.

That is my point. We should not judge them by the mistakes but rather by their intentions. These men, along with THOUSANDS of others have taken shortcuts, gone too fast or have been just plain LUCKY too. Many of them have died and we call them Heroes, despite the mistakes that ended up causing their demise.

well if an over zealous FF or EMT was driving too fast, hit a tree and killed them self or forbid any one else YES they would be an idiot...........yes we all make mistakes, however we are also taught from day one....dont become a casualty yourself...............driving so fast you have an accident causing a death is not silly, its not a mistake...its a criminal offence......we should not have time in this profession for people that act like that......too many wankers are wanna be's and look how they are refered to on this site.

How could anyone in this line of work condone the action of someone driving so fast it can cause death...........makes me wonder what you have come to believe.

If I had a probie that acted in this way, then they would be having tea and bikies with the boss for their actions........If they killed someone then IDIOT and MORON would not be strong enough words.......thats my 2 bobs worth.....

besides good intentions do not necessarily make good decisions........."oh mr police officer, I had good intensions to just scare the little kid from breaking my window with my gun, but I didnt mean to shoot and kill him, it was a mistake it went off"..........

Rules is rules.....no matter how dumb they may be. We had a local paid FF die in a casino hotel of an AMI while in bed with someone other than his wife. But since it was within 24 hours of his last emergency call, it was considered a LODD. (I will point out he did not get the traditional FF funeral)

where do I get a job with that department if that is the 'duty' they get to do , we would all sign up...........bet if the service funeral did happen, who would they give the flag to?

kiwi

question........guarding and pain on palp of abdo..correct?

the trends on the vitals that you have listed are stable except the increases in the temp of the patient..........is this an amnomially or is the patient getting warmer? ie infection

Six hours ago, big, well developed and smells like shit

definately from New Zealand then.................

If i had a prancing stallion as a company ride, i wouldn't care about the Pt.....get another unit to transport

Sometimes we take calculated risks- it's what we do.

Yes a CALCULATED risk maybe, but attending a fire in inappropriate gear to save a car on fire when NO life was in danger is not a CALCULATED risk...it is just plain STUPID

Yeah, actually there IS a very good excuse.Unless the crew is on duty and temporarily doing a special event with their apparatus, if they are assuming a parade, social, or ceremonial function, they usually do NOT have their gear with them. They still may have a fully functional apparatus(hose, water in the booster tank, tools, all fittings and other equipment), but it is simply not in service to respond to emergencies.

the point exactly is that they were NOT IN SERVICE....they may have had a fully operational truck, but by NO MEANS WERE THEY......They were OUT OF SERVICE

I'm confused as to the question. Did one of those guys die? If not, then the answer is no.

no need to be confused mike......they didnt die,,, they may have "died" of embarassment of being caught out fighting a no gain fire in lady's clothing and then HAVING people from across the WHOLE WORLD laughing and commenting about them.......

I still stand by my statement that they acted irresponsibly but, as has been mentioned, How many LODD have been caused by a mistake that could have been avoided? Are we going to start judging if they deserve that title or are we going to grin, bear it and call them a hero?

irresponsible?..... YES

do they deserve the title of LODD?......well they are still breathing (luckily), so what do you think?

grin and bear is and call them HERO?....NOT BLOODY LIKELY....More like IDIOTS, MORONS, FORTUNATE ONES.....maybe they could be more appropriate.........

fur suvun nine hundheld calls Sudney, one male patient, appears to huv bun assulted with a bunt objuct ....

bunt objuct? you talk funny.........

when you moving over you could be in car FOUR SEVEN NINE,,,,,,,,,,work in a city that has a REAL harbour bridge

At least it's not that tired bloody sheep joke

BAA BAA BAA

bro'Town is heaps more choice than Shitty Street ow far bloody nunngered Australians

Some kettymean might fix you up

my boys love bro'Town........if it wasn't a cartoon I would have assumed it was a docco on new zuland

Bro, Nana luks a bit cruk her ECG is pretty nunngered just luk at these ST changes and is that a nu bundle branch block?

479 handheld calls Sudney, transporting priority 1

trouble with that is that i understand it........been watching way to much TVNZ.....ahhh shortland street and outrageous fortune have a lot to answer for........

Once I am fully qualified I'll seriously consider it

Yes hello I am Kiwi, this is Craig, but nobody likes him, now love how long have you had these pains in your chest?

C'mon Kiwi, If you came here they wouldn't understand all that when you did ay it to them....unless it was in Bondi (or should I say west Aukland)

should it not be.........

Yis hullo I um Kiwi, thus us Craig, bet nobudy likes hum, now live heow lung hev you hud thise pains en your chust bro?...............

Kiwi c'mon on down..........

That's pretty impressive, but you know what's even more awesome, the hats you guys get, it's not pay or clinical ability or anything else that makes an ambo, it's the hat!

HATS!.....HATS!....WE DON'T NEED NO STEENKIN' HATS!........

that is an old photo Kiwi, dont work in that uniform anymore, and the caps have changed as well...

either wat we are still better off more than 30 cents in the dollar than you guys........

at the moment I am on 33.95 an hour as an ICP with rescue allowance

that equates to

35.95 US

35.92 Can

22.76 UK

44.15 NZ

273.60 SAR

27.34 Euro

this post is pretty old and it doesnt look like anyone has answered the poor guy. I dont know the answer, but have had friends ask me the same question.

Is there anyone here that would like to answer this question rather than making judgment calls.

most men have lied in their life at some point, a large amount might have stolen something as a child even if it was just once, cheated or copied an answer on a test or homework, most have drank alcohol before turning 21 or tried marijuana, most have been in at least one physical fight in their life.....

so if you say that you wouldnt want an EMS employee that has a DUI in their past then what about all the lieing, stealing, cheating, underage drinking, drug using, fighting firemen and EMTs that are in every city of the world??? maybe you should move to the moon!

problem is that with a DUI you lose your licence to drive....how can your prospective employer get you to drive an ambulance when your LEGALLY cannot do it?

You guys get paid?

what DFib? you do this sh*t for nothing???

Well, we are pretty awesome, now if only we could convince the Ministry of Health to give us more money!

Kiwi....

you can think your awesome...........

come to the great land of Auz

dollar exchange is 1 Aus to around 1.30 NZ and 1.07 US that way you will get more money.......

and i got around 100K last year before tax....and it's better here (just ask the millions of other kiwis living on our shores)

I love this new instructor.

ST elevation in all leads... global MI? Nah... just pericarditis... (you really have to be here, but I never knew that before and I could totally see freaking out seeing ST elevation all over the place if I didn't realize it was pericarditis!)

Wendy

CO EMT-B

Do get down about it wendy

we did a 12 lead on me as an example for some of the guys that were training and they nearly sh*t themselves when they saw all the ST elevation ( I did when i first had a 12 lead done on my self)

however the narrow QRS in V1 wasnt picked up by these guys and so they misdiagnosed a LBBB as suspected STEMI.

Thats all the fun in training, you see and learn things that seem realy odd, but you never forget them...

and the guys that did the 12 lead on me were reassured that they didnt have to rush me to the ER..........

Merceedes Sprinters are not hybrid, they are ungodly monstrosities straight from the depths of hell!

Just dont accept the VW knock off of the sprinter

the service here got a few of them to replace the sprinters as they were a little cheaper, however they are a real poverity pack compared to the sprinter, dont go as well (sluggish and slow would be polite) and they are really nasty compared to the finish on the sprinter.......

Yeh know if there are any vacancies? That sure sounds like the job I always wanted when I was a kid.

and you get to be a "hero" as well, trouble is people that are in the know will hate you........