katgrl2003

Great! Even though I knew something like that was gonna happen, I still managed to tip my chair over backwards.

-Kat

My partner managed to freak out the anestheologist during his appendectomy a few years ago. Apparently he only needed two more tubes for medic school, and asked if he could tube himself. Apparently everyone in the room did a double take.

-Kat

The only bumper sticker I have says "Normal people worry me." I got pulled over by a cop just so he could ask where I got it.

-Kat

Kat, I can't even figure out what you are talking about. If you really don't see a difference, then you must have zero experience in emergency healthcare. What we reluctantly accept when our backs are against the wall, and desperate for lifesaving options, is indeed very different from what we prefer and demand on a day-to-day basis. Pragmatically weighing your options is simply part of human nature.

Ok, please forgive me. It was a result of just waking up and checking the city while trying to get ready for work. Note to self: don't post when you're still half asleep.

-Kat

No, I don't believe anyone would if they truly believed they were going to die. But, I think a closer question would be, "If someone you loved more than life itself was having severe abdominal pain, would you turn away a person with HIV and take them to the ER yourself?"

I really don't see a difference. So it's ok to risk transmission if you know they're dying, but not in any other circumstance? Patients can die on us anytime, anywhere. Correct me if I'm wrong, but by your line of reasoning I can only work codes from now on, since they're going to die anyways.

-Kat

By not disclosing the information to the employer or the patient (not making any accusations here), aren't they already hiding it in a sense? I do understand your point and it does not take any stretch of the imagination to see it happening. The idea is certainly not to make people guilty about or afraid to get treatment for a disease.

Why would we disclose it to the patient? Yes, your employer should know, but why should the patient? My hepatitis status has nothing to do with my treatment of a patient. What possible effect would sharing this information have, other than scaring them?

-Kat

My biggest beef with the whole argument isn't the specific diseases listed. HIV and HepB/C are all horrible diseases and anyone that contracts them is pretty much given a death sentence.

Woah! Death sentence? News to me.

Hep B

About 30% of persons have no signs or symptoms. Signs and symptoms are less common in children than adults.

Chronic infection occurs in:

90% of infants infected at birth

30% of children infected at age 1–5 years

6% of persons infected after age 5 years

Death from chronic liver disease occurs in:

15%–25% of chronically infected persons

Hep C

80% of persons have no signs or symptoms.

Chronic infection: 75%-85% of infected persons

Cirrhosis: 20% of chronically infected persons

Deaths from chronic liver disease: 1%-5% of infected persons may die

Leading indication for liver transplant

*All info taken from cdc.gov*

Quite a few people keep saying HBV/HCV infected persons shouldn't be working in ems. From what I just found, most people won't even know that they are infected. Here's another thought: How many people were exposed years ago, before mandatory testing, and now are afraid to get tested? We really don't know how many are infected.

-Kat

Ok, so I lose your paycheck. TB he has a problem with.

-Kat

These statistics are taken directly off the CDC's website

HBV

Healthcare personnel who have received hepatitis B vaccine and developed immunity to the virus are at virtually no risk for infection. For a susceptible person, the risk from a single needlestick or cut exposure to HBV-infected blood ranges from 6-30% and depends on the hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) status of the source individual. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive individuals who are HBeAg positive have more virus in their blood and are more likely to transmit HBV than those who are HBeAg negative. While there is a risk for HBV infection from exposures of mucous membranes or nonintact skin, there is no known risk for HBV infection from exposure to intact skin.

HCV

The average risk for infection after a needlestick or cut exposure to HCV infected blood is approximately 1.8%. The risk following a blood exposure to the eye, nose or mouth is unknown, but is believed to be very small; however, HCV infection from blood splash to the eye has been reported. There also has been a report of HCV transmission that may have resulted from exposure to nonintact skin, but no known risk from exposure to intact skin.

HIV

The average risk of HIV infection after a needlestick or cut exposure to HIV-infected blood is 0.3% (i.e., three-tenths of one percent, or about 1 in 300). Stated another way, 99.7% of needlestick/cut exposures do not lead to infection. The risk after exposure of the eye, nose, or mouth to HIV-infected blood is estimated to be, on average, 0.1% (1 in 1,000). The risk after exposure of non-intact skin to HlV-infected blood is estimated to be less than 0.1%. A small amount of blood on intact skin probably poses no risk at all. There have been no documented cases of HIV transmission due to an exposure involving a small amount of blood on intact skin (a few drops of blood on skin for a short period of time).

Think of something else. How many people may be infected and not know it? I've known several people that had HCV for several years and didn't know it. One person had it for 15 years before she found out.

Yes, there are risks. But there are risks in everything. I risk getting more infections from my patients than they do from me. How many of us have leprosy, TB menigitis, and other outlandish diseases that we don't share with those around us? That's just a few of the diseases I've been exposed to in the past few weeks. (Gotta love it when the hospitals don't tell us either.)

I've been immunocompromised for almost 8 years now, ever since I finished chemo. Should I be working on an ambulance? According to most of you, no. I've had HCV my entire life. That's another check against me. I stopped testing positive after the chemo. It's been in remission (dr's words) since July 2000. How would anyone know I ever had it if I didn't tell them? It wouldn't show up on any blood test, and my employers don't have access to my medical records.

This kind of knee-jerk reaction is only going to cause one thing. Panic. Patients will assume all medical people have some kind of infection, and those that do will try to hide it. I've always been open about this. My employers know, my partner knows, and any time someone, like those vampires at the labs, comes in contact with my blood, I tell them.

I'm careful. I don't take any unnecessary risks. Why should I be denied doing something that I love?

-Kat

Oh Ruff? I think this means you will have to change your tune. My boss is our infection control person, and he's known about it since day one. He has said he would have no problem having me treat him. So, do I get your next paycheck?

I had chemo 7 years ago, when I was 16. Ever since then, my immune system sucks. I seem to catch everything that goes around, but I expect it now. I basically learned to live with it and live for the good days.

-Kat

The company I work for has a bariatric cot, and it is rated for 850lbs in the up position, and I believe 1600 in the down position. It can fit into any truck, as it uses the standard truck mounts. We have a bariatric truck with ramps and a winch, but it is out of service right now. The cot makes our job easier, but we still run into difficult situations, such as this one.

-Kat

25%

YOU ARE NORMAL. YOU KNOW HOW TO HAVE FUN BUT DON'T GO OVERBOARD. YOU PROBABLY HATE WHACKERS AND SEE THEM ALL THE TIME.

It's been a looong time since I've been called normal.

-Kat

We were just short of 34,000.

-Kat

We had a crew make the news recently with a charity run. A hospice patient's dying wish was to visit his newborn triplet grandchildren in the NICU. He was picked up, taken to the hospital, visited the family, and returned. News crews were there the entire time.

-Kat

Ya know Lone... G.R.I.T.S.

Girls

Raised

In

The

South

Funny part about this is I got my best friend and me matching t-shirts with that saying a few years ago. She grew up in Louisiana, I grew up in Florida. Lord, I miss the south!

-Kat

summer

And here I thought it was "y'uns all" that was the plural form.

-Kat

Hate to admit it, but it's true.

-Kat

Had an interesting one the other day. My partner was teching and I was driving.

Dispatch: Medic XX, what's your location?

Medic XX: Main and State Streets

Dispatch: Clear, Medic XX. I need you to start to YY hospital for an ALS transfer.

Medic XX: Negative. We have a patient on board.

This was the point I turned around to make sure we still had a patient. I wanted to make sure I wasn't imagining things!

-Kat

Why do I get the feeling that just talking about it is gonna make me have a delivery in the next week? :? Note to self: call off sick.

-Kat

Don't you dare, spenac! I work with a medic, and in his words, "Delivery is a BLS skill." That's fine, because its a short haul to a any hospital in town, and we would more than likely be at a hospital before the patient delivered. However, since we're a private service, we get the high risk pregnancies going from outlying hospitals to high risk wards. I do NOT want to deliver a 27 weeker! (Had that two days ago)

Spen, if you just jinxed me, I will come haunt you. :twisted:

-Kat

Here's what my last 3 weeks have been like:

1 week of low BP. No matter what the patient started out with, they either had low BP at the beginning of the run, or developed it part way through.

1 week of falls/broken bones. This I'm not too surprised about, considering the number of nursing homes we go to.

1 week of "They were in cardiac arrest yesterday/today/an hour ago, and we want them transferred home/another hospital."

I know runs seem to come in groups, and I'm not looking forward to the next one. We've been doing a lot of OB runs lately, and I do NOT want to deliver in the back of the ambulance.

-Kat

As in immediatly pulling the ambulance over and calling 911 to report indecent exposure? Being able to explicitly describe his piercing would make prosecution a slam dunk.

Not that easy. Most people at work know what it looks like because he shows pics of it. Big side note: he shows the pics BEFORE telling people what it is.

The thing is, I love the company I work for. They do have some problems (what company doesn't?), and their main one is that they will not punish medics. I know these aren't good enough excuses for staying for some people, but I love working there. This is the way I look at it - instead of quitting and going somewhere else, why not stay and try to make the company a better place?

I know I didn't do enough in this case, but I am trying harder. I've let people know I will not accept inappropriate behavior, and those that do it will be reported.

-Kat

Probably should have, but it wouldn't have done any good. This medic is well known for pulling that kind of thing and has been reported in the past. Nothing has been done. It also wouldn't have gone over very well on my end, because about that time I reported another medic for sexual assault/harassment.

-Kat

Told my regular partner about it, he said I should have shown the medic the proximal end. At least I got a laugh out of it.

-Kat