Just Plain Ruff

Back in 1984 I went to mexico. Spent time in Cancun, Cozumel and Isla Mujeres. I misjudged the height of a curb and it being 2 and a half feet instead of the half a foot that most curbs are I fell and broke both my ankle and my wrist. I spent time in the local ambulance and then the local ER. I then was airlifted home via the insurance company's expatriation program due to the nature of the breaks. They were pretty bad. The local ambulance and the clinic and then the ER accepted the insurance and nothing else. Your story is one of significant contrasts to my story at least in payment terms. I was not allowed to leave the hospital until the insurance was verified but I was not of any mind to disagree because of whatever pain meds I got were really really good. The family friends I was with were able to gather all my belongings, my father flew to Cancun where he met me at the airport and we flew home on a special jet outfitted for medical care. I was one of three other people who were on the jet. It was pretty cool. We made it to Houston where my father had rented a car and we drove the rest of the way home to our house in KC MO. I had 90 days worth of pain pills which the hospital gave me and then my family friends were able to get an additional supply of pain pills just by going to the pharmacy and getting them and they brought them home. All they required was the hospital report and showed it to the pharmacy. 6 months later, I returned to mexico to complete my trip, thank goodness for trip cancellation insurance. WE got all our expenses returned except for what I had already spent while there. But all in all it sounds like your trip was super memorable. Those are the memories that you wish you had the camera out for.

Makes better press when the hero's in big red fire trucks say they delivered the baby. At least they were there, so they can say they did help deliver it.

Bring a pump along, pump when you can. Don't make a federal case out of pumping but like Kate said, you have every right to pump. Get a double pump though, that way you can do double duty. Good luck.

I was just issued my own ambulance, my own sprint car and my own helicopter each with driver. I have my own supply truck that dutifully drives behind me in order to keep me resupplied in whatever I use whenever I use it. If I need an MRI or US or CT I have the convenient use of any number of local or rural hospitals of choice that I can get to very very easily either by air or ground. It's AWESOME>

"If we have the opportunity to apply for a grant that will study if the county is delivering a service for the least amount of dollars, then that's what we should do," said board President Dennis Stapleton. "If we don't agree with the study, we are not bound by it." IF they don't like what the study says, they won't use it. spoken like a true politician. I think he's Eastwooding.

It's my understanding that St Louis area is pretty fire based. So if you aren't a firefighter then you will have a hard time finding a job as an emt. Where are you going to paramedic school at? I've got a good bead on the Western portion of Missouri for ya but my understanding of eastern missouri is pretty fire based. Drop me a pm.

Excellent response ks. I think you might be the first person has taken advice of the site and listened to it and not left with a huge chip on their shoulder. Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Heres two hands and a shoulder. I really do hope thst you are able to get whatever job you want but Im just saying that for a risk standpoint you are not who the insurers will touch with the proverbial 30 foot cattle prod. You might get lucky and find a self insured service but that will be nigh impossible. Let me ask you this. Did you do what I originally told you to do? Did you call any of the local services to your area and ask them if they would hire you with a dwi? Did you or didnt you? Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Like Ronald Reagan said in one of the debates "There you go again" Then why not go the firefighter route? But do you like long walks on the beach too? The powers that be are not conspiring to keep you out of this field, your conviction is conspiring against you. No ambulance service is conspiring to keep you out, the insurance agencies are looking at the numbers and they are saying from a risk standpoint, and yes I know risk because I've just spent the last 8 weeks studying risk management that a person who has a DWI conviction on their record is about 50-65% more likely to get another one. NO MATTER that they say "I'm reformed, I'll never do it again" It only takes two drinks in one hour and then get in a car and get stopped by a cop. Blow above a .08 and wham there's another DWI. So from a risk standpoint, you with your DWI are 50% more likely to go out and do it again,no matter what you say to the contrary. I'm sure you are a nice person, I'm sure you are a pillar in your community, I'm sure that you could be president of your country club and your PTA but to the insurance company that is insuring the ambulance service that you want to drive for, you are persona non-grata just like every other person who has everything from a C&I on up on their license. Don't get all pissy with us when we tell you these cold hard facts of life in our business because we KNOW these facts, for you came here for the information and from your original post, you asked for us not to beat you up, which to me says that you knew the answer and the response that you were going to get before you posted the question to us in the first place. And if you put yourself in our shoes, where every single one of us on this forum have seen the effects of what drunk driving does to people you would not be coming here getting pissed off at us for our tepid response to your questions. YES we have been tepid in our responses to you. Many of us have had first hand experience with loved ones affected directly by drunk drivers. Many of us have had loved ones killed or injured. by drunks. Many of us have seen families ripped apart and destroyed by drunk drivers just because a drunk was too STUPID and SELFISH not to call a friend or a cab to take them home. I'll be the one to say it, you were too stupid to call a cab or friend to take you home and you got caught. Just think of what would have happened had you not have made it home safely or had the officer not have caught you. LIves could have been ended or yours could have been ended as well. But I'm sure that with your turning over a new leaf you have thought about that as well right? So you should work on that fallback plan, take those long walks on the beach and not get pissy when you get the cold hard truth told to you because unfortunately, we don't have any control over who or what the insurance companies insure.

Eventually they will get a pumper or another fire truck, I mean somewhere in Philly there's a fire crew that isn't sitting around the Television watching tv waiting for a fire call. It might take em a while to get there but by then, someone will have thought to put call the power company right?

I think that just being pushed out of the womb should be the level of education to allow us to refuse transport for some freakin idiot who calls us for a mosquito bite. For other stuff, that's a different story.

I worked with a guy from the UK who was not a US citizen and he was a paramedic. I don't believe you have to be a US citizen. I suspect that precedence would be given to those who are US citizens and then if any class openings were still available then you could get in the class. I have a friend who is an instuctor and I'll ask him if he would take you as a student in his next class. Shoot me a PM. He's a great instructor and you'd get some really good hands on classroom work. the class would be a rural based class though so you would have to be ok with staying in middle missouri for 5 months or so. If you are interested in that sort of arrangement I could almost guarantee you a slot in his next class. What say you, If you are interested, pm me and we can go from there.

ok, first things first. Call your state licensing bureau and ask them. They will tell you what you need to know. Then do this, call a couple ambulance services in your area and just ask them whether someone who has a DWI on their record has any chance working at their service as a EMT or a medic. You will get a pretty good idea what kind of chance you have in terms of getting a job in your area with that stain on your record. Everyone makes mistakes, even the great Captaintohellwithitall has made mistakes so have hope grasshopper. But do not be surprised if the answers you seek are not the answers you want. Good luck. Do you have a fallback?

The position you showed sure sounds like you are taking the job of a ED Clerk and not a tech. If that is actually the job you are taking then you are going to have hardly NO patient care exposure but you are going to get a bunch of exposure to a area of the hospital that will open many more doors for you if paramedic doesn't work out. You could leverage this position into additional jobs at the hospital in insurance billing, reimbursement and eventually a management level position in their billing department (but those are usually reserved for ladies who have been there for centuries and have scowls on their faces that have been there for years). Think of what the experience of hospital billing could bring to your ambulance service???? If you can take what you learn in the hospital billing arena and bring it to your EMS billing think of how you can help your EMS colleagues write their reports to get a more billable report? Think of if your billable rates went from 50% to 65%, think of what that would mean to your ambulance services bottom line. Your pay could go up, and your equipment that you rely on so much could be replaced on a more steady basis keeping your service more in line with the times. I"m not saying that this will happen but having someone who knows how the hospital bills and can take that knowledge and help integrate it into EMS can't help but make a better EMS system especially if your EMS system in the only one in town with your hospital. Something to think about. Good luck.

all is not lost grasshopper. you might be able to get a medic job only where driving may not be required but those jobs are really really scarce. You could work for a off shore oil rig where driving isn't required. You could work in an ER where driving is not required. But the dui will still probably follow you as a stain on your record but your military record might offset it. Working in an industrial setting might also be an option. Clinic work might work as well. Fire medic might work as well as you wouldn't have to drive the ambulance because you'd be on the fire truck. Good luck and thanks for your service for our country.

Just think, the officers account would have been accepted if the watcher in the sky had not been there. The real hero behind bringing this abuse to light was the cameraman who taped this entire scenario and brought it to light. If that video had not been taken then the officers would have gotten off with their version. Plus the medics testimony on this means nothing because if I am watching this right, the medic on scene was NOT a patient advocate. He did nothing to help this person either. Or did I mis-view the video on his participation. IT appeared to me that he was on scene but there was no patient care other than him putting the patient on the board. The medic should have been way more aggressive. But in partial defense of the medic, he was part of a group that just killed a man so he had to play the role.

I sent a complaint email and it got bounced back. Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

I thought Chicago had gun control laws that suposedly worked:( Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

You better not do that. The chance of getting poked in the back is to great. Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

You never asked till now Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

More than likely the religious place you are going to will tell you their guidelines. They will make their requests to you and it is up to you to follow them. Bear in mind the ramifactions may go far. you could always ask of the person in charge when you arrive what specific things you need to follow. I mean you are hindu so your arrival at a hindu worship site should prompt you of all people to ask if you need to take your boots off? But the advice has already been given, go to the worship sites and ask. What do they expect. But when the patient is critical and you have your job to do, which is to save your patient, I will bet that the religious institution will forgive your indiscretion of leaving your boots on. Just be respectful, let them know that you know what the guidelines are but let me ask this question Critical patient, are you really going to unlace your boots to take them off and then put your boots back on when that delays your treatment and transport of the patient? Like it has been said many many times on this forum and else where, God, Allah, Vishnah and countless other god's that have been worshipped and those that will come after these, I'm sure they will understand your indiscretion. (I hope you don't qualify this as a personal opinion)

Tough to change a culture when there are so many who go out of their way to avoid work. Change comes from the top down and that is what it will take here.

Tyler, welcome back. IF you can guess who this is I'll send you a virtual EMS Patch.

Again, it all goes back to the adage "follow the money" But they couldn't have offered and given membership to two finer ladies. But I wonder why the CEO of IBM wasn't given membership?

For all you know your "sort of buddy" is on this forum and reading all our responses to your post and going to use this forum as evidence in his discrimination or unequal treatment lawsuit if you decide to do a drugtest on him. I would be really careful who you discuss this issue with from here on out. CHBARE speaks truth.