Just Plain Ruff

IF you are called into court from a patient that you took care of at the hospital then the hospital lawyers will have that list of abbreviations and can submit that into evidence. If you are on your own and have your own attorney then you can tell your attorney(if you can think that proactively) that the abbreviations you used were taken from the list of approved abbreviations at the hospital you used to work at. If you are on your own totally, then you just say that you used the old employers list of approved abbreviations BUT and I STRESS this, I always used full words, not abbreviations. It may take more work to write Epinephrine or Milligrams out but with my handwriting trust me, it's much better to do that if I'm handwriting a report. The computerized reports are a different story. The room for error in a typed narrative is significant if you are using abbreviations. I attended a lecture by a local attorney who said not to use abbreviations in a computerized report format and he gave some examples but I"m drawing a blank right now what those examples were.

ok, so I'm not sure if I updated the group but this is what we know 1. Katarina has a .79 centimeter hole in the Atrial walls. They call it a moderate size hole 2. They did a CT of her head last night looking for (not sure) 3. They have been doing serial glucose checks since her dad's a diabetic We will have a discussion with the cardiologist. I am sure they will want to send us home and follow up with the cardiologist in XX number of weeks but my wife will not be comfortable with that. I'm sure that surgery to repair this hole is in our very near future. So keep Katarina in your thoughts and/or prayers.

give me a call if you are stil awake emt student

Well, at least she knows now to wait at least 5 or 6 hours for recovery after an arrest rather than 45 minutes before carrying on a conversation.

There has always been one cell phone number and one facebook page. And yes there is so much more to this than you can imagine. you are coming into this with just the tip of the iceberg and not having the full clear picture of the issue at hand. If you would like to get a clearer picture of this I will be glad to enlighten you but be prepared for a hour long explanation because I'm still trying to sort it out. And yes, I was probably the most gullible one (and I don't think I was gullible), and I'll leave it at that. But if you do not wish to learn the entire story and the behind the scenes story then you really won't know what truly happened over the past two weeks.

You have a long way to go in redeeming yourself but many have done just that here. Good luck in doing so.

I would not have held you to that offer.

I'll make this short and simple She was lying - she came out and said to me about 10 minutes ago that she was never sick. The only explanation she offered was that she didn't know why she lied. I hope she gets the help she needs. That is all.

Nope, the hospital is doing just exactly what we are expecting them to do. And I'm not cash strapped and we are going to purchase one of them with or without a prescription. That's a given. As a matter of fact I already have a script written by a very good physician friend which I have in reserve for just the occasion that the children's hospital does not give us a script on discharge. I may be a doofus but I'm a proactive doofus.

There should be in every EMS system a list of accepted abbreviations and if your system does not have one they better get one. You are asking for problems and legal issues if you don't have a list. HOspitals have them for just that reasons.

There is a possibility that there might be a large Atrio Ventricular Shunt or something like that. My wife's with her and i"m home with the other kids. My wife said that is what she thought she saw on the echo. I'm no cardiac nurse or cardiologist but I defer to the wife on this one since she used to work in the Cardiovascular outcomes department of a hosptial known for it's cardiac center. That would explain the blue legs at times though I suspect and maybe it would explain her fussiness over the past couple of days. More to come.

The Childrens Hospital are admitting her for what they call an acute life threatening event. They will observe her overnight and go from there. That's the most up to date status I have right now.

Great Article from a very well respected legal author. http://www.ems1.com/...-the-courtroom/

Yes, too good to be true always seems to be too good to be true but I'm taking two other courses and it's really free. You have to actually do the class work and follow the lesson plans they put out but the course is totally free. So yes it's completely free and online.

I'm still shaking. If anyone wants to know what it might be like to nearly have to do CPR on your 7 month old Daughter, you can ask me. Jenny woke me saying she's not breathing, I pulled Kat over to me, shook her and shook her lifeless body for what seemed like an eternity this morning. Her hands and face were cold, her face was a cold grey in color. Friends, I've seen this look on other patients a hundred times... and I'm thinking, I do NOT want to be doing CPR On my DAUGHTER, GOD YOU DO NOT WANT ME TO DO THIS. DO NOT MAKE ME DO THIS. Finally after my heart is stopped did Kat come around and start to cry. Now that's a incredible sound. It took her a little bit to really come around but she did. And Kat acted like there was nothing amiss. Jennifer is on the phone all the time with 911 as they are asking her questions. Kat is crying wondering why we woke her I guess and Jennifer hands the phone up from 911 and puts on some clothes and grabs Kat and waits down by the front door for the ambulance. I then get dressed and wait with her. The ambulance comes non-emergency which at 3:45 in the morning is the speed in which this old fart medic would have driven as well for a now breathing 7 month old crying in the background patient. Jennifer hops in the ambulance and off they go to Childrens Mercy South. I on the other hand, have to email the boss in Washington DC telling him I'm still coming but the class needs to be cancelled for today, but it will still be on for tomrrow and the rest of the week. I then change my flight to 4pm this afternoon, at least for now. And of course I can't sleep so I'll go in and grab a glass of milk and turn on the computer and maybe play some WOW or just watch the movie I can't seem to finish. Attachment parenting - not a bad thing no matter how much you disagree with the Time Magazine cover page picture. This is not the first time that my daughter has had a SIDS like event and it is not the first time she has been to the hospital for them. The first time she spent the night in the hospital and was sent home. The hospital tells us that they just don't give apnea monitors out anymore. They have to have documented evidence of an event. My wife was pretty pissed that they didn't give us one back then. This time with as significant event as this was, I'm sure that the childrens hospital is really going to poke the bear, kick the hornets nest or wrestle the fat lady if they don't give us a monitor this time. My wife is not one to not get what she wants with her kiddos. And she will not be happy. When the light went on and I saw my daughters face, I saw the face of the last baby that I coded. I'm sure everyone of us can relate and can see that baby in our mind. That's what my daughter looked like. I was saying in my mind, I'm going to have to code my own child and I'm F'ing not going to like this. Please please please wake up. She was limp, like a ragamuffin. I pulled her over to my side of the bed and was shaking her, she wouldn't wake up, I sternal rubbed her, she wouldn't wake up. Why wasn't she waking up. I tapped her face (well tapped wasn't the word) I shook her and shook her and then finally, finally, she stirred, and I shook her again and I heard her start to cry and then she opened her eyes. And then she really got pissed and crying and she was really mad at me for waking her up. But you know what, I didn't care. And then all was as it was prior to her going to bed, she was smiling at me, looking around. LIke nothing was wrong and it was like "Dad, you're a dork" which of course I am. So right now she's at the Childrens hospital. (at least at 4:57am on monday morning) and they are surely going to admit her for a Near Life threatening event. And life goes on.

Dwayne speaks Truth. We are very glad to have you here. Please stay safe over there.

Why as an EMT do you want to Intubate? no offense but you aren't going to be doing it in the field so why the interest in doing it now? Get in a paramedic class and you will be able to intubate in the OR and in the field. Or you can make friends with a physician who might be able to get you into a medical school anatomy and phyisiology dissection lab where you may be able to intubate. I for one as a medic cannot remember the last time I intubate, for practice a cadaver or in the OR patient. You just don't get to do that. So the best bet is to take a medic class. Or get to the Cap lab. Oh, one other place but this is really really stretching it and it may be illegal, nah never mind.

I'm sorry but if I let my practice of medicine be overshadowed every time by the thought and fear of being sued then I'd have quit EMS a long long long time ago. I never treated a patient a certain way thinking that OH SHIT I might get sued for doing this. If you are treating a patient to you scope of practice, not going outside your scope and not doing stupid fucked up things to that patient then the average paramedic joe shmoe should not have to worry about getting sued. Guys, if you are constantly worried about getting sued for doing your job, if you are constantly fearful that the next patient that you see is going to be the one who is going to take all your money in a lawsuit that will take maybe years to settle down the road, then you are in the wrong business to be in. Do your job the right way, don't be a out of control cowboy and treat the patient with dignity and respect and go to work every day. Don't worry bout what might happen 1, 2 or 10 years down the road or you are going to be burned out by the worry before you know it. I've been in EMS for nearly 20 years and I have never been personally sued. My company on the other hand I don't know. But me personally for my ems actions, never. I'll bet that 95% or more on this forum can say the same and that would constitute maybe 500 or more years of combined experience, maybe 1000 years. So stop worrying about getting sued.

Yeah but until we point out the black dog, nothing happens. There are just more big black dogs that come into the room until we can't ourselves get out of the room. There's got to be some point where we say enough is enough, for those of you who let your children get this way, for those of you who do this to this person, this is the price that you pay and you aren't going to like it. There's a colloseum down the block with a bunch of hungry lions and tigers waiting in the arena for you. Enjoy your stay because the lions and tigers are sure going to enjoy their meals. I don't advocate this type of justice but our current justice system just aint cuttin it.