Just Plain Ruff

I already asked him. he says that somehow this is worse than usual. We could see a spike of 30-40 percent increase in this virus's prevalance. He's still working on getting more info on it. But his department has put in extra safeguards to prevent it.

jeesh I sound like one of those nilly willies but my friends rarely been wrong in the past. Theres a reason why he's the lead senior analyst for security at one of the largest Hospital IT department in the country.

I normally don't send this kind of stuff but.... I got this from one of my Tech support buddies, someone I trust implicitly and when he tells me something it almost always turns out to be true. I don't know how true this is ...but it's better to be warned than not. I say, let's be aware so nothing will catch us off guard!!!! Someone says that they have checked it and that Snoopes and Norton says that it is coming! Let's just be warned and not let this virus affect us nor our e-mail buddies!!! http://www.snopes. com/computer/ virus/postcard. asp Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus! I checked Snopes (URL above:), and it is for real!! Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,' regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept. COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US

How to save a wet cell phone Ever dropped your cell phone in the sink, or even worse, the toilet? Did you ever leave it in your pocket and run it through the washer? It Usually means you have to replace your phone, but sometimes if you're Fast, you can save the phone! Steps: Get it out of the water as soon as possible. The plastic covers on Cell phones are fairly tight, but water can enter the phone over time. But this time may be quite short - 20 seconds or less. So grab your Phone quickly! Remove the battery. This is one of the most important steps. Don't Take time to think about it; electricity and water do not mix. Cutting Power to your phone is a crucial first step in saving it. Many Circuits inside the phone will survive immersion in water provided They are not attached to a power source when wet. Remove your SIM card. Some or all of your valuable contacts (along With other data) could be stored on your SIM. To some people this Could be more worth saving than the phone itself. SIM cards survive Water damage well. Just pat it dry and leave it aside until you need To connect your phone to your cellular network. Dry your phone. Obviously you need to remove as much of the water as Soon as possible, so you can save it from getting into the phone. Use A towel or paper towel to remove as much water as possible. Allow the phone to dry. Since you do not want to ruin your phone or Lose all of the numbers in your phone book, you need to allow the Phone to dry. Also, ringtones and graphics stay with the phone - not The SIM. Don't try putting the battery back on to see if it works as This would risk damaging the phone with a short circuit. Put the phone Into a bowl of rice to dry it. If you have a gas oven, just let it dry On the rack. Do not turn the oven on! It is very dry in a gas oven and It is a great way to dry out a soaked phone. Wait. This is the hardest part - leaving your phone alone, with Battery and SIM card out, while it dries slowly. Tricks like leaving Your phone in a bowl of dry rice or silica gel (like the packets found In shoe boxes) will help to expedite moisture evaporation. They might Also have side effects like getting rice in your phone. Just put it Someplace reasonably warm and dry, uncovered so water can evaporate, And wait. Test your phone. After you have waited 10 minutes after ur damn sure That its dry, make sure everything is clean and dry and re-attach the Battery to the phone and see if it works. If your phone does not work, Try plugging it into its charger without the battery. If this works, You need a new battery, if not, wait another few days. If it still Won't work, try taking your cell phone to an authorized dealer. Sometimes they can fix it. Alternate Alcohol Soak Method Dry your phone by soaking it in alcohol or flush out contaminants with Distilled water. This method is controversial and considered risky by Some, but the proponents believe in it strongly. Using alcohol is more Effective than distilled water because not only does it displace the Water and sediments, it also evaporates faster with less residue. It Will not harm your mobile phone. Preferably, use denatured alcohol or A 95% alcohol solution. Denatured alcohol may be purchased at any Hardware store and is used to clean electronics because it evaporates Quickly and leaves no residue. You should check to see what the Alcohol is denatured with. If it is anything other than methanol (some Are denatured with very hazardous chemicals such as methyl ethylene Ketone [MEK]) you should not use it, as some denaturants can melt Plastics. Most drugstores or larger retailers carry 91% rubbing Alcohol. Regular rubbing alcohol is only 70% and is not recommended. Distilled water won't displace water (it is water) but it will dilute Minerals and salts that conduct electricity, which cause "short Circuits". Prolonged exposure to other liquids will cause corrosion of The copper traces within the mobile phone and will most likely cease Its operation. Rice Method To dry your phone more quickly than room temperature air can manage, Immerse it in a can of dry, uncooked rice. The rice will absorb excess Moisture, drying your phone from the inside out. If you're very careful, you can use the rice to heat your phone gently And speed the drying process further. Put the dismantled phone in a Bowl of rice. Put that bowl into a pot, and put that pot on top of a Smaller pot with a bit of water in it, so you don't burn the pot. Allow about an hour, and make sure you don't overheat it. A thermometer placed in the rice shouldn't go over 100F (40C). You may need to cool and reheat a few times. Tips If you have a stove with a halogen light or a light used to warm food, take out the battery and SIM card and let the phone sit under it for 10-15 minutes. Not too close though; it could get too hot and fry. Another method of drying out the phone it to remove the back and the battery, and put the wet phone on your dashboard in your car. Car should be parked in a place where it will get warm and the dash will get hot. After a couple of hours, remove your phone and see if the screen is fogged up. If it is, put it back on the dash. If not, try to put the battery in and boot up the phone. Another method for drying the phone is to set it on top of the vent of a cable box, monitor or TV for at least 24 hours (up to 3 days). The low heat emitted is enough to gently dry out the phone. The longer your phone is wet the more likely it is to be damaged. To dry your phone more quickly than room temperature air can manage, immerse it in a can of dry, uncooked rice. The rice will absorb excess moisture, drying your phone from the inside out. Don't put the battery in for at least three days, or longer if your digital screen is foggy. An alternate drying technique is to seal the phone (battery, SIM card, SD card all removed) in a plastic bag with a few of the silica packs that come packed with shoes, coats, electronics. Leave the phone in the bag for a day or 2, and the silica packs will absorb the moisture. The silica method works! Go to local craft store and purchase flower drying kit. Silica contained in this kit is like sand, spread on bottom of tupperware container and place a piece of tissue paper on top to lay your cell phone on without laying in the silica sand. Seal up tupperware and let sit for three days. The new crystal cat litter works as well as silica, and if you put all phone parts inside a sock or knee high pantyhose and bury it in a new, clean container, it will dry out in just a day or so. If your phone falls in the ocean or other salt water, rinse with fresh water before crystals can form after removing battery. If your phone has been subjected to salt water crystalizing, gently tap the board and the chips with a plastic object (back of the small screw driver for example). The vibration of the taps will set some of the foreign objects free and they will fall out. Be careful and don't smash the board or the chips. A sharp enough blow will break the chips. Tapping very gently multiple times in multiple locations, especially around the chips, is a preferred method. Try opening your phone if you can. You'll probably need a TORX screwdriver for that, but it's worth it. This may void your warranty, but it is likely the water damage already has. It is likely that the dunk in water will kill the battery. Fortunately you can buy another for 20 to 40 US dollars. The phone itself usually survives. Corrosion is a threat. You may want to consider soaking your phone in distilled water to wash away any minerals it picked up from the original water. If you know someone at your local high school's physics department, try putting your wet cell phone in the vacuum chamber at 2 psi for 1 hour. That will dry out parts you can't access. Try holding a compressed air can STRAIGHT (upside down, sideways, or at an angle will shoot out a freezing liquid) and shoot into the crevaces, speaker, mic, and keypad. Any exess water stuck should come out. If the can gets cold and you're not done, let the can sit a while before continuing, as cold air could make exess moisture condense onto parts. If there is no rice or sillica gel around, wrap the cell phone in paper towels. It doesn't work nearly as well, but it's better than nothing. Use a hair dryer or other blow dryer to speed up the process. Since your warranty is void anyway, buy (RAZR needs Torx #4, #5, and #6) screwdrivers to open your case, since these are almost always specialized. Pick up a can of Contact Spray (electric contact cleaner) and douse the inside. It dries rapidly. Scrub any residue with a soft-bristle toothbrush. Spray with compressed air, and put it back together. If it still doesn't work, and it's within warranty,(I don't advocate being dishonest, but you paid for it), take your phone apart, and remove your now-pink stickers (Motorola gets these from 3M. Don't count on buying these easily.) Get a hole-punch and some glossy paper (or laminate some paper), punch a few holes and stick them where the old stickers were (you can also pull them off old cell phones). Turn your phone in for repair after making sure all of the water evidence is gone. In most cases, if you pulled the battery out in time, cleaning the inside with alcohol or contact spray will fix your problem. If there is even ONE drop of water left inside, it can ruin your phone by making the wrong contact. If your phone is still acting strange after you have cleaned it, then you've missed some liquid. (I have repaired MANY Motorola products just by cleaning the boards with contact spray, a toothbrush, and compressed air.) Place the phone in a vacuum chamber and active the chamber. Typically universities and specific industries will have a vacuum chamber available if you happen to know the right person. Water "boils" at room temperature, given enough time, meaning that it evaporates through bubbles even though it isn't heated. This method should be successful when the vacuum is maintained at room temperature for about 30 minutes

based on the above history == hip surg 2 weeks ago, afib and stents I'd go with PE

But the sad thing is that this would have succeeded if it came to court in Californicationia

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5001021,00.html PARAMEDICS responding to emergency Triple-0 calls in Sydney's west are instead being used as de facto taxi drivers to local shops. Older residents are the main offenders - using their pensioner entitlements to secure a free ride in an ambulance instead of paying a taxi fare to go shopping, ambulance sources have confirmed. An ambulance ride to Mt Druitt Hospital costs $290, but the fee is waived for pensioners and other entitlement card holders. Insult to the sick: Most bizarre triple-0 calls Demands: Paramedics want CEO Rochford sacked Paramedics have watched in horror as patients miraculously recover from headaches and other feigned ailments to go shopping across the road. "You get them to the emergency department and they walk out the door. They are the same patients, you know who is going to do it," a source said. "Once the ambulance (crew) has cleared paperwork, they leave and see the person crossing the road and going to the shopping centre. An ambulance is an instant free taxi with a pension (entitlement) card." The first shops, including an Aldi supermarket and clothes shop, are 150m away from Mt Druitt Hospital and a Westfield mall is a few blocks away. A series of other nuisance calls have been revealed by the ambulance service which declined to comment about the Mt Druitt shopping scam. Ambulance officers were called to one woman complaining of a cut foot in Redfern only for paramedics to find she had beetroot in her slipper. A spokeswoman said shift workers called ambulances complaining they were unable to sleep while other calls included people suffering stubbed toes. Women regularly call complaining of period pain and another person pushed an emergency alarm just to check an ambulance turned up, the service said. Opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner said she was aware of abuse similar to Mt Druitt around the state. She called for serial abusers to be charged the equivalent of a taxi fee. Sydney West Area Health is unaware of hospital patients going shopping. Parents of chronically-ill children who rely on Mt Druitt Hospital were horrified to learn of the emergency scam. Sarah Jones, from Willmot, has been told to call an ambulance as soon as her asthmatic 16-month-old son Ethan Kirkham has breathing problems. He spent three days in Mt Druitt hospital this month with asthma and bronchitis. "It is just wrong and it upsets me greatly," Ms Jones said. "My son can have an attack any time." Title edited for appropriateness. - Admin

My class was 120 hours plus 24 hours in the ER and 72 hours in the ambulance I passed my first time so I'm one who made it thru and passed

I know where this thread is goin, down the proverbial toilet, but at least I can try to perform a water rescue to save it.

5 wrecks in how many years? You would also not be working for us. I spent 15 years working in ems and my one and only wreck when I was driving was in my first year as a emt. Like Jp said, you need to focus and not brag about how many wrecks you have been in. It makes us think you are reckless and careless. Wise up and think a little and be more careful. At least one of your accidents, the telephone pole would have been prevented had you used a backer.

I got into the biz for the HOT nurses, the even hotter doctors and the fact that I could completely undress the super ultra hot chicks and keep the ugly, weight challenged patients clothed. Plus I got to be a legal drug pusher. 1200 bucks for transport and 2mg's of morphine, I got to keep the rest. Truly, do a search in the future I think this has been covered ad nauseum(sic) in the past year or so.

I took it the way you wrote it but hey unfortunately a lot can be lost in translation via the internet.

That was a very thoughtful and good first post. One suggestion I'd make is why don't you take some of the enthusiasm you have for sitting at the station during all your free time and go to medic school. You will be better off for that. I am going to go on a limb here and say you want to be a medic anyhow so why not just start the program. The experience you get as an EMT will not prepare you better to be a paramedic. My suggestion is to go to medic school.

sorry for putting this off track, I don't think I did that though. The discussion went it's own way. My original reply about the fluid stands but... I in no way will apologize for taking this thread the way it went, We all know that threads have a mind of their own and I am not going to be chastised for following the thread the way it has gone so far. But in the end, my reponse regarding the fluid replacement was semi affirmed by the doctor I worked with today. He said that a lot of the fluid replacement in electrical burns is done on a trial and error basis and it's not unusual to see someone getting 3 - 4 times the amount of fluid called for in the formulas.

I carried insurance for only a part of my career. I found better uses of that money and I was never sued.

bilateral pneumos on a elderly lady circling the drain. Once the needles were in she started to turn around. One of the closest to trauma codes that I've had that have reversed themselves as quickly I also did on on a ped near resp arrest after he had been shot in the left chest.

you are kidding right? You believe what you type? you are saying that the nurse is only giving medications and following orders for the doctors sake. Just what the heck do you think we out in the field are doing? We are following protocols, written and approved by physicians. That we have a choice in what order we do to treat the patient? We do to some degree but in the end the protocols we have are there for a reason. And your statement that the nurses are getting a history and information is only for the doctors benefit, the same holds true for EMS. Who eventually takes care of the patient? the physician and they rely on our documentation to treat the patient but your line of reason would be that since we aren't doing it for the benefit of the doctor then why should we even care about why we do it? I'm sorry but that last post of yours is absurd and you might want to review why we are there for the patient, it's certainly not for our egos, it's so the continuum of care can be met. We are the first set of eyes an ears for the physician and the nurses in the ER and if we don't do it for them then who the heck are we doing it for? I'll let others chime in on this and see if my thoughts hold true. I'll bet they do.

Be careful on that type of statement. I'm curious as to why you say that paramedics should be teaching the courses if there isn't a doctor teaching them. Why do you say that? I'll bet that an ICU nurse has run more codes per year than many many medics do. I'd also say that ER nurses run/participate in more codes per year than the average paramedic. What makes them less qualified to teach the class? Statements like the above shows an elitist view that I'm not comfortable with? if you can back up your claims then maybe I'd reconsider. It's sort of like saying "that with 3 months more education any paramedic could do an RN's job"

OH MY GOD, and We all know how that Turned out don't we?

plus, how freaking hard can it be to be an inspector. Oh my god, this clipboard is so heavy that my back is out, I'll go to the witch doctor and get disability. Unfortunately no benefit plan, be it retirement, pension, disability or what not is set up to benefit the line employees, they are set up to benefit initially the ones who design the program. Over time it becomes a benefit to the lowbies but in the beginning it is "how will this program benefit me" and the results will benefit the employees but not immediately. So this guy was ordered to show up for work, he has to be a no show for 14 days before they can even begin termination procedures and then there is union representation that he gets because it is a union shop and there is no way the union wants to let one of their dues paying members get fired so they drag this out for long periods of time. Maybe the union will have a little respect and cut this guy loose too. Maybe not. Either which way I see a book "how I got rich off the Boston fire department and other assorted body building tips" and a movie "I was a teenage body builder" Either way, he's set for life.

no I would have stayed, but my wife would not. Maybe I have been around too long but these people are dead, they don't get any deader, they aren't gonna get up and walk around. They aren't gonna arise like Lazarus did when Jesus told him to. They covered them up and waited for the mortuary fiends to come get them. I would more than likely have moved my location down the beach but hey, I can't do anything more for these girls, so why should their deaths ruin my fun. I understand the gypsies point of issue but would they not have done the same thing to an american tourist or a French tourist? Maybe the mortuary people would have made it there sooner but dead is dead.

what is funny is that his Quack, I mean doctor said he had no idea he was a body builder. His doc er Quack called him a scam artist. That's the pot calling the kettle black did the doc even look at the guy without his shirt or pants on. It's hard to fathom that his medicine man, er doctor would not have surmised this guy was a body builder. The doc has had 25 firefighters go on disability with 21 of them granted full disability. I'll bet you didn't know this either, at the Boston Fire department, if you are covering for a captain or a asst chief and you get injured then you qualify for their level of disability pension. So if you are working today as a captain and you simply are a firefighter(being paid at 36K a year) and you are injured while covering for that captain then you get paid out at their salary level which might be 65K a year. So you get 75% of that captains salary just because you got injured covering for that captain. How's that for perks?

I'm sorry but that is Harsh. There had to be something going thru this guys head that he decided to do something like that. Not that i'm a bleeding heart but everyone deserves their day in court only so we can all see how much of a screwed up jerkwad the guy was. I have a feeling the guy died in the fire but I have read nothing more about the guys fate. do I think he deserves to pay for his crimes yes but come on, why such an emotional reaction to a emotional situation.

One other thing, I think that this course ABLS like all the other advanced single subject courses really disappoint the class member if they do not provide information that can be used. Take NRP for example, The only real difference I found when I took the class was that we were focused on neonates. We took what we got from PALS and focused it on neonates. Was it worth going to class for 2 full days? nOpe was it worth a 1 day class you betcha. I was overall happy with that course but I would have liked to have seen a shorter class. I also was a NRP instructor until they realized that I was a lowly paramedic and "paramedics" couldn't teach the class. They said only nurses could teach the class. I tried arguing the point that I was a Regional faculty member for ACLS and PALS, a BTLS instructor, a Paramedic course instructor, a ABLS instructor(ok that was a stretch) a CPR instructor and a overall really good guy. But they wouldn't budge. But they had no problem using me as their lead lab instructor but I just couldn't instruct any lectures. Damn elitists.

Don't get me wrong, I was not saying you were whining I just think you might have expected a little more than the course was going to give. It's not unfair to expect some quality education from so-called experts. but to hear them read the slides and then not be able to answer your questions, is nuts. Even I as a psuedo instructor would be able to offer more than what was on the slides. I would be a little more than miffed if all I got was a reading of the slides, I can do that when I'm at home. I do understand your pain.