Just Plain Ruff

I'm so incensed now that I'm gonna call Olympus

Premise of the commercial

Olympus's new digital camera

Two EMS workers on scene of a motorcycle accident. They find a Olympus camera and it's lanyard is still wrapped around the patients arm.

They cut the lanyard and one of the guys puts the camera in his pocket. He steals the camera.

Just another insult to EMS

One of the best services I've ever worked for was Johnson County Med Act. High call volume really depended on the station but our crew in the north east part of the county (low call numbers) ran 11 - 15 calls in 24 hours. The busier trucks would run about a call an hour or so

Very very progresive protocols, top quality equipment and very in to allowing riders.

If you want contact info let me know.

MAST in KC MO is pretty good too

If you want a day or two at a rural service where you and your medic partner are the only ones on a critical call - no fire no pd most of the times then I've got a pretty progressive couple of services to put you in touch with. These are all in the Kansas City area.

Near a major airport.

PM Me for more info.

I had an experience where someone on scene fired a gun about 12 inches from my left ear. I had significant hearing loss in that ear for about a week. I had no problem with hearing a BP or lung sounds with my right ear.

7Fissy There is a lot of good advice here. Dust gives his point of view and He's a good guy (really dust you are). There is differing point of view. You ask for advice and you get it. YOu get good advice and you get bad. Some people (recently) have not liked the advice and have come back with insults. You get what you ask for. A lot of us here have more experience out there in the field than some people posting here have been alive. I for one have almost 20 years of ems and ER experience so a lof of us have seen everything before and some of us have seen even more than that. Take whatever advice you want to take and leave the other advice to the side.

If you spend more time here you will see that most advice given here is spot on and excellent advice. Some have different ways of putting things, some are more abrasive than others, some sugar coat it more, it just depends on that person.

If you get offended or angry at this stuff then I'd hate to see how you react out in the field. Not saying anything disparaging but you seemed a little upset by Dust's post.

I don't agree with the insanity out there of multiple certifications but my opinion is that if you dumb down programs enough you get a bunch of dumb people

2 maybe 3 certifications or levels is enough but to have more than 5 in some states or so that is getting out of hand.

In my opinion you open yourself up to tremendous liability if you just run with lights. Some people may see the lights but many will not and if the lights are on and your siren is not on then in the State of Missouri you are not considered running emergency and your liability goes thru the roof.

I'm as guilty as the next person on running hot at times with just lights but that was running thru the town of 5700 people at 3am with lights on only. Why wake the world. But during the day I run both.

We put ourselves at risk every day, going in to scenes that origianlly were safe yet become unsafe, work wrecks on the side of the highways and the like but why put yourself at risk legally and possibly being injured in a wreck if you just have your lights on and not the siren. People don't look for the lights but they sure do hear (most of the times) the sirens and then they see the lights.

I won't put myself at risk. But then again I'm the one who believes that if the person was going to die in the extra 2 minutes or so that it takes me to get to the scene by running non-emergency versus emergency then that person was going to die anyway. Some exceptions though

I'm not telling anyone what to do but my opinion is that if you run lights then you run sirens too. The state of Missouri considers an emergency vehicle going emergency to have both lights and sirens on or that ambulance is not allowed to go emergency. Rules are broken of course. But the courts have not sided with EMS and Fire Agencies who have run lights only.

I'm thinking dystonic reaction. Lots of the symptoms fit this one. I had a patient who exhibited nearly the same symptoms a long time ago and found that they had taken some of Grandma's nerve pills.

but only in between calls, never while on a call.

Or she might be cleaning her B/F ambulance for him

Guys I think she got mad at us and won't come back. She wanted advice, she got it, she didn't like it so now she doesn't like us. Oh well. No sleep lost here.

I cannot add to this post as everything I would have said was said in the last couple of posts.

Good luck

Asys is pretty approachable in my opinion - I'd send him a pm and discuss more.

my best friends 2 year old was taken by sids. His son was my son in my eyes. So I feel your pain.

8, I don't think she wanted the negative advice. I think she wanted the advice all sugar coated and for everyone else to say, AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW it'll be all right. Don't fret, you guys can do it.

Believe it or not when I first started out as a medic in 1987, I was dating a resident for a surgical residency. She didn't understand and hated my hours. Go figure, a resident in surgery hating my hours. We broke up.

I then met my wife about 5 years later and I was very up front with her and told her, I worked 24 hour shifts and then was on call. I told her she had to understand that she would always be a big part of my life but that EMS is a calling and if she didn't think she could handle the hours then we shouldn't go any futher. So far so good and we've been married since 1993.

AJ I hope that you and your boyfriend can handle this but I have more friends whose relationships have faltered and ended due to the hours and such than I have friends whose relationships have made it. For every 10 that fail there is only 1 - 2 that are successful.

Like RLD said, get back to us in a year and if you and your boyfriend are still together we will post it from the roof tops, put it on the goodyear blimp and send you a "WAY TO GO" post on this site.

Well I usually tell them, I'm not sleeping I'm dreaming in style

Or

"But sir, it's 11pm in australia"

our protocols are iF they need to be restrained then you do it. If my safety is in jeopardy I'll either jump out of the ambulance and wait for Law Enforcement or do the restraints myself.

I'm not gonna put my safety at risk for a protocol.

Thanks on the FYI I don't have one of those types of phones so I wasn't sure. Thanks

I never have my phone on when I am working, I turn it on when I know I have a break. It is second nature to all of us to grab our phones or pagers when they go off and unfortunately a lot of times we will grab the phone, it's just a matter of habit.

I have had to tell a partner or two to turn off the phone or not answer the phone when on scene and also while driving. I'm not about to become a statistic.

I dispatched for a small county 911 system about 25K 911 calls a year. Of my 1 year of service there I answered about 2700 calls and I can count on both hands the number of pranks.

Either Detroit has a lot of jokers out there or this dispatch center is in big big big trouble.

I'm appalled at how this was handled by the 911 center. 2 calls from the same number about a passed out patient. Sounds like the same dispatcher also. 2 calls to me from same number and same emergency would have resulted in an ambulance or at least the pd

Very poor form on behalf of Detroit 911

///Rant on

AJ STEP AWAY FROM THE KOOLAID

i just don't understand AJ you obviously have been on this site before and you have obviously read the posts here before. The advice I saw a lot of people give you was really good advice and now you come back all insulted and such and basically tell us all off.

You asked for advice, if you didn't want to hear it then that's not our problem.

As for the keying up your boyfriend or him keying you up that makes it sound like you have one of those walkie talkie type phones. Well in my opinion those are even worse cause you cannot put those on vibrate. During calls and not during calls when the phone gets keyed up then that's annoying.

You say you are serious about your boyfriend and you want to get our advice on what to do with the time that you have together. I'd cherish the time you have together. EVERYONE on this site knows that it can all be taken away in an instant.

AS for the turf war or fighting between the companies, you are surprised that some people in your company have a problem with you helping out the other service. You have to realize that the rivalries between services are pretty significant and you helping out the other company could be considered bad form. You have heard your fellow EMS'rs and they have made it known that you are not toting the company line or the unwritten rule that you don't fraternize with the "enemy" and you could be out on your ear before you know it.

I am sure that your boyfriend going over to the other side pissed a lot of people off and I am sure that there is a lot more behind your boyfriends not advancing in the company than what you told us. I can imagine what those things are but I am not about to speculate or put them here cause like you said in your nasty little post that "I don't know you and you don't know me" (address to Island) so let's not go there.

So in synopsis ---- (to make a long post short ---- too late) you came here for our advice, there are a lot of people who have been in EMS a hell of a lot longer than you have and we all have much more experience than you in these things than you and you tell us to go gargle with 9 gallons of concrete.

Before you open a "Can of worms" like you said, be sure you pick the right can.

///rant off

I agree, working an obviously dead patient leads to major questions on your ability to function as a medic.

Obvious signs means just that, obvious

As for emotions getting into this. You have to be professional and not let your emotions get in the way. If we all let our emotions get in the way we'd be very bad but caring caregivers. For example: you have a 3 year old patient, screaming and saying please don't hurt me, and you are goin to start an iv on him. He needs it due to vomiting and dehydration. Are you gonna let your emotions rule and not start the iv cause the child is crying and screaming not to do it or are you gonna start the iv. Emotions play a role in EMS but to let your emotions rule you and work an obviously dead body, it doesn't matter adult or ped, is a dangerous road to go down.

CRY after the fact, get help if needed but to work an obvious is just plain STUPID AND DUMB

If you started to work an obviously dead patient and transported them into the ED you would get the award for Dumbest Medic in the world for that day.

You would also be reported to your ems director for remediation.

Here's what I've done in the past.

Most of the time my partner and I are the only ones that are gonna be there. Maybe 1 Police but usually not.

So, this is how we do it. Put all the junk on the cot, monitor, o2, jump bag, and whatever else we need. Run the cot with all the stuff on it to the door or to the patient.

Now if you have fire monkeys and such then by all means use them to get the cot for you but........... many times you don't have a fire monkey to get the cot for you.

The other benefit of taking to cot to the door or patient is that you don't have to lug all those pounds of equipment and mess up your back.

VS that was the best post I've seen out of all the posts here.

Well personal experience here.

Call on a 8 month old non breather, found between the bed and the wall - stiff as a board

PD there first, we were about 3 minutes out - CPR Started by PD

PD ran to the ambulance and gave us the kid

WE just put the kid in back, had 3 medics and driver so there were three of us back there.

WE worked the kid to the ER and called her about 20 minutes after arrival

WE worked her because cpr was started and we didn't see the child prior to arrival

Another kid we did not work was the one we found in the crib, parents there, screaming for us to save their baby. The child had obvious signs of death, livor, rigor etc.

Parents threw a fit, yelled screamed yet when we got them calmed down they understood why we didn't work thier little angel

It was one of the hardest call of my life cause I knew the parents YET we didn't work the child cause it was fruitless.

IF you failed by one question then you got enough questions wrong to fail.

Test is 100 questions

passing is 80 percent

That means you got 21 questions wrong so you did not fail by one question. You failed period.

But that said, you are responsible for your own destiny and if you take the test more than like 3 times then it might be time to look into a different destiny.

Sure you can be a good provider but you gotta pass first.

I treated a co-worker who was really dehydrated. Put in 2 vials of MVI and started the IV. Ran the iv wide open and BAM WHAM hives, short of breath and full blown anaphyllaxis. Nearly coded and killed him. Needless to say you can be allergic to anything.

Suspect it was the dye in the MVI but never can be sure.

Was there anyone in the class you didn't particularly like. You could take this opportunity to take some frustrations out on that person without repurcussions ha ha

If the patient condition allows then I always started the IV in the house. Never outside on scene but in the house and if the patient could tolerate it in their condition then I'd start it in the house.

Like said above, it's all in how the patient presents.

I never delay transport to start an IV but there are times.

Basic2be, there is a perception of professionalism that we have to really work hard to keep. IF you are just talking on the phone during breaks then it's not that bad but Youv'e said you are new and your boyfriend is new.

I am sure there is a lot for you to be learning, such as protocols(they need to be like second nature to you) and you need to be able to cite them in your sleep

I'm sure you can learn the map book a little better. And also education to continue your career.

I agree with the other posters here that 6 times or more is a bit excessive. If your bf has already been talked to then his company has noticed a problem already and he's been there like what a Month or less?

It also appears from your post that your partners or co-workers consider your boyfriend to be a "turncoat"(only term I can think of right now) and that is more than likely the impetus behind their comments to you.

You have some good points that I wholeheartedly believe and agree with you on yet there are other's I don't.

I don't agree with your abortion stance, the welfare stance and another I can't remember cause I don't see it right here. Oh well, I can support you with a grand ole WHOOOO HAAAA

Good luck my friend.