crotchitymedic1986

I applaud your efforts, but doubt you will have success. Chatting in a chat room is so 1990ish. I can't remember the last time i was in a chatroom. Most of us choose to chat through texting or by posting on a social site like this or facebook, and then returning when you have time to follow up. Sitting in a chatroom for hours is just too inefficient.

I think that is very generous of you. Since you have decided to reward someone from this forum, then I think you should base it on which 5 forums have received the most feedback or participation (the longest forum topic), or maybe you could do a combination: 1. The poster with the longest thread gets one. 2. The poster who has the highest "grade/score" number from their peers on here. 3. Maybe one for the poster who has been active on the site for the longest time (one of the forefathers). 4. Maybe one for whoever has posted the most topics. 5. Maybe one for the best topic posted, but not sure how your would judge it.

If you asked the question 10 years ago, I would have a totally different answer, as there were more Hummers and F-450 size vehicles on the road, but like in the 70's, high gas prices will probably keep most folks out of those vehicles for the next several years. I agree with checking with the National Highway Safety Council's, the Consumer Reports, and the National Insurance Institute's crash ratings, as scientific results or usually better than personal opinion. With that being said, most of these studies use the same type of crash test, which may or may not represent real world collisions. In my opinion, any small truck or car puts you at greater risk, especially if you are hit head-on or broad-size by a larger vehicle. The bigger vehicles often give a false sense of security, which let's their occupants choose to not wear a seatbelt. Unfortunately, these vehicles have a higher probability of roll-over, so passengers die from being ejected from the vehicle during roll over. Unlike the crashes you see on tv, most do not result in a roll-over and an explosion. I would say choose a vehicle that has multiple airbags and has some girth to it. Drive safely; no texting or cellphone use, wear a seatbelt, put your kids in carseats, and use defensive driving practices that most of us do not use. For instance, if I were to get in your car with you and ride for 20 miles on any road, if I turned to you and asked, "Can you tell me what the last road sign said that we passed ?", could you ? If we were on the interstate for say 30 miles, and I turned and asked, "if we broke down right now, could you tell me what was the last exit we passed ?" , could you. Truck drivers are taught to constantly scan left, middle, right, rear-view mirrors every second that they are on the road, most car drivers do not. How many times have you driven for several miles, zoned out, and then suddenly realize you do not remember the last several exits ? The vehicle does not matter as much, if you are driving safely and defensively.

At the end of the investigation I am sure we will find it was a combination government-stupidity and union-greed issue.

I am sorry, I did not mean that you should not treat the patient prehospitally as you normally would, Just pointing out it was CHF and not some other rare disease that only "House" could figure out.

You dont have to fly anywhere, the OP can tell us, and its not dehydrating the patient, it is draining an overload of fluid.

Sure I will, read the chart and see what treatment the patient recieved, I bet my paycheck against yours that the pt was in CHF and got treated with Lasix. We can speculate all day, or go see what the truth was.

If reassesed "several times" the amazing bruise would have been noted prior to arrival at the ER. Using a KED upside down is for a hip fracture, not a femur fracture.

your patient was in CHF. just needed alot of Lasix.

Your mistake was in not reassessing the patient during transport. Luckily, didn't cost your patient their life, so its a good learning experience. Sometimes with hip dislocations, it is possible for the patient to pop the hip back in place by trying to get off the floor (or when you move the patient). The femur probably became displaced when you put her on the stretcher and straighten out her legs.

I can judge the quality of medic by whether or not there is a pillow on that stretcher. Sorry medics do not have one, as patient comfort is beneath them. Ditto for a blanket.

So you arrive at the home of John Doe who is blind and has a service dog. He needs transport to the hospital, but refuses to go unless he can take his large german shepherd service dog with him. What do you do ? You are the only emergency vehicle on the scene, do you: Transport the dog in the ambulance ? Refuse to transport the dog due to allergies future patients may have in your vehicle ? Leave the patient and his dog, once he refuses ? And yes, this is from a real call, so it can happen to you.

I would add that it is not enough to have the policy, you should have a notebook in your vehicle that lists what every firefighter's normal vital signs are (maybe by badge number or something so you wont have HIPPA issues). 160/88 doesnt sound too bad, unless you know that is close to their normal, might change your mind if you knew the normal was 104/60. Write a policy that states they can not return to fight fire until their v/s are within 10-20% of their normal.

Anything is possible, but I would suggest this is not a good move. Before my comments get taken out of context, I realize that any physician has many years of college under their belt, and are obviously more intelligent than the average person, but it has been my experience that many ER Physicians have little knowledge in management, personal relationships, and budgeting (ever seen a doctor curse out a nurse in public, or throw a chart across the ER; do they practice good budget practices for their facility or practice defensive medicine that blows the budget). In this economy it is mandatory to have a leader who understands budgets and reimbursement or you will soon find yourself privatized.

Yes my comments were for the original poster. I appreciate the fact that living together forever without marriage works for some couples, but the vast majority of women do not wish to be in that type of relationship. They want their fairy tale marriage day that ends in bitter divorce 2 kids and 7 years later. I imagine your job has little to do with your problems. If you are serious about this relationship, see a counselor.

Sorry to hear that, it is most likely that he had a seizure, and his airway became occluded during the seizure. It is possible that it was a cardiac event, due to his age, but alcoholics generally have cleaner arteries than their non-drinking counter-parts.

2 questions: 1) Do you think the fact that you have been together 7 years, but you cant commit to marriage may be part of the problem. At some point all women get tired of being your live-in sex toy. 2) If you been together for 7 years and for whatever reason she is not worth marrying at this point, why are you still with her ?

You have a golden opportunity that I hope you do not let slip by. Find the "best" most aggressive service in your state, get a copy of their protocols, and then go a little better with yours. Liberal protocols can be used as a recruitment tool to attract medics to this service, and whats wrong with being able to brag that you have the best protocols (plus, you may not have to recreate the wheel too much if the other service has a really good set). I have always preferred the "flow chart" style of protocols, similar to ACLS.

sorry, its third degree.

http://www.quintcareers.com/sample_behavioral.html Be yourself, answer honestly, if you dont know what to say, dont try to make something up to fill the void, just say can I think about that one for a little bit, and go on to the next question. Ask yourself tonight, what question could they ask me that would just mess me up, and think of a good answer. Get a buddy to help you out. Some I liked to ask: Tell me about a call where you or your partner made a mistake with patient care. Then, what did you learn from it ? Tell me about a time when you or your partner disagreed about patient care, how did you resolve it ? Everyone has at one time or another taken something home from their workplace that did not belong to them, what dollar value would you assign to the property that is currently in your home that you took from work ? How many traffic laws have you violated this week, that you did not get caught for ? Many EMTs/Medics have falsified a patient care report, a falsified set of vital signs, and incorrect 10-8 time, maybe painted a narrative picture that was a little different from reality. Have you witnessed this ? If yes, how did you handle it ? If no, how would you handle it ?

Glad you answered, the cricket noise was deafening. Yes I went there.

Dont beat yourself up, everyone in this room has a call somewhere in their past that they would probably do different in hindsight (except for the rookies who havent run enough calls yet), but your story makes a good point about not letting your guard down, on even routine patients. I remember one of the Doctors I worked with in the ER was a part-timer, who was really a podiatrist by day. Because he was so uncomfortable in his skills, he was known for ordering way too many lab tests for the stupidest things, and of course every patient with a bump on the head got a CT. But you know what, about once/twice a month, he would discover something odd, that made him admit a patient that the normal ER doc would discharge. Thanks for sharing.

What would JESUS do ? Why is your answer different ?

i imagine if your parents or children lived in the squalor of mexico, you might have a different opinion. You are lucky you were born here.

Dear Ruff, you can call anyone you like a racist, you are entitled to your opinion. You site welfare; that was passed about 40-50 years ago, what have you done for me lately ? But for the record, welfare is a "white people" program, not blacks. Your average welfare recipient is a white female who is single with kids. I have not seen a national white politician do anything to help blacks, only whites (my opinion). Just look at your cocaine laws, how many blacks are in jail for crack, versus how many whites for powdered cocaine ? With 70% of the population being white, do you really think only black people use drugs ? http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,974473,00.html