crotchitymedic1986

Talk about piss poor planning. I guess they dont have mutual aid agreements in texas, or they werent smart enough to rent a used ambulance from a dealer or hire a private servide to cover the zone. Although there are lots of issues with this, one that stands out is if they charged the patient's insurance for this trip, it would be fraud, since a licensed ambulance was not used. I have worked in busy urban services where occassionally, a supervisor would transport low acuity patients to the hospital in the supervisors vehicle when we were nearly out of ambulances (call volume-- not mechanical), or were out of ambulances. But we didnt bill the patient.

Yes this is amazing, maybe there is hope for Iran and North Korea, if we can all get along. No, she doesnt have any other neuro deficits, her extemities are at normal strength, but is is difficult for her to walk because of the way her head is locked looking up at the ceiling (she cant see where she is going).

I dont know much about it, but a friend suggested you do a google search on the topic below and study this new class of drugs. Is she seeing a good rheumatologists ? TNF-alpha inhibitors

nope kaisu, i wasnt even sure what that was, had to look it up --- so you taught me something today.

No wendy, not menengitis -- that would be too easy No rash, no drug use, she spent a quiet night in her dorm studying. And the neck muscles are tight, not sore. No headache, she still has some all over general body aches from the flu.

Vitals are all within normal limits, including dstick (if you choose to do one later): She has a temp of 99.1 orally, but hasnt taken any medicine this morning, she did have a fever the last two days of up to 101, but it usually subsided with tylenol. She took her tylenol before bed last night, and didnt feel like she had a fever. If you need numbers: B/P 120/76 no significant orthostatic change Pulse 82 -- Monitor NSR without ectopy RR 16, Pulse ox 99% on RA

Very funny, kind of reminds me of something: Have you ever looked at the personal ads on yahoo, aol, or similar sites, and see these BBW who type that they want a good-looking, tall, in shape man, between a certain age range. I am like, for gods sake honey, you weigh 400lbs, and you actually have the gall to set parameters for the guys who should hit you up. You should be grateful if anyone responds to your ad. But it proves this joke to be accurate.

My advice is to look for a National Registry Quiz Book if they have one for responders (I know they have them for medics and EMTI). The problem with the NR tests are the way the questions are worded. If you have never taken college level tests, you may or may not have trouble with the questions. Many who fail know the material, but arent good test takers. If you are going to be in this field as a career, you need to go all the way to Paramedic.

This one is way to easy for the veterans, dont blurt out the answer, give the baby docs a chance please. And yes, this is a REAL CALL, not a what if or hypothetical, and no i didnt do a csection on her --LOL You respond to your local college to find a 19 year old female who is quite anxious and states, when i woke up this morning my neck was locked, i cant move my head. Sure enough, her neck/head are locked in place, looking upward toward the ceiling. History: Appendix removed as a child She had flu symptoms this week and was seen at the college infirmary yesterday. She denies any recent trauma or falls Go for it ..........................

Very true dust, but i dont remember a "bear" section in my paramedic book, maybe this one question is just a good example of several more questions that are unfair to the urban medic. Now if they had questions on their like translating ebonics, how to roll a blunt, or what the street value is for an 8-ball to balance out all of these "white-country-cracker" questions, I am sure the FF's would pass.

OK, I am bored, so I am just going to take the opposing view to see if I can argue it: The test is obviously racist since JaQuante' Staton couldnt pass it. Much like when they asked children in the hood questions like "saucer is to plate" as teacup is to: _________________". If you grow up in the hood, and have never seen a saucer or a teacup, you cant answer the question. To ask someone who grew up in an urban area to answer a bear question is unfair. He probably knew the answer, but second guessed himself thinking if they said "bear" there must be something unique to bear bites. It would be like asking firefighters in Cuba a question about frostbite. And if it is a NR test, it is probably graded the NR way, which means you can miss one question and fail a section. The test is racist or atleast biased against urban people and probably poor people, so it should be thrown out. The EMT is licensed to do the job, and met the hiring requirements, so he should not be fired.

Love you dust, but i cant go along with the extinction of EMTs, maybe we should add a class to the paramedic curriculum on professional behavior and anger management. Hey thats a good idea for Medical School as well, how many times have you seen a Physician totally lose it, and curse out his staff ? My wife worked in several doctor's offices and you wouldnt believe the stories of unprofessional behavior she shared with me. Maybe if we catch them early, we can fix or modify their behavior. But I think you are on to something there dust, if you only paired them with veteran medics, they would lose that paragod attititude real quick. I think being allowed to ride with EMTs that may not be able to question their decisions and point out their errors only bolsters the attitude.

I know dust, my paramedic course was under $300 for books and everything, but that was alot of money in the 80's -- i think my house payment was around $360/month during that time.

Oh I forgot, this infant would have been born in the US, so he couldnt be Obama --LOL

My reply would be the same as it is to those medics who dont transport the drunk because they are the last 10-8 truck, and an emergent call may occur once they get tied up with the drunk: I can only worry about and/or treat the patient that is in front of me now. As far as WWJD, I dont pretend to know, but using what i know about his life, he could have chosen to escape death on earth, as he surely knew he was going to be crucified, but he chose to do what was right at the expense of his own life. Of course you could take that arguement to say it was GODs plan for this mother and infant to die in this crash, but then I would answer maybe it was god's plan to save the infant by placing the "cowboy medic" and a physician on the scene immediatly after the accident, so that the baby could be saved. And for the arguement about all the patients I would never get to treat, because I lost my license: Maybe this infant is so grateful for being saved that he grows up to be a paramedic, and then a paramedic instructor who teaches 1000's of paramedics over his lifetime, thus touching more patients then i ever could in my career. Maybe he is the person that cures cancer, maybe he is the next Obama.

Ok, you guys are still missing the point. Lets say for the sake of arguement that the worse does happen: you get sued, or you lose your job, or you lose your certification, and you are destined to die a homeless person with no family around you because you are so poor from not being able to find a replacement job. That doesnt erase what is the morally "right" thing to do. And yes, often times, doing the right thing is the hardest thing to do, and often times you may get a punishment for doing the right thing. If I had the foresight to know that all of the things I listed above would happen if I saved that baby's life, I would still do it, because saving the infant is the right thing to do. It is like passing a pregnant stranded motorist(with children) on the side of the road when it is snowing. I can make all kinds of arguements for why I shouldnt stop: I will be late to where i was going, I could get hit by a car, or my car could get hit, She could be in disguise to get me to pull over so her buddies in the woods can rob me, she probably has a cell phone and has already called someone. But at the end of the day, the right thing to do is stop and assist her. In other words, WWJD ? Hey Riblett, as I mentioned before, in my opinion the closest hospital is the best choice. Especailly since I have since learned that the mom's head was squashed so you may have a hard time with the airway. Even though that hospital does not have OB or neonate facilities, every ER should be prepared to do an emergency c-section, and should be able to stabilize a neonate. They will not be happy about it, but that baby needs to get out of their as soon as possible. They can call a helicopter or ambulance to transport the infant to a facility that has a NICU.

I was just quoting what others have called us for doing the right thing. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If nothing else, we came close to learning the dollar value of a human life today. I cant say what it is exactly, but we know its not worth more than the price to get an EMT or medic certification, so it is below $5000.00. I guess the recession has brought down the value of everything.

You didnt give the patient CHFor diabetes -- you will never know if she was really saveable. She may have still arrested if everything went smooth.

not everyone, there are atleast "3" of us "cowboys" who would do the right thing.

They also have a term called fetuscide for those who kill unborn fetuses through violence while it is still in the womb --- and most states dont allow third trimester abortions for a reason. But if it helps you sleep at night to say you let a fetus die instead of an infant, that is cool.

What if I told you that a podiatrist and his LPN, neither of which were certified in CPR, were eating at a restaurant, when a child began to choke and turn purple. Neither has emergency or CPR experience (the doc remembers taking it once back in the 70s), but there is a heimlich poster on the wall that instructs you how to do it. But the podiatrist and his nurse do nothing and just sit at their table out of fear that they will be sued if the boy dies, or gets a broken rib. In the paper the next day, the headline is "Boy dies at restaurant, Doctor says if I had tried to save him, I could have lost my license" . He goes on to explain that he has no emergency training, and to render aid in this situation is outside his scope of foot care.

I guess that is possible doc, and would explain some miscommunication between the two, but like I said I never witnessed that perspective. The clash I usually saw was Paramedic versus lazy EMTI that you had to drag into patient care situations (they belived their job was solely behind the steering wheel). But for most of my career I was an FTO or manager, so I always tried to teach-up my EMTs to get them ready for Paramedic school if they chose that path, or just to make them better EMTs. I always stressed that we were a team, and due to that, there was rarely any conflict on the scene. I guess I was lucky.

If you would rather let an infant die because you are too scared to do a procedure that medical control has authorized you to do, and you have a physician standing next to you to assist or perform the procedure, then I would say your future patients are better off. Who knows how many you would let die, to stay certified ? I dont let lawyers dictate how i treat my patients. I would be ashamed to wear a paramedic patch in the future, if i let this child die.

Great comback --- but i think violence was permissible in that situation.

Where are your patient values ? Do you ever put patient advocacy above your certs ?