SSG G-man

I cried after one call I remember. Call went out as a Priority one choking. on way we are told it is a 2y/o female. Great, a kid!! Well, arrive on scene and child has expelled a large chunk of a chicken nugget. Child obviously has a cold (snot nosed kid). Child is crying loudly. I am thinking this is a very good sign. (FYI on a priority one call they dispatch closest BLS ambulance, closest ALS unit (might be ambulance or a medic in a explorer) and an engine company) so we have the cavalry coming. Well, with the foreign object being expelled, decent lung sounds and good air exchange, I cancel the medic unit and tell the mother we are going to transport just to have her checked out. Well mother is holding child, child crying so much she starts to vomit. We yell at mother to turn child so she can vomit on the floor. Mother instead hugs child tight. Child aspirates vomit and goes down hill from there. We have to call and turn the medic unit around. We transport and meet the medic in route. I heard child was flown to the children hospital that night. Well, thank goodness it was a rainy evening. on the way back to station my driver had to concentrate on the road and did not see me crying! I beat myself up over the situation! One of our station officers who responded to the scene had been an medic, but had given it up told me he would have made the same call as i did. At the time I cancelled the medic, there was no als interventions needed. He said the person responsible for the condition of the child was the mother. One for letting the child eat the damn chicken nuggets in the first place and two, for not letting the vomit on the floor and causing the child to aspirate. I cried myself to sleep that night, was considering getting out of EMS!!

Not to be an a$$, but make sure you have someone proofread and edit for you. Should have said, "Have any of you written one before?" Lets make sure if we are going to put ourselves in the public eye like that, we do it correctly.

At my volunteer department we do have what we call observers ride. They all are at least CPR qualified, members of the department and are waiting for EMT class. They also are given information and training and are tested before they can ride. They mostly serve as a gofer. (Go get me the LSB, bring another O2 bottle, etc). We make sure they know where everything is on the ambulance so they can keep the EMT from having to leave the patient to get items. Sarge

I have not. I was getting ready to post something mentioning that!!

Case 1 I would probably have used reeves to get out of immediate area and had a LSB on cot. We usually put cardiac arrest patients on LSB to assist us when doing compressions, the LSB wont give like the mat on the cot.

You can pm me and I will answer.

I do not consider that tactical. That is HAZMAT EMS if there is such an EMS specialty.

My thought is that if tc3 (tactical combat casualty care) comes into play you perform your job, you are a tactical medic. I seriously doubt there are very many in the US who would qualify. I mostly see military medics (including folks from AF, and Navy Corpsman) falling into this category. I have not seen too many SWAT Teams that have medics deploying directly with them. I did see on discovery channel show, Miami Swat took a FD Medic and trained her, so there are a few. Just my opinion.

Hey, Dust: Roy almost always drove!!! Occasionally would ride ambulance! I have the first three seasons on DVD!!! My 10 year old daughter loves to watch with me!! Sarge

An "unknown medical" had been dispatched. this brings a large response, BLS unit, ALS unit or medic chase car, maybe an EMS supervisor if available and an engine company. BLS unit arrives on scene. After a few minutes dispatch, wanting to know if all responding units were still needed asks for status from on scene unit. Their response to what is your status: "We have a driver and 2 EMT's." About wet myself!!

Well, from what I have been told, this is a "secure" or encrypted channel. For a relatively rural area we have a pretty sophisticated radio system. Partly due to our close proximity to DC and the need for interoperability in case of major event. We are even ahead of some of the closer in, more urbanized and affluent counties.

Our radio system has an "EMS Secure" Channel. Only the ambulance radios have this channel, so fire side can not listen in. This is sometimes utilized. My department also has a cell phone in each of the units. Since it is a relatively small county, and some of the dispatchers are also members of our department, we sometimes get a call on the cell phone. County might go to sending rip and run sheets. These print out in station and give info. This might help to get the information out also.

It does not help us to explain one acronym and through in several more that we do not know. ARC and OMG? I am trying to learn form this thread but assuming we all know these acronyms is not a go start point. Kind of like throwing 10-codes into the discussion. Sarge

I may be showing my ignorance, but what does ESF stand for?

In our county the ambulance are either Ambulance XX or Paramedic Ambulance XX. My station has paramedic equipped ambulances and one is always maned with a career crew with a Medic on board. The other can be either ALS or BLS depending on the volunteer crew. The county's medic chase vehicle go by Medic XX. The units in the stations throughout the county are numbered as follows: Station number followed by vehicle number. Fire apparatus is low end. Stations with multiple ambulances will add extra 9 at end if they run out of numbers. Special units have designation followed by station number: (I am at station 2) we have: Engine 22, 23, 24 Jeep 2 Squad 2 Tanker 2 Ambulance 27 Ambulance 28 Utility 2 (Command vehicle) EMS Utility 2 (suburban) Car 2 (Old Diesel Suburban) Hope this helps.

There is a local volunteer EMS department whos motto is "when seconds count." Since we mutual aid them on a VERY REGULAR basis, we felt we should add "we don't get out." One month we had more calls in their first due than our own!!

I take offense to the Reference to the National Guard, since I work at the Army National Guard Readiness Center!!! I do not think this IMERT was in LA 4 hours after called. The Guard moved the equivalent of a Corps to the area in under 96 hours. This was considered a great logistical feat!!! If you know anything about the National Guard, you would know that we have more Soldiers now than at the time of the Iraq invasion, so numbers are not down. The only thing that has even remotely been an issue is equipment, and for the most part that is not that big an issue. Don't usually use M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks in disaster relief. Some places are low on HUMVEEs and Trucks, but CONGRESS, can not seem to pull its head out of its fourth point of contact and appropriate the money necessary to replace them! Have a great day! Sarge

I saw they lost the contract to run the service in Richmond , VA. Apparently all the equipment , units, etc belong to city, AMR was running things. I read they had not net response time goal in 11 out of last 12 months!!

I can not imagine my system ever getting them, but it would not be a bad idea. What has injured more EMS workers? Gunshots/stab/etc or WMD? But we have several glow worm suits in the back of our unit. Can not say we have had very much training with them. We have a county hazmat team which has EMT-Bs and EMT-Ps, so let them do the the dirty work. Just mu $.02!!

Yep, that is a better analogy. Should have mentioned that myself. Thanks!!

The original poster made a comment about the National Guard and the Reserves. I do not think the comparison is valid. The NAtional Guard and the Reserves are both paid, they are not Volunteer. When the time comes, they are ORDERED to duty, not just show up if they can. They are trained the same as the Active Component. They go to the same basic training and meet the same basic training standards every year. In many training exercises they actually do better than Active Component units. I think this is due to the fact that many of their members spend their entire career working the same unit with the same people, not getting shuffled around like the AC, but I digress. I just think comparing your team to the Guard and reserves is comparing apples and oranges!! Sarge

I was going to question the 33,000 number. Especially since there is the "we have" statement. I have not heard of a MCI that large in my life time. Where and was this event? If I slept through it or was during my college years, I apologize!! Sarge

Spenac: Thanks! The intent of my original post was to point out how scared I was for my relatives. When I lived there I was a teenager and never thought of the stuff. Plus, My parents and I lived in the county seat and were minutes from the hospital. My sister lives in one of the outlying areas and during a visit just prior to the post I found out what there system was like. Where I live now, most of the rural Volunteer departments are combination fire/EMS. Not there! They have volunteer FDs, but the EMS is county run. There are first responders throughout the county that will show up in their POVs with some gear, but a transport unit is a LONG way off. (not sure if the first responders are allowed lights and sirens on their POVS, so I do not know how "whackerish" they are. My original post had nothing to do with commenting on the abilities of any of the providers.

Well, if I had the tools.... We can "what if" things to death with this scenario. Like I said, there are a lot of things that maybe someone "could" do, but might choose not too. I might have my CLS bag in my truck and have a bag of fluids and the set up kit. IF I knew EMS on the way, I probably would not start the IV, just because I do not do it very often and the EMS folks would have the better chance of getting it right. I was mainly playing devils advocate in my last post because one of the earlier posts made it sound like some one was going to jail for using a glucometer. IF you are trained to use it, I don't think that is the case. Sarge

Playing devils advocate (no pun intended): I can go and buy a glucometer for my self and use it. If when stoping at a MVC, etc I am acting as a private citizen under good samaritan (which in my area I belive says some thing to the effect of you are not liable if you render care within your training level.) and I have been trained in the use of the device, then I should be able to use it. (My protocols allow us to do BGL). I do not carry one, and probably would not want to use one. Just another side of the argument. I mean, as an EMT-B in my state I am not allowed to start IVs, but I am trained to start them as a Army Combat Lifesaver. IF I am on scene of accident and EMS arrives can I assist them by starting IV? I probably would not, but could be argued that I can. Just food for thought. Sarge