Dustdevil

You didn't? Looks to me like you did.

Phil, have you totally lost it? Why not? You're judging it, aren't you? You don't have to live in the land of the perfect system to recognise when one sucks, including your own. No shyte. But we didn't make them. Ain't any lawyers on this forum that I'm aware of. We don't know that. There has been no trial yet. Even you must agree that a trial is needed to determine guilt first, right? Too bad you don't arm your pilots like Marisa on TRAUMA. She'd have blown the little bastards away, and rightfully so.

I'm still waiting for someone to have the guts to place the blame squarely where it belongs: on the paramedic union. If it had not been for their selfish political wrangling, so many people would not have been left with insufficient educations.

Nonsense. There is nothing positive coming from these videos for the profession, unless you consider more street scum thinking that being an ambulance driver might be cool a positive thing. Good for him for finding an outlet for his artistic side, but let's not pretend that he's doing something for the profession.

I think not. I've never committed a violent crime, even while unemployed, and I am more than twice this tarts age.

Agreed. But the fitting punishment for any violent crime should be death on first conviction. Period.

Kill her. Problem solved. Society is better for it. Preach on, Brother Baretta!

I hate to say it, but as many negative stories about UK EMS we see coming out -- refusing to respond from lunch, clinical screw-ups, half hour responses, etc... -- I can't say that I am terribly surprised that the public has some animosity towards them. Perhaps it should be taken as a sign that they are FAILING at public service and public relations.

http://www.ems1.com/ems-oddities/articles/821575-UK-girl-jailed-for-drunken-attack-on-paramedic/ May 19, 2010 UK girl jailed for drunken attack on paramedic An Oxford student has been jailed for a drunken attack on a paramedic By Chris Riches The Express OXFORD, England — A brilliant student has been jailed for a drunken attack on a paramedic who raced to her aid as she lay slumped on a pavement. Oxford Brookes University's Melissa Massey, 20, tipped to graduate with a first-class honours degree this summer, wept when told she must spend the next eight weeks in prison. Mortified Massey, who owed her life to medics after being hit by a drunk driver as an 11-year-old, admitted assault and apologised. She had no recall of the incident, Manchester Magistrates Court heard. She was sprawled against railings at 1am after a New Year's Eve party when paramedic rapid responder Ann Sumner, 43, knelt to help her. Massey hit her and tore out clumps of hair. District Judge Alan Berg said such assaults had an "incalculable" impact on the profession and described it as a tragedy that Massey had found herself in the dock. He said: "The incidence of this type of offending in city centres in particular is far too great and the courts have got to step in. "They're the only body who can try to bring this outrageous, barbaric behaviour, drunken barbarism, to an end. I'm not prepared to allow members of the medical profession to be used as punch bags by drunks." As Miss Sumner carried out checks and covered Massey, of Denton, Greater Manchester, with a blanket, the student launched an attack that "seemed to go on for ages", the court heard. An unknown man joined in, punching Miss Sumner in the neck and chest before walking away and saying "Respect - Happy New Year", said Gareth Hughes, prosecuting. The man was never traced. Miss Sumner, who was treated by colleagues for shock, scratches and bruising, needed a month off work. Massey, who has won an internship with a consultancy firm and was hoping to do a Masters degree in America, said: "I'm absolutely morti-fied. I feel terrible. I want to offer my deepest apologies to the woman and her family. I don't normally drink like that. Paramedics saved my life when I was younger and I have the utmost respect for what they do." She spent almost a week on life support after being knocked down as a child. Massey was described as a "motivated young woman", founder-president of her student union's Women In Business Society and spent a summer teaching in India. Alastair Reid, defending, said she had downed cheap drinks that night and her actions will "haunt her for a long time". Miss Sumner, a paramedic for 20 years, said yesterday she is still psychologically scarred by the attack. She said: "She pulled out whole handfuls of my hair. You could see gaps on my head. I didn't sleep properly for days."

If you're smart, you'll stop there, Albert!

Oooh! Good idea! She's welcome on my casting couch any day!

LOL! Hunter S. Thompson would be proud!

RIP Marisa.

I renew my call to shut down each and every service that uses the word "star" in their name. It's getting ridiculous. The fact that so many administrators have so little imagination that they can't come up with a more original name pretty well explains why they also can't come up with a decent service.

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/trauma-cancelled-season-two-15033/ Trauma: NBC TV Show Cancelled (for the Second Time); No Season Two Published: May 14, 2010 To no surprise whatsoever, NBC has cancelled their Monday night medical TV show, Trauma — for real this time. Trauma revolves around a group of brave first responder paramedics in San Francisco. The high-action series is populated by an ensemble cast that includes Derek Luke, Cliff Curtis, Anastasia Griffith, Kevin Rankin, Aimee Garcia, Billy Lush, Jamey Sheridan, and Taylor Kinney. The NBC series got off to a poor start last fall with just a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.68 million viewers. The ratings fell from there and the show was essentially cancelled when the network decided not to order additional episodes beyond the initial baker’s dozen. Then, in large part because the show was still in production and NBC needed additional original programming, the network ordered an additional seven episodes. Viewership continued to fall and NBC cut back their additional order to five installments. The last one aired on April 26th. Though NBC has a lot of slots to fill on the 2010-11 schedule, Trauma’s ratings were just too low to pay for a second season. It’s been cancelled after 18 episodes. Though devoted fans may mourn the series’ demise, a consolation might be that they got five more episodes than the ratings realistically warranted. What do you think? Are you sorry to hear that Trauma won’t be back next season? Any thoughts on how you would have wrapped up the series? Yeah, we bagged on it a lot, but I'll genuinely miss seeing this every week...

What an idiot. This is why IQ testing should be a prerequisite for EMT school acceptance. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/crime-scene/josh-white/former-ambulance-driver-pleads.html Former ambulance driver pleads guilty to stealing heart monitors A former ambulance driver who briefly worked at Children's National Medical Center and the Washington Hospital Center in the District pleaded guilty Monday to stealing two expensive heart monitors out of ambulances and trying to sell them to a company in New York. Kyle Walcott, 31, of Baltimore, was accused of stealing two Lifepak 12 Defibrillator/Monitors from parked ambulances at Children's hospital and at a V Street, Northeast facility belonging to Lifestar Response, the company for which Walcott worked. Walcott worked for Lifestar for just more than two weeks in November 2008. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Walcott stole the monitors in mid-November 2008 and then shipped them to a company in upstate New York from a Baltimore UPS store. The monitors, which are critical pieces of equipment in an ambulance, are worth approximately $15,000 each when new. The New York company, which had purchased used medical equipment from Walcott in the past, became suspicious upon receiving the nearly new, high-end equipment he had sent. The company then traced the serial numbers back to Lifestar and learned they had been stolen. Walcott, officials said, admitted his guilt in interviews with investigators. He entered a guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 4 and faces a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in jail, but sentencing guidelines likely will result in a sentence of no more than six months in jail and a fine of between $1,000 and $10,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. -- Josh White

I prefer diazepam. You can't give midazolam anally.

I'm always surprised when I read about someone "asking" someone to have sex with them. Does anyone really do that? I don't think I've ever asked anyone to have sex with me. I mean, you don't ask. You just do it! And if you have to ask, then you probably shouldn't be doing it! I know I've never had to ask any of my cousins!

LOL! That's an astute, but sadly true observation! You could take me to the best system in the state, and I'd find you a worse idea within an hour. Bad ideas are not exclusive to rural communities. Far from it. But Steve, the ECA issue is not really what this thread was about either. It's about non-medical volunteer ambulance drivers. It's about the way the idea is marketed to the public, basically putting out an all-call for whackers to come play with the siren. Hell, the ECAs are probably the least failure in the equation. And I agree with Spenac, that ECAs are indeed EMT lite in Texas. Of course, I took it in 1973, so I'm sure it's changed since then. And I haven't even known an ECA in over twenty years, as they don't really exist in urban Texas.

A drummer friend of mine lives up there and was actually going to that show that night, but ended up blowing it off at the last minute. Good thing!

How do they afford to fund the public schools there? Since they have no money, are they allowed to simply let their kids work the fields through their childhood instead of attending school? Of course, I'm being facetious because we all know they have schools. And paid teachers. And paid school bus drivers. And paid athletic coaches. And paid janitors. If the people there thought EMS was important, they'd fund it. They don't, so they won't. It's that simple.

Steve, we were discussing the United States, not Idaho. But anyhow, you don't make the point that they cannot afford it. You only make the point that they don't think they use it enough to justify it. And hey, when you move to BF Egypt, that's the choice you make. But it has nothing to do with not being able to afford it.

The problem here is that the people promoting this are not stakeholders. They are people attempting to circumvent the system and get by without employing actual stakeholders.

LOL! You better wear body armour if you're going to toss out some of these insults!