Wes

Ok, I was asked to wade in on this one. First of all, I agree with DustDevil's advice about learning how to write a report from law enforcement. Those people know that EVERY one of their reports have the potential to end up in court. As such, they tend to document pretty well. I've worked in a prosecutor's office and the law enforcement reports all have two things in common -- they are written almost strictly chronologically and they describe just the facts. Electronic PCRs are great for capturing vitals, demographics, and inteventions. I've also found that they are great at reminding you to capture certain things in your assessment findings. As for reporting formats, I prefer straight chronological. Those reports are the easiest to read and follow. As I've always said, ultimately your patient care may be judged by twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. Personally, I'd want to make it as easy as possible for them to understand what you did and why you did it.

If I remember correctly, I remember Gene Gandy (some of y'all may know the name) talking once about an ER doc presenting an almost identical case. The ER doc used small doses of Epi 1:1,000 injected directly into the tongue, primarily for the vasoconstrictive effects in an effort to reduce the swelling. Thoughts?

I'm Wes, 37, and in Austin, Texas. (Hope that didn't sound too much like a personals ad....) I've been on a lot of the EMS email lists and websites for a long time, but I just joined EMTCity yesterday after getting a link to this site after Rob's passing... So, I guess in a way, we can thank or blame Rob for bringing another person to this site. As for me and what I do.... I've been a practicing attorney for about 10 years now and currently work in Austin for state government. I've been interested in EMS since about midway through law school (1999) and got on some of the EMS lists and rode out way too much with Lubbock EMS and Austin/Travis County EMS. Got my EMT-B back in 2004 and then my paramedic in November 2007. Since then, I've managed to stay practicing law during the week and do various EMS activities on the weekends. I've bounced around a few services in Central Texas and one near Houston. Currrently, I volunteer as a paramedic about 30-45 minutes southeast of Austin. For those of y'all that know me, you know I can be a bit opinionated. For those that don't know me, I'm looking forward to getting to know you all.