bandaidpatrol

Now that's what I call a run-on sentence! Golly Gee, Monkey Pee! The United States Pharmacopoeia states that Oxygen is a drug, because it has body-altering affects. 2LPM is equal to 28% Oxygen; The earths atmosphere is made up of 27% Oxygen. 15LPM is equal to 80% Oxygen. You only get 100% on a demand valve, or a positive pressure device like a CPAP mask. Typically, you should not ask someone who is not in EMS, an opinion on your protocols. I bet that 90% of hospital workers, in their nice little controlled environment, know very little about pre-hospital care. No matter what anyone says to you... OXYGEN IS A DRUG!

Directions include driving past the barn that burned 20 years ago, past the old (whoknows) place, the one you had an ambulance run at in 1967, past the field where the drug plane crashed in 85, take a left at the old school house, go ten miles, past last years forest fire, hang a right at the failed oil well, another right at the rock shaped like a cow, and they'll be in the field, 15th Tee-pee from the road, medicine mans tent for a snake bite. (really, no seriously... a pow-wow... they think eastern diamond backs are good for healing and to sacrifice for their children to have food) Well, the snake seen it as some guy in a costume that clearly wasn't an indian (some weird flatlander tourist from New Jersey) that was planning on killing them. The guy deserved it. He survived.

Also keep in mind, rural PA doesn't have Critical Care EMT's, Intermediates, Shock Trauma, IV, Cardiac Care, etc. EMS certs. We have First Responder, Basic EMT-Ambulance, and EMT-Paramedic. Epi w/ out med command is just now coming in, we can give none other than first aid, oxygen and resuscitation; our own system works against us. That's another problem. Pa's EMS system was built for Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh; not for coon pecker point. The EMS certifications are old and out of date, they don't even require services to have AED's. Before anything can get better, EMS needs a change too.

That 30-90 minutes is not because we go 20 miles an hour, it takes that long at 60 or 65mph. Maybe instead of blaming EMS, they should blame the government for lack of progress in rural health facilities. We had a medical center once upon a time, took in ambulances, had a trauma room; teaching facility - always had two docs and ten students working at other specialties like orthopedics and geriatrics. It was funded by the Commonwealth of PA. Was a life saver, fifteen minutes from anywhere in the county. That place saved more lives that they will ever know, saved us from burning out a lot of people too. Well, the government says it was a waste of money. We are one of the most popular tourist destinations in the state, we have a resort town, a casino river boat on a lake, huge hotels and rich people out the Kazoo... Former President Clinton stays here for a month each summer. We put a lot of tax dollars into the state, but nothing gets sent back here. We weren't important enough and didn't have enough "all year" residents to have that life saving facility! They took it away, lots of people lose their lives because you can only go so fast to keep it safe. Maybe instead of making it to hospitals more quickly, they should be a little bit closer to us? Even if it were just a place to get people stabilized. Rural Ambulance services have been trying to make the survivability rate better since the 1920's. But for our system to work, they have to make hospitals better, we need more. Folks in Coon pecker point should have the same shot at surviving illness and injury as someone in New York City. A lot of things work against us! Many urban people have to see all the aspects of rural ems. It's not because we're farther away it's because rural areas -wilderness or suburban - lack much needed medical facilities. We're doing all we can; while we are rushing to the ER at unsafe speeds they think we get there quick enough and see "no reason to be any more close".

I have a Littman Cardio; this is the only one I have ever purchased. I have others that came w/ BP Kit Combos, and I have a Littman NeoNate scope in my peds kit. I like it b/c of the acoustic sensitivity for lung sounds.

.. you've ever hit a skunk before you left that station.. (heated floors, things like to sleep on it like animals & snakes, we get water snakes & copperheads often) .. you actually carry a snake bite kit, and have used it .. hunting accidents begin the day before hunting season, i.e. cleaning the gun. (one guy w/ a muzzle loader shot a pencil through his leg) .. rural roads.. you have a special harness so you can remain standing to do cpr and can't fall over .. You have a medevac landing pad at the station .. all of your apparatus is 4WD, has a stokes basket, ladder, SCBA and combo electric HURST tool on board; whackers envy you

(from the station to the hospital) 35 minutes to a small local ER w/ minimal capabilities 60 minutes to a larger hospital w/ all kinds of special capabilities but with a lousy record for patient care (and survival) 90+ minutes to the nearest trauma center 15-20 minute ETA for the closest medevac to get into our area Some areas of our coverage are as far as 25 miles from the station, so transport times can be up to an hour to the closest, and 3 hours for the farthest; depending on weather and rural road conditions. Nearest ALS service is 27 miles away, we have a contract w/ them so 1 medic is always available for our calls. That costs 15K/year. It would cost 10K/month to have them stage in station, and with the low population, low tax base - there is no way on earth we could afford our 80K/year operating expenses and pay the 120K for in house ALS. We'd go out of business in a couple months. Of course, if we had to charge more for service, nobody would call 9-1-1.

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Well, here anyway. That spell check is a great idea, rescuehouse.com should consider that!