Punisher

Point taken Ben. Like I said....what is done is done and you've got my word that this is it. The thing is that you're smart- whether you think you are or not- to be a "waste of space". No one can carry on technical conversations with professionals without sounding like an idiot or poser without a requisite amount of intelligence. I hate to see someone with a functioning brain run themselves into a jam because of....well, whatever you want to classify this mess as. Even if there is personal bad blood between me and that person, it must be the instructor in me that wants to kick people in the ass and make them use their gifts to the best of their ability. As much as I despise that blithering moron, I will paraphrase George W. Bush when asked his opinion of Obama shortly after leaving office as it seems to fit: "He deserves my silence". If you want to make a clean start or whatever, then you deserve my silence so you can do so. I wish you all the best and hope you can figure out a way so you don't feel like a "waste of space".

Agreed. I will say nothing more on the subject. If I went a little overboard by doing as Ben requested and prove he claimed certain things, then I do apologize for that to you (runswithneedles) and to everyone else. Sometimes a desire to make people pay for perceived slights against a loved one clouds one's judgment and gets in the way of social decorum. In other words, shit happens. That's what shocks the hell out of me...as he seems to have been entirely self-taught and is smarter than most real medics and nurses I have dealt with. That's what frustrates the hell out of me more than anything (from a professional standpoint) about Ben: he has the brains to be a damn fine medic but for some reason isn't doing it. He probably doesn't care what I think but outside of the lies (which I don't believe is a conscious decision on his part to be honest), I actually think he'd make a fine addition from a clinical knowledge standpoint to the profession should he so choose to pursue it. With that, I will- unless specifically addressed- close out on this thread.

http://emtlife.com/showpost.php?p=178975&postcount=2 Not from this site, but still....your words. You're stating you have experience with St. John, which, we have previously established that you- as a point of fact- do not. Now before you try to claim "I did my clinicals with them" or something like that...remember, everyone now has their medical director's e-mail address and can very easily fact check anything that you say. Emphasis is my own......"our" in reference to a St. John's site. Nope, not a personal feud really. You'll notice I'm calling him on his lies about his professional background. I agree that this thread needs to be locked and corrective action needs to be taken but I'll leave that to the moderators as I have provided plenty of evidence that they will need to assess the case.

Content deleted by Dwayne. I'd missed this post when the thread was active or would have never allowed the posting without permission of a memebers picture, full name, and physical location.

You'll pardon us if we asked for at least two independently verifiable references attesting to that fact before believing you? Right? I mean this is what? The second EMS forum you've spread this crap on? If memory serves me, I seem to recall that over on EMTLife, you were also claiming to be a commercial pilot until someone pointed out that you have no depth perception because one of your eyes is all wonky. ...and apparently someone with some significant psych issues. The least of which seems to be pathological lying. No, you already tried that and it led to people questioning your credentials. Trying to get more people "in trouble" is simply going to be perceived as a desperate attempt to get this to blow over. Misdirection is just going to piss more people off and you and make them want to see you banned at very least and potentially burned at the stake for your 'crimes'. You'll also remember that in a lot of countries like the US, Britain, Germany, Canada, France, Australia, et cetera a "prehospital provider" can work off of their "in-hospital" credentials and doesn't necessarily have to be an EMS provider per se to be an EMS provider. This all is pretty pathetic in my book given that you're not obviously stupid. Crazy? Yeah, without a doubt, but it is nothing but a waste of intelligence to pretend to be something rather than actually becoming it for real. If you ask me, that is what makes you be in a dark and desperate place mentally because your lies, deceit and efforts to be something you're not has proven to be more difficult and troubling than actually becoming those things and truly earning the respect that goes with those positions. You've made your own bed, now you have to lay down in it. The best you can do is to act like a man for once in your life, stop lying, get help for whatever it is that makes you act like this and move on so that your presence does not further disgrace or cheapen the medical profession. What a sad, sickening waste of intelligence.....

My apologies AK. As I told Incognitogirl in a PM, part of my fire and brimstone approach here is the fact that I lost a friend in this crash and partly this coincided (to the day) with a loss in my family as well. If I was out of line, I apologize for that. Grief and anger got the better of me and for that I am sorry. While I still feel issues exist that need to be addressed, I will follow a less nasty (and therefore more likely to succeed) approach from here on out on the forums. Let it be known that I have nothing against AirEvac personally and seriously hope their commitment to safety is what they say it is. We lost three good people- including one of the best nurses I ever had the pleasure of knowing- and the best we can do to honor their memory is to learn from what happened (when we know what happened for sure) and do everything in our power- personally, collectively, professionally- to reduce the chance of it happening again. Pull together, comfort those left behind and be safe everyone.

[quote="flight-lp"Going against the grain of the common saying, you DO need to quit your day job. Advocation for a safer air medical environment is one thing, but stating an occupation when you clearly show how clueless to research you are is another. The preliminary has not even been released yet, how on earth can you make any assertation to cause. I would also like to know how you have any correlary evidence showing similarity between the two other than the letters on the side of the aircraft. My thought is you are some bandwagon medic who reads a lot. Outside of that, you know jack.................................. BTW bright eyes, the 206 that crashed new years eve has hovering and more than likely suffered a compressor stall and subsequent power loss. As the aircraft was not moving, it was not able to develop lift when the transmission failed. No lift (horizontal or vertical) = no autorotation = accelerated uncontrollable descent into terrain. This one was in level flight, compressor stall not likely. Yes, the Bell 206 is not an optimal airframe for EMS. Yes in a perfect world, every air medical agency would have all of the bells and whistles available to ensure safety. But its not a perfect world and its a capitalistic money driven industry. That is where the focus of change should be. They died coming back from a PR, they weren't even loaded. That is what is sad about this tragic event.

Well, it takes that long for the NTSB to issue the report. 9 times out of ten, the investigators will know the likely cause within a week of the crash, but they are simply not allowed to say anything until the formal reports are released. My contact (a LEO....I grew up in southern Indiana and have worked all over down there so I know people) said that three witnesses reported seeing flames from the engine or an "explosion". That is generally taken to be reliable (there is a reason such things are included in NTSB reports) and given that this is a common finding in mechanical failure crashes it seems logical that the most likely cause of the crash was something along those lines. However, we shall see...as I said, let's not derail the thread any further. I was just repeating what I believe to be credible information.

Then you just eliminated ~80-90% of patients that are flown annually. However, let's try to keep the arguments on that topic to a minimum (or start another thread).

I did. I used to work with Sandra. It makes the loss of the chopper all the more personal, given that I both knew someone who was killed (this is the third friend I've lost to civilian helicopter crashes) and I spend my days trying to improve safety. This loss is a slap in the face that we still have much to do to minimize the chances of this happening again.

I treated a roofer who nailed his testicle to the roof when he failed to catch a nailgun that was tossed to him. That ranks basically #1 on my "OMG, that has to ****ing hurt" list...it actually makes me cringe just thinking about it.

The dead were Wade Weston (flight paramedic), Sandra Pearson (flight nurse), and the pilot Roger Warren. I used to work with Sandra (assuming it is the same Sandra Pearson)....what a shame to lose such fine professionals.... According to one of my contacts (I conduct aviation safety research as my primary occupation nowadays), the engine experienced some sort of "catastrophic failure". Whether it was an explosion is not clear, but given the similarity between this and the last crash that AirEvac had (December 30, 2007 down in Alabama), I think it says something about the maintenance department of this company. They are at the top (or pretty damn close to it) of most safety advocates' list of operations that need to be overhauled or shut down entirely. And in the aeromedical world of today, that is saying A LOT!

Seeing as there is nothing in there but Kerlix and ABD pads, it's not unorganized. And no, it's just a standard hiking pack. BTW, nice job digging up an old thread!

I figure this is something appropriate for this board, given the nature of the forum and what I have been invited to go do. I have recently invited to travel to Nepal next summer to assist in the education of paramedics and other health care professionals. The area I will be traveling to (if everything goes off as planned) is called Dharan, and it is in the Himalayan foothills in the eastern part of Nepal. There is currently effectively no EMS for this area so it is basically uncharted territory for our profession. The reason I am bringing this up is that I have been asked by the doctor who invited me, to seek out medical equipment and supplies to help establish EMS operations in his area. Nepal is one of the poorest countries on the planet, has been experiencing periodic episodes of a Maoist insurgency over the past several years, and I feel this is one of those times where our true colors can truly come shining through without interference from political agenda or personal feelings. If any of you, or your services would like to donate equipment, supplies or funds to aid in this trip, please let me know. Likewise, if you know anyone who works with medical equipment manufacturers or suppliers, or any charitable organization that would like to assist with this, please let me know. I have also been told that if anyone wishes to accompany me to aid in education and clinical precepting, they are more than welcome to come along. Among the things they are seeking include: Everything! Specifically, on the expensive side we could use: EKG/SpO2/NIBP monitors (as many as we can get, we only have 1 old one) portable ultrasound monitor/defibrillator ventilators fluid warmers syringe pumps As for the cheap stuff ambu bags and masks airways LMAs Yankauers skin staplers cervical collars BP cuffs (all sizes) stethoscopes penlights cautery pens pressure infuser cuffs Also rescue equipment donations (mostly towards the extrication side of things) are needed. They are also looking for used lightbars for their ambulances as the ones they have access to (from India) are not very reliable, bright or durable. From the sounds of what I have been told, this is going to be medicine at it's most austere. They are not looking for state of the art stuff (although that would be wonderful), just the bare necessities such as used equipment. If you can please help, in any way, please do so. Those of you who have known me for a while, you all know I tend to be a bit on the hard ass side of things so for me to make this kind of request is rather out of character and that should tell you about how serious I believe this to be. Please pass the word about this around to everyone you know- the hospitals you transport patients to, your churches and synagogues, your schools, etc. Your assistance is very greatly appreciated by everyone involved. Thanks in advance.

Speaking of poorly chosen department names, one of our nearby departments is named Dick Johnson Township VFD. Normally that's dispatched as "DJ Volunteers" to avoid snickering from the dispatchers. A couple of the guys on the department that I know say they get asked all sorts of inappropriate questions (maybe a little good natured ribbing?): "Do you all have purple fire helmets?" "How quickly do you come? To calls I mean?" "The boys from that department really prefer it hot and wet. I mean you can't send in Dick Johnson unless it's hot and wet can you?"

The perfect song for this thread: Crazed Country Rebel- Hank Williams III Well, I was rollin' by myself, went down to Memphis, Tennessee and I was lookin' for a guy who had a mullet and no teeth and I was trippin' on some acid a Latino gave to me Hey, I was smokin' morphine 'til it knocked me off my feet Then I got some "H" from my old Uncle Pete now I'm startin' to feel like I might've OD'ed On an overdose of drugs, overdose of sin I'm gonna live it to the fullest like I'm on ten and I love gettin' high - I hate bein' low and I like to drive my truck down a muddy dirt road and I'm workin' real hard, tryin' to get paid 'cause I'm a crazed country rebel and I'm drifting state to state Somehow I made it up to Texas with a carload full of grass and I'm seeing all these pigs who wanna bust my ass and I'm always livin' hard - always smokin' weed now I'm hangin' out in Texas drinkin' mushroom tea and I'm f__ked up on the floor and I think I know why, must've been some of that Boone county moonshine <-----A reference to Boone Co., MO as a meth capital of the US and an overdose of drugs, overdose of sin I'm gonna live it to the fullest like I'm on ten and I love gettin' high - I hate bein' low and I'm always about stayin' on this road and I'm workin' real hard, tryin' to get paid 'cause I'm a crazed country rebel and I'm driftin' state to state I tried to get up off the floor, tried to get myself in line 'cause the ceiling's talkin' to me, and the pisser's flushin' fire That's why they call me 'full throttle' - I like a good time it all started at a bar with a friend of mine She had to hook me up - she said she'd blow my mind I've been up for four days so cut me out another line *SNIFFING SOUND* of an overdose of drugs, overdose of sin I'm gonna live it to the fullest like I'm on ten I love bein' high - hate bein' low and I like to drive my truck down a muddy dirt road and I'm workin' real hard, tryin to get paid 'cause I'm a crazed country rebel and I'm drifting state to state =============== Of course Hank III is famous for another great heroin comparison: "Dealing with the label is like dealing with people on heroin, they never pick up the phone, they don’t do a thing for you, and they make the simplest things so hard."

Neither....I'm hopefully going to be south of the river....George Mason. I'm finishing up my bachelor's still. What are good ambulance services in the area (I used to be stationed at Andrews but that was several years back so I'm sure things have changed), are there any VFD's that have resident vollies outside of PG county, MD? Just general stuff like that.

Any of you all from around DC, specifically northern Virginia but also Maryland? I'm looking at moving back there for school, so I'm looking to get the inside track on EMS on the south side of the Potomac and if all else fails north of it. Thanks in advanced for any advice.

The first double code I ever worked (one of two actually) was a lady who collapsed while we were coding her husband.....we got to the ED and the doc goes, "I knew you were a strange one Steve, but I never realized how strange. Apparently your idea of a good time is dueling codes." I'm guessing the stress is what pushed her over the edge.

One of my EMT-B classmates (who is now a flight paramedic for AirEvac last I heard) could drop an OPA on herself....no gag reflex whatsoever. I do believe everyone in class went out with her at least once with the exception of me (being that I was not 18 yet and had a girlfriend and my classmate was 26.....not only was it inappropriate to cheat on my girlfriend, it was also a felony for my classmate).

Because that's my job on this site.....to bring up messes like that!

You need to correct the typo doc..... I think you mean glucagon in that last post, not glucose.

Most of the nasal intubations I have done have been on conscious or semiconscious patients, so yes. In the hospital, I've assisted with several more involved intubations on conscious patients who were obviously going to be difficult cases from an airway point of view for anesthesia.....

As the only RT on this board (so far as I am aware), I can say that in 10 years of medical experience (the last 5 of that as an RT), I have seen ONE patient with COPD had a hypoxic drive issue and it was abrupt onset in the field. Hypoxic drive does not become a serious issue in COPD until the very late stages of a certain subset of patients- your "blue bloater" type classically... Most COPD patients never develop a clinically significant hypoxic drive and those that do, well as other pointed out, are easily managed by either non-invasive ventilation or intubation. The patient we had started breathing on his own in the ED after the doc asked me to bag him on room air. His sat dropped to 88% or so and he started breathing again.... Just as everyone else said, do not let anyone stop you from giving oxygen to someone who needs it. Quite honestly out of the thousands of respiratory patients I've seen, one complication is pretty good odds in my book.

I'm a member on the EMS-L mailing list and the chief paramedic for the NAEMT has his panties in a twist over the show Saved....he posted the letter he sent to TNT and I replied making a point that apparently the organization really needs to find more productive things to do with their time if they are that concerned about this show and how it negatively portrays paramedics (speaking as someone who has actually had sex in the back of an ambulance all I have to say to that is :roll: ). Well he laid into me about how much the NAEMT does for EMT's, providing a laundry list of legislative things they've done....OK fine....but it was the tone with which he responded. So here's what I said back to him: Daniel: I am not trying to get in the way of anything, I'm just calling it as I saw it. Apparently I was incorrect and I'm willing to admit that. It's fully my intention to help advance things, not hinder them. Now the only response I have other than to put my tail firmly between my legs and retreat somewhat now that I've been corrected is in regards to rural EMS. Also seeing as I was on a volunteer department with 11 EMS providers (myself, 8 EMT's and 2 first responders) for approximately 2500 residents and a major highway, I don't think the condescending nature of your comment about how most of America is served by volunteers is necessary. I've never been to Alameda, but I'm betting money there probably isn't a community totally dependent on volunteers within 30 miles. Put it this way: rural hospitals are having horrible times recruiting physicians, nurses, RT's, lab techs and other specialists. I don't think the AMA, ENA, AARC, ASCP or any other group would look at their respective shortages and go "Well, we can't advance our career field because it might further screw up the shortage". While I can't speak for any other career field than my other job (RT), they are doing quite the exactly that- they are raising the requirements at the same time there is an alleged shortage (it's more a shortage of people willing to do the work asked of them than an actual shortage of manpower; I've yet to see a hospital (out of the dozen or so I've worked at) that hasn't been OVERstaffed with RT's), but yet look at RT magazines and you hear the common refrain of how we are all overworked and underpaid, that there is this horrendous shortage, still the educational requirements continue to rise. There is talk of there being a requirement of a bachelors degree as the entry level educational standard within the next decade....but back to EMS..... So basically what I'm asking is this: do you think it's better to continue down the path we are on with EMS education, which in 95% of locations would allow a person who wouldn't be able to become licensed in any other field to marginally pass and be turned loose on patients, simply because of shortages which do exist? I guess it boils down to whether you would rather field mediocre or often outright dangerous EMT's and medics rather than further diminish the number of warm bodies you can put on rigs. Actually there is more than a passing chance a lot of those warm bodies being put on rigs with insufficient education and practice is what is contributing to the cold bodies being unloaded at the ED's if you look at the evidence coming out of retrospective studies of intubation, etc. I'm not advocating associate's degrees for EMT's or anything of that sort, but I don't believe doubling the training time from 3-4 months to 6-8 months would seriously impact the overally turnout rate, and it would probably significantly increase the quality of the graduates or at least help to weed out the slow, weak and stupid that are simply in it for the adrenaline fix. I do think eventually requiring a bachelors degree for ALS providers and retooling the paramedic program standards to be something more akin to a physician assistant than the current approach would be a good idea. As I said in the first paragraph of this....I apologize for being misguided. I didn't realize all the legislative dealings NAEMT had going on- but honestly, what have any of those contributed to improving the care we deliver to our patients? None of that...I'll stay out of your way trying to fix the political "policy" issues if you stay out of the way of those of us with more immediate concerns....I don't know....things like improving survival rates for our patients, etc. In fact, that is my sole concern, and I wish you all would not assume I'm just some smartass without any reasoning behind what I am saying..... By the way, no ETOH was involved in our dinner....thanks for the assumption that because we all disagreed, we must have been drinking. You don't see me assuming that because you disagree with me that you must have been dropped on your head as a child or anything along those lines so don't get snippy with me OK? This reminds me that having the ability to see problem differently than everyone else is not acceptable in most EMS circles, even when something productive might come out of that difference in opinion. It's also a very major reason why you see the EMS brain drain....no one with higher level supratentorial function wants to stay in a career field that is underpaid, overworked and basically has no room for advancement- unless of course you can get a cushy position as a chief paramedic for a fire department. Combine that with the large amount of time this field spends chasing it's own tail.....no wonder this is a stepping stone rather than a career choice. Feel free to message me off list if anyone else wants to discuss this. In closing just let me ask for your pardons having said anything at all on this, but I'll be on the porch if you need me....I see someone is already on the cross. Stephen R................., CRT, EMT-I