Dsmittty911

The thing I worry about is where AK would carry his penlight. Too SCARY to imagine.

I went to a school with a dedicated Pharmacology course. I studied my butt off for it but ( Dust you've met the instructor) I didn't feel I was given adequate exposure to all of the information that I should have been. I will probably retake the course when I get to my new school. We were given a very basic introduction to drugs, how to administer (IV IO IM etc.)... We did drug reference cards on 1 drug in each category (126 cards total). But I don't feel it was enough. I will be looking for more reference material to study up on.

You've been given a LOT of great information. Just remember the old KISS method. Keep It Simple SIlly. Start with a very simple questoin or 2. Why would you call 911? If you want to make them laugh ask them to give you the number for 911. Explain very simply what happens from the time they dial 911 to the time you respond. Once you get started with a little explanation about EMS and the 911 system then move to showing them the ambulance you'll be suprised how fast the time flies by. Good Luck P.S. Spell check not working. So if I mess up it's late and I'm tired. I'll check it again tomorrow LOL

I saw the comment made that the dispatcher would not be terminated because of her years of faithful service to the city. I wonder how many other times something like this has happened with this "faithful servant of the city". They wonder why incidents like this happen. If you keep the people that are screwing up you have a lot of screwed up people. Pretty simple concept to me. I fell sorry for the kid who was told many many many times in school. "if you have emergency or problem call 911." When he does it they ignore him and tell him to quit playing. I hope that dispatcher thinks about what she cost that child every day for the rest of her life. Like has been said many many many times on here." If we want to be treated more professionally then we must act or perform more professionally." I'm normally a person who feels lawsuits are abused really bad in this country but I think Detroit should be sued on behalf of this child and while it won't bring momma back maybe It'll at least pay for the counseling they'll need for many years.

Something else they failed to mention was the spell checker. I've never heard of studding for a class. LOL... Good Luck

One of the hospitals here has the slogan" First in E$#@ T#$@#, Second to none!"

LMAO @scaramedic. If you only knew bro. If you only knew.

I will say that I agree with Dust. Meds are an ALS topic but in this case this post should be here because even if not administering the drug EMT-B's should still know contraindications of drugs (ntg, epi pen, etc.) I have actually stopped a Doc from giving ntg to a pt in ER because Doc failed to ask about Viagra. Pt had taken Viagra just 5-6 hours prior to being transported. I also agree about the difference between administering and assisting in administering drugs. Remember that there are many men who purchase their meds on line and are likely unaware that there may be deadly interactions. They just know they took their Viagra, had a good time, now their chest hurts and that's what they take NTG for. Just for discussion let's say this individual was at grocery store a few hours later, has chest pains, someone that knows you're a Basic gets you to help. Pt says I have NTG for chest pain in my pocket. If basic doesn't ask for sample hx (chest started hurting when good time was over but he figured it would go away. Now it's gotten worse. went from 2 to a 6 on pain scale) The basic lets him take NTG then finds out about Viagra. Too bad so sad. Nothing can be done now. If it were discovered sooner ALS truck can be enroute but pt would still be alive (or at least treatable) Not DRT.

It's actually very simple. Number one even though MOST people do not want to be on government assistance if they had to call you they have other things on their minds. Just simply ask them if they have medical coverage that they would like to have this billed to. This leaves you the out if it is insurance or government assistance. I've been there and while I wasn't proud of it things would've been a lot worse without it. As long as you not acting like you looking down on them for it they should be okay with it.

Here I believe it's 48 hours. It causes very serious hypovolemic shock. It's like someone opened a spigot (or dilated all the blood vessels) and let the blood out. No elasticity in the veins means no bp and last time i checked that's a very bad bad thing. Causes a very serious case of DRT. (Dust you may recognize this one from your PHTLS class here. One of Dave's favorite sayings) Dead Right There. It's irreversible in prehospital setting. In other words you just killed your pt.

Would love to check out pics but they gone. LOL

I agree with Wendy. Some of the best medics, or emt's for that matter, that I know are also ff's. The other thing that bothers me is that peeps more worried about ff's ego's and how they made a dying kids dream come true. To me that means more than any of this petty bs rivalry. The last time I checked Public Service was just that serving the public not our own ego's. As far as where I live fire rolls as primary responder so they gonna be there anyway, why get into a pissing contest about it. GROW UP......

This is typical case of CYA. Let them get the dam subpeona. Once they have that you are covered for talking to them. Otherwise if they didn't see it let them figure it out on their own. I'm not saying to be rude and offensive. Just explain your position. "If I tell you that then I'm violating my code of ethics and the law.

Donkey Schlong

The one thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet is documenting that the cream was on prior to arrival. There have been several comments about the damage already been done. The only thing left after the dry sterile dressing is to CYA. In this time of lawsuit happy people I would think seriously about noting that it was already on there. I know you would note it if you did apply it but cover your rear end since you didn't do it. Just my .02.

I know that LE, FF, and EMS here use 800 mhz trunked system, They get awesome range here. When we were trying them out I spoke with someone (LE transport on prisoner pickup run) 500 miles south of my area.

Dust I see what you mean about not handing eval's back to student. I guess I never thought about that because I'm not the kind to forge eval's to make me look better. I also knew a lot of the staff already so I was able to sit down and do somewhat of an interview with them to get specific on what they saw, attributes,areas I needed to work on, general comments (good and bad). I made myself available for anything in the ED so they would know I was serious about helping out and learning. I got called in to observe several things. On one case the doc told me to get sterile and told the ER Tech who was setting up suture kits and such that he could go. He wanted me to assist. About the only reason I looked on the sheets they filled out was to see if perhaps there was a comment that they forgot to mention or something they didn't tell me about. I actually like having the sheets in my notebook because I would periodically look over them to find shortcomings and things I needed to work on. About the only negative (or in this case neutral) comment was made by a charge nurse who stated that because of the types of pt's in ED that night I didn't get to work on skills as much as she would have liked. But I helped with a lot of stuff that night. The nurse I was assigned to kept getting called for traumas where I could do a few things but not a lot. Monitor vitals etc. Anyway I see your point and it's said that you'd have to think about people writing their own evals (false) ......

Well just to start some of the chemicals in a meth lab would include Over-the-counter cold and asthma medications containing ephedrine or pseudo ephedrine, red phosphorous, hydrochloric acid, drain cleaner, battery acid, lye, lantern fuel, and antifreeze. Do any of these chemicals sound familiar to you. It's hard to believe that anyone would want these chemicals ingested into the human body. But this should answer your question as to why meth labs are harmful. Any of these chemicals alone can cause serious problems. As far as the cleanup I was lucky enough when I did bust a couple of labs that there was no exposure and we had Special Tactical guys to handle the cleanup once we secured the lab.

They actually have a term for this and I'm REALLY surprised that not one of the old pros on this board didn't mention it by name. It's called Scene Safety. Anytime you roll up on scene you should be aware of what's going on around you. If it's an assault or crime scene ( or potential scene for that matter) then you need to have PD there to make it safe and even then keep your eyes open. You cannot do ANYTHING for your pt if you are DEAD or INJURED. I remember when I was in Police Academy I had hero syndrome real bad. I was willing to give my life so someone else might live. Boy is that a load of crap. Keep your eyes open on scene and if you get gut feeling that something is wrong it probably is. Get out and wait for assistance. The best protection you've got are your Mark 1's(eyeballs) that God gave you and a good gut check. Be safe out there. For you sake, your families sake and your pt's...

It sounds like you've got the right attitude about wanting to learn. Keep your head up and your eyes open, you WILL find preceptors who want to help you learn. I don't know about the school that you're in but here we have series of checks and balance to keep incidents like this from happening. As we do things here we fill out (and have signed by preceptor) a sheet listing skills that we have performed. We also do patient charts documenting pertinent info. Age/sex/ complaints etc. (no name due to HIPPA), Another thing that we fill out is a preceptor evaluation and they fill out one on us. If your school is worth anything and has a very good reputation in the area with the places you do clinicals then let your school dept head no or your instructor. Most places will actually get upset about students being treated like that. I had a run in with a charge nurse here and she ended up in a lot of trouble for treating students badly(using them as slaves, not helping them learn. She didn't like students and did anything she could to keep them out of her hair.) Anyway there are more preceptors out there who want you to learn and if you find one that you click with stay with them and pay attention. Good Luck I really enjoyed my clinicals.

I agree with Burn, There is no quality of life left in that state. I sympathize with the family and understand that new miracles happen but if pt is brain dead(not comatose) then life support should be stopped. It is not fair to the family to prolong the agony that they are facing because they have decided they are not ready to say goodbye to a loved one. I do believe in God but am smart enough to know that when God's ready for you you don't have a choice in the matter. Perhaps instead of taking the boy home and prolonging the inevitable let him be an organ donor so someone else that does have a chance to live gives the boy a chance to live on doing good for others so that perhaps the parents can prevent someone else from having to deal with the grief that they are feeling now. As far as the Terry Schavio incident she was actually considered brain dead several years ago. It is sad about the circus that that turned into with politicians and judges and everyone else getting involved. This is definately a hard topic and I'm sitting here teary eyed thinking about it. I was adopted at birth and while some people have heard me refer to my kids I really only have one blood relation. My son. He is the only blood kin I have in the world. The thought of not having him due to something like this is terrifying to me. I would hope that God would grant me the strength to make the right decisions.

I can actually answer that part of the question since I am ex-cop. The dept that I work for actually has a trauma doc who is also a certified peace officer and swat trained. If he is there (planned warrant) he will go in. If he's not there they will have als unit standing by but will not enter until scene safe. So to answer your question since doc is a will go but anyone else will be standby in support role.

26 here. Did someone holler "CLEAR"

15 first try. That's a shocker

The agency I rode with for clinicals used LP12 exclusively for all of it's rigs. I agree with the complaint about weight. I think that thing weighed more than a couple of the pt's I picked up. The BP part wasn't all that reliable on rugged terrain(probably could be said for most thought) SPO2 sensor not worth crap. Had to use extension on them and half time cables not worth crap. I don't have any experience with ZOLL unit but it's got to be better. LP12 could be reason so many medics quit with back problems. (j/k)