nypamedic43

Thank you for letting us know Brett. What a loss to his community. Sending love and light to his family.

her mom said it was diabetes related. I'm not sure, I talked to her just a couple of hours before she was found by her son Nick. We talked daily and I miss her so very much. As for Don, he hasn't been around Jess or Nick since she left him, so I don't know how he is doing.

I haven't been here in ages either. Hi everyone!

Not really a viable alternative in this case though. I wouldn't have been able to write anything down that he would understand because he was still postictal although fighting us. I'm not even sure that he was able to read lips...which would have been something anyway.

I had a call yesterday for a seizure. When we got there, we found a posdictal male patient laying on the floor. Staff stated that he had been having focal seizures for about 45 minutes before he ended up having a grand mal seizure. His caretaker, told us that the patient was deaf, mute, mildly mentally retarded and knew limited sign language. I did my work up and when I poked him for the IV, he had a very strong pain reflex and I lost the site. I erred on the side of caution, as his vital signs were fairly stable, elevated but stable, to not try for another IV. I am glad I didn't. Once the patient became fully awake, he started to fight. It took 2 of us to keep him on the stretcher. I actually ended up sitting on his legs for the last mile or so to the hospital. I know some sign language but the signs we were told to use were not American Sign. I couldnt communicate with him, he was scared and I was frustrated because I couldn't calm him down in a way that he could understand. With all the wrestling we did in the back of the ambulance, I haave found muscles that I had forgotten I had. Has anyone else been in a situation similar to this? How do we rectify such situations, when normal means of communication are null and void?

I have to wonder what is wrong with someone to go into an elementary school and just start shooting. Innocent babies dead because someone decided it would be a good idea. The shooters mother dead because she was a teacher in that school. Can someone explain it? anyone? cuz I sure can't. This world has gone absolutely insane. It seems that this kind of thing is getting more and more frequent. We all think of Columbine and the shooting at the Amish school in PA and I'm sure that there are others but they slip my mind just now. What in your life can be so bad that your only alternative is to kill your mother and 20 innocent children in kindergarten and first grade? along with 6 other adults? Did nobody see this coming? Did nobody see that there was something wrong with this person? Have we, as a country, become so used to this kind of gun violence that what happened today is just commonplace? Don't get me wrong, I advocate the fact that people have the right to keep and bear arms. I grew up around guns...my father taught me how to shoot when I was old enough to hold them without shooting myself in the foot. NY has some pretty stringent gun laws. I cant shoot my husbands pistol because I dont have a pistol permit but I can shoot the shotgun and rifle. I can protect myself and my son should the occassion arise....and God willing it never will arise. I just don't understand this kind of thing..,I don't...and I am saddened that the world that my son has to grow up in, is so violent. That, for some people, the only answer to thier problems, is to pick up a gun or 2, go to the local elementary school and kill 26 people. I wish that I could turn back the clock 30 yrs. A time when you could leave your house doors and windows open and unlocked and nobody would even think to walk in if your car wasnt there. When you could leave your keys in the car at night, without worrying that it would be gone in the morning,.....when your kids could go to school and not be afraid that someone is going to come in with a gun, and kill you and your friends and your teacher and anyone else they happen to come across. I wish...... My thoughts and prayers go to the families that lost thier sweet babies today and the families of the adults that were killed. And to my EMS brothers and sisters in CT....I am so sorry that this kind of thikng has happened in your town and state. I am thinking of you all and pray that you find the strength to go on.

AHA is a national standard...and you dont follow it?? I guess the science is invalid in Washington....And I thought NY was backwards in some things. I allow basic students to do whatever they can...splinting, bandaging, vital signs, administering aspirin or albuterol. If they have been taught how in class, then I let them do it in the field. If they arent comfortable then I do it and they can observe. The only way to learn is to do in this field and most people in the basic class have never had any kind of contact with this kind of work. Never had real contact with trauma or critically ill patients. So why not let them practice taking vital signs on Gramma who stubbed her toe? I've had nursing students and medic students flip the f**& out in the back of my ambulance because they are completely unprepared to deal with patients on the streets and I had to make the driver pull over and put them in the front seat. I just don't see why basic EMT students cant do what they have been trained in class to do. Its one thing to put a traction splint on a leg that isnt fractured in class...quite another to actually see the effects of a fractured femur and the relief that the traction splint gives in the field. To the OP...if you really want to do what you have been taught in class, then you need to be more aggressive in asking the crew you are riding with for the opportunity. Be a go-getter and be unafraid when asking...even if your scared shitless. The best advice I ever got in medic school was this...be the duck, smooth on the surface and paddling like hell underneath. Dont let 'em see you sweat. Good luck to you and I hope you are able to get some practice in.

Our glucometers only read to 600, after that they read "HI". In medic school, doing ER time, a 17 yr old came in with his mom. She stated that he had lost about 30 pounds in 2 weeks, drank alot of water but was still thirsty. The young man looked like a skeleton with skin stretched over it and dark circles around his eyes. Blood test revealed a blood glucose of 2250 mg/dcl. He spent a few days in the ICU and got a brand new insulin pump.

How about a recruiting campaign? You can get funding to pay for the classes anyone would need. Advertising might help as well. I really have no other ideas for ya. Good luck!

I can't believe that I haven't blogged anything since April! Holy crap!! Maybe it's because my life is really uninteresting. I wake up, I get dressed, I get Jayse up and dressed, cook breakfast, put the dishes in the sink, make my lunch, yell at Jayse for the 4th time to get his shoes and coat on and grab his backpack and then out the door we go. I get to work, I check my rig and then I clean up the station....and run calls. We were really lucky last week. Didnt turn a wheel Thursday or Saturday, only ran 1 call Monday and then all hell broke loose...again. Shootings, stabbings, fatal wrecks, acute MI's...you name it, we caught it. I've gotten pretty good at letting the bad things I see go by the wayside. I talk about it if I need to and then I just let it go. As long as I know that I am doing the very best I can. Today we got a call for "bleeding from the mouth". About half way to the call, dispatch told it us it was now a full arrest and that she was sending us backup. As we were pulling into the driveway, my partner says.."I know these people. I grew up and went to school with thier kids". My pucker factor just went from a 2 to a 20....shit!!! So we get parked, I grab the first in bag, the IO and the suction. Jason grabs the monitor and tells the crew that coming to help to get the stretcher and a backboard when they get there. So we walk into this beautiful house and I look down and I see blood drops on the floor....leading through the living room, up the stairs and onto the second floor. I see a woman standing there in tears and covered in blood. What the hell is going on? We walk into the bedroom and 1 of our co-workers is there and a couple of the EMT's from the fire dept. I see a man in a white coat doing CPR and HE is covered in blood. So we got to work, my partner gave the monitor to our co-worker. My partner asked for the intubation equipment, which I gave him. One of the EMT's is freaking out.."what can I do...What can I do!!" I send her out to check on the woman that I saw, to talk to her, make sure she is ok and to help her get cleaned up. I then grab the IO and head for the feet. I had an EMT run my line down and I drilled the IO, drew back got blood and hooked up the line. All the while the family member is talking to his brother....begging him to hold on. I ask what happened, whle my partner is fighting with the airway because its full of blood...he can't get the tube so he goes with a combitube. Something is better than nothing but now he is kinda stuck...cant deligate the airway because he has to constantly suction blood out of it. Anyway, the family member tells us that his brother had a tonsilectomy 2 days ago with a tracheal cutdown? in Rochester. He says his wife heard him hit the floor and she came in to the room and found him on the floor, spewing blood from his mouth. The patient was covered, there were pools of blood on the floor as well as several towels dropped on the floor,soaking up more blood. If I didnt know better I would swear it was a murder scene and I had to swallow the dark humor that sometimes bubbles to the surface. So I get the line attached and the IO secure and asked for my vasopressin....I got handed an Epi...ok that works. Give the Epi and because it was witnessed, asked for the Atropine. Got that and gave it. IO is runnin great...they finally have him intubated and now we have to move him. A backboard isnt gonna work....so we use the megamover. I apologize for the messl, I got told not to worry about it by the man's brother. The guys get him down to the stretcher and secured and now we are cookin with gas. I'm doin compressions and the only activity is my compressions....the 4:1 is asystole in 2 leads, but I gotta say that there wasnt anything to circulate. Got my 40 of vasopressin in him and continue compressions. My partner is still trying to keep the airway clear and he tells me that when I'm not doing compressions, he is easier to bag, but doing the compressions there is blood in the tube. I havent got much more to throw at him, so I fire up the pacer. Get my mMa set and the pulse to 60. My partner gets on the radio and calls a quick report and asks for sodium bicarb...we got the order for it, which surprised me and I gave that as well. The 4:1 is now showing agonal beats but no pulse....PEA. Shit!!! back to compressions....by now my back ( where I sprained it) is screaming at me to stop but I cant. We finally pull into the hospital, get him inside, get him moved over and respiratory therapy is there...with their fancy cameras and all...and they cant get the tube. Nice! Meanwhile someone else is doing compressions...at about 60 a minute. Really??! speed it up man!! then someone else takes over...and she is over on the left side of the chest...bouncing up an down....let me in there I tell her...and I start compressions again. My white shirt is red, my blue pants are red and I am sweating like a pig on a hot summer day. The Doc looks at me and says " Good compressions!" "Thanks Doc...we get lots of practice...unlike some of the people in this room." I finally cant make myself do another compression and I let the 60 a minute man take back over. I untangle our monitor and walk out of the room. I only know this patients first name and that he is 59 years old. Except for the tonsilectomy 2 days ago I know nothing about him, except that he is dead and I worked my ass off to make that not happen. We were out of service for 2 hours after the call. Cleaning up the rig and restocking it. Then we had to go to our houses and get clean uniforms and different boots. I threw my uniform into the washer at work and off we went on the next call. Why cant I just have a nice normal day of Gramma fell and bumped her head?? Nope I get the people the bleed out in front of their families eyes and am helpless to stop it. Some days it just doesnt pay to chew through the straps man.

good way to start rumors kat....however AK's real name isnt Wayland. Welcome back firedoc!