Imagine89

I keep a jump kit and a stethescope in my car, but as a volunteer, I suppose I'm always "on duty", at least in the way our system works. To the first poster: wow I woudl never want to work in that environment!!

Never even heard of them.

Okay that was a misinterpretation on my part. Apologies.

I would, however say that you were wrong to have spent that much time evaluating for something that you could do nothing about. Unless, of course, all of this pointless evaluating went on in the ambulance while enroute to the hospital. And yes, your system was wrong for sending an EMT staffed unit to an emergency run.

Thanks for the responses.

We can not determine whether or not the onset was too long ago in this situation, adn if he was presenting with stroke symptoms it would be negligent according to our protocols to transport to a facility without CT scans and other stroke equipment. I did explain myself to him, but hes very stubborn. WE'll see. Monthly meeting tomorrow night.

He was saying that since we can't diagnose, that confusion was reason enough... He was last seen at baseline the previous night due to the fact that they were both asleep until the time of call. THe stroke could have had an onset (if it was a stroke) while he was asleep, which would indicate use of thrombolytics. FYI, i completely disagreed with the EMT in question, I was just making sure. We asked the patient if he'd ever had a stroke, and after a few minutes he said yes 5 years ago, however we asked the wife and she said no.

Yeah I've not gotten a straight response on the president question yet. I think as BLS we overuse ALS, and I dont think that theres any reason pts like this should take an ALS unit out of service...as emts we have the skills to continually assess and monitor patients, and if this guy went south, the resources are still there.

We are dispatched to a residence for an 80 year old male presenting with AMS. Arrive to find pt seated on bed, slightly disoriented. We get a brief history from his wife, stating that he had failed to turn off his alarm clock at the proper time, and he awoke in an awkward position, seeming confused. Last seen at baseline the previous night, seemed to sleep normally. History of CVD, nothing else, according to wife. We consider stroke, so we do some stroke tests, which find strong and equal hand grasp, equal smile, negative facial droop, negative slurred speech, and negative arm drift. Assessment of vitals finds bp of 130/84...pulse 68, skin warm dry and unremarkable, 12 resp/min, rales in lower left lung, SP02 93 on RA...NC on 4LPM based on o2 sats. Pupils PERL. These s/s were constant throughout transport. We didn't call ALS or transport to a stroke center due to the fact that he was requesting transport to his PCP's hospital., as he just seemed confused. He was unable to remember the year or who the president was, hwoever did answer personal questions well. Negative headache, neg chest pain, no SOB no discomfort/pain. Would you have called ALS? Would you have transported to a stroke center? I ask because I was told after the call by a senior EMT (i'm 17) that we made the wrong call, and I was wondering what you all thought?

Oh yeah me too, I'm just saying that there is usually at least some sort of correllation to the way someone types/speaks and the way they conduct themselves. Perhaps that's not the case with Timmy. Either way, I didnt' mean to be so harsh.

I dont know about you, but I wouldn't want someone unable to type so that I can understand it, to respond to an MVA/medical emergency that I was involved in. You shouldn't have to take time to re read something just to be able to comprehend what it is saying, unless the vocabulary is dense. This, by the way, is coming from a 17 year old, so it's not like I'm some bitter old man sitting at home. I couldn't understand his post either.

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And as he criticizes someone else's spelling/grammar, he misspells "sentence" and "grammar" and is sure to include plenty of grammatical mistakes I'm just kidding, I actually agree with what he said 100%. I h8 wen ppl post things dat look lyke thay wear ritten bi a 2 yaer old. It takes away from their credibility.

I try my best to be credible, but I haven't been on too many calls due to the fact that i'm still under 18 working as a volunteer in a low call volume area. I know for a fact that on a call i'm dependable. I know how to perform my skills, and I'm fairly competent. Right now, experience is my enemy, resulting in my "not as much as i'd like" reply.

I must say that as terrible as terrorist attacks are, this thread in no way disrespects the victims of such a tragedy. It is indeed a way to enhance our eye for problems, and discuss what could be done better, assuming the circumstances were normal. We're not being presumptious of the abilities of the EMS workers involved, due to the fact that we are unaware of any special circumstances. We are critiquing it for our benefit, not to piss people off. If it bothers you, dont read it.

Give the caps lock key a rest. "9A" or rig or ambulance.

The nursing homes I've seen are pathetic, and unclean...downright depressing many times. A friend of mine was telling me a story where when asked why he was called she replied "he said he was having chestpain about an hour ago, but i didn't believe him. I figured you could check him out. He's in the bathroom right now." Friend enters the bathroom to find his patient unconcious on the floor in full cardiac arrest. I'm not meaning to overgeneralize, but i don't have much nursing home experience, from what i've seen and heard, they're sad, sad places...

Everyone on our service has redlights...just because we respond to the station, and then hop in the ambulance and respond to the scene...is that legit?

I know that happens at at least trinity. I'm not sure about the other two, but since i have a total of 8 friends under 20 working for eascare and amr I assume that's how it's done around here. When i dont have firsthand experience, I say "i guess" sorry for the confusion. PS-thanks for your help guys.

I guess they pair you up with a partner that has been with the company for a while, and you run as the tech for a certain amount of time until they allow you to drive. That's probably not only for insurance reasons, but also based on the rationale that a new employee probably won't know the area well right away. As far as the original post goes...go to college. Take an EMT class if you want, but with burnout rates as high as they are, don't cheat yourself out of a better education that may allow for a career change. I actually have a question of my own. Is an RN higher up on the chain of the medical educationthan a PA? I feel like a PA would have to know more, as they diagnose, prescribe etc, btu I'm not sure...

I dunno about that. Around here (MA) most people who go through the town class are 18, and upon completion of the course not only volly with us, but usually get part time or full time jobs with private services throughout the state. (SLEAZECare, Trinity, and AMR are the main companies that employ us). I'm not saying you're wrong, Rid, just saying that lots of people do get jobs under 21...

This same exact situation occured a few weeks ago with my service. We left him on the board because it brouyght his 8/10 lower back pain down to 4/10. Anything for patient comfort

I had 6 friends who worked for AMR. All six now work for different companies because they were treated like shit, and because AMR's policies are ridiculous.

Wow guys, I apologize, I have no idea why that happened. Last night as i tried to post, the request wouldn't go through on my browser, so I figured i'd try again thismorning.