Richard B the EMT

A bit early, but for July 14th, Happy Bastille Day to any and all Frenchmen and women.

Last time I heard of this type get-together, Dustdevil was still with us. If it comes about, I hope to be somewhere nearby, that I can attend. I miss Dusty's postings.

I've heard that item of 5,000 miles from both "Outlaw" and weekend warrior bikers. It's usually blamed, by the bikers themselves, as taking over that mileage for the biker to acclimate themselves to the new, to them, machine and it's handling characteristics.

When I was a child, my mother tried to make me behave by telling me every time I did something wrong, I gave her another grey hair. That wording stopped when I commented "Mommy, you must have been a real terror. Look at Grandma's hair!"

What is/are 1) PNG 2) tapatalk?

While reviewing this string, I just noted someone posted that now former employees were fired when the DWI/DUI (Driving While intoxicated or impaired/Driving under the influence) arrest made the newspapers. What about the EMS agency employee arrested for DWI/DWI, when it doesn't make the papers? To the best of my knowledge, NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation EMS, and now the FDNY EMS Command, insist on being informed if a member is arrested for anything, or ticketed for a moving violation. If serious enough, a supervisor will have the member tender their ID and badge back to the department, until the court(s) arrive at a judgement. I admit lack of knowledge if back pay will be given if the courts find Not Guilty, but the department then restores the ID and badge to the member, and returns them to duty. If guilty... NYC has numerous programs for rehabbing drug and alcohol abusers. I'm told the one for the NYPD is actually at the intersection of "Straight" and "Narrow", in a former distillery run by 1920s and 1930s mobster boss "Dutch" Schultz (if not the case, still sounds good in the telling of the tale). In most cases, the city employee must request going to the rehab (with NYPD having the authority to order one of their own in for treatment) to avoid official notation into their employment record Could someone PM me as to who or what a "Mike Ellis" or "Mikey Ellis" is? I am not catching the reference.

2 Daughters of a longtime EMS associate of mine just survived with bruises an accident while in a Smart4Two. The vehicle was totaled, but they believe so much in the car, they're using the insurance check to purchase a new one.

...Or be silenced by an out of court payout, with non disclosure agreement.

I can't resist:

Mike, I note your signature. She basically told the guy to follow that idea.

Don't get a new lens for your light. Unfortunately, many in NY State don't yield to Law Enforcement, Fire Service, or EMS vehicles under RED beacons, strobes and blinkers. In addition, they're supposed to pull off to the right, but I've had some drivers pull to the wrong, left side of the double yellow line to let me through, but they do it when I'm already on the same wrong side of the lines.

No problem, then.

The report mentions a "Mature Paramedic Service". Could someone give me a definition of that ("Mature Service")? The NYC EMS, organized as a part of the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, was 26 years old (1970-1996) when we were merged into the FDNY, which had been organized for over a century at the time. It is my presumption that EMS, being a much younger "thing" than Police/Sheriff's Departments, and Fire Department/Brigades, will continue to some indeterminable time in the future, to be regarded as a "red headed stepchild" emergency service

Both posting here or FB is more than kind of public, considering the topic. I'd suggest keeping it in private messaging.

In NY State, it's blue lights for VFD, green for VAC/VAS on personal cars.

I started out Volunteer, continued there when I started out in non-9-1-1 system IFT (Inter Facility Transfer) ambulance service, and still continued the Volunteer when I finally got Municipal (I guess that qualifies as "provincial"?). Some areas of the country, state/province, or county/parrish have had "organized" volunteer ambulance services for decades. Some have had contracts with private EMS operators, meaning "F&B Ambulance" was, and is, the 9-1-1 EMS responder. In yet others, 9-1-1 EMS is a service provided by either uniformed officers of the Police, Sheriff's Office, or Fire Department, or uniformed EMS members of those agencies, like the FDNY, or it is Hospital based. Everyone jokes at the expense of someone else's system, as that is just human nature: It ain't right, but it is what it is. OK, I'm boring even myself by saying all that, yet again, but admittedly, I hope all involved, no matter what "base system" they're from, try to do some good. Yes, some of the way EMS operates is flawed. I posit that no matter how good a local system is, there is always going to be room for improvement.

Handbags?

As I know I've mentioned, in many of the strings here in the city, I've seen heavily dedicated personnel, and slackers, from both the paid "professionals", and unpaid "vollies" sectors.

I am sure that many of us have read in EMS magazines, other EMS websites, and here in EMT City, of a multi-agency dispatcher calling an EMS unit, telling them to stand by, then giving out a few LEO and/or FD calls, before giving over the EMS assignment. Even after some 43 years of even the title "Emergency Medical Services", we're the Rodney Dangerfields of emergency services Perhaps the first Law Enforcement in the US was the New Amsterdam "Rattle Watch", sounding the alarm if something was seen to be emergently wrong, primarily something on fire. This was prior to the British Invasion, and the town being renamed New York. Doctor Benjamin Franklin reportedly formed the first real Fire Brigade in Philadelphia, before the War for Independence. It took until around the late 1960s for the study as to why war wounded US Military members in Viet Nam had a better survival rate than people hit by cars in Chicago (per the way I was told. No offence to Chicagoans intended), to cause changes that became the real beginning of EMS, and what it's evolved into today, and hopefully is continuing to evolve. Unfortunately, before 1970, many viewed working the ambulance as a punishment, not a professional undertaking, either on the paid or volunteer side. Some longtimers still expound that view, and are causing newcomers to see things that way, too. I use as example, during the administration of NYC Mayor Edward Koch, during contract negotiations, we in the NYC (Health and Hospitals Corporation) EMS invited the Mayor to combined graduation classes of newly minted EMTs, EMTs passing EMS orientation into the service, EMTs becoming Paramedics, and EMTs and Paramedics becoming Lieutenants. To all the proud EMS graduates, and their families, Hizzoner said, "I'd like to congratulate all of you on your first steps to becoming Police and Fire Officers". Immediately after the ceremony, when approached by union representatives, asked about pay parity with NYPD and FDNY, Mayor Crotch (...excuse me, I'm still angry), Mayor Koch told them, "Not under my administration!" The next day, Koch was reported, in the news media, regarding the "First Steps" comment, as saying "I don't understand what these AMBULANCE DRIVERS are so upset about" (emphasis is mine). Some EMS folks took to covering their EMT or Paramedic patches with tape, on which was written "Ambulance Driver", and a demonstration was held a week later at City Hall. We were told to wear our work uniforms without badges or name tags, and wear surgical masks and gloves to signify potential health dangers of the job (also to conceal our identities against retaliation from the top brass). My picture made the Staten Island Advance (nope, not page 1), and several Spanish speaking members told the news crews from the Spanish Language TV and Radio stations what the real deal was. The city's retaliation was to declare the demonstration an illegal "Job Action", and ordered us back to work. It kind of backfired, when 1) EMS fired several members who were out due to legitimate Line Of Duty Injuries, some still in casts, and 2) The New York Post reported one of the telegrams ordering us back to work was delivered to the roommate of Lieutenant Kirby McElhearn. The Lieutenant had died 9 months prior.

The Volunteer EMT or Paramedic: The Paid EMT or Paramedic: . Both:

In court... "Mr Jones, you state you didn't claim injuries to the Sheriff's Deputy at the time of the accident, yet now, 3 months later, you're claiming a broken leg and other minor injuries from that same accident. Please tell the court why you delayed making the claims?" "Your Honor, it's simple, actually. When I swerved to avoid that deer in the road, my car and horse trailer went off the road, and both overturned. My horse, Jupiter, was hurt bad, as I could hear him screaming in pain. Deputy Simpson must have seen the accident, as she arrived only seconds later. She went to the trailer first, saw Jupiter and his injuries, pulled her sidearm and put my horse out of his misery. Then she over to me, with the gun still in her hand, and asked if I had any injuries. How do you think I was going to answer?"

Oops, I was misinterpreted. The "Crew Chief" EMT already knew he was diabetic, the patient we were treating was the one felt drunk. The call was in perhaps 1974.

I've treated some who had it show just that way, stating they felt drunk without having had an alcoholic beverage for a week. First time it happened, the EMT in charge of my team was, himself, a diabetic.

I was just reminded, by FaceBook EMS associates, that it was 19 years ago we lost Christopher Prescott. On this evening, 19 years ago, EMTs Christopher Prescott and Carol Buffa, of the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation EMS, responded to the scene of a car accident on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, NYC, along with members and associated vehicles of and from the NYPD and FDNY. The NYPD and FDNY vehicles were set up around the accident, forming a protective line, as per policies of both agencies. A person driving a car while under the influence of alcohol decided not to pay attention to all the emergency vehicles and their activated emergency lights, and drove around them, and ran into the EMS duo, who were at that moment loading the driver from the initial incident into their ambulance, pinning them between their rear bumper-step and the front bumper of the drunk driver's car. The EMS Communications Bureau had a small bit of confusion, until they understood that the new call of "Pedestrian Struck" was a new call on the same scene, and that it was MOS, or Members Of the Service". Additional ambulances, field supervisors, and chiefs were assigned. Mr. Prescott, who had recently gotten the EMS station's "Rookie of the Year" award, and Ms. Buffa were "packaged" by the backup crews, and transported to the nearest Trauma ER, along with the original patient. EMT Buffa suffered severe damage to her legs, and would be in rehabilitive physical therapy for the next year. EMT Prescott succumbed to his injuries. NYC (HHC) EMS had been formed in 1970, from the old Department of Hospitals Ambulance Bureau. In the city EMS' then 24 year history, EMT Prescott had become the first Line Of Duty Death. Several days later, EMT Christopher Prescott was laid to rest, in a departmental funeral attended by several thousand EMS, Law Enforcement, and Fire Department uniformed personnel from around the US, including myself

If "Charlie Mike" means what I think it means, then Bravo Zulu.