Richard B the EMT

Have you been to the Pulse Check at all? I've been attending from 1994, at the Villa Roma, Kutcher's, the previous 3 years at Albany Holiday Inn Turf, Roaring Brook, Hudson Valley Resort, and back to the Holiday Inn.

Just as a historical note, when I started in 1973, while the vast majority of EMS outside of NYC was volunteer (some things never change), the volunteers, for the most part, fought tooth and nail against the upgrade that the minimum in training was to become at least one EMT, not actively driving the ambulance, be with any patients in the back. Most, then, were Advanced American Red Cross First Aid trained. Also, NYS DOH required EMT candidates to already have the ARC Advanced card in posession as prerequeset to taking the (then) 45 hour initial course (25 hour for refresher).

(Cough, Cough, wheeze, cough) As one of those "longtimers" (note I don't say "geezer" or "Oldtimer"), with 38 years on the ambulance, overall, and just retired from 25 years municipal EMS service in NYC, Welcome Aboard. Off chance: Did we meet in Albany for the "Pulse Check" Convention in September/October this year?

People, I have to apologise. I never heard of the "Dead Serious News' website until it popped up on my aol news screen, so I had no clue it was a joke site. I thought it was a legitimate site, even when I couldn't find a collaborating mention, as I had already indicated. "I done got took", and took youze guyz along for the ride. For what it might be worth, I put it in the "Funny Stuff" because I actually had no idea where else to put it, being such a strange story, even if it had turned out to be true.

OK, one source... http://www.deadseriousnews.com/?p=573 Unconfirmed from other sources, everyone quoting this article.

I'll look up the news item.

I just read that a homosexual man, being "patted down" at San Francisco International Airport's security checkpoint, was arrested, when he ejaculated onto the male TSA agent's hand. The agent was checking on "suspicious" metal, which turned out to be the passenger'[s penal-piercings jewelry. The passenger was arrested for "Assaulting" the TSA agent. Let's take the survey. The Passenger had to be physically stimulated to cause the ejaculation, so is he guilty of assault, or is the TSA agent guilty of a sexual assault?

Just mentioning, under FDNY and NY State protocols, the only drugs BLS crews carry are chewable baby aspirin (85 Mg), albuterol, glucose paste, and oxygen. We are allowed to "assist" a patient in taking the patient's own nitro, after the "rights" are followed.

I just realized something: A string from about a year ago had the idea that "scoops" were so infrequently used, they were collecting dust in their ambulance compartments. Something has obviously changed.

I'm BLS, and the department and state DOH protocols I work under only allow me Albuterol via O2 administration set. What is Ventolin? I don't recall hearing my ALS teams using it?

I must be lucky, as kid codes have been few and far between, over my 38 years service. I had only one SIDS. To have TWO in a week? Both apparrently "Saves"? OMG!

It has been mentioned the patient has a history of a previous MI, and has Nitro pills available. Has the patient taken a Nitro? How long ago? Was it effective? What was the patient doing at onset of the chestpain? Has anything the patient done been effective in eliminating/reducing the chestpain?

Oops, double posting, removed by self.

About that...It is my understanding that "the State" will not be denied it's "pound of flesh". Supposedly, a death row prisioner tried to hang himself, but was cut down in time by the Corrections Officers, revived...and put to in the electric chair somed 18 hours later, on schedule.

To the first question, I don't believe I have seen it. Want to try someone else's Sanger Traction Splint, too, opportunity has not yet presented. I'll answer after I look the item up on line. I have used the "Pillow Splint" method numerous times, and can report that it seems to comfortably immobilize, and is "cushiony" for the patient, too.

EMSChick85, it has been suggested to knock on wood. Don't, until after getting the X-Ray, the pain might be intense. Seriously, your friends and family are not inhabiting your body, YOU are. You have specific complaints following a possible injury. Get seen, and one way or another, everyone will know if your injuries are real or not. And from what I have read here, you have a real injury.

My apologies, as I didn't know that. We overlapped, as I started HHC EMS in 1985, although "for the needs of the service", I went from the QGH EMS Academy directly into Communications Bureau as a "CRO", and was there until just after the FDNY Merger. By the years mentioned, unfortunately, you might have known one or both of the idiots from the "Two One Deli" incident.

February 1977, my non-9-1-1 system ambulance, in full L&S Emergency Mode, running for a cardiac patient, at roughly 10 PM, got T-Boned at Hillside Avenue at 188th Street, Queens County, on the driver's side, and flat spun a bit more than 180 degrees. Stupid youth that I was, I wasn't wearing my seat belt, and got thrown to the floor of my type 2 ambulance. I was "tech-ing" that evening. First, questioning myself why I was on the floor of the ambulance, the realization hit me, and I switched off the batteries, the siren, the Emergency lights, and the ignition (in that order). I then pulled myself up, and looked out the front windshield. The ambulance was facing a Funeral Home, on one corner of the intersection! What a thing, in a car crash, to wake up to! I managed to open the door, step down, and start doing a survey of the damage, telling bystanders to call 9-1-1, when I heard my partner, nicknamed "Snake", try to restart the ambulance. Rushing back as best I could with my assorted minor injuries, I again turned off the ignition and batteries. Snake had a stuttering problem, usually minor and controlled. Not this time. It was so weird, hearing him ask me, over and over, "Richard, what the fu-fu-fu-fuck happened?" I have to mention that anyone working at that hour for that company was a part-timer on Night Shift, paid by the number of calls the team handled during a 14 hour shift. The ambulance we were in that night was the unit normally assigned to the Teamsters Union shop steward. Day shift was strictly "on the clock". The Caddy Eldorado that hit us had nearly cut the 1976 Chevrolet-Yankee Coach "Patriot 63" (*) in half, and, after a total repair job by the contracted body shop, that took 3 months, the vehicle was actually returned to service, although they were careful never to assign me that particular vehicle. Also, the company reportedly "stiffed" the body shop for the cost of the repairs. My partner was fired, even though he was about to become the son in law of the chief dispatcher, and the night dispatcher who assigned us the vehicle that evening had apparently done so without authorization (of management or the shop steward), and was also fired. I was recuperating for the next 2 weeks. (*) Minus the quad headlights, stereo, and beer cooler, and with a "walk through", this vehicle was the same manufacture and style of "Mother" Tucker's (Bill Cosby) ambulance in "Mother, Juggs, and Speed".

Roger, Roger. What's the vector, Victor?

OK, that becomes the orders from a higher medical authority. As noted, just do it. I never figured out how to use "Snopes" to get either verification or denial. Somebody with that knowledge...? Please?

I heard of an episode where a GPS was insistant that a driver turn, but the turn would have taken the vehicle through a bulkhead wall into a deep waterway channel.

There is the undocumented anecdotal story of the Football player got tackled hard, shook it off, and seemed OK. On the sidelines, he tilted his head back to drink some gaterade, and the head tilt completed a transecction of his spinal cord. Now, from training: better to overtreat and not need, than to undertreat what was needed.

I'm presuming this Tim Hortons is something local. What is/who is a Tim Hortons?

I speak as an EMT, not a Fire Fighter, but this looks like a "Surround and Drown" exterior fight, not an interior fight. The obvious contraindication is, a search.

Then why is the EMS crew not wearing their personal protective gear? Sorry, but that crew is in violatioin, and might get a "Command Discipline" penalty. Might cost them a few days annual leave. Must be an old, spare truck, as the newer ones have the newer "one man" type.