When the er falls apart on a code

[AZCEP]

That's nice. AHA made a recommendation.

Doctors and the state wrote these things called protocols that govern my actions during many types of emergencies, including, as you might imagine, cardiac arrest.

You asked for someone to put it in writing. You did not specify who needed to do this so that you would be better able to do your job.

I'm all for out of the box, critical judgment thinking, and use it daily... except when it comes to deciding whether or not somebody's dead enough to stop trying. Which, according to those doctors and state agencies I mentioned, I'm not allowed to do. AHA recommendations give me no authority to violate established protocols.

I never said, nor implied, that they did. I'm willing to bet, however, that most of your current protocols are based on the recommendations from American Heart, right? The fact that you are not allowed to terminate resuscitation based on this recommendation and a medical control consultation seems rather piece-mealed together.

Since the state can do many, many things to me that the also AHA has no authority over, I think I'll stick to the rules. As soon as the state and their doctors change the rules, I'll be happy to adjust my practice appropriately.

Perhaps the providers in your area should consider bringing this up, rather than just accepting it at face value. Your safety, if nothing else, should push you to ask why you can't terminate resucitative efforts instead of transporting the obviously dead.

[CBEMT]

You asked for someone to put it in writing. You did not specify who needed to do this so that you would be better able to do your job.

*sigh* Fine. "I'll wait for somebody with regulatory authority over my license and protocols to put it in writing."

Better?

The fact that you are not allowed to terminate resuscitation based on this recommendation and a medical control consultation seems rather piece-mealed together.

I never said they were all GOOD protocols.

Perhaps the providers in your area should consider bringing this up, rather than just accepting it at face value. Your safety, if nothing else, should push you to ask why you can't terminate resucitative efforts instead of transporting the obviously dead.

We're too busy trying to get them to require 12-leads, ETCO2, and glucometers on the trucks, closest ER bypass for STEMIs and strokes, a restraint protocol so we're not making it up as we go along, get rid of our non-paramedic ALS licensure level, and to do something about the departments that think backboard and stretcher straps are a waste of time.

Terminating arrests is on the list. But there are lots of other things on the list.

[ladybear]

Am I allowed to flip off the original poster for acting like a 2-20 moron?

I'd love to tell him to shut the mouth and open the ears since that's why God gave him one mouth and two ears, hopefully so that he could learn twice as much as he spouted out about.

It's great that he and other paramedic student decided to keep on doing compressions while the rest of the ER team took care of the rest of the care of this patient, but that doesn't mean that the entire code was a cluster.