Northwest Indiana Hijinks.

[BillKaneEMT]

http://www.ems1.com/ems-news/1304647-emt-suspended-for-protocol-deviation/

*It would be best to check out the article and responses first. Otherwise my post will make no sense. In fact, my post may not make much sense after either. Oh well, I feel better having vented a bit so if it seems like gibberish we'll pretend I got hacked by Kiwi and he typed it.

First a disclaimer. I am in NO WAY stating, implying or suggesting anything in defense of this emt. I wasn't present and I work for a different company, a competing company in fact. He broke protocols (allegedly) and got busted. I only wished to state something in regards to the comments following this article. One of the first in a line of angry retorts states that the poster is an East Chicago FD medic (who lost his job to Prompt) with 20 years experience who was making 32k a year when they lost the contract to Prompt. Now, again I'm absolutely not defending the Prompt guy but that poster was full of shit. I did my ridealongs in East Chicago and the BASICS that I shadowed were quite open about FF pay. Try 50k a year with minimal OT. Pushing 65 if you wanna work 65-75 hours a week. Unless their medics were making half what they paid the basics the FF medic in the comments was lying. Period. That said, I understand the irritation. EC lost their rigs and had to let a number of FF's go. And I feel for em, I do. I don't really think this was a case of payback, if it was...well. That's a shame. If you violate protocols in front of witnessess, even if you've been working als for years, even if you can start an IV in your sleep, even if you're one day from finishing your final practical station (probably an oral) for your nremt-p; you run the risk of suspension or losing your license. Like another poster said, if the patient had an adverse reaction this emt would probably be arrested and charged.

Anyway, I went to class with alot of Prompt guys and we interact just about every day and things are getting...tense around here between the privates and the fire services. Fire guys are worried their towns will do what Dyer and East Chicago did and give the ems contracts to a private service. Privates are tired of listening to constant insults and ocassional threats/physical harassment. Hell, my emt class was held at a fire station. A third of our class were firefighters. I dunno, the whole situation is depressing. I don't know anyone personally involved in this story (by which I mean physically present when it happened) but even though my service is too small to take over a town's 911 service in addition to our current contracts we're still getting, at best, glares and dirty looks when we run into fire folks. Except the ones we know personally of course. Fortunately my classmates and friends in the FD's haven't turned on me. So, wasn't from the JEMS like the rest of the stuff in this category but I figured it should go here. Then again I've done a fair amount of editorializing here. Hmm. Well, I'll add a disclaimer to read the story and responses first before I post this. Frankly, hardcore unions tend to creep me out and the vocal union guys around here are getting a little mean and a lot loud. Ah well, I'm sure it'll work itself out. In the meantime I'll just keep on truckin til medic school starts. Have a good one!

[Kiwiology]

I thought East Chicago was otherwise known as South Bend or Gary? I think Illinois may as well take them away from Indiana cos half the population commutes there every day

Seriously, that dude is a muppet who deserves to get struck off for being a muppet

I've seen people struck off for doing less so somebody who is not qualified to start a drip or give IV drugs should yeah, really not be doing it ... and even if he was qualified, naloxone probably wasn't indicated anyway but I guess we can't Monday morning quarterback that part at least

Stupid muppet medics giving my beloved Great Nation of Indiana a bad name jeez ....

[Kiwiology]

I thought East Chicago was otherwise known as South Bend or Gary? I think Illinois may as well take them away from Indiana cos half the population commutes there every day

Seriously, that dude is a muppet who deserves to get struck off for being a muppet

I've seen people struck off for doing less so somebody who is not qualified to start a drip or give IV drugs should yeah, really not be doing it ... and even if he was qualified, naloxone probably wasn't indicated anyway but I guess we can't Monday morning quarterback that part at least

Stupid muppet medics giving my beloved Great Nation of Indiana a bad name jeez ....

[BillKaneEMT]

EC is east of Chicago but west of Gary. South Bend is 90 miles east:P Apparently they also took over Griffith, Munster, Merrillville and a couple other towns too. Honestly I can't imagine what he was thinking. He had a medic right there, what could have come over the guy to break protocol the way he did in front of the people he was with I have no idea. Bear in mind, this basic was an operations manager for Prompt. Also bear in mind that Prompt and ECFD have to work together and they're openly hostile to each other. I mean, they will cuss each other out during a friggin house fire. This guy was not just breaking protocols, he was breaking them in front of his enemies. I dunno, the whole area is a flustercluck if ya know what I mean. I never actually met this Merry guy though I've heard of him. Can't imagine what he was thinking.

edit: We'll have to wait and see what happens but scuttlebut is that his cert is getting pulled permanently. Like I said, no idea what he was thinking. Then again, the rumor mill isn't exactly the Associated Press so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Edited June 26, 2012 by BillKaneEMT

[Kiwiology]

Ah, nothing like a good ole classic turf war between Fire and Ambulance

Seriously, the guy was a muppet who deserves to get struck off for being a muppet ....

Now, lets stop this feudin and go get some eats!

[BillKaneEMT]

Topnotch Diner on US41 is still open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We'll occasionally roll in there around 0100 and drink their lovely coffee til we get a call. Saturday night to Sunday morning we sat in there for 3 and a half hours. Plus they do great soup. Their beef barley will put hair on your hair. Also they have spumoni ice cream. In fact, I believe they're the only restaurant on the planet that still has spumoni ice cream. Damnit, now I'm hungry! Oh well, It's close enough to run to without burning a bunch of gas. You show up Kiwi and I'll buy you some ice cream

[DFIB]

The more FF I know the less I like them.

Edited June 26, 2012 by DFIB

[Arctickat]

Geez, really? Permanently losing his cert? We had a guy out here run on 4 seperate occasions with infusions beyond his scope including pentaspan, alcohol, and fentanyl, tell his intermediate to push morphine, falsify a call report, and disregarding a medical order, and all he got was a 1 month suspension and a $1,500 fine.

http://www.collegeof...on_Redacted.pdf

Edited June 26, 2012 by Arctickat

[Kiwiology]

The weirdest ice cream I ever had was in the Great Nation of Indiana, it was like little pellets of ice, weird, didn't taste that great either, mind you it was the middle of summer and 90° so I couldn't complain too much ...

Now, the HPC in the UK are pretty quick to strike people off the register; I have heard of a case where the Paramedic left his Assistant in the back and got struck off, in the UK the ECA's (think glorified driver) is not allowed to be left alone with a patient or provide actual clinical care

[ERDoc]

Wow is all I have to say. Here is my big issue. People in the comments are defending the crew saying that the EMT did it under the supervision of the medic and maybe the medic had shown the EMT how to do it. They seem to forget that both the EMT and paramedic are operating under their medical director's license. If he/she says no, then no it is. In the US, neither of them are independent practitioners. Jason James Rubadeau and Jerry Smith are also idiots. I couldn't bring myself to read all of their comments after reading the first few. JS spouts about giving a coma cocktail. Really? Coma cocktails went out of practice in the early 90s. I think his 25 years in EMS has been spent as one of those who go around saying, "That's the way we have always done it, so we shouldn't change it." JJR calls narcan a "

relatively benign if the are no opiates aboard, so the risk was negligible at best." We won't get into the details here, but we all know them well and have discussed them ad nauseum, though there is evidence that we may be wrong but will leave that for another time. Someone mentioned that they may have given the narccan to see if it was an OD vs head injury. Again, this is archaic medicine and should not be allowed to continue. Use less drugs and learn better assessment skills.

I realize that we don't have all of the details of the original story but the comments are interesting. And some people wonder why medical directors won't give them more to do.