I love this job!!

[James_ffemt]

Its not that, but you have to admit your story was a little over the top.

300 people at the ER? I gotta admit, it sounds like a case of post-incident embellishment. Just another big fish story. The sad part is, it was interesting enough without that part. Adding it just made you look worse.

But, thats just my $.02.

Not to mention not one of your sources corroborated that figure.

Well, I guess some people post things on here that are untrue and people look for that and look for holes in the story. Thing is, I posted it quickly and put the main parts. Did I actually count each and every person at both places, No. I feel like I am a good judge of things and estimated. Talked to other law enforcement personell and all agree on the same number of people. It's just amazing to me that people want to start calling you a Bull Shi...er without knowing you. I understand where you are coming from and thanks for the $.02. I can promise you after this post is dead noone will have to worry about seeing one from me again.

[James_ffemt]

First, I have been to Okmlugee ER and there is no way to get 300 people in the parking lot.. but, I can attest in Okmulgee, the society and make up of the socioeconomic (trying to be politically correct here) I can see where this might happen though.. sorry James, but you have to admit it sounded wild,.. hang in there and callous up.. you know this is the usual EMS response.. tell me, show me, show me proof, then I might believe you..

Soundsl like a cluster f**k...

R/r 911

That's exactly what it was.

[becksdad]

Hey James, I know you've been beat to death over this, and I don't want to add to it - enough is enough. I don't know how long you've been in the field, or what your experience is, but consider a couple things, ok? Probably all of us have had at least a few humiliating moments. I'm hoping I don't have anymore!! But they pass, you can redeem yourself, people will forget and ultimately judge you for what you learn and your current competence.

This is a great time to learn as much as you can about scene safety first. I'm not gonna say anymore about that than what's already been said. Also, seizures. Dude, anybody that can complain of respiratory distress and quote you their current tox screen, AIN'T havin' a seizure. However, impending arrest by law enforcement has induced MANY, MANY seizures. Follow the sequence there? Sometimes people think a medical problem will get them out of trouble. So they fake them. Some just fake syncope, but the seizures are the most entertaining. Also, consider that tox screen they quoted. ETOH and Xanax. I'm not saying that it COULDN'T happen, but usually those drugs will contribute to seizures upon withdrawal, not during consumption. In fact, although surely not indicated for TREATMENT of seizures, with Xanax being a Benzo, I would dare to say that it could suppress seizure activity. I'm not claiming that everything I said here is the way it was - I wasn't there. This is just what my experience tells me is a very likely scenario.

Hopefully most of the things people have said here will get you thinking about scenes as you roll up on them, and then as you are involved in them. There's ALMOST ALWAYS a differential diagnosis. Sometimes your first impression isn't correct. What else could be going on? What doesn't fit? Take in the whole picture and consider it. If the information you get from patients or anyone else just doesn't fit, its probably not accurate. Don't take offense at criticism or disbelief, or even what seems mean-spirited. There's a TON of great experience here in this community - take advantage of it and learn! that's why I'm here.

When I was on one of my first calls EVER, we brought a fairly critical patient to the ER. Don't remember what the patient's complaint was, but I come walking out of the hospital feelin' all cool and stuff, ya know? Like "Hey, we just had a critical patient!!". Of course, everybody else I'm sure was just thinking BFD. So I'm going to clean the blood off the stretcher and re-make it. Now the ambulance bay at this hospital is on a slope (one of the only slopes ever to be found in southern Florida). I didn't latch the catch bar of the stretcher onto the back of the truck, and AWAY!! goes rolling my empty stretcher across this sloped parking lot, at the bottom of which are rows and rows of parked cars. I'm still laughing over the picture of me RUNNING across this parking lot chasing an empty stretcher, praying that I would catch it before it slammed into a car!! Of course, it didn't seem as funny when it happened since there were about 10 nurses, techs, & medics watching me and HOWLING with laughter!!!! So keep comin back.

[Just Plain Ruff]

James, sounds like this is what we call in missouri a flustercluck

the point I was trying to make as well as many others here is this

you arrived on the scene of a triple shooting, no law enforcement in sight, you might have seen the cop cars but by your own admission you didn't see hide nor hair of a law enforcement officer. You went into a scene where it was obvious that there were pissed off people and you forced your way out of that scene with your patient. the scene was definately wayyyyyyyy too hot to enter and many of us if not all of us would not have entered that scene.

but hindsight is 20/20 and we weren't all there. the story just was too over the top to initially be believed. LIke I said, I'm from Missouri so show me and you did, you posted some fine links to the story. I'm still not sure if i'm buying the 300 people but hey any more than 50 people ona scene and thats a huge crowd.

the key thing that I think all of us here want to pound home is scene safety and we are definately glad that you made it out of there alive.

Keep your chin up, we old grizzled providers can be a cantankerous bunch and we get our knickers in a bundle sometimes.

Just take away the fact that you need to evaluate the scene and determine if it's safe.

the last thing you want to be doin is finding yourself in front of the pearly gates of heaven and saying how did Iget here, I was trying to take care of my patient. and St. Peter telling you "scene safety my son, scene safety"

[becksdad]

AMEN.

[uglymedic]

It's incredible how many excuses I read about why James was called, in essence, a liar. It's also amazing that there's not one apology from the people who were accusing him of lying.

Not one, "Sorry for calling you a liar", "Sorry I accused your story of being full of sh*t." There's a lot of "callous up", and such, but still not one, "I'm sorry".

Much to their dismay, old dogs make mistakes just like rookies. Some just tend to try and overlook their mistakes and try and talk about something else.

I could actually see the group of hyenas gathering, and watch the attack on James slowly get worse until it was almost a feeding frenzy.

This is a community, not "the good ol' boys club".

Just because someone is not a VIP member or a sponsor doesn't mean that they should be attacked. Skepticism is one thing, but flat out saying someone's story is B.S. is another.

ug

[Just Plain Ruff]

Well Uglymedic does have a point. I for one am sorry that we called you a liar. the story was just soooooo over the top that until he proved and showed everyone that the story did happen his credibility was being called into question.

James, accept my apology, I thought I tried to say as much in my previous posting but apparantly for Uglymedic it was not enough.

Please keep posting here James, that call was a doozy and not one that I'd have wanted to be on with all that went on.

take care james and please be safe.

was that enough Uglymedic?

[uglymedic]

was that enough Uglymedic?

Ruff, it takes a great person to admit when they're wrong! Rock on baby!

Hope the others can say it too!

ug

[ALERT Medic]

Different side of state Ridryder 911. posted Tulsa World clip. Will try to find you guys local clippings.

Local bar, 300 + there and about 300 at the er. No BS here. And yes it was a mess and mistakes happened during the call. Was just posting to tell you guys about it. No wonder people leave this site due to all of your put downs and smart ass remarks.

I'm sorry James, but did you really think that this post wasn't going to get hammered? First of all, none of us would have been irresponsible enough to a) go into a hostile scene without being absolutely sure that the scene was secure, and even if you thought the scene was secure and found out that is wasn't when you arrived, you should have backed out till it was and been ballsy enough to post it on this site without thinking people were going to rip it up.

You can get you feelings hurt all you want too but everyone is justified based on your initial post to say what they've said.

[becksdad]

Touche'. You're right - sometimes we can come off a little rough. Maybe James has limited experience (and DAMN poor teachers I might add!). If thats the case - not his fault. Considering the scene he described, where THE HELL was his partner, his stuporvisor, other responding units? Where was LE actually? EVERYBODY on that scene ABANDONED each other, and placed everyone in GREAT danger!! I'm sorry, but if any partner I work with (none would) walked into that scene, I would grab them by the collar and be screaming in their face! So we got everybody's attention with response to the post. GOOD!!

Clinically, things just didn't add up as presented. Again, good probability this isn't the poster's fault. If his education and experience don't combine to even make them aware of scene safety, how can we expect good clinical perception? OK - now we have a baseline. We know where to go from here. If each of us takes a look at different scenarios we're involved in, identifies shortcomings, and then independently learns what we can about those particular circumstances...fairly soon we have a database of experience that we can draw upon to help guide us. The danger then becomes tunnel vision. Just because we have seen something x-amount of times and certain things have held true each time, doesn't mean it will always hold true. DAMN! MORE LEARNING TO DO!! Jeez, when will I ever get GOOD at this stuff?!!

As far as the clinical stuff goes, I believe I put a disclaimer in my post that my response may not even be what actually happened. Just food for thought. We can certainly become more "user-friendly" when responding to clinical things. I don't think anyone really meant to put down the original poster clinically. But as far as the scene safety issue goes, I would defend anyone who SLAMMED the description of this response. And slam they did! Good! Because my life or my partners life depends on what YOU do if you're responding with us. Sorry, that takes precedence over anyone's feelings.