RECOVERING GRADY ADDICT

Atlanta 911 Chief has final word on recent teen death The autopsy concluded that classroom horseplay caused a fractured clavicle, which severed the teen's subclavian artery. Several factors contribute here: 1. The call was dispatched as "chest pain", with probably NO indication of trauma or injury. 2. Without suspicion of trauma, paramedics might treat treat cardiac arrest based on the presumption of a cardiac etiology, not factoring in occult BLOOD LOSS requiring fluid challenge. 3. Lack of the extra hands makes working the arrest difficult , but NOT impossible . This was a load and go call. Take the school officers to help perform CPR if fireman aren't available. They were trained in CPR. Some help is better than NO help. Clinically and Legally speaking. (From personal experience the police are less big-headed, and will actually listen to your directions and requests, and can perform adequate CPR just as good as a fireman. Too many cooks spoil the soup, same with...

I heard the groans already. Many adept paramedics and EMT's cringe at the word. Stereotypically, when fire department personnel shows up at your scene (and nothing is actually on FIRE), things tend to go to shit quickly. However... IF THEY ALL LOOKED LIKE THIS.... SOMETHING TELLS ME SHE NEEDS TO UPDATE HER CPR CARD... (AND I NEED MOUTH TO MOUTH!!!)

...I miss the witt and humor of EMS and ER staffers. Yeah... that's just damn funny. THE DNR SONG - Sung to "Rockstar" by Nickelback

Inspired (if only briefly) by Eric over at EMS HAIKU for this one.

I have much admiration for this fella. I'd say gentleman, but that's just not Tony. He's a gruff ole medic, wise beyond his years, experienced in every fucked up scenario you could ever imagine. A former super- uber -military special ops kinda guy too. When I hired on at Grady EMS, he was a field supervisor. In recent years, he resigned from supervising to work prn while getting his RN ( BSN ?). Once inside that privileged world of starched white scrubs and MRSA infested hospital wards, he concluded that a paramedic's idea of work ethic far surpassed the concept previously established by the estrogen soaked, gossipy, PMS having, whiny, cackling hen bitches up on the floor. So back to EMS he came. When I left Grady, he was just a good ole field medic again. Last I heard - he recently resigned. I could only begin to guess why. We all have our reasons. Although I have urged him to sign on to blogspot , he has yet to take me up on the offer as far as I know. His MyspaceBl...

Oklahoma to debut new sirens you can FEEL... At $400 each, it will cost roughly $40k to outfit this service's entire fleet with a new siren aimed at PREVENTING future collisions by UPGRADING OUTDATED TECHNOLOGY. This new siren is designed to increase ambulance "visibility" by making inattentive drivers FEEL the ambulance that is coming their way, thus reducing the likelihood of a response related crash. When contemplating the expenses of a basic ambulance crash: Repair or replacing an ambulance worth $75k-$125K Repair or replacing a civilian vehicle worth $10k-$50K Injuries and medical expenses - potentially immeasurable. $40K in preventative expenditures! This purchase pays for its self when it prevents the first crash!!! This is a lesson that could be shared with OTHER EMS AGENCIES! Spending a little money here and there for "quality" vehicle maintenance, stretcher servicing and maintenance, NEW STAIR CHAIRS and other new equipment, and YEARLY driver's tra...

CLICK THIS LINK... and see why I REFUSE to ever work Urban EMS ever again!!!

CLICK THIS LINK: Just too great to pass this story up