The Handover Blog Carnival is now live at Trauma Queen. All the submissions are great reading, some from new blogs I intend to start reading.
Go by and see what Kal has put together.
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You are returning from a rough transport, major trauma, and one of the local police officers came with you. An experienced EMT, he was at the scene before any other help arrived and assisted you into the hospital.
Returning to your jurisdiction, and his, in the ambulance he is in the passenger seat in his uniform with weapon.
A convertible speeds by with a number of teenagers clearly not restrained and traveling well above the posted speed limit.
The officer radios in the plates but receives a radio message that no officers are available at this time to pursue.
He looks to you and says, “Light it up and catch that guy! I’ll take the heat from your boss, just get him to slow down and stop!”
Do you turn your ambulance into a police cruiser? You make the call.
The text says he is having trouble breathing. The dispatcher has added a Paramedic Supervisor to the call, usually reserved for major emergencies. What we found was not what we were told.
THE EMERGENCY
A man is having difficulty breathing.
THE ACTION
The middle aged man has called 911 reporting he can not breathe. We arrive at the house and are met by a girl in her late teens, telling us to hurry, her father can not breathe.
At the top of the stairs we hear him calling out to us, in full sentences and at quite a volume, that he can not reach his urinal.
“Hurry up already, I peed! I have to pee more!” He is shouting.
“Sir, do you have an emergency?” My partner asks as I take a moment to survey our surroundings. 50″ HDTV with HD Satellite box, clean bedding, stacks and stacks of pirated DVDs, bed side commode and fridge (Not a combo unit).
“I need a ride to the doctor, I can’t hold me pee!” He calls out as we hand him the urinal. “It’s too late now. What took you so long?”
“…” I can’t speak.
“…” Partner is at a loss for words as well.
The phone is placed back on the hook from where he called 911 and immediately rings. The son is calling asking what the problem is, he heard sirens. The son is 3 doors down. All this time the son is 3 doors down, alone, and can’t come help dad pee. The girl is rubbing her forehead and taking notes of our assessment. When I ask why she tells me her mom will want to know exactly what happened and she wants to be accurate.
“You don’t need an ambulance, Sir, but we’ll call your Doctor’s office to try to arrange a ride if you don’t have one. I don’t see a cane or walker, are you able to get around OK?” I ask, hoping he listens to reason.
“I want a ride and you are my ride. Let’s go.” He’s up off the bed, slippers on and heading for the door, not even allowing a basic assessment until we’re in the ambulance.
All the way downstairs and to the street without even a wince or groan, a wheeze or moan and he refuses to climb in, instead demanding we remove the cot and load him up. Realizing we are not in control, we’ve stopped trying to do the right thing. As soon as he sits down on the cot and I take the feet to load him up he cries out, “Hurry up I have to pee!”
“Can you hold your urine, I’ll get you a urinal in…”
“I’m peeing!”
I love my job.
You need to get over to Ben’s place and read the Insomniac’s Guide to the Ambulance for his inspiration. Now.
A neat feature built into cell phones is this concept that even if it has no carrier and no one paying the bill, it can still turn on and call 911. Great feature. I love it. Genius. Anyone who finds a phone in the street can turn it on and call for the FBI.
THE EMERGENCY
The call center has received a cell phone call requesting the FBI be sent immediately to a street corner.
THE ACTION
Reading the text, which I’m sure the dispatch center was laughing about the whole time, I think back to every time I’ve had to wait for an ambulance to respond because others were tied up on clients instead of patients. Yes, I consider people who activate 911 for non-emergent, non-urgent, non-medical/police/fire/assistance clients, not patients.
Mr Universe is often seen at this corner, half in traffic, waving us along as if without him we will slow to a stop and not be able to continue. Mr Universe is homeless by choice and often tells us, at length, about how much easier it is to score with the ladies when you don’t have to waste your assistance check on housing.
He wears a number of layers of clothing, each eclectic in its own right. An open front helmet is covered with a variety of old CDs and flashy nick knacks he has collected over the years and a beard that matches his dreadlocks perfectly. And yet, despite his appearance, is entirely sane.
Today Mr Universe found a cell phone in the street and, by golly, it turned on. There was no service to it, someone likely threw it out instead of recycling it, but when Mr Universe saw it ask him if he needed 911, he decided to get some things taken care of.
As we arrived and saw him waving, as usual, and on the phone we could only wonder what he was up to.
“When did Universe get a phone?” the driver wondered aloud.
“Probably nicer than mine” the officer grumbled.
As I approach Mr Universe is still online with radio telling them that there is a conspiracy to destroy the earth and some other nonsense, and he wants the FBI, not the Fire Department.
Yes, dispatch assumed this man was mentally unstable and instead of sending a law enforcement officer, as per the caller’s request, they sent Fire/EMS. The catch all, end all of the system.
We informed Mr Universe we had no phone number for the FBI and the boss asked to see his phone. Out came the battery and Mr Universe was reminded that to seek fire or medical assistance he need simply use the street pull box located 6 feet away, but that false alarms are not tolerated.
He waited 6 hours to pull the hook in the box and ask for the FBI again.
This is another in a series of tales told by my probationary boss before his retirement. You can find them under the tag “Tales.”
Smoke Eater is a title that gets thrown around easily these days. With the proper use of airpacks and application of physics, no modern firefighter need be a smoke eater.
New on the job and still catching frequent big fire, our probie is assigned to the low rent district on the engine. This neighborhood is well known for the resident hotels and single room occupancies, often 5-7 floors each with 20 or so rooms scattered on a floor that has been remodeled who knows how many times in the 100 years the building has stood.
A fire in these buildings will get out of control and jump floors fast, not to mention catch unsuspecting occupants in the interior stairwell.
The bells ring late in the evening for a full box assignment, reported fire in a building.
On the engine, doors open and siren screaming, from their vantage point in the open cab they see the flames from blocks away. The south half of the 4th floor is blowing fire and catching the fifth fast. Luckily this building was recently updated with a standpipe system and, lucky still, it is not on the side on fire.
Off the engine with both bundles of 100′, the officer has the wye and they’re up the stairwell, pushing past folks running downstairs, most naked or nearly so.
Smoke is heavy on the second floor and our engine crew has been forced to their knees halfway to the third. On the third floor the heat is intense and the smoke thick. No hoods, no airpacks, just your guts and your experience to get you in and working. They hook into the standpipe and are leading the line upstairs when they are forced down to their stomachs. The heat is described as a giant elephant sitting on your neck and face, unrelenting, inescapable. To charge the line and shoot water now means a steam burn for sure. The body can take more heat dry than wet, so they push forward, a lunging crawl at a time, both members of the nozzle team wishing they could find the fire and get the hell out.
In all the confusion, they must have crawled into a closet because the team has encountered a pair of boots in their path. The smoke is thick and the low levels of oxygen could be playing tricks on their eyes.
Nope.
The boots belong to the engine boss, crouching, but still walking, in a backwards duck like shuffle that outside of a burning building would indeed seem odd.
“Get off the floor you clowns, we’re almost there!” He calls and the team rises and imitates the shuffle which, to their surprise, helps with the heat, but the smoke is more intense, piercing their eyes and making them burn as if on fire.
By the time they find the bulk of fire near the end of the fourth floor, they find the truck company passed them while crawling and has already ventilated and was pulling ceiling in anticipation of water.
After the fire, amidst all the coughing, snorting and wheezing, was a kid wondering if his boss went through the same learning experience he just did. It was there in the street he finally understood what they meant by “Trial by fire.”
At 0800 hours this morning, one of the last 24 hour ambulances in our system, the one I refer to as Medic 99, was deactivated and reassigned to the day car yard.
A mixture of emotions today, I was not working, but it really drives home that the Administration’s plan, whatever it may be, is happening after all. As we all say, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” I’m seeing it. In 30 days time all Firefighter/Paramedics will be assigned to engine companies, not ambulances and all transports will be covered by single role Paramedics and EMTs. Some are rejoicing. Others are quiet. A handful of others have transferred over, grabbing sweet cars on nice hours (If your kids are grown).
I mentioned before, when I first told you of the plan to shut down van #99, that I will miss it. I took this job knowing the system was in a state of transition from day car to 24 hour car and I wanted a part of it. You read that right, I’m not mixed up. When I started here, we had just shifted from 10 hour to 24 hour cars. But the amount of abuse and waste in the dual medic 24 hour system sent the plan into disarray. Now we’re 30 days from what I jokingly refer to as “Operation Full Circle.” The ambulances out of the firehouses and back on the streets.
It’s tough to make decisions about what is best for this system since so many high up play their cards very close. Accurate information is hard to come by and basing theories on my education gets me funny looks.
“May I see the 3 year plan?”
“The what?”
“Nevermind.”
So raise a glass, lads. The never ending nights at 99 are now history.
I’ve been tinkering with the Mutual Aid and Continuing Education boards and wanted to pass along some new favorites.
Mutual Aid
Pedro the Paramedic recently caught my eye with a leaning towards the management aspect of what we do.
Writer Sean Fitzmorris has resurrected his Burning Tiger content at, where else, Burning Tiger Reborn! This link will take you back to the beginning of a great EMS story I’m still working through. Grab a drink and get yourself 30 minutes alone to get started and be able to appreciate it.
CEUs
With all the talk in this economy about cutting back and spending wisely, a friend tried to get me to read some pretty crazy stuff. In a different category was this site Frugal Living at its Finest someone on Facebook recommended. I’m not familiar with the author they are basing their life changing economic adventure on, but I admire their honesty, even though it is an anonymous blog. If we could all be this honest about money, maybe this place would be running a little smoother.
Have a site I should be following? Drop a comment and I’ll take a look in between playing Pirates on Facebook and watching the little ones.
Awkward a situation as it was on Friday, this was made more of a nail biter by the obsessive manner of supervision the Battalion Commander that day ran his shift. He was always stopping by unannounced, but since they always went in service on the air, you could look busy by the time they arrived.
When Mrs Happy came knocking on the door late that night, I had doubts initially about what I would do, whether it was making coffee or offering her a spot on the day room couch.
This station is one of the new fancy ones where the female bunk rooms and bathrooms have locks on the doors.
I made the decision to let her stay the night in the female bunk room and leave in the morning. I later told my supervisor the situation from that night and he nearly blew his top. It was against the rules, but was in the best interest of safety that night. I would do it again if I had to.
If you said let them stay, you made my call.
We tell kids not to do it all the time, but there is a time when playing with matches is OK. Since you’ve visited our Purchasing Division partners, Tanga, you know HMHQ is fond of brain teasers, riddles and word puzzles.
No surprise then that the lost art of bar challenges rates high in our training here. We’ll get into details of how to get a drink for a dollar and pick up a cherry without touching it in another post, but for today, we’re playing with matches.
In most bars you can ask for a match book and, if properly prepared, entertain a group of friends for at least 2 rounds. For example: Can you make the fish in the picture here swim the other way moving only 3 matches?
Have fun with this link to Match Puzzles. I wanted to bring them over, but the folks did such a nice job, why ruin it? Each puzzle has a link to the solution so you can’t accidentally cheat.
You are assigned to the outlying station in your rural fire district as the Firefighter/EMT. This station houses an engine and ambulance, but staffs only one person due to the design of your system. You are one of four stations staffed this way today and it has been a quiet week.
The wife (husband, significant other) recently got a job at a local restaurant. Your home is an hours drive away on a quiet dark highway.
At 11:30 PM the phone rings and your other feels too tired to make the drive home safely after working a double. You offer to meet at the gas station near the highway for a coffee and a pep talk when they tell you they are too tired even for that.
10 minutes later, they are at the door asking to lay down just for a little while.
Your Department’s policy states no visitors after 8 PM. You make the Call.
TO: All active duty Paramedics
FROM: Acting EMS Section Chief Happy Medic
RE: New Medication added to protocols
The following policy and protocol will take effect immediately.
Amendment to pharmacy list, addition of Maan Pill.
Overview: With an increase in minor complaints and a decrease in common sense and the ability of adult males to act like adult males, the Medical Director, Dr Imadoc, has approved the use of the Maan Pill for treatment of whining and crying in the absence of a medical emergency.
History: Produced by the Mann Pharmaceutical Group, the Maan Pill is actually a centuries old herbal remedy, often used in younger males to prevent them becoming men who can not handle their own in a stressful situation. Previously marketed under the name Maan Up, the Maan treatment has virtually disappeared in recent years with the popularity of the less expensive, yet less effective Empathie Remedies.
Actions: The Maan Pill acts to inhibit the whining reflex and replace it with an acceptance of one’s situation. The exact chemical reaction remains a mystery, much like everything else we administer in the field.
Indications: The Maan Pill is administered to males between the ages of 15 and 55 exhibiting symptoms of a nervous breakdown without a provoking factor. These men may present in police custody after committing domestic assault or with a vague complaint following a car accident.
Contraindications: None known
Dosing: One Maan Pill, total of 1mg PO with a repeat dose often needed for weeks on end.
It is important to remember that Maan Pills are not new, but were previously marketed as Suckitupandactyourageitol. This name led many to abandon the treatment entirely, as stated, in favor of a “watch and see” mentality. Dr Imadoc wants us to start administering a Maan Pill to anyone exhibiting the symptoms immediately, but only after a complete assessment to ensure there is in fact no life threat.
Paramedics who encounter a patient who meets the requirements for the medication should ask them, “Did you take your Maan Pill today?”
That is all.
Lt Morse over at Rescuing Providence reminds us what professionalism is when he encountered another serious American EMS emergency.
Any call that has one of the following elements is a winner in Happy Medic’s book:
Patient is smoking a cigarette on your arrival
The demand to “Be seen” or “Get checked out”
They refuse to answer questions
They are ambulatory and can see the hospital from where they are sitting
They eat
They call you an ambulance driver
They know “Their rights” and demand you do what they say
Lt Morse might have a Yahtzee. Go look and have a giggle, then a sigh, then cry because this is why you have to wait so long for an ambulance in the USA.
We really had no choice at this point. Looking back on the situation now, as a Paramedic, I would do the same thing my partner did.
We got one of the firefighters to start driving back towards our district which was on the way towards the highway and the trauma center, at least an hour away.
In the back I was able to start IVs while he finished his assessment and prepared to intubate. Soon after the intubation, the head injury began to show and the seizures began. Had an experienced set of hands not been there to assist, I’m not sure what would have happened.
We pulled into the driveway of the station where a police officer/EMT was awaiting to jump in and take over driving to the trauma center. Our friend eventually got picked up a tthe firehouse and a viable poatient was delivered. All was well.
That is until administration found out. We were yelled at from all sides about the liability issues, what if he had been drinking, a suspended license, etc etc. After all the yelling was done my partenr looked at our Battalion Commander and simply told him, “It was a patient care decision and I was the highest ranking EMT on the scene. My decision was sound and proved to be in the patient’s best interest.”
If you said grab a driver and get moving, you made the right call.
The details of the Trans-Atlantic blogger Paramedic meet up better known around here as “the Project” are starting to gel and a tentative date has been set for the start.
I will now jinx the Project by posting details before they are concrete.
Medicblog999 and the BBC will arrive the second week of November and I’ll head out there after 6-7 days of filming and stay until the Thanksgiving holiday.
With that in mind, I am preparing to write up my official assignments request to the Chief describing what experiences I think Mark should have when he arrives.
Although what we do may differ from what you do, I want to give him a solid understanding of what it means to deliver EMS in a fire model.
So, I want you, my readers, to chime in on what you think Mark should see or do on his ride alongs with Happy. I have already worked out time on a lone engine company, an engine in a triple house downtown and scattered dynamically deployed ambulances. (Our 24 hour cars will all be closed by the time he arrives, including my beloved 99).
But what else should he see?
Here are some suggestions of what I would like to see, but can’t fit it all into the time schedule we have:
Mark tillering downtown on the 100′ ALF (With help and supervision of course)
A drill in the smoke house or at the tower
A ride with our heavy rescue squad
A cruise on the fire boat
A low angle rope rescue drill
Make Let him cook at the triple house (Engine, Truck, Squad, Division Chief – 15 people!)
A ride in the helicopter (Oh wait, we don’t have those here)
A blogger meet up opportunity for folks in the area (You already know where I am, remember, I won’t tell you) to come by and meet Mark while here.
What of these would you like to see Mark do? Do you have another suggestion? Remember, this is mainly to show him EMS delivered from a fire model, not a comprehensive evaluation and comparison of EMS from different regions. Maybe he’ll head your way next year, but this year he’s dropping by my neck of the woods.
I’ve been seeing some nifty gadgets on some turnout coats lately. They’ve made it onto the helmets as well, so I wanted to share some of the neater things folks are buying to make their job easier and safer.
First, let’s shed some light on things.
It used to be we just carried a flashlight in our pocket, then folks started lashing them to the helmets, but they always seemed to get caught on something bolted to the side.
One of the brothers came in with this item on his helmet the other day:
This particular kind of light I like for 2 reasons. #1, it is low profile and can sit right along the front of my shield. #2 it is LED so it is bright and saves having to recharge it every shift.
This particular model is available from Foxfury Headlamps and will run you about $150 delivered. Not bad considering the size and specs. Maybe Santa will bring ol’ Happy a new lamp.
I think we all now have a 90 degree coat lamp, like Ed here
, by Pelican, this one from Police and Fire Supply dot com. I like Ed, he holds up well, but if you set your coat down wrong, you hear that “bang” and know the bulb is out. He can also be annoying when you’re crawling along a smoke filled hallway and points at your face instead of the floor. I rigged up a little strap to solve this problem, which someone quickly “borrowed.” The new strap has MEDIC written all over it and has yet to wander off.
The helmet camera is starting to get popular, have a look at firevideo if you don’t believe me. At first I thought it was just another show off type gadget. A co-worker attached one to the bottom of his remote controlled plane and flew it around. If you ever need to get dizzy fast, watch something like that.
But recently I saw this video from the New Chapel Fire Department.
Find more videos like this on firevideo.net
What a great training video. And we don’t have to worry about staffing a video unit to respond to fires either. We can hit record on the camera, film the evolution and have a first hand account on conditions inside. I think in the near future these will be linked to the command buggy to give the Chief in the street a better understanding of the fire conditions. Maybe he would have seen fire above this crew in two separate places and recognized an attic fire.
I don’t have one and likely won’t for awhile. I’d end up recording another burnt popcorn building alarm on the 18th floor and use up all the memory in the stairwell.
Personal escape tools are all the rage these days, from simply rope bags on belts to elaborate descent systems, there is indeed a variety on the market. My favorite it something that has versatility, that can expand as I need it. I like this product. I wish the video showed a few different things though, watch it first.
First, I’d like to see someone changing from belt to harness with gloves on and kneeling. Second, get that axe out of the passenger compartment. Take the time at the scene to put it in your belt while sizing up the fire. Heck, even get the SCBAs out of the cab. That 46 seconds of size up could make a big difference. And thirdly, I enjoyed the versatility of the strap that allows you to climb that nifty ladder to cut the hole, then you can climb off? Never leave your ladder when cutting the hole. Can’t reach? Train more.
But all that aside, what a fantastic product from Fire Innovations. I’d like one.
The last item today isn’t really a gadget, but a nice piece of tradition I think everyone should have. A leather shield from Paul Conway or the Fire Store. You can get them from a number of other places around the interwebs, but I like the Conway and Fire Store quality and sometimes the holes come pre-drilled, which is nice when trying to wrangle my own onto an old Cairns 5A with angled bolts. The quality is superb and there is a wide variety of customizable features. I like the gold leafed ones too, but we have a retired guy here who does them custom and by hand.
What will they think of next? Who knows. I know there are a lot of other gadgets out there, these are just some I’ve seen/have, that I like.
Do you have a gadget you like? Post a link in comments.
When responding to a call just after closing time of the local watering holes, I always have one thing in mind: The firewater. I have been face down my fair share this life and expect at least 2-3 more before I reach 55 and after that, all bets are off. But when you are 24, face down in your tiny bathroom and swearing you only had 2 beers, refrain from asking if you can do a ride along.
THE EMERGENCY
Caller states that her roommate is screaming for help from the bathroom floor.
THE ACTION
Up and out of bed to bright lights and a piercing bell. A voice comes alive describing a person in need of life saving interventions. My Harry Potter book is knocked over as I throw open my sleeping bag and pull on my turnouts. Uniform jacket is zipped up and I see our driver is already sliding down the pole. I follow in safe time and we’re away in less than a minute.
We arrive a the scene to our early 20′s caller who responds to my opening question of “Did you report an emergency” with “I think so, we just need an ambulance. He’s drunk.”
Had I known that, I would have taken the stairs.
He is indeed in the bathroom vomiting as we approach. Our patient describes himself as “poisoned” to which I respond in the affirmative. Alcohol is indeed a kind of poison in any amount.
“This is not normal for me,” he keeps repeating while I’m conducting my assessment and finding no life threats.
The private ambulance crew arrives and I give my report and then an odd thing happens. My client tries to correct my report.
“He never did a stroke scale on me, what if I’m having a stroke?” the client slurs and all the rescuers within ear shot turned their heads slowly his way.
“What?” The ambulance crew and I ask in unison.
“I’m an EMT student and I think it could be a stroke. Can you do the exam on me? The um…Cincin…Nat…Natti scale?” he slurs from infront of the toilet.
I was at a loss for words. Then, before I could think of something to say, our patient asked an interesting question:
“If I goto the hospital with you tonight, can it count towards my ride along time?”
No.
Dispatched to an ALS intercept in a very rural area you are an EMT driving your experienced, trustworthy Paramedic partner.
Radio advises you they are receiving updates from a volunteer fire squad at the scene of a rollover MVA with ejection, one person still alive. You have asked for the helicopter to be launched, but it has just launched for a long trip and will not be available for some time.
Arriving on scene you find two volunteer firefighters standing near the man who is prone on the ground. They are not even EMTs in this area, just Firefighters for their small community.
The patient is unconscious and unresponsive. You do your best to get him immobilized and O2 on while instructing the firefighters what to do and how to help. Loading the patient your partner looks from you to the firefighter and says, “I’m going to need a lot of help back here,” and turns to one of the firefighters, “can you drive us as far as our district so we can get another driver to intercept us?”
Seems like a logical decision this far out. It took you almost 40 minutes just to get here, calling for another driver to respond would take forever.
Do you allow a driver you’ve never met to operate your ambulance in order to assist the medic in the back?
You make the call.
No his pants were not actually on fire. All day with this crew they kept talking about “that guy” who lived a few blocks over who seems to call 911 everyday. Until recently there was a specialized program to deal with such nuisance calls but, poof, away it went with recent budget cuts.
THE EMERGENCY
A man is having 10/10 non radiating chest pain.
THE ACTION
As the address goes over the radio after the bells the crew is cheering, “There he is!”
They know his address by heart. I am infrequent in these areas so I keep my mind open to the possibility that the chief complaint stated to the operator is in fact the problem at the scene.
When will I ever learn?
We’re into the tiny, dirty apartment and I’m performing my assessment on the overweight, dirty, 60ish year old who claims to be having “an extreme pressures all over my chests.”
I am taking it seriously and, thankfully, so is the crew. They stopped cheering and commenting as soon as we were in drive. At the scene they have him on O2 in a flash and a BP cuff in my hand while I’m talking to him. I want to call out for a scalpul and see if he actually opens the OB kit, but I don’t.
Our client’s complaint shifts from his “extremes” chest pain to the swelling in his legs that his doctors won’t fix. Every time I try to get him back on the chest pain subject, he brings up the legs.
I’m about to call BS on this guy, with inconsistent descriptions of a chief complaint, normal vital signs and no signs of distress whatsoever, when my EMS supervisor wanders in.
“What have you got?” He asks, thumbs in his belt like an old west gunslinger. White shirt, collar brass…striking. (Caddyshack reference #3) It’s a slightly offensive posture and I can see what he’s doing so, knowing I’m taller and in full turnouts from our recent building alarm, I rise to respond.
“Initial complaint of chest pain, but I’m looking at an activation for leg pain, non-traumatic. Still going the ASA route.”
And I was, so I offer him 2 aspirin to chew and he brings up his hand to take them and begins shaking it wildly, dropping the little pink pills onto the floor.
“Look! I am seizuring! Help me! Help me!” he screams and I want to raise my voice and tell him I know he is faking, but my clinical supervisor is just outside the door.
I decided to do the right thing and call his bluff.
“Did you call us for leg pain and tell them your chest hurt so we’d get here faster?” I’m towering over him in the little room.
He looked at me like Puss in Boots from the Shrek movies, eyes big and just a hint of a pout. 
That white shirt in the hallway is now half in the doorway looking from me to the client, no expression on his face.
“My 3 year old knows that won’t work on me, gave it up a year ago. Man to man, just tell me the truth. Did you call because of your legs or are you having chest pain?” I ask while loading another round of ASA into my hand.
“I need someone to fix my legs! I can no walk! Look!” and he does a half stand/half fall back into the chair.
I look to the EMS Supervisor who laughs to himself and asks if I need anything from him. I shake my head and take a deep breath.
Groan. Actually, it sounded more like Krusty the Clown from the Simpsons.
Our ambulance, a 24 hour car from 4 Battalions over, finally arrives and our client admits he called for leg pain. Leg pain he has been seen for 3 times this week. He made us carry him down 3 flights of stairs, even though last time he walked.
Last time he was intoxicated, I am informed as we’re pulling away, and he wandered down the stairs just fine.
There are few things I hate more than lying. Especially when we crossed a few major intersections against traffic to what we thought was an emergency.
Firegeezer.com is offering 5 tickets to the final three days of the Firehouse Expo in Baltimore.
The Geezer states:
Firegeezer has five (5) complimentary passes for the last three days of the conference, July 23, 24 and 25. This complete package is worth $295, but it can be yours for FREE if you act now and rub your lucky rabbit’s foot.
Send us an email NOW to geezerguys@yahoo.com with your name, address, phone #, and put “Expo” in the subject line. They must arrive at our Inbox by 10:30 am tomorrow – Thursday – and we will conduct a random drawing at 11:00 am tomorrow – Thursday.
Goto the original post for more details HERE and good luck.
Oh, and if you’re around the second week of November I’m going to have a special guest at HMHQ, so maybe when the shoe drops we can have a Fire/EMS blogger meet up. Pencil in the 9th through the 15th for now, details to follow.
“Give me a reason to drop you. Do it.” Is not often something I want to hear on a call, but this time it was a uniformed police officer saying it, so I was cool. I want to say it, but I’d likely get dropped instead of dropping someone.
THE EMERGENCY
Police have found an intoxicated man.
THE ACTION
Again, I have done extensive research on this subject, so trust me. Alcohol intoxication is not an emergency, nor is it necessarily against the law. But when you start stumbling down the street I guess concerned citizens call 911 instead of asking if you need help.
Between the citizen calling 911 (then driving away I might add) and our arrival, a police cruiser appears to have encountered our friend. He wasn’t too excited to see the officers and made a move, we find him on the prone on the ground with an officer on his back.
“Gentlemen, can we be of assistance or is this a police matter?” I open with a leading question in these cases, sometimes it works.
Not tonight.
“He’s drunk and acting stupid” the officer keeping our man down says.
“Then a room full of sick people is exactly where he belongs! Can he stand by himself?”
They remind our man about keeping calm and that the ambulance will be taking him in, which he disagrees with at first.
“Is he in your custody?” I ask, receiving a chuckle and a negative answer.
“If you can walk away friend, you can do so at your leisure, unless you require medical assistance.” I say and he just stares at me.
“You’re ugly, you know that? Real ugly.” He tells me, the common heavy odor of hour old liquor on his breath, “You’re all ugly. A bunch of…”
You could tell he hesitated at his choice of words, carefully balancing the word with a possible outcome. Then the alcohol took over in his brain that said ‘screw it who cares!’
“…pigs!”
“Give me a reason to drop you. Do it.” The officer says shifting his stance. I was ready to watch the sidewalk rumble go down. I’m a lover, not a fighter, as you all well know, but I wanted to see this guy get owned.
Alas, he backed down and sat down cross legged on the sidewalk, clearly understanding he had already lost the fight that never happened.
“He’s all yours,” I’m told, wondering when being drunk and stupid became an emergency warranting an ambulance.
The basin made it into his lap just in time for the chunky stuff and I donned an N95 for the rest of the thankfully short drive to the waiting room of St Closest.
He was up and out the doors before I had given a report to triage.
And we wonder why ambulances are so busy these days?
Follower Capt Schmoe, who gives us the Report on Conditions, has been driving a lot in the last week. But you know that since you follow his blog from the Mutual Aid Board in the right hand column.
On one of those drives, Capt Schmoe saw a water tanker like he hasn’t seen in his area. Being an aviation junky in his spare time he exited the freeway and caught up with the UFO.
Go see what it takes to maintain and support a water tender that never touches dry land.
Photo credit Captain Schmoe (Not his real name…I hope.)
I start each shift by telling my driver the same thing, be it ambulance or engine.
“It’s not our emergency. I want a warm lunch, a warm dinner and to go home safe in the morning. and the first two are negotiable.”
The situation I presented on friday is a common one where I am. We don’t have the fancy opticom (sounds like a kind of transformer to me) since it would likely trigger lights for blocks. We beta tested a nifty satellite monitoring device that read our GPS location and the intent of the driver based on the turn signal to change the trafic lights, bt it was always too slow.
Easier to put the proper tools in the hands of the driver.
My department has no written policy about emergency driving, other than that the Officer is responsible and the driver is to use caution. Thanks.
In this situation I hang back and shut down. There is no need to blare the horn and siren trying to ge the driver in the left hand turn lane to pull out into cross traffic. When the light turns green the lights go back on, when the lane is clear the siren as well.
If we needed to make a right hand turn here I will also reach out and wave at folks to stop.
If you said shut down and wait, you made my call.
*Usually a disclaimer about following your Department’s policies would be warranted but this is the safest thing to do, so how can it be wrong?
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