Great news out of Kentucky! The medics who administered antivenom to a man bitten by a deadly mamba snake will not face discipline for their actions. Antivenom is not an approved medication for paramedics to administer. The medics found themselves in the situation where a snake expert was bitten by a deadly snake. The man…
The CDC just released a priorities statement critical of harm reduction and safe consumption sites. It includes this passage: CDC grants will prioritize evidence-based programs and deprioritize programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called “harm reduction” or “safe consumption” efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm. This statement is…
You are dispatched to the zoo for a snake bite. There you find the reptile keeper in extremis. He says he has been bitten by a deadly mamba snake and if he is not soon administered the antivenom, he will die. You don’t carry antivenom in your med box, but there is antivenom there at…
Titrate Naloxone to effect. The effect is restoration of breathing. Not return to consciousness. Too much naloxone can cause a person dependent on opioids to suffer withdrawal symptoms. A person put in sudden withdrawal can suffer from horrible pain, nausea, vomiting, tremors, rapid heart rate, excessive sweating and other unpleasant symptoms. A person put in…
“Endotracheal Intubation is the insertion of a tube in the trachea. Tracheal intubation is the definitive method of airway management. Endotracheal intubation allows the greatest control of the airway. It is a skill that requires extensive training and is subject to degradation if not practiced appropriately.” Advanced Airway Management, Charles Stewart MD, FACEP, Prentice Hall…
I recerted the American Heart Association’s PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) today for the 18th time. Last week I recerted ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) for the same. For those not in health care, everyone in EMS and most everyone in emergency departments and likely in other areas of the hospital have to take these…
People don’t read books much anymore. I don’t read books much anymore. I used to read all the time. When I wasn’t reading I was hunting through used book stores to find more books to read. The walls of my room were lined with bookshelves, many double layered. Now most of my books are in…
Filter magazine has a great article “Overdoses Should Be Termed “Prohibition-Related Deaths” that argues that our overdose deaths are caused by the prohibition environment that makes drugs more dangerous than they should be and drives drug users into the shadows where they use in places where they are unlikely to be found if they overdose….
Many years ago… A police officer sits next to me on the bench seat and interrogates my patient as we ride lights and sirens to the hospital. He has second and third degree burns on his chest and right arm. I put in an IV and start running fluid. The man needs pain medicine. The…
Last night I attended an Overdose Awareness Day event hosted by Today I Matter, an organization founded by a father in memory of his son, Timothy Lally. Today I Matter’s mission is “to reduce the stigma and shame of mental illness and addiction, and to promote the physical, emotional, and mental health of our community.”…
With the release of Netflix’s new Documentary Come Hell or Highwater, 20 years after Hurricane Katrina, I thought I would revisit my experiences responding to the aftermath of the hurricane in Gulfport, Mississippi. Most of the news always centers on the devastation in New Orleans, but the coast to the east of the city was…
I worked a 12-hour shift last week and was busy. I have to think a bit to remember what I did — nothing that required going to the hospital lights and sirens. Two hot humid day triggered asthmas who got breathing treatments and solumedrol. An abd pain in a patient with dementia who felt better…
I am proud to announce our article Community-Originated Research to Identify Access Gaps in Over-the-Counter Naloxone Availability in Connecticut Pharmacies has been published in the Harm Reduction Journal. The article, which began as a school project my daughter Zoey started by surveying pharmacies in Hartford about naloxone availability, was expanded statewide and the results were…
My daughter is reading The Remains of the Day for her summer school assignment. I read the book many years ago and also saw the movie that starred Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, and earned 8 academy award nominations. The story is about an aging English butler, who reflects on his life and the notions…
My new book The Friends and Family Guide to the Opioid Overdose Epidemic: Including How to Recognize and Treat an Overdose is going to be released on August 26, 2025 . In 2021 Johns Hopkins University Press published my last book, Killing Season: A Paramedic’s Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic. It…
You’re a new firefighter-paramedic and you are not fitting in. You are quiet, reserved. You lack the natural swagger of many of your co-workers. And you like the medic part of your job more than the fire. Your district mates give you a hard time about riding in calls they say you should have downgraded…
I am going to turn 67 this month. I am the oldest active paramedic in our division. Today I read an article in the Washington Post about a 76 year old EMT who started his career at 65 and only retired from active duty this year because the physical demands of the job became too…
My two favorite Connecticut politicians are in a dispute with each other. Governor Ned Lamont and Senator Saud Anwar are both outstanding public servants. I like both men very much. Governor Lamont is a moderate, Senator Anwar is to his left. Senator Anwar has been the leader in the effort to create overdose prevention sites (OPCs)…
I was at a basketball tournament with my daughter last week in Louiseville, Kentucky at the Kentucky Exposition Center. The event called Run 4 the Roses draws 1,600 teams (9,000 players) and college coaches from across the United States, and 9 countries, including teams from as far away as Australia. They had 84 courts inside…