The new American Heart Association Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care guidelines were released this morning. While the AHA does a major update every five years, since they went to online updates a few years back, the changes are not as momentous as they once were. After reading the executive summary, here are the key […]

Lay rescuers should not wait for naloxone to take effect before activating 911 in patients suspected of opioid overdose. Trained EMS responders when treating an opioid overdose patient in suspected cardiac arrest should focus on high quality CPR (compressions plus ventilations) before considering the use of naloxone. These are two recommendations from the American Heart […]

I am on my knees, wearing a yellow decontamination gown that has already torn at the right forearm and left wrist. I listen to rhonchi in the lungs of an obese febrile man, who likely aspirated on the brown emesis he threw up on himself. The apartment is dim, and smells heavily of cigarettes and […]

The Hartford Courant this week noticed what most everyone else around here has– panhandlers are on nearly every corner of big intersections these days. Many carry the standard signs drawn on ripped cardboard “Homeless and Hungry.” Some wear masks, others don’t. Some make eye contact, others look down at their feet. They almost universally say […]

When I started as a paramedic over twenty-five years ago, I had a number of set views.  Here are two. People who use heroin have character flaws and are criminals. They deserved their fate.  People who go to jail or have been in jail went because they had character flaws and were criminals. They deserved […]

I was bruised and battered…I was unrecognizable to myself.” –The Streets of Philadelphia Bruce Springsteen On November 3, 2020, let’s make America a country we can recognize again. Vote!    

Data just released from the state Department of Public Health shows overdose deaths through July are up 17% over the same time period last year.  2019 which ended with 1200 fatalities represented the previous high for overdose deaths.  Deaths were up in each of the first seven months over 2019 numbers. Drug Overdoses Monthly Report, […]

Most of my EMS career, I have worked in areas that are predominately black.  If I wanted to get a head start on my run forms, I could check heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes for medical history and be right a large portion of the time.  I have always thought that black people […]

I was interviewed recently for a podcast talking about Connecticut’s SWORD opioid overdose reporting program.  Check it out here: