I just finished reading Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear, an audacious and provocative book by Dr. Carl Hart, a professor of psychology and a “preeminent expert on the effects of recreational drugs on the human mind,”  in which he describes his recreational drug use, including heroin and methamphetamine.  His […]

COVID is on the retreat in Connecticut and much of the nation and world.  Whether it is the effect of vaccinating those most at risk, the cumulative effective of masking and social distancing or the virus is just getting tired (hopefully not just resting before a new variant-fueled surge), cases are in rapid decline.  The […]

Scene Safety BSI.  (BSI is body substance isolation). That’s what we are taught to say at the start of any practical scenario.  You don’t practice Scene Safety BSI, you fail the station. Two interesting articles recently on Jems.com about EMS safety. The first, Safety is Third, Not First, and We All Know It Should Be.  […]

I admit I have been having a hard time adjusting to being a part-time field paramedic.  When I went part-time back in the spring (in order to accommodate both increased hours in my clinical coordinator job at the hospital and be around more to take my daughter to her sports events), my plan was still […]

Great mini-documentary on opioid use and racial disparities in Hartford, Connecticut.   Listen to Julissa’s story.   My view’s on the opioid epidemic and people who use drugs has changed dramatically in the over twenty-five years I have been a paramedic in Hartford.  Only by listening to my patient’s stories, patient’s like Julissa did I come to […]

Today at our state’s EMS Advisory Board meeting (held via internet) they had a moment of silence for those in EMS who have passed recently as they do every month.  One of the deaths was an assistant fire chief and former state trooper who was one of the first responders at Sandy Hook.  He died […]

The official word is things are getting better in Connecticut as far as COVID goes.  We continue to slowly decline from our December high.  The governor has lifted the sports pause so my daughter is back having full scrimmages with her regional basketball team, although her middle school has cancelled their basketball season.  My wife […]

I am thrilled that American Medical Response-Hartford and Aetna Ambulance are partnering with the Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition to deputize the city’s EMS responders into the Harm Reduction army.  Crews will provide information cards to overdose patients and their families on where they can obtain everything from rehabilitation services to naloxone and clean needles […]