We’re sent for hallucinations — a third party caller — a man’s daughter says her father is hallucinating and needs to go to the hospital. She says her mother is concerned. ** “We’ve been married 70 years,” the wife says in a deep cigarette voice. “Last night he says there’s a man in the shower. […]

A reader asked me to comment on the following article. Public Safety Personnel Work Through Danger Here is the most relevant passage: A few years ago, in a discussion among several of us who do critical incident stress debriefings, we talked about the difference between acknowledging and meekly accepting danger as part of one’s career. […]

Not a Bad Thing The state was here inspecting our ambulances. Everything was in order except all the pedi ET tubes in the airway kit were expired as were all the replacement pedi-tubes in the supply room. 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5 – all expired. I didn’t even know tubes had expiration dates, […]

Thirty percent of the calls in my town are patients over 80 years old. Lots of pneumonias, CVAs, COPD, hip fractures, etc. We rarely get kids. Started off the day with a 95-year-old who “went into a trance” and “fell out.” When we got there, there were people running toward the house in panic and […]

Working sick. It happens all the time in EMS. Why? In EMS you get exposed to so much, its hard to make it through a winter without getting whacked by at least one bout that would put a salaried worker in bed with a thermometer in their mouth and a water bottle on their chest. […]

Nearly every day a stranger’s arm rests on my knee. I roll their sleeve up and strap a tourniquet around their arm just above the elbow. I usually have already eyeballed their hands for veins. Is this going to be an easy stick? Or am I going to work for it? While their arms rest […]

The Conference I wish I was going to. As I’ve mentioned I am going to JEMS – EMS Today in March. Great conference, great speakers, great chance to find out what’s going on in EMS. But if I could go to only one conference this year – and I am kicking myself that this is […]

I taught my first ACLS class today. Well, actually, I was monitored for a class. This is necessary in order to get your instructor’s card. I choose to teach the VT/VFIB class, which I felt was the most challenging. It is a lot harder in person that I imagined it. I know the subject matter […]

A number of months back I had a discussion about thanks or lack of thanks in EMS, after which I decided to keep a record of how many times I had a thank you said to me in a single day. My list only lasted a few days, but it was actually quite lengthy. It […]