The Consensus on Science with Treatment Recommendations (CoSTR) from the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR), the group that forms the basis for the AHA ACLS guidelines, has released a new draft guideline on Advanced Airway Management During Adult Cardiac Arrest.  The guideline is available for public comment until April 2, 2019. Advanced Airway Management […]

Check out this powerful You-tube video When I see another provider who is burned out, my reaction has always been: “Get another job.  You have no business doing this kind of work.” Until I saw this video, I never really considered the concept of moral injury. If a fellow paramedic hurts his back lifting or […]

I’m on scene of an overdose. A fifty year old man in an unkempt apartment went unresponsive after sniffing two bags of heroin. His neighbor found him, giving him 4 mgs of Naloxone IN, and then called us. The man is alert and oriented by our arrival and does not wish to go to the […]

Connecticut, following the leads of states such as New York, has just expanded the scope of practice for EMTs to include injecting medications. This means instead of carrying two $600 Epi-pens, EMTs can now draw up 0.3 mg of epi from a $5 vial and administer it to a patient suffering a severe allergic or […]

It has been busy at work lately and the crews have been getting pounded.  An EMT posted this video (found on the internet) on our employee Facebook page.  I laugh every time I think of it.  If you have never worked commercial EMS in a high volume system, you might not appreciate it.  I can […]

The official death numbers for 2018 are out from the Connecticut Medical Examiner’s office. Connecticut Accidental Drug Intoxication Deaths 1017 people died in Connecticut of accidental overdoses, down 21 from 2017.  This is the first decline (albeit minor) after six years of escalation. 746 people died in Connecticut due to the presence of Fentanyl, up […]

They have installed cameras in our ambulance just behind the rear view mirror. The camera records both the traffic in front of the ambulance and inside the front cab of the ambulance. It does not record the passenger compartment, and it (supposedly) is only a video recording.  Audio would be illegal in our state. The […]

EMS has focused on trauma, stroke and STEMI in recent years with resulting improvements in outcomes.  Many health care systems are now turning attention to sepsis care and the considerable role EMS can play in early recognition and treatment. Here in Connecticut we have Sepsis Alerts, which while rarely generating the full response of Trauma, […]