Recent content by Mavrande

NVRob, you might have gotten it - every time I've seen this done I think the vehicle has lit up and then blocked traffic coming off a one-way street perpendicular to the other rig's direction of travel. Obviously you don't want to block a street if the other rig might be turning down there...

I've seen a few people do this and was wondering if the consensus was that you'd find it useful or confusing: As you're driving an emergency vehicle not code 3, and as another emergency vehicle that is driving code 3 is approaching, as you pull over and stop you also activate your emergency...

I don't get how this is guessing - I hope you don't tell your patients "I think you'll be OK, but really I'm just making a guess"... Wide complex regular tachycardia at a rate of just under 300. That's VT until proven otherwise, but given the P waves I would guess atrial flutter with a bundle...

Why would a critical piece of safety equipment that helps dispatch determine which unit has an emergency be disabled? That seems like a terrible idea.

Cop - "hey dispatch, roll me a rig for an assault victim, unconscious" Disp - "do you guys have a second ambulance in service" Medic - "negative. Do you want us to redirect?" Disp - "no, continue in to that call" Medic - "we haven't made patient contact yet, we can redirect if that...

There's nothing wrong with turning your emergency lights on and then driving flow of traffic. Way I see it is, if I'm coming up to an intersection that I can't see around with no L+S, come to a complete stop at the stop sign, then the cross traffic is going to go, because that's how driving in...

Ours come individually. We sort them by size, the jump bag containing one of each, unwrapped and in the loops, as has been described, and each ambulance containing at least 3 of each size in labeled plastic bags. They can in theory be autoclaved but who would bother? OPAs are not taught in...

Well that isn't true. I know plenty of places that don't provide uniforms or shears, I know quite a few places that don't pay for CEU or CPR refresher courses, and I have yet to find a company that provides coffee.

An AHCD can be much broader than a simple DNR order. Assuming both documents are still legally valid (the patient has not overridden or destroyed one of them) then both documents are still legally valid. Where there is a conflict, the one signed more recently has effect. If the AHCD declares a...

Fair enough. We declined to NPA for the same reason, although there was no indication of a skull fracture. No CSF or blood from the ears, no battle's sign. How would you judge - based on resps? Skin color? Guidelines for CPR class say no palpable carotid after 10 seconds. I have not taken...

I was considering just posting one part of this in BLS discussion (criteria for initiation of CPR/BVM on a borderline patient) but figured I'd give you a whole story. Based on a recent call I had, but obviously details have been changed to protect the guilty and I added a few details from other...

Scrubs did this: Twelve beaten children Eleven drive-by shootings Ten frozen homeless Nine amputations Eight burn victims Seven strangled shoppers Six random knifings Five suicides Four beaten wives Three O.D.'s Two shattered skulls And a drunk who drove into a tree

Whoever decided that suction containers should be clear must not have been very queasy.

Sounds like a panic attack to me. Don't worry; you're not alone - it's hard to imagine that anyone in the emergency services wasn't panicking a little bit on their first few shifts, or their first day as an EMT, or first day as a medic, or every pediatric call ever. When you're on the way to a...

I figure this is probably related to the national changes - I'm being told that the New Jersey EMT certification levels are changing, that Basics are going to be just "EMT" now, and we're getting a few more skills like blood glucose testing and I think albuterol. I haven't been able to confirm...