This sir is the problem with EMS in America. Undertrained and ignorant providers thinking that they are paragods. First of all, you didn't respond to my previous post in this thread about how all lifeguards are EMRs if not EMT-Bs, a higher level of training than you're own. Second, you did not respond to ERDoc's comment about how lifeguards are supposed to verify your credentials in their jurisdiction, where they have primary medical response.
Now, for some ungodly reason, let's say that we take your statement to be true. That an EMR with field experience should be entirely running the scene. How do you know that the lifeguards on scene don't have more experience running cardiac arrests than you? Did you check over and read their resumes and career call logs while trying to push them out of the way to do CPR?
I am sorry for not responding to that thread. I know many lifeguards. I play water polo and almost every member of my team is a lifeguard, none of them are trained EMRs or EMTs. I have many other friends who are lifeguards, both at beaches and at pools, again, none of them are EMRs or EMTs. I am only going by what I know from where I work, but around here, it really does not happen. I have responded to beaches and pools a couple of times and never had a lifeguard who was an EMR or EMT. I am not saying that they do not exist, they are just not common around where I live.
Did you check over and read their resumes and career call logs while trying to push them out of the way to do CPR
When did I ever push them out of the way? I would advise you to read the original post and see who pushed whom out of the way. If the lifeguard had been perfectly calm running the scene, I would have simply asked where he needed me. If he had been controlling the scene well, I would have gone to work on the patient and he would have listened to the respiratory therapist.
Just when i'm about to apply the first pad, the Lifeguard screams for me to "get the f*** away from the AED and i'm not trained to use it". The respiratory therapist (who is ventilating with a pocket mask) tells her i'm trained but the lifeguard ignores her.
In this case, the Lifeguard seems to have no medical experience. Anyone with medical experience would have known to be far more calm and collected. I was recently at a funeral where a man syncopated while leaning on his car. On his way down, his head smacked on the car. I went around the funeral service to get to him. He was on gravel, but some people who thought that they knew what they were doing (and obviously had no medical experience) thought that the biggest problem was that his head was on gravel. The began dragging his head over to the grass (the grass was about about a foot away and they were turning him towards it by his head). Obviously, this was not what you wanted to be happening, but never did I yell, "Get the f*** out of the way! You are not trained!". I simply asked them to move.
Now obviously, this is not as tense a situation as a cardiac arrest, but still, the lifeguard's lack of composure demonstrates to me that he should not be running the scene. The lifeguard seemed to be panicked in this situation, while bensack2000 was not. Who should have been running the scene? Probably the repertory therapist, she almost certainly has the most experience. Also, note that she is the one who told him to stay.
In my opinion, if the lifeguard cannot handle his own emotions, he cannot handle someone's life.
