Rude/Nasty Partners

[katgrl2003]

It's a great service you're doing.

Agreed!

 

[Lt.Col.Warren]

I used to work with this guy who always drove the ambulance like we were on a priority call. didnt matter if we were on a call, going to lunch, or headed back to the station, the dude drove about 25 over the limit sometimes more. I filed several complaints to my supervisor who would then ask the other EMT about it, who of course denied it, and my supervisor told me to stop exaggerating the problem.... I would have demanded the keys, but i guess possessing a CDL doesn't certify me to drive an ambulance over someone with a standard license (that one hurts my brain). Eventually I threatened him with violence after transporting a Pt with a recent back surgery 20 miles at 80 to 90 mph on rough michigan freeways.... that got me away from him, but he continued to drive until the supervisor saw him drive up and down a road, lights and sirens, looking for the nursing home where a pt was to be delivered...

I too am an EMT-B, I just finished school a few months ago, but still volunteer with a local Fire Dept and I agree that some Paramedics are just jerks with big (and often undeserved) egos. I was actually on a call with a medic a few weeks ago. While en route to the ER with the pt, the medic asked me to check a pulse. I got 160/min. He goes," No, that's way to high, let me try." He checks for 15 seconds and then turns to the Lt and says, "125." I called him out and said," How did you get an odd number if you counted for 15 seconds?" His answer was "I don't know." I asked him what he counted and he said 40. "That makes 160!" To which he responded, "O, okay." He didn't say anything for the rest of the call. Long story short, sure EMT-B's can't put down an ET, start IV's, or use the LifePack, but we know our BLS stuff and are not retarded. We took the course and passed, so treat us with some respect.

P.S. Most Medics are cool and I got no problem with them, but some really need to stop treating EMT-B's like morons.

 

[Lt.Col.Warren]

Generally, I can't complain about partners - I've gotten pretty lucky I think and had two awesome partners. Just great people to work with, and both have become life long friends, for sure.

When my second to last partner left the island, I was paired with a guy from New York. Now, I'm not from the US, so I don't really subscribe to those 'different state stereotypes' - but I suppose you could put him into the 'New York Douche Bag' category.

I'm a girl, and he spend the entire month that he worked with me calling me Jimmy, even though I told him my name every single time. <_<
He was a paramedic, and according to him, EMT-B's "are only good to carry the jump bag".

We had a call one night, where a car hit a lady on a mo-ped on one of the main roads on the island. The lady on the mo-ped, as you can imagine, was pretty beat up. By the time we got there, her face was already bruising up (even though she was wearing a helmet) and she had some neck and back pain. We obviously backboarded and C-collared her, but when I checked her SaO2, she was only at 93%. He then decided that he was going to put in an NPA, since she was conscious and had an intact gag reflex. I pulled him off to the side and just asked him if he had considered that she may have facial injuries. He proceeded to scream and shout at me in-font of the patient, bystanders, and police department saying that I didn't know anything and that he was the Paramedic on the truck and the decision was his. Thankfully he didn't end up putting the NPA in, and the lady recovered just fine. She had a couple fractured vertebrae, so all in all she was pretty lucky.

Thankfully I got placed with another partner and he left the island a couple months later... I feel sorry for whoever is his partner now...

Please ignore previous post, meant to qoute this one, just could not figure out how to delete a post.