EMS Topics

… and there’s a time for common freakin’ sense. I know paramedics who can tell you chapter and verse about their patients, and hand off a thoroughly assessed, neatly packaged, NEARLY DEAD patient. There’s a time and place for a thorough history and physical exam. That time and place is not when your patient is circling the drain. The ambulance ...

My partner is a constant source of amusement, every shift. The kid is quite possibly the sparkiest EMT ever. And if I could teach him to engage his internal censor when the calls turn out to be less than the fun and excitement he envisioned, he’d be just about perfect. Tonight, Kelso got the sort of shift he has always ...

New clinical tip.

One phenomenon that never ceases to amaze me is non-dominant hemisphere syndrome.

… there’s a new column up on EMS1. A snippet: All of this demonstrates two ugly facts about EMS that I suspect have been true since Jesus Christ performed the first successful resuscitation: everyone is an expert about someone else’s call, and EMTs eat their own kind. Read, enjoy, comment!

TOTWTYTR posts an EKG and case history for that most elusive  of creatures, Brugada Syndrome caught in the wild. Very cool when you can very possibly save a life by using your brain, and not your hands. Those are the kind of EMS calls I love.

“Thank you so much for coming, young man,”  the old woman tells me, for the fourth time this call. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.” Her voice is frail, querulous. She seems grateful and apologetic at the same time. “It’s no problem, Ma’am,”  I assure her with a warm smile. “This is what we do.” “It’s ...

Overheard over the radio: Dispatch Drone: “Medic XXX, we need you to respond to #1 Kiloton Way on a lift assist. We’ve got Medic YYY en route to back you up. Reluctant Medic: “10-4, do you need us to go lights and sirens?” Dispatch Drone: “Negative, Medic XXX. It’s just a lift assist on a bariatric patient who needs help ...

But in my years as a medic, I've learned a few techniques to minimize the muss and fuss of poking squirming children with sharp objects: First, minimize the lag time between telling the kid about a painful procedure and actually doing it; second, bribery works; and third, use the bevel-down IV technique.

What’s in a name? Everything, apparently. Over at the JEMS Magazine Facebook page, they apparently link to my posts fairly frequently. And whenever they do, the indignant remarks about the title of my blog usually far outnumber the reasoned comments about the content therein. Every post, without fail, there’s an avalanche of “ZOMG! I went to school  for [insert length ...

Question: What do the above things all have in common? Answer: All of them are things in which some people desperately wish to believe, despite the utter lack of credible evidence of their existence. Now, before you roll your eyes and say, “There goes AD again, making unsupported blanket statements just to make his point,” I will cop to just ...

For you EMS types, particularly the ones who are involved in the ongoing discussion of EMS 2.0, there’s a new column on the subject at EMS1. Leave your comments and suggestions here, there, and at the links posted. We need to hear your voices.

Yoda’s wisdom is applicable to all endeavors, not just becoming a Jedi Knight. Tonight, a friend was telling me of her struggles with paramedic class. How draining it was, the financial burden, the long drive back and forth to class, how difficult it was for study groups to get together… blah, blah, blah. My response: “Pull up your big girl ...

… there’s a new clinical tip on EMS1. Enjoy.

Why not the Christmas Edition, you may ask? For the same reason I don’t call it the Hanukkah Edition, or the Ramadan Edition, or the Winter Solstice Edition, or the Kwanzaa Edition, that’s why. Or even the Festivus Edition, for you Seinfeld fans. No matter by what name you call God, this season holds special meaning to many people. Or ...