The challenges of emergency calls

Writing used to be something I was nearly regular on, and I do miss it.  The recent technology advancements for myself including a smartphone have left me busier and with less free time.  I am motivated into a few things right now, but I do stray now and then. I don't even know if anyone reads me, since no one ever comments or anything.  I am trying to get my book published.  It turns out there are online locations to assist you to publish online without the investment costs, and in ebook form such as amazon.   I really have wanted to get it out there.  I dont know if it will be of high enough quality to make much money but my hope is someone will enjoy it, learn about the EMS lifestyle and how it affects you.  Work has been, well I won't say it since that is a bad word here.  I cannot complain we will leave it at that.  I have started trying to improve on my dispacthing skills, obtaining more details that I know are important and that w...

So, I came up with a plan to be more annoying at work to let my co-workers, specifically a couple of the ones who complain about their workload, which is not that large most days.  I have figured out ways for me to be annoying and feel better myself, even of they don't know they are getting punked.  I am just annoyed at things like a desk full of pens and papers when I come in.  I come in to a desk with with food particles,coffee rings days old, dried food and dust.  I am not the cleanest person, but I clean up at work what I make dirty.  I cleaned the desk tonight will post pics if problems return.  I am tired of being the only one to replace the water bottle in the water cooler, so I stopped.  I figure everyone can take a turn or fifty before I do it again.  My co-workers freeze to death inside so they turn up the temp to the max we are allowed which still prevents overheating the equipment.  I come in and run it low and cold till my relief...

So this idiot calls 911 to complain that his fire which he had left unattended, from what I understood, was put out by the fire department during red flag drought conditions.  I don't think people get how bad wild fires could be and are not following the fires out West involving thousands of acres in multiple states.  There people are upsetting and normally the ones to ignore burn bans and cause an "accidental" fire.  I'm sorry but burning brush and trash can wait. This last month has not been without the normal silly stuff going on. We had a juvenile breaking up with someone call up asking for his property back from the girlfriend.  The officer contacted the ex-girlfriend and got the belongings. When he arrived to return the items the juvenile smelled of alcohol and was arrested. The planets must be aligned for perfect mental instability, we have handled several mental cases in the past two weeks.

I know the title is what drew you in on this one.  I can honestly say that I have had some very strange happenings in the past few months which I haven't been blogging about due to the fact no one seems, to be reading or commenting on my posts.  I find it like I am hidden as a blogger.  But I still write down things that will be used for later projects. I handled a call recently, in which a wife requested her husband who was drunk be removed from the residence.  The officers responded to the location, and found he was not around when they arrived.  She was fine with them leaving as they didn't know where he was and the issue had been resolved.  She calls back several hours later advising he had been hiding in the crawl space in the basement and had came upstairs, he was in the house when officers were there earlier.  And she wanted him removed, because he was trying to fight with her.  Then she called back again, to state he fell asleep on the co...

Don't get lost yet.  I know the title prbably threw you off.  I actually do alot of thinking.  Sometimes as I lay my head onto my pillow in the evening to sleep my mind runs full speed with ideas for blogs and things I should discuss, then I fall asleep and forget them.  The voices are like story tellers.  They are the guide to how I write, and things sound better in my head than they do in actual text sometime.  I stand in the shower washing my body after I wake, and ideas roll through my head like a ball rolling down a hill.  They flood me with ideas, and excitement for the potential increase in readers.  I just wish I would actually record or take notes on what I am thinking when I think it.  The last few weeks have been relatively nice.  The weather is nice and warm, and things haven't been too awful bad.  I have had a couple annoyances with a few repeat offenders.  These folks seem to call about the same thing over and o...

So, this is the new blog format, I find it strange and am not sure I like it yet.  I find it quite plain and don't like all the white background. As a dispatcher you spend a lot of time thinking.  Thinking about issues with equipment, issues that callers have had, and hoping things go well for them and their family.  You think about things, it just comes with the job.  Don't lose me here yet, I am not going off on a tangent of emotions associated with dispatching.  It takes a toll on you over time, but you get used to, or do you ever really get used to it?  I always go home and sleep, but that doesn't mean I don't think about how a call went or wondering how I could improve.  I think that is what makes a great dispatcher different from a good dispatcher.  I don't consider myself great.  I feel I am still learning after only a few years.  There comes a time when you cross a point where dispatching becomes just like any other job and you...

I was going over some old EMS techniques and situations, and realized that I have lost it.  I lost much of my knowledge of functioning in an EMS system.  I can recall certain things, but I forgot things such as lead placement for the cardiac monitor.  I know it is said every day, but the old saying you either use it or you lose it is true, believe me.  I don't know where I should start this blog.  There are some things in life that area for sure, such as the seasons will change, and if it can happen it will, especially when you least expect it.  I can always expect a call prior to severe weather from Charlie.  Charlie is a middle aged single male in about his 50's who resides in a mobile home, with local TV, a police scanner, and several family members.  Charlie always calls to see what we know about the weather and if their are any warnings out.  I can also always expect calls from Carolina, complaining about the kids playing basketball ...

So, while trying to fall asleep earlier this week I thought to myself how interesting it is to work in a smaller community.  I was thinking about how many times you interact with your friends, neighbors and family as we work.  We handle their calls for help and send the required services in the same amount of time we would with anyone elses' family, neighbors, and friends.  Although some would argue and complain that because you work in a small community you would show more favor in how you send a response to calls to those you know.  I am not going to say that metropolitan areas don't do their jobs, or do have a personal relationship with their callers, but they just don't have the same connection.  I think those that live in a rural community have many benefits they never think of, they know their emergency service personnel, their dispatchers, their police officers.  You may never see the same officer in larger cities.  Small communities know strugg...

I have so wanted to put something on here.  I have been doing some reading lately and neglecting my visitors to my blog, which I can see we are getting with nearly 100 views since I put up the tracking tool.  I don't know if these are unique views or just reloads, or people coming back to check again.  I have been slammed for several shifts.  I get through to about the down side and the last few hours beat my butt.  I have had calls come in at the same time and no units to handle the calls.  I hate that stress, but I can't make units from toothpicks or dust which we seem to have a lot of, which I found out a few nights ago.  I had to do some quick repairs and diagnostics and climbed under the desk, which is very dusty an dirty.  I found myself surrounded in dust, and debris.  I stood up and dusted myself off, shedding the dirt which I thought I had left from previous jobs for a desk job.  I guess I was mistaken.  But I enjoy doi...

I have had several things I wanted to sit down and write.  But, as always work, and life are busy and I probably forgot half of what I wanted to post.  I must be getting old if I cannot remember what happened 1 week ago.  Then again it could be the lack of sleep, or nothing. I guess it wasn't that important, or I would have remembered.  

I was doubting myself and my views of my blog.  But it appears I have got about 10 or so in the last week.  I hope that can increase as I have added it to many search engines.  I am feeling a little more up now.  I enjoyed a few days off and now back to the grind stone.  I am often confused by things which once seemed easy to understand.  I find myself stopping and thinking about them longer, and studying things which I once knew off the top of my head to make sure I understand them properly.  The days of flying by the seat of my pants are gone, as I have emerged as an older version of myself. I was thining over the weekend, what am I going to write about this week, what will become the highlight of the blog, of the world, of news in general?  I did have one topic come up and I thought it was worth a good paragraph or so.  When I was an EMT fresh out of school and within a few months hired by a paid service I trained on the day shift for a ...

Last week there was a subject that reported losing a large amount of cash from an unlocked vehicle parked in front of a convenience store.  Well, I guess after she wasn't so frustrated about losing the money and searched a little closer, she found the money was still in her vehicle.  The officer handling, had thought she was just making accusations after she had been nearby when another theft from a vehicle was reported and she overheard the report.  She did advise when she notified dispatch that she found the money she was still missing a cell phone.  She really didn't care about the cell phone when she was reporting the money missing, saying it was more of a throw away junk phone.  But I guess it was enough of a thing to mention after it's the only thing missing.

I am not talking dirty, get your mind out of the gutter.  I am serious, nothing is simple or easy any more.  The more we evolve as a people the more we put ourselves reliant on technology and communications devices and gone are the days of paper and pen.  I know some agencies still keep the paper and pen handy or still use it as primary record keeping.  I had an incident for a subject who was having vehicle problems after "falling asleep at the wheel" coming from a second party.  I dispatched an officer to the area.  Upon arriving the officer located  vehicle off the roadway in a field.  The officer requested an ambulance to check the subject out.  Meanwhile he called me on the phone to check for jurisdiction.  After discussing his location with him as best I could since there were no clear landmarks and the jursidictional limits are like a zig-zag in the area, I made the call that I believed it to be outside our patrol area.  I adv...

Back several years ago, I was on an island, not a real island but a fictional in my mind island.  I was sharing my island with several people.  They were co-workers whom I worked well with and friends by association such as police officers, fire fighters, and emt's from other agencies.  I was feeling good about my connections and my island.  Then I took another job moving to dispatch.  I got a sit down job, with a regular shift, and the ability to have a some what normal life.  In that move, I have had to give up many things, one of those was all these people on my island.  They all swam away, or sailed or just got buried in the sand I guess.  I started working the dayshift in dispatch to fill an opening left by a previous employee.  And that continued for some time.  I enjoyed seeing people and dealing with people.  Well a few years later I lost the shift due to seniority at which time someone with higher seniority took the sh...

While going through a hospital the other night, I observed a patient being loaded for a transfer.  The crew assisted the patient on the cot, and secured them.  They then proceeded to pull the patient backwards through the hallway.  The patient's head was going out the door first.  I was shocked, but it wasn't uncommon to see it happen more than once now and then when I was working with someone whom would do the same thing.  I tried not to second guess my partner's since most if not all of them had much more experience than I did.  Looking back they all did by at least 4-6 years.    We were always trained when possible you let the patient see where they were going, it made them less likely to try and jump off your cot, because who feels comfortable not being able to see where they are going while being pulled on a cot, down stairs or pulled down a hall.  Strange enough walking backwards not knowing where you are going, or being the da...

So, after about a week of starting to post pretty regular it appears no one is reading my blogs at all.  I really don't know if it's the topic of my blogs or just no one has found it.  I did last week go and submit the link to many search engines in an effort to try and get the word out there about the blog.  I don't know how long I will continue to type if no one is reading it.  As of today I still had only 36 views.  That is crazy considering the amount of worth while reading here.  I see several other blogs with nothing but re-posts and links from other locations, and even news and they gain the traffic.  I guess I feel a little let down right now. I was trying to come up with something for another blog, and I came up with safety...   The current area I work and live in has a unique situation, exactly how I won't elaborate but let's just say some of the agencies are not affiliated with each other providing the typical services they would...

We all want inspiration, and stories to tell our kids and grand kids. I look over a couple of my favorite blogs and read stories and think about all the stories I should have logged or wrote down or something. I am sad about the fact that I just cannot remember all the things I feel would be great stories to tell. I am trying to look back on stories which others might enjoy. I remember a code call once, where a woman who found her sister without respirations or pulse. The sister was known by myself to attempt suicide in the past and the whole family were pain pill addicts. I was going over the CPR instructions and the woman had told me she knew how to do CPR. As I tried to read the instructions and assure her that help was on he way. This was a rural location probably 20 miles from the ambulance service and the fire department was probably 5-6 miles away and volunteer. As I listened the woman responded back with, it didn't work. I was like what didn't work. She sai...

I was just thinking about the rules we break in one day. I can't imagine how many rules we break which were put there for a good reason. I was reading our policy manual and found out that I am supposed to have 3 long sleeve and 3 short sleeve polo shirts to wear to work. When I was hired, about 3-4 months later we discussed shirts, and I was allowed to order 4, and the long sleve version I believe was no longer made and I never got to re-order. So I have a total of 3 shirts that I am supposed to wear for my 5 shifts a week? I doubt it. The shirts after their first year started to show so much fading they look like they are from the 90's. I just started wearing what I wanted, I bought some polo's which still violate the policy, because they don't have the agency logo on them. I mean in all reality I don't see a big deal about it. My co-workers do the same, two of them never have a polo on, they wear dress type clothes. There is also a policy for us to a...

Where do you think dispatch thinks you are if you don't radio in during the whole shift? Where am I supposed to think you are if you haven't radio'ed in all shift? I know it is pretty much given, but if you don't call yourself out on a location when interacting with dangerous criminals, I don't know to check on you. I don't have an accurate record of the time you showed up on scene which you might need later for a court document. I know I could ramble on forever about silly things, but on to the better things! Everyone has those annoying parts of their job, and then their are those parts you just love or that you enjoy. First off, I am the rookie still, by age and seniority. I always feel good about myself when I get a call from another agency asking how they do something. I get a good feeling knowing that the more experienced folks ask me for my help. Not that I always can help. I have had issues myself and found the help files, or the "chea...

I haven't posted about politics, but it affects us all. Our daily lives are controlled by gambling with our jobs, our pay, our healthcare, our purchases. A major problem in my book is that items from foreign countries are sold here in our country at a lower price and we buy them because that's all we can afford. I hate to suggest it but in my opinion the exporting manufacturer should have to pay an import tax to make the value of importing would make the item the same price on the shelf as the U.S. made item. I feel that any store that is going to put foreign products on their shelves, should also have the American made version on the same shelf at the same price. I know it sounds silly, but wouldn't you buy something that was the same price and made at home to keep someone working? Try looking when you shop for an American item over one from a foreign country. I guess what brought up my upset is the discussion on the oil pipeline that they are trying to build fro...

There was a period when I wrote down all my EMS calls for the day for my book and blog then days became casual and boring to me even.

Tonight was one of those nights, when you come to work feeling good get the let down and then it goes downhill, then up hill and up again. I had a computer issue today with the printer. I couldn't print anything the queue was jammed, and the printer wasn't showing up at times. I recalled when I came in to relieve the previous shift that the person was putting a pile of paper into the shredder. The shredder had already stopped working once while I was waiting to relieve them. They had pulled the drawer out and pushed it back in, they seemed like they didn't want me to see them trying to shred this pack of papers. I noticed it looked like a forward on type email. Nothing for me to worry about. Well later on when I was working on a document I opened up the form file and it said that there was a problem with the printer spool and it wanted to report it to check for a solution. Then it also advised me there was no printer driver located. I was puzzled by this. But I ...

I was sitting down thinking after an incident today that we seldom thing who is watching when our temper rises or we begin to blurt out foul language. We fail to think whose tender ears are hearing what we are emitting for all to hear. I have been trying to push myself for my child to keep my language clean around her. I know we all slip now and then and I find myself thinking oh there I went again. I just hope that as a parent I can be better than some of the parents I have seen. I am not touting myself to be a wonderful parent. I realize I am a new parent and don't know all the answers. But I know that my daughter will get love, attention and discipline. All in a good mixture to provide a well rounded adult as she grows up. While out with my family the other day at a mall, I was waiting on my wife with my child outside the restrooms in the hallway. There was a mother who had taken her 2 children into the Women's restroom. One was a boy and I don't remember on ...

I was just thinking a few days ago, that I really miss blogging and writing. I can't believe I have not typed a blog up in over a year. The ending of 2011 I looked back over where I was and where I am today. In about the late part of 2009 I took a new job offer and left working in EMS full time. I knew at that time that I would already have been stressed to get in the required continuing education to renew my license. In 2011 my license came due, and sure enough I didn't have enough education to maintain my license and although I know I put 6 months into getting my EMT license and then maintaining the hours to keep it for the 1st renewal I do honestly miss it at times. I miss the people, and the compassion I could show the families and patients. I miss the great people I worked with and the interaction with other agencies. Of course I still have some of that, but it is not quite the same interaction. In January 2011 when I last posted I was going over some older call...