The challenges of emergency calls

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...

I actually have missed typing a blog. It has been over 2 years, and I know someone probably has missed reading it. Although, te views are very low making me wonder if anyone actually read it, or just skimmed over it. I don't know where I left off, but I know that alot happened in the past few years. I remember working a shift with a paramedic, who knew his stuff, he was the go to guy. He had been doing it for several years, and learned it young. We were en route to a call for a two vehicle accident quite a ways out in the county. It was about 15 miles away. Arriving on scene we find the fire department has the patient in the back of their equipment truck. The driver had been driving a delivery van, and the semi truck with flatbed in front of him, had swung out into the Northbound lane, while turning back West to give himself enough turn radius. The driver of this van wasn't paying attention and ran into the side of the trailer as it was going into the drive. The dr...

I have been playing this fun browser game I thought some might be interested in. It is a simulation of truck driving. site no longer in operation

Yet another day, I find myself backed into a corner, I wanted so badly to write something, although my head is spinning, and I cannot come up with anything! I do my best to try and assemble things I believe someone might actually want to read or care about. In three years, you would think that I could have came up with some really good stories. The problem is remembering them. I can guess that most of them were probably in the nursing home or running crap calls. One night around closing time for the local bars, we are dispatched to one of them. The call comes in as a man down. We respond with lights and sirens, it is only a few minutes from our location. We arrive on location at the same time as the police. While we grab equipment, they get the details. The guy was in the bar mouthing off, and looking for a fight, he is pretty drunk and comes outside, and someone hits him and knocks him down. We find a crowd surrounding the guy, a couple are holding the guy down, and holdi...

One night, myself and my partner were notified by the local police department, that they needed a subject checked out. We arrive at the police station, and find a subject in the holding cell, and a lawyer at the desk outside the cell on the phone. The officer state, he is complaining of hand pain, my partner looks at it, it might have a fracture. He evidentally struck another guy in the head with his fist. He is complaining that the handcuffs are hurting his arms. My partner and I splint it with a SAM splint, after the police release the cuffs. He is being released, anyways the lawyer was bailing him out. The report given to us by the police was that, he was in the bar, and dragging his girl around and talking bad to her. Another man didn't like it and told him to stop. The kid then made a threat to the other older fellow. The older fellow then identified himself as a state patrol officer. The kid then proceeded to hit him in the head and face. I don't know if the ...