Recent content by Shock

You're right. Obviously I've made a critical mistake here being concerned about people intentionally trying to pass off as police officers.

Honestly, I'm ok with that. Where I get frustrated is when people start adding things to them, such as an antenna farm, a police interceptor badge, the works.

Why don't people drive around pretending to be EMT's :( Is it because we don't carry guns? Are our oxygen cylinders not good enough for you?

Have any of you ever seen a car that resembles a police car, with some type of intentional indication that it may be one.. Then as you approach it, realize that it's not a police vehicle at all? I've seen this a few times... A lot of old retired CVPI's roll around, with an antenna farm or push...

Our uniforms are a department t-shirt, and a police-style button-down shirt over-top, and 5.11 taclite pants. I have class about 40 minutes before my shift starts sometimes. I just swap to everything but the button down before my last class. I'll wear my uniform if I need to stop somewhere after...

Love my acoustica! It amplifies subtle noises so well, and tunes out sirens and engines. It does come with a full set of replacement parts. Comfy fit too, and light weight for being around your neck for extended periods of time, such as at a fire rehab.

So, my suggestion for you is to buy a separate new stethoscope for this purpose. Go with an MDF. MDF offers free life-time replacement parts (buds, bell, ring) and a life-time warranty on everything but the tubing. MDF's are also hand-crafted, which Littman cannot say. They're also cheaper than...

My service issues a gear bag that has to go with you when you leave your shift, and has to be on the truck with you. I just keep it in my car. It has turn-out gear for MVA's. I stuffed some c-collars, some gauze, a roll of tape, and some prep pads in it from various supply rooms. I figured...

I'm aware of the personal jab, though mislead. I treated everyone on-scene neutrally. Both parties were asked to remain in their cars, and not move them (due to accusations, this was a crime scene until proven otherwise in my eyes) I assessed everyone for injury with no bias to what happened. I...

I'm not particularly new to this, and it doesn't exactly excite me. The mechanism was low, I knew the chance of injury was slight. But you have to understand the circumstances that I rolled up to. You have to make a decision as a person of whether or not you would let a mother and her child in a...

I agree with you, tee. I don't think stopping was really the best idea. This was the first MVA I stopped at off-duty, I usually roll by them. Given my car isn't equipped with anything other than napkins and a little CPR mask, I think I'm going to avoid this in the future. Though I bet I could...

I was on my way home from the store, and I was on a pretty busy 3-lane highway. Anyway, I rolled up to a "side-swipe" low-mechanism accident, blocking the middle lane. Driver of the vehicle that caused the accident was yelling at two females in their car, both whom are visibly shaken and scared...

Yes, the ED placed a chest-tube, which is pretty much what we were expecting them to do. I didn't stick around long enough to see if he was decompressed before that. So, here's the kicker. According to the patient, if he leaned forward, he would start to black out. He didn't have LOC at any...

I don't take it you have ever blindly inserted a 10g needle into the dermis, all intercostal muscles (they get thicker and tougher as you go deeper), and both pleura layers without even bumping the intercostal vein, intercostal artery (shout out to the ic nerve, for the sake of your patient...

Lights and sirens, in my opinion, was indicated. It was dispatched as an ALS highly urgent emergency. We couldn't really predict how fast he was crashing. We just knew that without treatment at a hospital, or by a medic, he would have inevitably. I don't really like taking those kinds of bets...