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Wow that's awful. The RT may have intubated but the paramedic is equally at fault. The fact that the pt was not restrained nor properly sedated is the first of several inexcusable fails. I can't imagine how terrible it must be to be a parent and know that your child died in such an awful way.

Sure, but give a day or so to respond because i hate typing on my phone

Sounds like an awfully complicated situation, so I sympathize with you Regarding that gray area of how intoxicated you can be and still refuse treatment, ask yourself "Is this person truly competent to be making decisions." If you think they are, document the heck out of what things indicate...

I can share an interesting syncope story Twenty something guy comes to the ER because he fainted at work and his boss told him to come in. He said he fainted while walking around. Nothing else to it, no prior syncope, no medical history. All vitals normal. The standard work up in the ER for...

I had to check if it's April 1st yet after reading this article. Is this dude a friend of Dr Oz? Or maybe he is friends with Donald Trump's physician, you know the one who tells us that Trump is "the healthiest man ever to run for the office of president " and that all his tests were "positive"...

"For example: patient has been vomiting and says they pulled their back whilst vomiting. Immediately upon getting into the rig, they ask for pain meds. Same thing the minute they hit the hospital bed: pain meds." LOL. That would be one sign. You shouldn't really be trying too hard to figure...

Well, although this is a country of immigrants, we also have a long history of demonizing outsiders. Consider how Italians used to be treated. Or how there used to be job adverts saying "Irish need to apply." We even put our own citizens, Japanese Americans, into interment camps. Never mind all...

Trash talking our government only erodes people's faith in it. There are a lot of hard working people in government trying to make California a wonderful place to live. These people include cops and firefighters, who are of course also government workers. Calling it Communist just because there...

How so?

"Commiefornia" ??? Please explain...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/california-today-police-firefighter-pay.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Since you are not going to be controlling BP prehospital, your focus should be on pain control. That can certainly help with the BP as well. Really the most important thing that we paramedics can do is to recognize that our patient may be having a dissection or aneurysm, and then calling to find...

ER Doc, you should hand that resource out to nurses and medics too! Most healthcare workers don't understand that fevers are not dangerous, and that fever and hyperthermia are two entirely different things.

When you see a sine-wave rhythm like this, it means the patient is close to coding. So yes, absolutely, an IO was indicated in order to give calcium chloride, but as the OP has said, he is already kicking himself for not having done so. A potassium of 8.9 is scary. Bicarb is an old-school...

The AHA no longer recommends routinely giving amiodarone (or lidocaine) to patients after cardiac arrest even if they were shocked out of VT/VF. The reason for this is that is no evidence that this improves outcomes, and anti-arrhythmia drugs can cause harm. (Up to Date doesn't recommend this...

Sounds a bit like tachy-brady syndrome. I've only seen this twice, and it's pretty interesting to watch. Did she have P waves visible when her rate slowed?

It may be easier for you, when giving a report on the radio, to just state the patient's chief complaint and a few of their relevant symptoms. You can't go wrong with that. I.e., "A 70 y/o female who is complaining of L arm numbness since waking up this morning 6 hours ago. She has no weakness...

The fox has been let into the hen house. EMS is my least concern.

Doc, I completely agree that it is unlikely that the delay in getting him to the hospital had any effect on his outcome. However, I posted this because there are so many lessons in story, and that is what the OP was asking for. The other story I would have any new medic/EMT take a look at is...

Since you're asking for war stories, and you work in Kern County, this is a good one to learn from. (Not one I was involved in.) http://www.bakersfield.com/news/case-of-doctor-who-sued-city-for-negligence-settled-for/article_f4d12676-891d-52f7-b4c6-c73d2389f694.html