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Aunt calls for her 11 year old niece who she is babysitting. Chief complaint-sudden onset eye and nose pain. The child is screaming and crying in pain and having difficulty opening her eyes completely. No signs of injury. She states she was sitting around watching TV when it started. No known...

Although statues and procedures vary by jurisdiction and agency, from my understanding most mental health holds are placed when a patient is an a) imminent threat to themselves (suicidal) or b) an imminent threat to others (homicidal). I recently learned that there is a third qualification for...

We are considering developing a first responder program for our SAR team. We are hoping to attend some instructor / training administration courses in the near future, but in the meanwhile are looking for examples of other training center's documents so we can start working on all the paperwork...

Is anyone familiar with this program through HUD? They offer HUD houses in "revitalization areas" 50% off list to full-time firefighters, EMTs, police, and teachers. Has anyone participated in it or known someone who has? We're starting to look for our first home and since we and both of...

How many EMS providers have a diagnosis of ADD/ADHD... who is undiagnosed but suspects they may have ADD/ADHD (like for reals... not the jokey "oh look shiney thing!" internet joke BS)? Just curious. I'd also love to hear what medications, therapies, etc those with ADHD have found useful.

Had a lady call 911 the other day. She sounded out-of-breath but more in the deep, "I just ran a marathon" sorta way rather than wheezy/SOB/etc. She was in her early 30's, and her chief complaint was that she was on some sort of at-home cardiac monitoring (I'm thinking event monitor), had a...

Had a call the other day - adult son can't get dad to answer phone. Adult son eventually goes over to dad's house and finds him completely unconscious, with snoring resps, and a suicide note. It seems he OD'd on some unknown medication/drug. Unknown time frame - could have been as long as 24-36...

Anyone else regularly dream about work? It drives me NUTS. Any funny work dreams?? One of my supervisors, who is married to a cop, dispatches calls out loud in her sleep. Unfortunately he apparently does not respond to her "traffic." I once had a nightmare that the dispatch center was in my...

'Scene safe' protocol keeps Aurora Fire paramedics from helping man bleeding to death which he was not... he was in the apartment right next door..

This is an objective question only. Just the facts. What provoked this thought was observing a conversation of a group of black EMT's lamenting how they can not find nice custom ambulance rims. How much $ could you envision yourself spending for custom made ambulance rims? SCENARIO...

Watching a documentary on heroin tonight... they are featuring a "Medic" (I'm assuming paramedic but they didn't specify) with the Chicago Recovery Alliance - a "Harm Reduction" non-profit. His duties include mainly visiting crack houses/"shooting galleries" to pass out naloxone and...

After nearly 8 weeks of classroom job training, the mere sight of a PowerPoint presentation makes me want to vomit. I'm starting to see that they are often crutch devices for poor speaking/instruction skills. I am tasked with teaching two classes next month for an "Advanced First Responder"...

It seems a lot of calltakers in our 911 center believe that if someone is seizing or postictal, loud noises around the patient are absolutely the worst thing that could happen and will send the patient right back in to seizure or keep them seizing. Some will tell the callers on every seizure...

Since everyone's favorite pastime is b****ing about dispatch... and I'm a dispatch newb... what does dispatch do that drives you nuts? What do you love? How much information do you want? Think it's funny to watch the dynamics in dispatch... I saw one old-school disptacher get...

What does your agency require, if anything, that new EMTs/medics learn as far as the streets and geography of their service area? Are they tested? Does anyone have any tips as far as memorizing street rotations, hundred blocks and such? My new dispatch job expects and tests to a pretty high...

Creating paramedics for a country that has none

From a completely non-medical humor site. Thought it was pretty funny and pretty accurate considering the authors are almost certainly laypersons.... About wedging things in a seizing person's mouth...

Got this from a newsletter passed on to me... Here is the link with all the information re: course and applying. Application deadline is 7/14

Alright, what is it about EMS that breeds drama? And how do you confront/deal with it? The drama/rumors/gossip I see at the amusement park is enough to rival anything I saw in middle school... enough that I'm honestly glad I don't work in "real" EMS because it would be hard to tolerate...

Had a kid the other day at the amusement park come off a ride with a chipped tooth. Young boy crying, holding palm to mouth, accompanied by mom and lil bro. When I started talking to him I noticed there was absolutely no blood or any other evidence of trauma to his lips, face, mouth, anything...