Do EMT-P's Save Lives?

mycrofft said:
"Triage by Time" means that the most hurtin' patients die anyway, often before you can even get there.

A chart of survival versus severity (or Mycrofft's Hero Ratio):

x8498ehp.gif


R is survival (least on bottom, up to most on top), and S is severity (most on the left, least to the right).

So the majority of heroic saves will be those within a very narrow zone, minus the ones you are unable to treat properly due to many factors (ignorance, lack of capability, absence of proper history or exam, something breaks, transport time takes too long).

Want to save lives? Educate patients and people about safety, and how to perform first aid. Be a lifeguard for rescues.
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or a garbage or sewer person. They save lives. Hundreds of millions.
 
Yes, civil engineering saves millions of lives annually. In fact, we could not have populations as we do now without them.

art-carney-orig.jpg


All hail the sewer guy!

(Uh, were you being facetious there, V?)
 
No I was not.

Public works, sanitation, etc saves more lives and prevents more sickness than any form of medical intervention.

I was just pointing out if saving lives is your thing, go large.
 
10-4
 
Saving lives is not my primary consideration for becoming an EMT, it's certainly part of it, but not my only reason, by far.
 
M1Rifle3006 said:
I guess my question should have been:

"Would a Paramedic have the ability to save the life of someone who'd suffered physical trauma?"
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Maybe. Maybe not. But certainly not on the regular. Trauma gets all the press, but has the saying goes, it's hot lights and cold steel that save those patients. Paramedics are far more likely to make a meaningful difference in the outcome of a truly sick person than an injured person.
 
Veneficus said:
No I was not.

Public works, sanitation, etc saves more lives and prevents more sickness than any form of medical intervention.

I was just pointing out if saving lives is your thing, go large.
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+1 +1 +1

And it's cheaper per QALY, too!

(Make sure you tell pre-meds this. They just don't get it. :P )
 
since the OP is harping on trauma Pts I feel compelled to point out that in my (limited) experience, serious traumas are harder to "save" than serious medical Pts. For example, we will not even work a trauma arrest.

Most trauma Pts are boring, yes it can be fast paced and bloody and exciting, but that just makes me tired and grumpy with a huge mess to clean up.
 
Most ACTUAL trauma patients, can't be saved by anyone.

If I hit you with a truck, odds are you aren't going to make it no matter how fast I get you to that hospital.

Unfortunately modern medicine is just science, not miracles.
 
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Truly saving lives is about 1% of what we do but EMS is much more than that.

I guess you really need to define what it means to save a life.

Is keeping a COPD patient in extremis from progressing to resp failure saving a life? Or does it only count if they arrest and you get em breathing again? Or what about the 75yo at the nursing home who has sepsis with treatment started in the field and a sepsis alert is called into the ED? The antibiotics are at bedside waiting on arrival and pt. overcomes the sepsis and get's discharged back to the nursing home. Does this count as saving a life? Evidence say's prehospital tx and recognition of sepsis decreases mortality. How about calling a STEMI from the field and triaging a patient straight to the cath lab? Does this count? A delay in PCI could result in the patient coding.

I think we don't always know the impact we have and how it contributes to patient outcome.

But again it's not about saving lives. It's about making a difference in someone's life no matter how big or how small. If you bust your leg, is it going to kill you before you get to the hospital? Nope, but having it immobilized to prevent pain and neurovascular damage would be great. Some pain med through an IV would be awesome too. Or what if a patient is having a seizure and we give a benzo to stop it? Does that count? What happens if EMS wasn't there and the patient was transferred 30mins to a hospital without intervention? I don't think the status patient would fair out too good. Hypoglycemia is another good example. What happens if glucose level isn't restored? Death, right? It all depends on your definition of saving a life.

Injury prevention is another example. Injury prevention has the true potential to save lives through educating the community.

And if your an IFT Paramedic it's a whole 'nother world.
 
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I entered prehospital EMS as an EMT and had stars in my subconscious eyes about rescues. My first patient was a horse (barbed wire cut on the fetlock). Had some calls which were exciting, a couple that were a little scarey, but very few classic heroic rescues.

My best save was putting a distraught single mother and her two kids in my ambulance (I convinced her and the cop she had a broken arm) and taking her away before she was arrested by an impatient cop one night. Hopefully the hospital's social worker got them some lodging and good referrals.
 
Of course we save lives! Here and there but! Sometimes you get calls that aren't even emergencies, your almost like a taxi! But you do get those certain calls when your first on scene and save someone! So yes we do save lives :') and I agree with the top post it sometimes Just depends where you work!
 
Wow, the level of bleakness in this thread is really bumming me out.


No you won't go to work everyday and save a life but if you're lucky you will get to improve someones life every single day. You can do this by having empathy for your patients, by listening to them, by being kind to them. Treat the patient and their family. We come into peoples lives at some of their most horrible moments. Not just the patients but the patients families and friends as well. While we are present at these bad times our actions, words and decisions can make these bad times a little better or a little worse or they can have no effect at all. A good provider, in fact a good person will always try and make these bad times a little less bad.
 
EpiEMS said:
+1 +1 +1

And it's cheaper per QALY, too!

(Make sure you tell pre-meds this. They just don't get it. :P )
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Actually, the only advice to premeds is:

"don't do it!"

if they carry on inspite of that, then they are ready for medicine.
 
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