RocketMedic
Californian, Lost in Texas
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Overheard second-hand from my sister, paramedic student riding with the local 911 "ALS" ambulance service in El Paso County (Life Ambulance El Paso).
These are quotes from her shift today on one of their ambulances, on 911 coverage in the county, from the paramedic she was partnered with.
"12-leads are just wastes of time, because we have blood pressure to know where the infarct is. All we need to do is put a 3-lead on them and that'll tell us if they're having a heart attack"- spoken by one of the 'paramedics' at Life Ambulance.
"If the patient is postictal, they're alert and oriented, you don't need to ask them about their history."
"I don't care if a patient has problems in the ICU because I gave them oxygen. We only need to get them to the hospital."
"We don't care about numbers here." -in response to being asked why they blast everyone with 15L/min and don't carry pulse oximeters or capnography.
For the record, Life Ambulance pays paramedics $10/hour for between 13 and 24 hours of work every day, drives no truck newer than 2005, and doesn't carry benzos or narcotics. They also apparently don't believe in competent medical care (my apologies to their competent employees, your company and coworkers suck though).
I view it as job security that we have paramedics like the one who these quotes are attributed to, but this place is a joke we should be ashamed of as an industry. If we're training new medics, let's set a better example than this, even if our employer isn't a top-flight operation.
GRR! I'm really glad my family isn't in their service area. How they are in business, I don't know.
These are quotes from her shift today on one of their ambulances, on 911 coverage in the county, from the paramedic she was partnered with.
"12-leads are just wastes of time, because we have blood pressure to know where the infarct is. All we need to do is put a 3-lead on them and that'll tell us if they're having a heart attack"- spoken by one of the 'paramedics' at Life Ambulance.
"If the patient is postictal, they're alert and oriented, you don't need to ask them about their history."
"I don't care if a patient has problems in the ICU because I gave them oxygen. We only need to get them to the hospital."
"We don't care about numbers here." -in response to being asked why they blast everyone with 15L/min and don't carry pulse oximeters or capnography.
For the record, Life Ambulance pays paramedics $10/hour for between 13 and 24 hours of work every day, drives no truck newer than 2005, and doesn't carry benzos or narcotics. They also apparently don't believe in competent medical care (my apologies to their competent employees, your company and coworkers suck though).
I view it as job security that we have paramedics like the one who these quotes are attributed to, but this place is a joke we should be ashamed of as an industry. If we're training new medics, let's set a better example than this, even if our employer isn't a top-flight operation.
GRR! I'm really glad my family isn't in their service area. How they are in business, I don't know.
