Open Airways: Gut Pinches
Gut Pinches
Hugh Garner
“I was very fortunate that in fact I did not take the word of an untrained police officer. Although he meant well, I did assess the scene and I assessed the patient.” Paramedic and EMS Education Coordinator Hugh Garner relates one of his most memorable calls, which illustrates the importance of assessing all patients.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424.
Open Airways - Absolutely No Way
Absolutely No Way
Chris Jones
She said, ‘Well, you’re a student and you’re gonna do this now.’ I said,
‘Nope. You can take that up with my preceptor who’s in the truck.’” Chris
Jones tells Liz Neerland about how, on his very first day in the field as a
paramedic student, he got into a disagreement with a senior medic.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424.
Open Airways: Dance of the Dance
Dance of the Dance
Art Hsieh
“So as I’m getting all this information, my partner is walking into the stall. Sees the guy, he’s sitting there on the seat, his pants are down around his legs, and he’s just sitting there and his eyes are closed and he’s slumped over. And it clearly looks like an overdose to my partner. My partner starts to come into the stall … well, at the same time he was doing that, the patient woke up.” Paramedic Art Hsieh tells a story about scene safety that you won’t find in any textbook.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424.
Open Airways: Stories from the back of the ambulance - Sunday Evening
Sunday Evening
Ray Barishansky
“I can clearly recall him sitting up in bed, screaming. And I realized that his young life was probably going to be coming to an end in the relatively near future.” Experienced EMS professional Ray Barishanisky remembers a difficult call and emphasizes the need for EMS providers to “fall back” on their knowledge and experience to get them through the tough calls.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424.
Open Airways: Stories from the back of the ambulance
Man Down
Dan Barry
“We got called for a man down on a bus in the city. … The initial assessment reveals that we’ve got this male patient lying there. His airway’s open, but he’s not breathing and he doesn’t have a pulse. So, we begin CPR … and one of my crew members says, ‘Hey, I’ve got blood on my hands…’ Blood’s coming from some place, and we’re going, ‘Where’s it coming from?’” Dan tells Charlie Soucheray the story of a presumed medical call that turned into something quite different.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424
Open Airways: Stories from the back of the ambulance
In Extremis
Susie Kochevar
“The blood sugar on a four-month old was 400. And I thought it must be a mistake, so we rechecked the blood sugar and again it came back over 400.” Susie Kochevar, RN and Health Care Coordinator for the North Las Vegas Fire Department, describes how she learned about an interesting aspect of pediatric physiology that could impact the emergency care of young patients.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424
Open Airways: Stories from the back of the ambulance
Defining Moment
Tom Reynolds
EMT Tom Reynolds of the UCLA campus ambulance service talks about “listening to your gut” when making decisions about patient care. He tells the story of one patient he decided to transport to the nearest hospital rather than to the family’s chosen facility. When they got to the ER, he learned he had made the right choice, as the patient was having an MI and was going into renal failure.
During his next shift he asked the nurse how the patient had fared. “He says, ‘Well, she coded right after you guys left … we ended up reviving her’ … I immediately thought that had I not made that decision, she probably would have coded on me in the back of the ambulance.” Tom recalls this as the first time he was able to make a decision that created a better outcome for the patient.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424
Open Airways: Stories from the back of the ambulance
How Far We’ve Come
Cynthia Osborne
“…We had no idea, within our training at the time, we did not know what we had done … What I decided at that point is nobody will ever go out in the street with as little as I knew.” Click to hear some fascinating stories from Cynthia Osborne as she tells of her journey to become a female medic in the early days of EMS in Chicago, and recounts the changes she has seen since.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424
Open Airways: Stories from the back of the ambulance
Feedback is a Balancing Act
George Perry
“He knew that he had screwed up. He wasn’t sure how, but he knew he had. And so as we started talking about it he was very receptive to learn how to fix it.” Instructor George Perry discusses constructive ways to give feedback to students, beginning with a story about a patient who was dropped.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424
Open Airways: Stories from the back of the ambulance
The Constant Struggle
Rod McGinnes
“You kinda have to build these two complete levels of emotional armor … work is work and home is home, and they just don’t mix too much.” Rod McGinnes discusses the difficulty of maintaining an emotional separation between home life and work as an EMS provider, and how your relationship with your EMS partner plays an important role.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424