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

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

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

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

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

Being There

Scott Snyder

“I was ashamed. And from that day on I went out of my way to make sure — whenever I was dealing with someone who in the past I may have said, ‘Well, this is not worth my time as a paramedic; I could be doing something better,” to take a step back and just talk to people and be nice. And realize that, no matter what we get called for, that’s our job and those people are worth our time.” Listen as EMS instructor Scott Snyder relates how he learned the value of every call and every 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

Children and Meth

Dawn Bidwell

“Do you as an EMS provider know how to take care of these kids [who are taken out of meth houses]? Do you know what they need? Do you know how to support their psychological, emotional and physical needs?” Dawn Bidwell reminds us about this important but overlooked aspect of EMS care.

Dawn Bidwell, EMT-P, is coordinator for the Alexandria Division at North Memorial EMS Education in Minneapolis, MN.

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

Be Consistent

George Perry

“We got to the ambulance thinking it was going to be a typical sick person trip to the hospital. We went ahead and started the typical procedure … we put her on the monitor. And the monitor showed a sinus rhythm. Well, sinus, but about 210. It went up to 250 as we were sitting there watching.” George Perry discusses the importance of using consistent procedures during patient care and communication with the hospital.

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

Regularly Irregular

Scott Snyder

Do you know what a “regularly irregular” pulse indicates? Instructor Scott Snyder of the San Francisco Paramedic Association explains and shares a trick that can help paramedic students “amaze their friends and stupefy their paramedic preceptors!”

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

Distracting Injuries

Nanci Medina

“[They] never followed up on why I passed out. I think they either assumed that I fell or tripped or whatever, but it never occurred to them to really look past that.” UCLA EMS instructor Nanci Medina learned firsthand the importance of looking past distracting injuries when she became a patient herself. Click to listen to her story.

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