Frist of all that was wrong to do something like that because it violated the patient Pivicy. what he did was not right. second of all He know it was wrong but he did that anyways he should be a shamed of himself. and I Hope he loes he Certitifcation as A EMT.

This is a very well written article. However, unless the author is a chief officer of his volunteer fire dept., his lighting greatly exceeds that allowed by NYS law. I dont believe this is intentional nor do I believe law enforcement will have an issue. The vast majority of volunteers in NY have lights that are not in compliance. However, it does detract from the validity of the article and the publication. One blue light means one light, not one light bar, not one in back and one in front, etc. Additional white lights may not be displayed on personally owned vehicles. On authorized emergency vehicles white may be displayed in combination with red. No mention of combo with blue.

Zach, this guy was a volunteer. Your post reads like you are about 18 years old now. You might have a different opinion about mandatory retirement age in a few years. For retirement benefits it depends on where you work since many EMS providers do have very good retirement plans. Hospitals employees dont always enjoy great benefits and must make plans to invest for their own retirement.

PLEASE GOOGLE "DEFORMABLE KINGPIN" that explains a simple to understand solution to forbid a tractor to follow into destruction during rollover events. The concept is the same as to why you have fuses or circuit breakers in electrical systems in your home, office or car -- a failsafe -- to prevent further destruction. This innovation is a simple modification of a component, the trailer������������s coupling kingpin, whose design has been a standard for over 70 years, which can be made to deform and not allow an extremely stable tractor to follow to destruction when the trailer, that is the dominant controlling force, is in IMMINENT peril for rollover, that includes also blown over tractor trailers. The NHTSA & FMCSA continue to turn their backs and ignore their past funded research conclusions, as the trucking industry evolves greater unstable tractor trailers on our highways that have a primary attribute for increasing payload capacity. These catastrophes will continue to occur in thousands of accidents of this type each year as they have in the past, and continue to cause infrastructure damage that will harm and kill many hundreds of tractor occupants annually. These combination vehicles are incendiary bombs when carrying flammable material in tankers, and the flash point for these fires starts with the tractor������������s involvement. A statement received from the FMCSA states ������������There are a variety of technologies for preventing rollover crashes and we believe motor carriers should have as much flexibility as possible in selecting technologies to prevent crashes.������������ Clearly the fox is allowed to guard the hen house!!! The harm, death & destruction will continue with combination vehicle rollover accidents. Donald J. Kaleta

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-story-rocky-mount-072710,0,4002266.story
Rocky Mount fire truck crash continuing coverage
The town fire chief and vice-mayor, Posey Dillon, was killed Monday

Here on the frontier, response times can be as little as a couple of minutes or an hour or so. I TOTALLY agree that HOLLYWOOD has given the image of the INSTANT arrival of a unit, saving a life in flatline by shocking them and then everyone lives happily ever after. Lets get real with this idea of response times. High/low call volumes, number of rigs avaiable, staffing, equipment, etc. etc. We are looking at a pay/play system. If the people dont want to pay they aint goin to get a team that can play very well! And of course, the Murphys Law factor always comes in to play. If s... is going to happen it will. So, I believe that response times are like the golden hour, they are what they are where you are and what you have available and how long it takes to get there is based on several factors none of us have control over. When it works well, it works well, when is doesnt it doesnt. We can only STRIVE to make the response time quick and more importantly SAFE, get the taxpayer to give up the money to put the boots on the street to have more rigs available in most areas and just do the best we can to better the system.

IS IT DIFFICULT TRYING TO GET WORK OVERSEAS FRESH OUT OF MEDIC SCHOOL? IF SO,HOW MUCH EXPERIENCE WOULD I NEED TO ABOARD?

While the technologies have improved, have relations really improved?.
As a volunteer EMT how would you react to being called to a drowning, ariving to a large crowd on the beach and in the water. No crowd control on the beach, a unsafe scene, you order people away to evaluate the situation as no one else is taking action and are terminated from a volunteer rescue squad. WHY
Police and Fire had set up a "unified" command but did not think EMS needed to be part of the structure.
The unified command made no effort to notify on scene and responding personel that they existed. Dispatch was not notified to page responding units to check in with command.
I dont think the system in this incident has improved at all. A volunteer with 15 years of service is gone. Who suffers most "the patients".
Police hate fire because they make more money. Career fire hates volunteers because it prevents additional hires and more overtime. And the volunteers, just get crapped on. Thats how it works here...how about where you are?.

We have a 2007 Ford F450 Medic Unit that we took out of service after many problems with shaking and steering control. Many trips to Ford and Tire reps finally worked out "Most" of the problem. The truck is not in service for us anymore. One time on an on ramp between two highways the truck nearly went into the guard rail. Not sure why the 450 has such a problem, F-350s never had handling issues, we have had 5 of those.

My husband was sent to the this hosipital, our own local one, for a CAT scan. We arrived just before 7:00 pm. Despite announcing at every point in the checkin and triage that he was there for a CAT scan the physician had already called to arrange - he did not even get the scan for FIVE AND A HALF hours. The ER physician said when he finally saw my husband that he "...should have had the CAT scan long ago..."

Though all the individual staff we encountered were pleasant, the process and system are VERY FLAWED!

Mike L. You are comparing apples and oranges. The article is discussing Paramedics, while you are basing your arguments on the EMT level of training.

In many Baccalaureate Paramedic programs both Paramedic and BSN students are in the same classroom taking the same classes. It is in the focus classes that they split to learn the specifics of their particular clinical setting.

I think if you re-read the article you will find that this is essentially what the author is implying. A common body of knowledge for the Nurse and Paramedic, but different clinical settings.

Last numbers where about 19 killed and up to 340 injured

What is a 78 year old man doing driving an emergency vehicle? As well all know the older we get the more we lose our eye/hand coordination...think about it.
Thank-you

Ive dont doubt that the phenomenon of excited delirium experienced by law enforcement officers is real. I DO question whether it is a well-defined medical condition, and whether it is lethal. For example, dementia is real, but this term comprises a variety of different dementias, each having a different cause, and therefore a different treatment. I see excited delirium as being similar: I suspect the term comprises a variety of different conditions, some involving one or more drugs such as cocaine, others involving other features not yet identified (among which may be hypoglycemia, lactic acidosis, and chemicals manufactured within the body to assist in coping with stress). I think that the key to successful treatment of a person in a state of excited delirium is to identify the cause of that particular case of excited delirium. Of course, the person suffering from excited delirium has to be alive when brought to the hospital, or physicians can do little for the patient, so a major responsibility of law enforcement is to learn how to take the person into custody SAFELY. Happily, Lt. Michael Paulus of the Champaign (IL) Police Department has been teaching a class in how to do this using only human force (no stun weapons) and he has a 100% success rate (5 successes in 5 attempts over a period of 2 years). Lt. Paulus will travel to teach his class to other law enforcement agencies. Unlike Lt. Paulus, I believe that the physiological state of a person suffering from excited delirium is so fragile that the use of stun weapons on such a person is CONTRA-INDICATED, which is why I advocate the use of Lt. Paulus procedure as an ALTERNATIVE to the use of stun weapons. (Its tough to argue with success, and the procedure that Lt. Paulus teaches has a superb success rate!)

I would say it is the uneducated part especially since this comment was made:

"Houston Fire Department officials said theyve identified that training, field supervision and accountability needs improvement."

That says alot and they apparently have alot to work on.

Houston FD is well known for its 3 month medic mill and TX only requires 600 hours to become a Paramedic.

I am having a tough time following this story. Does not make sense. Either its poor journalism, or the persons were portrayed as uneducated.

Ummm - last line: Damage to the 2009 Ford F-450 ambulance ....

How bout you read the whole article first?

Vince -
The first combination that comes to mind would be 4 trucks in service during peak hours, decreasing to 2 overnight between the hours of 11pm and 6am - when the call volume drops considerably for most services. There are of course other options possible using 51s, but Id need to know a little more about the characteristics specific to your particular service. When you get a moment, go to www.Lifestyleschedules.com and fill out the brief questionnaire. Ill be able to give you several plausable suggestions at that point that Im certain can meet the goals of your administrator and staff alike. I think youll be pleasantly surprised. Thank you for your interest in 51s. I look forward to hearing from you.

Tim Earles

We had an ambulance once that all of a sudden started shaking and shimmying all over the place but when we took it in to the shop they could not find anything wrong. What year and what model ambulance was it?

Crisp is 78 yoa???!!!!, No offense but ems professionals need to have a mandatory "retirement" (retirement is in "" because the majority of ems providers are not aloted this priviledge of retirement like drs. and nurses). But there comes a time were you become a liability to those you seek to protect.