I have never heard of such a device that required jumper cables to restart the unit. This does not make sense to me. I have been both in the fire service and auto repair field for many years. And, this is the first time I have heard of such a thing. Sounds a little like someone covering there rear end!

My thought is maybe they were unaware of the anti-theft feature and thought there was something wrong with the vehicle requiring it to be jump-started. I know weve got anti-theft features on our rigs that we dont use and would probably throw people off if it were to be activated.

I also think Chief Evans did a good job of explaining the fact that pedal-to-the-metal isnt always the best treatment, that medics are trained to actually treat people in the field, and that bystanders perception of time and what is going on at an emergency scene is usually skewed because of the stress of the situation.

The fact is, sometimes people get hurt or killed and unfortunately theres nothing anybody can do about it. There doesnt always have to be somebody to blame or sue for what happens.

Be safe-

"Good treatment is what gives the patient/victim a better chance of survival! Not how fast we haul-ass to the hospital! Chief Evans made that perfectly clear! We can do everything in the book but sometimes its just there time!

As for the other "BS" shit happens! Vehicles breakdown, even emergency vehicles!

There is probably a training issue with those dang anti-theft devices, nowadays there are so much mutual-aid responses! We need to train more! Have you ever for got to put your automatic transmission into park and tried to start it while it was in gear? What happens? It didn������t start and we freaked the hell out!! Until we realized it was in park or gear! Same thing!

I know on some of our medic units you can take the keys out of the ignition so the ambulance remains running. That way you can lock your doors and keep the box ready. However, when you get in and push the brake if the keys are not in the ignition it kills the motor. Sometimes this can trigger the anti theft alarm. Which requires you to either keep the key in the ignition for upwards of 10mintues in the on position or unhook the battery and hope that it resets.

"I also think Chief Evans did a good job of explaining the fact that pedal-to-the-metal isnt always the best treatment"

Except that in trauma, which this was, rapid transport is indeed the most appropriate treatment, with any interventions performed on the way to the hospital.

I agree dr-exmedic, but they may have been working on an airway issue or something like that before starting transport; IVs and splinting and all that should indeed be done during transport. Like the chief said, people expect us to just load the patient in to the ambulance and go. We havent operated like that since the 1970s. Another example of how public education may help our cause.

"Like the chief said, people expect us to just load the patient in to the ambulance and go. We havent operated like that since the 1970s."

And yet I bet the mortality rates would be about the same if compared. Sometimes the dinosaurs have it right!

I agree with everyone here on most points but it depends on your protocols. Airway intervention, in most cases, needs to be done with no motion of the truck. Depending on your protocols IVs might not be allowed to be done in a moving truck. All in all it sounds like this pt was going to die anyway with a pelvic fracture. Regarding the truck...where I work firefighters arent allowed to drive our ambulances for the this very reason. They are not familiar with the equipment we use.

Im not a paramedic ego-maniac arguing that we should be sitting on scene with traumas. Im on board with load & go and "back to the basics." All Im saying is that a large chunk of the public still perceives us as ambulance attendants who serve no purpose but to throw people in the back of the hearse and blast off to the hospital. Thats not how we operate. In fact, wed get in trouble if thats how we handled a run. Again, part of it is public education. The other part of it well never be able to change and that is the human reaction to an emergency situation. Thats all Im sayin!

for the people that dont get it what happened was someone tried to steal the unit so it killed the engine but the lights where still going and thats what killed the battery