trauma74

Anyone going up to Syracuse for the Vital Signs Conference this weekend? I am heading up there today with 3 of my members.

AWESOME RESCUE TRUCK! GOOD LUCK WITH IT!!!!!

8 Hour Tactical EMS Awareness Seminar "The 8 Hour Course" November 4th 2007 CHESTER VOLUNTEER AMBULANCE CORPS 79 Laroe Road Chester, NY 10918 (9a-5p) 50 Max $25 before 10/4 $50 after 10/4 To register: use attached form New York Tactical EMS, Inc. is a commercial training company that not affiliated with NY State DOH and are not currently involved in the NYS CIC/CME training program. Our courses are not certification courses and are open to EMT and above. The term "Medic" does not imply that the provider is a Advanced EMT. A "Medic" in this training is considered as "the medical provider on a team". All students will remain in and not exceed their level of State Certification. The "Tactical Medic" Course is not a certification course and is not recognized by the NY State DOH. All course content is acquired from Special Operations Military and other National TEMS Providers who practice in States that recognize Tactical EMS. NYTEMSA_Seminar_Registration_Form.doc

What part of "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms" don't people understand?!?! If my children were in a school that had armed teachers who were properly trained, I would feel very comfortable with it. With all of school shootings that have happened and with the potential for more shootings, I would rest easier knowing that if an armed criminal threatened or used a weapon against school children, that a teacher may be able to stop or prevent children from being murdered. Look, I am a firm supporter of having cops in schools, however, one cop alone may not be able to take out an armed gunman. Yes, a school cop can call for assistance, but in the time it would take for additional police officers to arrive to assist, the whole incident could have already ended. It only takes a matter of a few minutes to kill children with an automatic high powered weapon. A teacher who is properly trained to use a weapon can come in handy for that lone school cop who's backup is still a few minutes away. The way I see it is that teachers are not just teachers of our children, they often have to take a parental role and take care of them when they are in need or in trouble. Taking the extra step to arm yourself and put your life in the line of fire and potentially get killed while trying to protect children is a very noble move.

Congrats on the start of your new agency. I am sure that it was a hard road. Glad to see that you guys fought for what you wanted.

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am posting this so there is no confusion about what is going on with the frequencies at the Orange County 911 Center. As far back as anyone can remember, when a unit called out to 36 Control, that unit transmitted on 46.22. When Control answered back to the calling unit, they answered back at on 46.16 The main truck to truck channel for all FD units in the County has been 46.16 , The problem was that when you were talking on truck to truck and Control had to answer a calling unit, they would transmit on 46.16 and you would get stepped on. They were transmitting at 100 watts so there was no way that you would not get stepped on by Control. There were numerous times when units were transmitting important messages to each other and they got stepped on by Control. It was not the fault of Control. It was a fault in the system. The reason why Control's system was set up this way was because years ago the radios in all the FD vehicles did not scan. The radios were 2 channel mobile radios. Control did not need to hear every single unit that was operating on the truck to truck channel, but they needed a way to contact the units and with not being able to scan another channel, the units needed to hear Control. Now, because 99.9% of the FD units in the County have radios that scan, there are numerous other truck to truck channels to operate on and because many of the FD utilize their own fireground channels, there is no longer a need to have this old legacy radio system. Below I have listed the changes to the new way that units will contact 36 Control: OC F2 - 46.16 will be the frequency that all units will use to transmit and receive with 36 Control In the near future, F2 46.16 will become the new F1. The old F1 46.22 transmit frequency will become the new F2. This will all be finalized shortly once all FDs have their radios reprogrammed and the County gets everything changed over. I hope this clears up any confusion about what is going on at the 911 Center with the FD channels. On a side note, Control does not use UHF channels to page out or talk to responding units on UHF channels. Anything that you hear on a UHF channel is because many FDs have UHF links that they set up and paid for to talk to Control. Control still pages on 154.205 and they use the low band 46.16 to receive and transmit to units.

Sprint is pushing their "ic" hybrid phones on many of the Nextel customers. I have not had the chance to try out any of these phones yet. Has anyone had any experiences with these phones? Are the better or worse then regular Nextel phones?

I finally got a chance to get a hybrid phone. My cousin and his wife had 2 of the ic502 phones with the extended batteries. They only used them for about a month because they switched to Verizon. They gave the phones to me for free. I called Friday and had the ic502 activated. The customer service guy told me that it would take 3-4 hours before the phone would be active and usable. After 12 hours of the phone not becoming active I had to call back. After spending 1/2 hour on the phone with Nextel, they finally got my phone activated. I have heard mixed reviews about the "IC" series of phones. So far, I love the phone and the service. Nextel service has always been pretty good in the areas where I live, work and volunteer. Sprint has been adding towers around our area. I do have this ic502 set to roam if needed, but it has yet to go into roaming mode. I am a heavy user of text messaging and I receive EMS calls via text from the OC 911 Center so I need reliable text service. Nextel text messaging is slow and many times I would never even receive the message and when I would send them to other Nextel users they did not always get them. I read my email from my phone a lot also, so I needed web service with a decent speed. My brother and I we texting back and forth over the weekend. He has a Sprint Treo 650. It only took an average of 5 seconds from the time he sent me a message until I received it and vice versa. I also like that when you are on a phone call and if someone tries to 2-Way you, it beeps and it lets you know that someone is trying to get ahold of you. I am probably going to upgrade to the ic902 soon. I just wanted to try out the hybrid system first to see how I liked it. So far, I like it.

These problems plague EMS all over the place. I was talking with my cousins who ride for a VAC in NJ and they were telling me about some of the same problems. What all municipalities need to realize is that providing 24/7 EMS is not going to get cheaper. It is going to become more expensive. For years the true costs of EMS have been ignored. There is no quick fix or solutions in sight. Many elected officials fail to realize that a VAC is a business and it must run that way in order to survive. The days of the "mom & pop" VACs are over. The responsibilites of the officers of a VAC are more than ever before. Back in the day, there was not a lot of money to deal with. Now, hundreds of thousands of dollars are being collected thru third party billing. We have all heard about the agencies who have been ripped off by their treasurers. Many VACs now pay accountants and bookkeepers to manage their money. Towns and Villages like to save money, but cutting EMS is not the way to go about it. Looking for a bargain with EMS is something that should never consider. You cannot put a price on the lives of the residents that you serve.

I am looking to get information about MICCOM Dispatch in NJ. Where are they located? Who do they dispatch? What frequencies do they operate on? I have heard bits and pieces about this dispatch center, but because I am a buff I am trying to find out more info.

Chief Goldfeder is one of best teachers in the Fire Service across the entire USA. I have had the pleasure of knowing Chief Goldfeder for many years. He tells things the way that they are, no sugar coating when it comes to safety! It is an honor to be able to listen to him teach.

I am guessing that what you saw an a NYSP Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit. This division of the NYSP targets commercial vehicles that are in violation of the laws regarding commercial vehicles.

I did not know Brian well, but I knew him as a volunteer from a neighboring VAC. His Father Mike was a Medic here in Orange County and I worked on many calls with him. I am truly sorry that Mike has lost his son. I cannot imagine the pain that a Father must feel to have lost a son. My heart and my prayers go out to Brian's family and friends. REST IN PEACE BROTHER!

I think that NY should do what NJ does. In NJ, FD/PD & EMS vehicles have blue/red combo for front, back, sides. All Fire/Rescue & EMS Volunteers have straight blue. No green lights are used for any volunteers. Green lights should be reserved for Incident Command vehicles. On the rear our new buses, we have 4 blue high intensity LEDs mixed in with our red and amber LEDs. We have one blue LED in the center of our front lightbar. It is not overkill, it provides a break in the pattern of the red and white LEDs. We also have a switch on the console that allows us to shut off all of the blue and red LEDs on the back of the bus leaving just the amber lights flashing. In some cases shutting down of but the amber lights can be good if you do not want to draw to much attention to yourself. If you have just amber lights on, people will just think that the DPW is working on something. However, when we are on the highway I am a strong advocate of having as many lights as possible on the rear of your vehicle. I agree with the fact that colors other than red should be used on the rear of emergency vehicles so they standout in the sea of red brake lights, tail lights and turn signal lights.

My heart and my prayers go out to the families of the injured officers and the family of the fallen officer. Here is another case where the criminals out-gun the cops! In many countries, when you get stopped even for speeding the cops walk up to your car with an assault rifle in hand.

FAC911, Can you please post the patient conditions that require the use of CPAP in the field? Thanks. Doug

This topic comes up time and time again and guess what? NOTHING happens to them! KJEMS gets away with everything short of murder. They like to take DOH Protocols and stretch them as thin as they can. When it comes to the rules about going to the nearest capable hospital, they tell DOH that Hackensack all the way down in NJ is closest appropiate hospital according to them. Everyone knows and nothing gets done. Also, KJ EMS NEVER drives Code 1 to any hospital. They even run Code 3 coming back from the hospitals in NJ. When you community has a bloc vote for the politicians in the County. The head Rabbi says that everyone will vote for a certain guy and they all vote for him. There is also a member of the KJ community who is a full time paid liason to the NYSP. He is paid by the NYS Health Department..Dont ask because you will never get an answer on how and why!

I have seen a few demonstrations of PCR software and I love it. I think it will be the way of the future. No more worrying about sloppy handwriting and making billing easier. The systems can store patient names so if you have a frequent flyer, you can select their name and have their info autopopulated into the name, address, SS#, DOB etc. It is a progressive move for a private EMS agency to spend the money to get such an advanced system. Good move on their part. Some agencies are using the "ePCR" which is kind of like a scantron form. At the end of the shift or whenever, these "ePCRs" are scanned into a computer. It makes an electronic record from the ePCR and it is used for billing and records managment. While the ePCR system is an advancement, I have heard from the field personnel that the ePCRs are crappy. I would not waste money on a system like this. I would go directly to the type of system that Empress is using. Good luck with the new technology.

Many EMS agencies in Europe and across the USA have been using CPAP for a while. I have heard that it works great in the field for a multitude of breathing problems. It is non-invasive which is another good thing.

I was sleeping, it was my day off. I awoke to the sound of my alpha-numeric pager vibrating. I had it clipped to a plastic mug with loose change in it so it would rattle around and wake me up. I had IPN service on the pager. I grabbed the pager and I looked at 4-5 messages and it said that one of the WTC Towers was hit by jet. At first and before I turned on the TV I thought it was some kind of accident involving a small aircraft. When I turned on the TV and put the news on I saw the 2nd plane hitting the 2nd tower. I knew at that point that it was a terrorist attack. My heart sank. I called my Dad who works at West Point to make sure that our military bases were not being targeted by terrorists. He was ok and they sent all personnel home. My phone rang and it was my job, they did not even have to ask me to come in. I said I will be there as fast as possible. I was glued to FOX news on my XM radio the entire ride to work. Once I got to work I found that our Chief ordered all police officers into work to help the Army secure the entrances to Stewart Airport. I watched the news all day at work. I remember when the towers fell. I could not believe what was happening. I started to think about all my friends who are in the FDNY & NYPD. I had to make phone calls to try to find out if they were ok. Never in my entire life have I felt so horrible. The sadness that came over me was unlike anything I have ever felt. Below I have posted some personal feelings and a video for everyone to watch. It is a hard video to watch. You will not be able to hold back any of your emotions when you see it. God Bless the families, friends and co-workers of all who were murdered on 9/11/01 This video is very powerful! Be aware that many feelings and emotions will come out when you watch this. It is pretty much impossible to watch this without feeling anger, sadness, revenge among many other feelings. This will make sure that you never forget what happened that day when those TERRORISTS MURDERED mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers, cousins, friends and most of all................. our fellow Americans. Watch this video below and then watch the news. You will see Osama Bin Laden on a video calling for death to America and our people. These videos show you what Bin Laden and his animals did to us and that he is still out there. He is out there planning more attacks on US and other countries around the world. He is sitting back and laughing at us. Our Military and Our Government know that he is still alive. This MURDER needs to hunted down and killed. I do not care what political party you belong to, you all know that the war on terror is far from being over. It is not a matter of if there will be another attack on America, it is a matter of when an attack will take place! Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for not forgetting about that terrible day. GOD BLESS AMERICA! Doug DiBlasi, A Proud American Who Will Never Forget 9/11/01 http://www.gunstuff.com/america-attacked.html

We know that mountains of Tora Bora are dangerous and a very rough area to navigate, however if we can send a laser guided bomb to a terrorists front door, we can find Osama. If the mountains are the problem, maybe it is time for a little landscaping to be done. Run numerous sorties with B52 & Stealth bombers carpet bombing the mountains. Hey, once we level the mountains, there will be more area for people to live.

Very nice tribute to all those who were lost on 9/11.

I am still angry at what happened on 9/11!!! I AM VERY ANGRY that OSAMA is still alive! How can the CIA or the military not know where he is????!!! They need to find this bastard and kill him already! Enough with the cat and mouse game that they are playing with him! KILL HIM!!!!

What portable and mobile radio models will work on this new system?