The Positives Of EMS

[x635 4,066]

We often hear negative stories about EMS providers on this forum.

I want to hear the positives. The time you made a diffence in a patients life. The agency you work for adopting a new protocol or equipment to help save lives. Why you love EMS?

Fire away.

[FFEMT150 214]

We often hear negative stories about EMS providers on this forum.

I want to hear the positives. The time you made a diffence in a patients life. The agency you work for adopting a new protocol or equipment to help save lives. Why you love EMS?

Fire away.

Might sound alittle soft but I love the few times a person tells you that you have made a difference. When I worked for a commercial company I would transport the same woman every week for wound care treatments. After she had passed my partner and I were called into the bosses office and handed a letter from the family thanking us for taking such good care of their mother. They went on to explain how when they visited her in the SNF she would tell them how much fun she had at her appointment laughting and joking with us, and that we had made her last days some of the best of her life.

That is why I love this job.

Great topic Seth! With all the negative we see it is great (and sometimes needed) to hear the positive.

[efdcapt115 1,511]

Might sound alittle soft but I love the few times a person tells you that you have made a difference. When I worked for a commercial company I would transport the same woman every week for wound care treatments. After she had passed my partner and I were called into the bosses office and handed a letter from the family thanking us for taking such good care of their mother. They went on to explain how when they visited her in the SNF she would tell them how much fun she had at her appointment laughting and joking with us, and that we had made her last days some of the best of her life.

That is why I love this job.

Great topic Seth! With all the negative we see it is great (and sometimes needed) to hear the positive.

It would have been an even greater story, if she left you millions in her will.....

"And to Ralph Kramden, my favorite busdriver.....I leave 'my fortune'"

"I Knew it Norton!"

[sfrd18 360]

My cousin is an EMT in Westchester, and has been through a lot. Although I myself am not a medic/EMT, I have great admiration for them and what they do.

"And to Ralph Kramden, my favorite busdriver.....I leave 'my fortune'"

"I Knew it Norton!"

Ha, ha!

"Bang, zoom! To the moon, Alice!"

[Bnechis 3,961]

Why you love EMS?

Fire away.

Very funny Seth.

[FFEMT150 214]

It would have been an even greater story, if she left you millions in her will.....

"And to Ralph Kramden, my favorite busdriver.....I leave 'my fortune'"

"I Knew it Norton!"

LOL I couldn't be that lucky cap.

[ny10570 745]

Chef of the future!

[ems-buff 81]

I'll add mine.. I will have to give alittle backround thou..

2011 has sucked for me.. Losing both my parents in a 6 month span, losing a dog, the day I buried my father, to losing a very great girl from the stress of it all, to even now figuring out how a 25 year old can save his parents house from foreclosure. Alot huh...lol

With all this that has been going on, I've thought about quiting EMS, maybe even serving the public all together. Then I realized that, I have been helping people people since I was 16. Countless hours of giving, spending time away from those I loved especially the one's who just recently passed. Did I really want to give up all that time now they the two people who felt most safe around me when they got sick were gone.. I thought long and hard about it. Then two calls came by me that made me think wow.. This was my parents telling me to keep going..

Everyone who know me outside this forum know I have guity over my fathers stroke.. I still to this day say to myself, what if I didnt work that overnight before, and wasnt so tried.. maybe I could of seen signs before it was to late, and it was irreversible, but anyways it was a call I was on where the person had the big one in terms of strokes.. Me, and my ALS partner just worked so insync. That we got him back, and I could help but think to myself. I could save my own father, but I made a difference in someone else's life so that they can have theirs.. Thinking like that made me happy, that even thou I didnt get to save my own fayhers life. I got a chance to save someones elses to make them smile..

The second call, reminded me of my mother.. The call came in as CPR in progress. We get there to find a vent, in PEA.. ( strangely enough the same rhythm my mother was in the first time she went into arrest) We worked on the person, got them back to a NSR. Even I was shocked.. Then I said to myself.. This is my mother telling me, your good at what you do. Dont give up on your dream job, just because you missed me.. So even thou I have had a real shity year. There is some good that comes out of it.. Making a difference in someones life is sometimes better then a paycheck, when your faith needs alittle restoring.

I will close by repeating a saying Bill Rosthchild ( sympatheticmedic) told me while when my fathers death was recently new. He said " EMS is a thankless job, Its even hard when the world expect you to bring clam, and understand to a scene when you, yourself's world had no meaning, and is spiraling out of control, but if you are a true professional, You can adapt and overcome"

Thank you bill, truer words have never been spoken my friend..

[EMS92 30]

i have only been in EMS as a voulnteer member for about a year now and I have seen a good amount of stuff and love it when the family members and the patient tells us thank-you for coming out and helping me and being able to see that smile on their face.

[sympathomedic 383]

I have two:

I used to live on a tiny street that led out to a main state road. We had a call (volly) for a baby seizing in the house on the corner of the tiny street and the main rd. The address of the house was on the tiny street. As I came down that small road looking for the address, the elderly homeowner (pt's grandma) was on the tiny street, in the dark, waving me over. It was a febrile seizure. No big deal, but the family was well panicked. They needed more care then the baby did. After the EMS crew left, and I was leaving to go back home I saw the elderly lady who had waved me and asked her why she was not in the main road waiting for a first responder. I never met her before in my life. She said, "I have seen you come by with your blue light, so I knew you would be here."

#2. I was going to the hardware store in Sept of 2010, in my own car. Call came in for a bee sting reaction less than a minute away. I was about 10 minutes from the EMS station. I went to the call, with a BVM and a radio. I was led through the house to the back deck, where a lady was dying. Blue as blue, no detectable pulse, foam coming out of the mouth. Some movement in hands. + bee sting in last 3 minutes. I advised on the radio of the arrest, got her supine and began to bag her. Other members arrived and we began CPR. I updated the crew to bring the Epi-pen, AED and suction, which they did.

My day job is a medic. I don't know which end of the pen the epi even comes out of! (ball breaking comments gratefully accepted; and deserved) This kid from WEMS (who we use to staff our ambulances)came charging around the back yard, epi pen in outstretched hand and slammed that thing into this lady like Ahab harpooning Moby-Dick. The CPR was flawless and the scene time short. NO MEDIC available. Closest ED was Putnam. On loading the pt, she had a weak carotid pulse, a nearly useless respiratory effort and was still blue. On the was to the ED, the WEMS kid called med control and got orders for the SECOND epi-pen! (again, I am a medic. Who knew you you could do that?)

Someone introduced me to the patient this year at the towns 2011 September 11 ceremony. I was speechless. I said "I haven't seen you since..." She finished the sentence, "Since I died. My new birthday is coming up this month." The luck of me being close, but mostly the aggressive no-delay treatment by the WEMS crew and the good CPR by the other extra folks who arrived on scene without a doubt yanked that lady straight out of the grave. NO MEDIC involved. Putnam could not do an intercept. One of the top 5 hottest job in my 30 years, but credit goes to the other guys. I hope they see this.

[JohnnyOV 2]

The positives of EMS?..... lets see.

There are a whole bunch of positive items that are referenced in EKG's, the influx of positive ions NA+ and CA++ cause the depolarization of the heart, causing it to contract and beat. The hexaxial reference system refers to half of the orientations as positive, and the left side of the body is referenced as positive when placing the leads.

When the diaphragm relaxes, it places positive pressure inside the lung cavity forcing exhalation. When ventilating a patient, your forcing positive pressure air into their lungs.

...I could go on for days