Brush Up On EMS with Bob

I was thinking today as was sitting drinking my coffee, at the local coffee shop, about what it must of been like back in the early birth years of EMS. What the calls must have been like. How the equipment, we now have on display at departments, really felt like to use. Crouching in the back of a herse bumping down the road at 70mph.  Only those who were there, would know.  I soon realized though we can be in touch with the past through things we do, to this day. If you can just imagine with me , lets touch the past. How many of you still wash trucks, still were uniforms or educate those you work with? I know for a while I used to hate washing trucks because it takes work to make that spotless shine.  Or wearing that uniform when its 110 degrees outside and you would rather be in shorts. Think for just a second though , those before washed trucks back in the early days of EMS too. They took pride in their equipment and uniforms. They did what they could for their p...

I started my journey in EMS not really caring about EMS. But with the constant and ever present influence of Chris Venters and Nick Larmer as my EMT-B instructors I quickly stopped caring about fire and became more dedicated to EMS. If it wasn't for both of my instructors staying late with me helping me understand and remember all those things that I was having trouble with, I would have never finished EMT class. But now I work full time for a service where I live. I absolutely love going to work. I constantly think back to class and what both of my instructors have said . All of that, leads me to want to continue my education. So I decided to go for it. Below is a picture of myself and a friend on out first day of paramedic class. It would never have been possible without Chris or Nick. Thank you for opening my eyes to this great and unruly beast ,known as EMS!!!!! Guys there are more stories like these out there. Lets always keep in mind , what we teach our students i...

Imagine with me a day when we are notified , by an electronic device that is monitoring a patients vital signs and pages ems way before the patient does. Wow, would that save on the 3am in the morning calls that they have been feeling this way since 6 am the previous day, but they just can’t take it anymore. This device could tell you a patient’s weight, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and much more. All of this information stored in a microchip. Does this sound to science fiction to you?   Well folks, we might possibly be on the verge of being there already. In a recent study done by the University of California, San Francisco, they found that the apple watch is 97 percent accurate in detecting abnormal heart rhythms. Out of all their participants they used through a cardiac app, they found a majority through the study had normal cardiac rhythms. Most if not all had normal sinus.   Furthermore 200 participants were diagnosed with paroxysmal atrial...

 ~Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity  ~Martin Luther King Jr. In today’s society of Emergency Medical care, it is very common to treat patients that have an allergy to sulfa drugs.   Most ambulance in the 21 st century carries several different types of drugs to treat patient’s medical problems or pain, whether acute or chronic. One of those many drugs that are carried is Morphine Sulfate. Morphine is a wonderful analgesic pain medication that provides pain relief which will usually last 4-5 hours with a mean of 2 hours for most patients. With morphine being an opioid analgesic it is a great resource for patients with pain. What is commonly accepted among prehospital care providers in this day and age is that we ask what kind of allergies a patient has before we administer a medication. This is a great practice; however what can happen is if we don’t understand our pharmacologic interventions, we are n...