Update on previous entry

Well, I finally managed to cross paths with the Dr. and one of the nurses (who I'm becoming fast friends with). The guy with the GSW to the head is not only still alive...He was extubated (breathing tube was removed) and is talking!!!! They're not sure how much his social skills will be intact, but he is alive and well. I guess that's all that really matters. He will not be a vegetable kept alive by machines for the rest of his days.

I'm going to go celebrate a job well done by me and my partners...

Take care,

PS...I turn 21 in 3 days...Sunday is the big day, and I can't wait!  :-D

Ups-N-Downs

Wow, I knew I'd been procrastinating, but I hadn't realized it'd been nearly a month since my last entry. A lot of things have happened lately, some good-some bad. I've been able to talk to my fiance online about 3 times a week, maybe once a week if I'm lucky on the phone. I've worked a couple events on the bike team and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Station life has once again become hectic. Me and Capt have continued to argue and he really does annoy me. As much as I'd like to ride the engine occasionally, it's nice to be away from him on the rescue. We also had another firemedic assigned to our station, he wasn't kidding when he warned that he was a jinx and a trauma magnet. Since his arrival, we've had a GSW to the head, severe MVC, and 2 different cardiac arrests that turned out to be dead upon our arrival.

The GSW to the head was interesting, PD said the kid was dead when we got there. Looking at the scene for a moment, I noticed the bullet hole in the window, blood and brain matter on the door, and the holes on either side of the kid's head leaking more blood and brain matter. Then the unimaginable happened...He took a breath....You guessed it, agonal respirations, he's not dead yet.

Here we go!

Running to the rescue, I grabbed the engine crew and told them to grab everything off the truck, monitor, suction kit, airway bag, C-collar, backboard, stretcher...everything, we were gonna have to work him.

Once we got the guy loaded, we quickly learned intubation was impossible-his teeth were clenched. Nasal intubation was also out of the question due to the fact that his brains were coming out his nose. The medic alternated between suctioning and using the BVM to help him breathe.

As we left the hospital to go finish DECON on the truck, the Doc was hopeful the kid would possibly pull through. Last I heard, he passed away.

I hope the detectives can bring this one to justice for the kid's family.

 

I'll write more later...One of the DOA's was very interesting, let's just say we had the Haldol drawn up and ready...

Be safe out there, and Happy Belated 4th of July!

PS...10 days until I turn 21!!!!!

Just a couple quick things

Things have been somewhat better lately. I finished my training and am now a certified EMS cyclist. I liked the bikes we use on the team so much I bought one for myself to use at home. I needed a new bike anyways, so why not train at home on the same bike I have at work?

I'm still stuck on the ambulance, but the current rumor is that that might change soon. Some people from my academy class are at stations that don't even have a rescue, others somehow manage to always be on the fire engine. The smart-guys running things have realized that's not really fair to everyone. Besides, 2 classes have come out since mine, they need to ride the rescue as well.

Quick prayer request: One of my really good friends from training went home from work a few days ago to find his home burnt down. He lost everything, he only has the clothes on his back and his kid. Weird to think a firefighter's house would burn down, but it has happened before. It's still unknown if it was accidental or arson, but if it's arson...I hope they catch the little bastard and throw the book at him/her.

I'm going to go on and wrap up this entry, I'm fading fast...I can hear my nice, comfy bed calling out to me.

Take Care

Motivation

I've been thinking a lot about motivation today, and how I don't have much lately. Many things have simply not gone my way lately. I'm getting where I only go to work so I won't get fired, I eat only to survive, I haven't slept good in a month, I cry daily- sometimes for no reason. I'm in a real funk, I just don't want to do anything. Almost every time I start having a good day or enjoying myself, another hipocrit, story-teller, or general asshole will ruin it for me. I need help getting out of this funk, getting rid of some stress, or whatever.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

After 4 or 5 days of rain, it's still nasty outside. I went to work yesterday and my captain decided to wait until after shift change to tell me I was being sent to another station. Then he wanted me to hang around for roll call. If they needed somebody at the other station, that meant someone was having to hang over from the previous shift until I got there. So hanging at my station was keeping someone from going home- I don't want anyone doing that crap to me, and I really don't like doing it to anyone else.

Luckily, the engine and rescue got rung-out on a call, so I high-tailed it out of there.

The shift itself was dull, the station I was at is usually pretty slow. We ran one call that wasn't interesting, but I got a nice little workout from it. The lady was upstairs (of course) and needed to be transported to the hospital. I got the stair-chair and Cap. got the cot from the rescue. I had control of the stair-chair and got the lady down the stairs, the engine's driver was at her feet. She wasn't the smallest of ladies, and, judging by my sore arms and shoulders, maybe I should've accepted offers for help. Then again, no pain-no gain....right???                           Right??????????

We slept almost all night, ran a call around 0300. It was raining cats and dogs and I'd left my raincoat at the station. So, I put my turnout coat and helmet on (already had my bunker pants on) and made the dash for the house. Nothing else worth reporting on that call. We made it back to the station and slept the rest of the night.

Steaks for supper tonight, gonna run to the store with mom in a few minutes.

take care

for Balius

I found this on my department's forum, it is not held by the county and is run by us. Just wanted you to know that others feel your loss and I wish everyone the best in this difficult time.

 

City officials are waiting for answers after a 22-year-old Jacksonville Fire-Rescue recruit died nine days after he collapsed during training.

Karl "Kliff" Kramer collapsed May 19 while undergoing physical training at the department's fire academy.

Kramer died Saturday at Memorial Hospital, where he had been in intensive care since his collapse.

A spokeswoman for the Jacksonville Fire Department would not comment on the specifics of Kramer's death until an autopsy is conducted to determine the cause of his death.

"The training academy continually looks at the way they conduct exercise," spokeswoman Benny Seth said. "They continuously monitor the weather conditions, and those things will continue on as scheduled."

Other fire recruits told Channel 4's Bryan Kelly that the intense training makes everyone in the class close, "like a family."

"He had a real strong personality," Fire-Rescue cadet Mike Blcher said. "Whatever we were doing, he was always light hearted. We'll miss him."

 

Stay safe my brothers

JAWS of life not needed?

Wow, I knew it had been a while since I updated, but I didn't realize just how long it's been. Life's been hectic as usual, and my mind has been in other places and on other things. Life at work has become, well, let's just say it's been more like a job lately.

I went on a training ride a few days ago with the bike team, 10 miles later I could barely walk straight. There's another ride in a couple days, if I can get out of the station for a few hours I'll go. Our big training class is less than 2 weeks away, we'll learn how to ride up and down stairs, jump curbs, weave through pedestrian traffic, and whatever else they decide to cram into our minds.

I ran a pretty bad MVC since the last journal update. I wasn't even dispatched to the call originally. We were finishing up paperwork at a minor MVC when we saw 3 or 4 police cars hauling ass from the precinct towards our station. A few minutes later we went in service and decided to roll on past the station to see if we could find what was going on. My partner called the batallion chief and let him know we had a visual on the scene and would go ahead and respond.

Coming down the street, we saw 2 cars, 2 fire trucks, and 5-6 cop cars. The drivers of both cars were still inside their vehicles, this is 10 minutes after the first unit went onscene. Since we had a third-rider, her and my partner went to the sedan, and I took the SUV.

First of all, the SUV was flipped onto the driver's side, it was also facing the exact same direction as the other car. One of the guys from my station was in the SUV and the patient was standing on her door with her torso between the front seats, looking straight at us. He needed something to cover her with so I grabbed the fire blanket off my truck and brought it to him. By this time, the other rescue was onscene so I went and set up a couple bags of ringers for him. ***Lactated Ringer's is similar to Saline, but is much better for a trauma patient***

Heading to join my partners, I realized this was going to be difficult and take some time. The patient was pinned between the seat and the steering wheel (which was broken), the front tire was pushed so far back, it was nearly under her. To top it all off, you could clearly see the passenger-side airbag had deployed, but not the driver's...My guess is that she was pinned onto the steering wheel faster than the air-bag could deploy.

Looking quickly around, I see my partner hand his turnout coat and helmet to our rider so she could safely hold c-spine from the backseat of the car. It made me think, and I went and got my coat also (I already had my helmet on). Since they managed to get her door open, I ended up using my leg to brace the woman into the car while the Quint crew prepared to start the extrication.

My partner was beside me looking to start an IV and looked up at our captain who was just standing there, "Capt, we need to fly her."

"Uh, well, umm, I don't think so, umm, no."

????????????????????????????????????  The main criteria that would call for a helicopter is prolonged extrication of 15 minutes or more. They were onscene 10 minutes when we got there...WHAT (if anything) are you ThInKiNg?!?!?!? It didn't help any that the patient was somewhat combative.

Turning to the Quint's captain (who is hard to convince that the sky's blue) we asked him, "Do we need a bird? Tell him we need a bird."

He looked straight at our capt "She needs a bird."

Once the batallion chief got onscene, he originally said no bird, barely 5 minutes later he changed his mind. Of course, now the weather has supposedly grounded the helicopters.

Back to the extrication process.... Once everything was set up, the posts were cut and the roof of the car rolled back. Since our rider was not an employee and was not trained in rescue and extrication, I took her place in the back seat. The next step was to roll the dash off the woman and get her out. This was easier said than done. The car was crushed around her and placing the ram where it wouldn't slip was difficult. A few minutes later, the dash was rolled and the woman removed to a backboard.

Once inside the rescue unit, it was an absolute flurry of activity. All her clothes were removed, an IV established (she removed the one that was started in the car), broken bones splinted, and a 3-lead ECG. What showed up on the ECG was amazing. Her ST segment was depressed, indicating she was having an MI or heart attack. Now we've really upped the anty.

She continued to be somewhat combative enroute to the hospital. Since we never did get the helicopter, she got a very quick ride...What we like to joke about as a diesel drip.

At the hospital, we passed her off to the ER staff and would decon the ambulance for a few minutes, then go see how she was doing. The first thing they did was knock her out and get her intubated. At one point when we went inside, her X-rays were back. She had broken her left wrist, right ankle and femur, dislocated her right hip to the rear, and shattered her pelvis in at least 4 places. Moments later, she coded. The hospital staff worked her for 30 minutes before pronouncing her.

It may not have made a difference if she would have been flown in vs. ground transport, but she would've been at the hospital about 12 minutes sooner. From first dispatch to extrication, it took around 35 minutes to get the woman out of her car. Over double the standard based in our protocol that would require a helicopter. All I can do is pray for her family and hope that things will go better next time a call like this comes out.

Take care....

 

Oh, and after this call, it is cemented into my mind that my captain is 100% incompetent as a paramedic. I would not want him to touch me if anything ever happened to me, no matter how severe.