Posted by admin on June 29th, 2010. Published in EMS. Comment Here »
There’s no doubt about it. Asthma attacks are scary and they can be deadly. Here are some tips on how to handle an asthma attack from Capt. Nathan McConnell. Capt. McConnell has been an emergency medical technician since 1988.
Source: youtube.com
Posted by admin on May 18th, 2010. Published in EMS. Comment Here »
National Emergency Medical Services Week, May 16 - 22, brings together communities and medical personnel to promote safety and honor the dedication of those who provide day-to-day lifesaving services.
What better way to sum it all up than with 2010’s theme: “EMS: Anytime. Anywhere. We’ll be there.”
To show your support and appreciation during EMS Week take a moment to recognize the outstanding service your first responders provide your community.
Celebrate the first responders who’ll be there, anytime, anywhere!
Source: acep.org
Posted by admin on March 18th, 2010. Published in EMS. Comment Here »
Are you ready to share your opinion? Of course you are! Josh King, Director and Paramedic with Richland County Ambulance Service in Sidney, Montana, is asking for your input about your time with Emergency Medical Services.
Take a moment of your time to fill out this quick survey in a national effort to identify where individual care providers feel EMS is, and which areas of EMS can be improved.
Check out Josh’s personal letter to you:
Dear Emergency Care Provider or Emergency Response Personnel:
My name is Josh King; I am Director and Paramedic with Richland County Ambulance Service in Sidney, Montana. I’m writing today to ask for your input about your time with Emergency Medical Services.
The field of volunteer Emergency Medical Services is at a critical point in its history – many volunteer services are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit new and retain their existing volunteers. Within the past five years, many rural volunteer services have been forced to close their doors, forcing neighboring community’s agencies to provide care to a larger area, and thus stretching their own resources. As state and federal levels of government develop revisions in policy to reverse this trend, it is up to these volunteer services themselves to ensure their communities’ available care at all times.
As part of this process, this ambulance service has begun collecting data from emergency response personnel nationwide to help identify tactics every individual volunteer EMS or emergency response service can employ to maximize its volunteer base and availability. Clicking this link will direct you to a quick online questionnaire – I invite you to please fill it out with the most appropriate answers to you as an individual.
This project is the second stage of a national effort to identify where individual care providers feel EMS is, and which areas of EMS can be improved. We have seen exciting results from the first stage of this project, and through your help and input we plan to share what we’ve learned and raise the bar for emergency services and professionals nationwide.
We would like to hear from as many ambulance attendants as possible throughout the United States. I encourage you to pass this link onto your coworkers, neighboring crews, or anyone else you may know in the field. The questionnaire link will be open until April 2nd 2010.
This questionnaire is compiled from common issues reported by Emergency Medical Technicians throughout the United States and will help to identify demographic information as well as key problem areas in the EMS field. We project to complete analysis of the collected data in March 2011, and the results will be made available through Richland County Ambulance Service’s website, or will be sent to your email address if you like.
Whether paid, volunteer, or somewhere in between it is each of our responsibilities to ensure that our communities are safe and remain covered by our services. We at Richland County Ambulance Service thank you for your time and dedication to the EMS field and likewise, to the wellbeing of others.
Sincerely,
Josh King, EMT-P
Richland County Ambulance Service Director
Hearshell VanLuven, EMT-B
Richland County EMT
216 14th Ave SW • Sidney, Montana 59270 • Phone: (406) 488-2180 • www.sidneyhealth.org
Posted by admin on December 15th, 2009. Published in EMS. 1 Comment »
Between the Christmas holiday and the whole Tiger Woods’ scandal (dare this be mentioned in the same sentence) have we forgotten about one of the oldest winter woes? The cold and flu are still going strong even though we haven’t heard too much about them lately.
Here are a few tips to help you (hopefully) make it through the season.
Keep your distance – your family and your friends, you love them but do you love their germs too? If they appear to be sick staying a good 3 to 6 feet away will decrease your chance of getting sick. Hopefully if they’re sick they’ll stay home but just in case.
Wash your hands – tried and true, we all know frequent hand washing with warm water and soap puts up a huge fight against germs. If you’re at a loss for a good ole hand washing carry a pocket size hand sanitizer with you.
Maintain a healthy lifestyle – get your zees, if you miss too much sleep you can wear down your immune system. Eat a healthy diet and if you’re going to splurge do so in proportion (we all love a Christmas cookie or two but ten or twelve in a sitting is overboard). Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water. If you’re going to drink alcohol limit your intake to one or two drinks per day. Keep up with your exercise routine to help relieve stress and maintain your weight.
Source: EHSToday.com
Posted by admin on November 11th, 2009. Published in EMS. Comment Here »
November 11th is Veterans Day, a day to honor those who have served or are serving in the military. A day is not long enough to make up for the time veterans have given us and given of themselves but it is a dedicated day to say thank you. Say thank you to the veterans you know, to the ones you don’t and to the ones you have yet to meet.
PS
Veterans and Active Duty Military eat free today at Applebees
Source: Applebees.com, YouTube.com
Posted by admin on October 16th, 2009. Published in EMS. Comment Here »
When someone says October you may think of fall leaves bursting into color or the macabre of Halloween but have you remembered to think pink? October, as we all should know, is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among American women (the first is skin cancer). Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women ages 35 to 54. Another breast cancer fact is that approximately one is almost every eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2009, approximately 192,370 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and approximately 40,610 will die.
These breast cancer statistics may sound grim but there are things women can do and be encouraged to do. Research shows that the mortality rate could decrease by 30% if all women age 50 and older who need a mammogram had one.
Everyday people, companies, government, city employees, etc. are working hard to bring breast cancer awareness to the forefront. Breast cancer walks, breast cancer fundraisers, breast cancer PSAs and breast cancer merchandise (specifically that donates proceeds towards breast cancer research foundations) are all ways these groups are coming together to make a difference.
Here’s just a few of the people making a difference:
Milwaukee Firefighters, Shawnee Firefighters, Yuma-area Firefighters and Dave Graybill, a firefighter from Glendale, Arizona, who made the two pink fire trucks covered with ribbons and handwritten signatures and inspirational stories cruising around America possible.
You can make a difference. Get a mammogram. Donate your time. Help someone in need. Give your love.
Sources: JSOnline.com, SeacoastOnline.com, ShawneeDispatch.com, WAFF.com, WebMD.com, YumaSun.com
Posted by admin on September 25th, 2009. Published in EMS. Comment Here »
Hello Wisconsin! Of all the Midwest destinations The Battalion.TV hit up Milwaukee Fire and EMS to film our finest in a number of series entitled but what else? 24 Hours with the Milwaukee Fire and EMS.
If you didn’t know about it or haven’t had a chance to check it out you really should. It’s kind of like COPS but with Fire and EMS personnel on the scene and saving lives. Some of the scenes can be graphic and sometimes strong language is used but it’s really interesting to see first and foremost what these men and women are up against. Aside from the up close and personal footage you also get to hear personal interviews with the Milwaukee Fire and EMS.
Whether you’re a Wisconsin native or not check TheBattalion.TV out. Milwaukee is the main feature right now but there are plenty of other webisodes from the east and west coasts, the south, wildland fires and more.
Posted by admin on September 3rd, 2009. Published in EMS. Comment Here »
It’s no secret obesity rates in America have dramatically increased over the past twenty years. In fact, two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.
People who are overweight or obese are more susceptible to the following health conditions:
It’s a sensitive subject but being at a higher risk of the above health conditions probably means being at higher risk for the need of emergency medical services at some point in time.
Paramedics and firefighters care for patients weighing 400 or 500 pounds or more, two or three times a week. If their department does not have specialized equipment (jumbo soft stretcher, bee board, backboard, bariatric stretcher) to move larger patients they need to come up with creative ways to move them (tarp, forklift).
Although large patients may pose more of a challenge to transport they’re always treated with the same respect as any other patient.
If you’re in the EMS field how often do you respond to calls that result in an overweight or obese patient needing to be transported? Does your department carry specialized equipment or do you have to improvise?
Sources: CDC.gov, Jems.com, Omaha.com, Syracuse.com
Posted by admin on July 24th, 2009. Published in EMS. 1 Comment »
Earlier this week off-duty Milwaukee firefighters Joel and John Rechlitz, off-duty police Lt. Mark Wroblewski and neighbors worked together to save a mother and her two children from their burning SUV.
The SUV had slammed into a tree and burst into flames. The 32-year-old mother, Angela Baldessari, was able to pass her two-year-old daughter, Beverly Harper, through the top of the SUV. She then escaped through the windshield after it was smashed open. However, David ‘DJ’ Harper, only four-years-old, was still trapped in his car seat.
John, who usually carries a pocketknife with him, did not have one at the time of the accident. Luckily, a local came through with a pocket knife. After cutting the seat belt restraints from the boy’s body the brothers were able to save him, suffering burns to their hands and forearms.
“If that person didn’t come forth with that pocket knife, things would have been different. If that lady didn’t come through with the garden hose, the burns sustained to that child would have been much more severe,” Joel Rechlitz of the Milwaukee Fire Department said.
“Officer Wroblewski, with bringing the fire extinguishers, gave us five to then seconds, and five to ten seconds made the difference between this boy living and dying,” Rechlitz added.
DJ had burns, many considered third-degree, over 20 percent of his body covering most of his scalp, upper back and upper extremities and less severe burns on his face. As of Tuesday he was in “serious condition but stable” at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
A time ago it was very common to have average citizens carry pocketknives but not so much today. Luckily on the day of this horrible accident someone was carrying a pocketknife. No one ever expects to be put in one of these situations but there are some inexpensive rescue tools that wouldn’t be a bad idea to consider having on you or accessible in your car such as a seatbelt cutter, window punch, or a lifesaver hammer.
With today’s technology quite a bit of the dramatic rescue was caught on film. It’s chilling and heartbreaking to watch.
Source: foxnews.com, sky.com, wbay.com, youtube.com
Posted by admin on July 10th, 2009. Published in EMS. Comment Here »
Saving someone’s life is part of your job but as a first responder have you ever wondered what the aftermath is like for an extensive, severe burn victim? Time consuming, painful treatment, including surgeries and skin grafts, as well as the psychological trauma may make you wonder if you did the right thing.
Every year the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors sponsors the World Burn Congress (WBC) giving first responders the opportunity to meet, interact and bond with burn survivors. This year’s meeting will be held August 26 – 29, 2009 at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in Manhattan’s Midtown.
The WBC provides first responders and burn survivors a chance to connect and find the closure that’s often missing from first responder/patient encounters.
“We see people at their worst and then never see them again,” said FDNY firefighter and president of the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation Bill Leahy. “It is an eye-opening experience to see what people can overcome.”
The WBC also offers first responders the chance to learn about the latest developments in burn prevention and burn treatment. It also provides resources for survivors, rescuers and their families on coping with loss and adaption.
Emotional and inspiring the positivity shown here can not only be humbling but life changing.
Source: Jems.com, Phoenix-Society.org