I have a friend who is in neither LE nor EMS, but applied a tourniquet at work today. He does construction, and one of the guys on his site put a nail from a nail gun into his own thigh. Yanked it out, to find he hit the femoral. Blood was SPRAYING. My buddy had a tourniquet on his shooting gear in his car. Retrieved and applied it, got the bleeding slowed considerably, and got the guy transported. Tourniquets: cheap, easy, and effective. Worth having one close by, especially if your job includes people shooting at you. http://combattourniquet.com/
I've noticed that medical emergencies tend to fall into 2 categories; 1) No one does a thing, and the bystanders just stand around taking pictures with their cell phones. or 2) EVERYONE is an EMT/Nurse/whatever, and just get in the way. Years ago I went to a car into a tree MV crash, because the operator had a heart attack. When I got there, someone who claimed to be an EMT was doing CPR compressions with his FOOT, while the victim was still strapped into the driver's seat.
Last year one of the officers at my part-time gig told me that he responded to a nasty motorcycle accident and the rider was pretty messed up. As he was leaning over the guy doing first-aid and reassuring him that the bus was on the way some woman ran up and told him to back away from the victim because she was a nurse's aide and she'll take over.
Whenever someone claims to hold a higher level of care than me, I ask them to supply me with a valid ID, and then I will turn over care to them. In 25 years, I can count on one hand the number of people who actually did that. One of them was a anesthesiologist, who instantly asked me what the compressions/rescue breathing ratio was for CPR, once I turned over care. Be careful what you wish for.
Staying alive, staying alive, ah ah ah ah staying aliiiive. Have you guys had a CPR/AED instructor play that song yet when doing compressions on the dummy? It's the perfect bpm for CPR. Kind of funny.
put a nail from a nail gun into his own thigh. Yanked it out Should have left it in ,atleast until he got to the er right? isnt that well known?
If I had an affinity for the medical field, I would've been a doctor. All I required was an RN badge to get me from all up in guts to securing the scene. That said, if your bus has a slow response time, it's not a bad idea to keep unscented tampons in your ghetto bag for puncture wounds. One of my buddies saved a cyclist that way.
The weird part is that on paper, an RN would be a higher level of care than an EMT, however, nurses unless they also hold a valid EMT certification, are not generally permitted to provide prehospital patient care. Even most nurses who work on critical care ambulances must also be basic EMT's just to work on the truck. The fact of the matter is that short of ER nurses, most of them provide sub-acute or long term care which give little to no emergency experience and a nurse on the scene of a call really is of no more help than another first responder. They can't give meds or perform anything other than basic life support just like anyone else. But if you would rather flap your arms than hold C-spine stabilization, let them have it
I may be confused because I don't remember if it was a news story or a tv show, but... wasn't there something a few years ago where someone had a medical emergency right outside the hospital, and the dr told bystanders to calk 911 for help because they could not treat patients outside hospital grounds or something? Was that real, or did I dream it??? Sent from my wicked smaht DROID RAZR
I imagine that's BS. There was.a somewhat recent news story about Boston ER doctors who responded to a nearby emergency to assist. There was an incident involving a woman who fell in a hospital lobby and was told to call 911. I doubt that had anything to do with physicians saying thy couldnt do anything for her Posted while GL 90 § 13B
Years ago I worked security at the old cambridge city hospital. For legal and insurance reasons the staff would not treat anyone outside the hospital.They would tell us to get an ambulance. The only exception was the emergency room parking lot.
Maybe that's what I'm thinking of. This preggo brain isn't what it used to be. Sent from my wicked smaht DROID RAZR
Not so many years ago I worked at MGH. If someone took a spill outside the main building or in any of the adjacent buildings, H&H was summonsed to transport. Many times they would just wheel then across the street.
Good thing you said he was in construction...otherwise I was going to ask if the chief was nailing him at work. Sent from my POS using Tapatalk 2
Just grab one from the nearest hoodlum...they don't need them since they aren't using them to hold their pants up!
