Another example of kids running amok. On first glance you would think it would be easy to speak to the 6 year olds…but they would have the full force of the law, social services and the press claiming brutal treatment by the paramedics or that their human rights had been breached!

This happened in Manchester…a little girl was injured and the paramedic RRV response car was attacked…and then the back up ambulance crew were threatened with being shot by a gang of little shits!

This is the news report…

Nothing will happen to these kids…nothing will be done to help the parents to keep their feral offspring out of trouble…just another incident to add to the others that happen everyday in this country. And these kids will grow up to be even more anti-social and kick out at everything. It’s these kids who will one day very soon stamp on the head of an innocent person and claim it is their right to do what they want!!!

It’s not going to be long before this happens…!!!

Spare a thought our lads and lassies out in Afghanistan or other places of conflict around the world. And say a small prayer for those who have been taken from us.

I’ve been involved in a project for the past couple of months hence the sparsity of posts. This project involves responding to 999 calls from people who seem to be one cell up from an amoeba. My service is jumping on us to get there faster, treat more effectively and therefore clear sooner at scene or hospital and to treat (as in listen patiently as some plank rabbits on rather than actually ‘treating’ a real deserving patient!).

We need to educate the public on when they should call for an ambulance. Only a few years ago it would have been common to anecdotally relate only a few inappropriate calls ie ‘need the curtains drawing’, ‘cant find the remote control’ ‘I’m lonely’ ‘cant get the top off a childproof container’ etc. But now we seem to be getting so many stupid calls that undoubtably affect our target chasing of ORCON that we are getting penalised financially (for missing the ORCON time)  and the general public dont get the full story.

Education should involve self-treatment for minor ailments/injuries and information on what is and what is not a 999 priority. You do not dial 999 because you ‘cant sleep’ or ‘I thought I would get an ambulance to hospital then I can go shopping after my checkup with the A/E being in the city centre’. A lot of people out there need to have a word with themselves!

And the number of calls we get for ‘Swine Flu’ that turns out to be nothing more than a sniffle….and I mean a sniffle….is staggering! The Ambulance Service is changing culturally and becoming more academically focused and gaining more skills and recognition and starting to have its own voice within the NHS….but nothing is being done to tell the general public (and GPs) when and when not to call for an ambulance! 

Things have been very hectic for the past couple of months so hence the abscence of posts.

Will post soon just as soon as I get the chance…hang in there.

Thanks to emsguy64 for pointing me in the direction of this. A superb and slick teaching aid to reinforce the learning of a sometimes confusing cardiac arrhythmia. After twenty years of dealing with heart blocks I am quite confident with the recognition and underlying pathophysiology of the various types. But in the early years it was a constant battle to keep upto speed with the old memory banks. I might go a whole year without seeing 3rd degree complete heart block or any of the other fascinating types.

Its always good to find things that help you remember rather than having to try and have it indelibly imprinted on your brain via laborious lectures. So I might start using these vids to help some of the newbies remember their heart blocks. Apart from the actual teaching element it is a good vid in its own right. Enjoy.

I first saw this some years ago at uni. It demonstrates the sequence of events during various cardiac episodes. It is the badgers nadgers!

The professor uses his arms to simulate the two top chambers of the heart…the Atria. He uses his legs to simulate the two lower chambers of the heart…the Ventricles.

So the atria contract together followed by the ventricles contracting together and blood is pumped around the body.

When seen on an ECG (electrocardiogram…EKG in the USA) the contractions of the heart are shown as the electrical impulses that generate the cardiac muscle to move. These are the different complexes shown on an ECG recording…normally the PQRST complex.

The vid is just over 4 minutes long but stay with it…all those other medical bods out there will see the correlation between the ‘dance’ and what it represents in the cardiac cycle. 

I wish all ECG stuff was this much fun!

I remember the ‘Road Safety’ adverts years ago on the old goggle box. I was having a look at Happy Toasts blog (brilliant and unique artist) and saw this vid. It made me smile in a rather strange sort of a way. Maybe the therapy has’nt kicked in yet!

Back home recovering and stretching out the old quads and hamstrings! I feel that I need to invest in some new winter gear as the kit I took with me was only just passable. I feel more overtime coming on!

Just a tad nippy!

The temperature ranged from a rather cool -11 to 27 degrees Celsius depending on the altitude and obviously time of day. Managed to get snow-burn on both arms.

A long walk home...!

 Anyone know where I’ve been? The first pic might be a bit of a give away. I will give the first person with the correct answer a box of spirit level bubbles. The runner up will get a tin of tartan paint of their choice.

Standing down from work for a while… 

Off abroad to get away from work for a while. Will be hopefully engaging in a spot of parascending/parapenting all being well. And will be drinking copious amounts of Guinness on the night. Well…you’ve got to hav’nt you?

Stay safe and remember…‘Even a pork pie can look at an oak tree!’

‘Heres Johnny!!!’

Another instance of the ever increasing dangers in my profession. It wont be too long before one of us is killed! We need better equipment and better training. Ideally TASER along with complete body armour and shields! Unfortunately these attacks make it difficult to let your guard down and you can find your self treating each patient with suspicion and distrust. As I’ve said before this is becoming all too common and sooner, rather than later, one of us will die!

click link Paramedics held hostage by knife man! 

Until then we will carry on without stab vests, radios that don’t work and non practical ‘crisis resolution training’.I personally don’t like going into blocks of flats as the potential for things to go very ‘Pete Tong’are great. On occasion I have had to dodge the odd TV or fridge being dropped from an upper floor balcony on approach to the lobby. Or the lifts don’t work, or there are gangs of ‘yoofs’ hanging around. All too often these flats are inhabited by drug dealers and users.

We should be issued with some kind of protection in addition to stab vests. CS gas would be a good start…it would at least give us a chance to run instead of having to defend ourselves with an O2 bag or blanket!

This article from Tom Reynolds of  ‘Random Acts…’  in 2007 (click on pic for story) reinforces my belief that things are getting worse. We need to protect our selves because it is not being taken seriously and that is why I can see one of my colleagues, or even myself, being killed whilst on duty. We have laws in place to protect us…but a piece of paper is not going to stop a knife, bullet or fist from hurting us. It needs sorting…NOW!