April 2011
18 posts
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Scene Safety: A new framework for Fight Club
This is an old EMS adage from my ambulance days that I’ve always liked:
“Who’s the most important person on a call scene?” I am.
“Who’s the next most important person?” My partner.
“And after that?” The patient, and then the bystanders.
Basically, it speaks to the idea of staying safe, of remembering that as much as you’re out...
March 2011
32 posts
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iamwitness and I have dreamed of blogging from separate ends of the couch.
This is my token gesture towards that. :)
Vacation was an interesting adventure involving visits to the ER, cars getting towed, lots of walking and spending time with wonderful friends.
However, it’s time to pack the car and make the 18 hour drive back to the flatlands.
Miles to go, and all that nonsense…
There are no 911 posts for you, my lovely internet peoples, because I am ON VACATION.
I know. It’s amazing.
Spent a day wandering around Annapolis yesterday, and spending the day in Arlington today.
Of to discover more of the wonders of the Washington DC metro…
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It’s snowing again, which is fine…because I’m inside in pajamas with a cup a coffee. At some point I’m going to have to go out there and be productive, but if Winter wants to throw a temper tantrum on its way out there’s nothing I can really do about it.
Yesterday was Fight Club training (which is how I’m going to refer to the crisis center/suicide hotline from...
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911 Skills: Repetitive Persistence
If someone needs emergency help, call 911.
Do not get in your car and start driving to the hospital and THEN call 911. If you call 911 in your car driving to the hospital, I will tell you to pull over because you cannot take care of someone in the car and drive it at the same time.
Please, pull over.
I will not send an ambulance to chase you down.
Please, pull over.
The ambulance, in fact, is...
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911 Wisdom
Calling the non-emergency number for your local 911 center might be a good way to get information about something.
411 or 211 or 311 might be a better idea, depending on where you live and what you’re looking for.
However, no matter which number you call:
If you’re calling looking for info about the nearest health clinic that provides STD testing, it is poor form to hit on the...
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A lesson in empathy
The exchange above from the land of facebook reminded me of a story tonight; something I haven’t thought about in a long time but was nonetheless a profound experience and an early lesson in understanding empathy.
When I lived in Albany, NY there was (and may still be) a shelter down on Quail St that was just for intoxicated homeless folks. The normal shelters in town wouldn’t let you in if you...
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This is the real reason why I'm disoriented...
Saturday night I come home from work, Shannon is in the middle of making a large pan of chicken parmigiana for us to eat during the week.
I have a bowl of cereal and at 830p decide I’m tired and go to lie down.
I sleep until 3am, when I wake up Shannon is now making pancakes and Don is making white russians.
I eat my pancakes and then go begin to study and read.
By 430a, I’m tired...
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911: Things we would like to say
Sir,
I am very glad that you are trying to do your duty as a citizen and look out for the welfare of those around you.
However, please remember before calling 911 to report a woman in labor that women make noises like that for more than one reason.
Chances are, at 3am on a Saturday night if the lights are out in a house you happen to be walking by, that labor isn’t something that’s...
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“Ga. Law Could Give Death Penalty for Miscarriages — By Jen Phillips
| Wed Feb....”
– Ga. Law Could Give Death Penalty for Miscarriages | Mother Jones
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This late night Internet reenactment brought to...
Misty and I should not be left alone unsupervised on the interwebz apparently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwuIIsDjgZg
Misty: I now totally want a grown-up sized furry animal get-up. Would look great on the scooter, eh?
Me: If you get that freaking polar bear get up I will have a complete and total mental breakdown.
Misty: Dammit! How did you KNOW that was the one I want!!!!????
Me:...
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Reblogged from my friend Rowan, elsewhere on the...
I have a lot of thoughts on the Westboro Baptist Church’s Supreme Court decision, but not a whole lot of time to really voice them, so I will be brief and expound upon a thought I had elsewhere. When we allow the likes of Fred Phelps the protection of the First Amendment, the freedom to spread his hate and lies without being silenced, the ability to shout his message from the rooftops...
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I wish I could recalibrate as needed the internal sensors in people’s brains that tell them that an Emergency is going on.
Perhaps minor adjustments for folks who are experiencing an Emergency-Lite (tastes just like a real crisis, but less filling…). This phenomenon however is one I can easily overlook.
If you think you’re having an emergency, I will treat it as such. Locked...
You ask, how do we end up planning Halloween based...
Well, like this…
http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Cadbury-Creme-Eggs/
Me: Dude. Look at this. Dear gods, there is no hope for me.
Don: Is it wrong that the first thing I thought was “oooh, how can we make them twisted? Put in little pieces of candy corn and call them beaks? A little red food coloring to make horns and have devilled eggs?”
Me:Yes, it’s wrong...
“First they came for the teachers, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a...”
– Karla Herrera (stfuminjakid.tumblr.com)
3/3/2011
(via stfuminjakid)
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Recently, the nice folks over at everyoneisgay.com answered a question (and answered it well, as they do) that involved a situation with a doctor that made me literally shake with rage. You can find the orignal post here; it deals with a woman who went to the doctor for a physical, only to have him apparently order an HIV test based on her sexuality and then “diagnose” her with “Ego Dystonic...
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911: Things we would like to say...
Another brilliant installment of the cop dispatching kind…
Dear Caller,
911 does not exist to declare you the winner of an argument.
Also, if you’re standing in the same room with someone who has just called 911, please don’t try to call on the other line to argue about what you hear the first person saying.
It makes you sound like you have a head injury, and then I have to...
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I feel that I should explain...
Here’s the core of the matter: The Dog has separation anxiety.
When we adopted him, Don and Shannon worked nights and I worked days. This quickly went all kinds of wrong.
We discovered that if The Dog is put up in a crate or penned up in any way he barks. Continually. For hours. And hours. Until his people come home or he’s let out again.
If I let him out, and leave him loose in the...
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