A lot has happened over the last two years during this first week of June.  I was thinking back and reflecting on it the other day, and I realized how much I have been through during this time, as well as my career. June 1, 2011 was quite the day.  I have written about it a lot since the days that followed it, but the Springfield Tornado was one of the craziest days of my EMS career.  Two years later, Springfield still looks different.  All one needs to do is just take a drive down Island Pond Road and look at the lack of trees to realize how much the landscape has changed.  The rebuilding that has taken place over the entire region has been remarkable though, and people deserve to be commended for the work that they have done. This picture is from the evening of June 1st, and I think it might be the first time I actually got to sit down and take a break that night.  We were holed up a convenience store on Island Pond Road just blocks from one of the most severely damaged stretches of streets in the city.  Our dinner that consisted of whatever we could get off the shelves of the store, most of which was bought for us by now retired Springfield Fire Department Captain Stan Skarzynski. Looking back at our choice of where we set up, it probably was not the smartest place to park our 15 ambulances.  At one point during our time there, we received a “take cover” order over the air.  We looked around and realized we really had nowhere to go except for maybe the back cooler in this glass front convenience store.  We got lucky though, and moved on to our next staging location unscathed. June 2, 2012 was the day that I was motivated to aggressively start looking for a new job.  A couple of days later, I posted this post talking about the intersection in my life that I found myself at.  What followed was a very long six months of testing, classes, and worst of all sitting and waiting.  The end result one year later...

I am writing this post today because I feel that I have been inexcusably quiet during EMS Week this year.  I do not want anyone out there to think that I am “anti-EMS Week” if you will.  Personally, I feel that we all deserve recognition year round, not just during one week out of the year.  We contribute to society every day, so why not recognize us more often, right? Throughout my years in EMS I have participated in a lot of EMS Week events.  I have been to banquets, had breakfasts, lunches, even dinners provided to me by employers and organizations to say “thank you” for another hard year’s work.  This year, I am with a different organization and my experience this year was a bit different and enlightening. Sure, we had a cookout, which was great.  Nothing like burgers and ‘dogs on a warm pre-summer day, but this past Monday, I got to dress up in my Class-A’s and have my mother pin my badge on me during an appointment and graduation ceremony put on every year for the new paramedics to join the organization.  It was a great experience, complete with bagpipes, drums, a color guard, and plenty of speakers, and I took a great deal of pride to have the honor to stand up there, but there was another group there that I think this event meant more to. The real winners Monday night were our families.  While the organization was saying, “thank you for being one of our paramedics” to us, the more important message was the “thank you” they were extending to our families for the time we sacrifice away from them.  They are the ones who have to put up with the time we spend working during holidays, and birthdays, and anniversaries.  I feel sometimes that our loved ones deserve the biggest pat on the back, so let this be my “THANK YOU” to all of you. It got me thinking about what other missed opportunities we, as an industry, have during each and every annual EMS Week and I can’t help but feel like taking the opportunity to educate the public is probably the biggest one. ...

It is not difficult to figure out where many of us out here in the blogging world get our material from.  Some of it is derived from frustration, and some of it from lessons we have learned that we feel the need to pass on to others.  With this blog more than three years old, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where some of my material comes from.  It is from my past, and from MY experiences in the years that I worked for AMR in Springfield and frankly, I could not be more proud to say that Springfield was where I spent the first twelve years of my career. In a meeting Thursday night held by the City of Springfield’s EMS Commission, the five commissioners voted unanimously to recommend American Medical Response to handle the 9-1-1 contract in their city for the next five years.  Last night I posted on my personal Facebook page that this decision was a “. . . much deserved and expected victory” for the staff at AMR Springfield, and now that I look back on it, and look back on the decision, I do not feel that statement fully describes the impact of the EMS Commission’s recommendation to the city. The real winners in this situation are the citizens on Springfield because they are getting the best care that they possibly could by having the paramedics and EMTs of AMR Springfield to respond to their emergencies.  AMR has had the opportunity to be in the lime light a few times in the past couple of years with the tornado of 2011 and the gas explosion of 2012 to name just a few, and while those calls were very high profile and visible, they barely make up a chapter in the story of AMR Springfield. The things that are really important are the things that happen every day.  It is not the multitude of trucks that I had sitting in our staging area on Worthington St that night, it was the other ambulances that were out still answering the “routine” emergencies that made the difference.  It was not just our crews going to door to door...

The cat is out of the bag!  I am proud to announce that I will be presenting at the 2013 Massachusetts EMS Conference on October 19th in Springfield, Massachusetts! It is a great feeling to be accepted to present back in the state that I so recently left where I spent the first twelve years of my paramedic career.  The title of my presentation is “The Solution is Pollution: Using Capnography to Guide Your Treatment.”  Exciting, huh? Are you in or around Massachusetts?  Come out and take some great classes given by a number of great speakers.  Want to contribute in your own way?  Take a look at the advertising and exhibitor packages that are being offered.  The committee that puts this conference together each year is doing a great job conference is growing exponentially every year.  If you ask me, I would say that the Massachusetts EMS Conference is well on its way to becoming the premier EMS Conference in New England.  It is great to be part of it as a presenter this year. Interested in attending?  Click here!  Be sure to check out the Exclusive Facebook Pre-Sale Do you want to be an exhibitor or sponsor?  Click...

Back when I was in high school I was an extremely active member of the Island Heights First Aid Squad.  Summertime was no exception.  I spent many days when I was not on the water on the ambulance running calls.  One call just before the start of my senior year of high school is a memorable one, and I was not even on it.  I think now more than ever though, it bears mentioning. There was a rather serious traffic accident on the highway that ran next to our town.  Due to a shortage of daytime crews, just like many other days, our squad was called upon to respond.  The patient was a middle aged male with shortness of breath, and belly pain.  Since he required extrication, the decision was made to fly him to the trauma center rather than drive him. From what I was told then, and can better comprehend now, he was hypotensive and had a significant amount of internal bleeding.  As with any other trauma patient in a similar condition, he got two large bore IV’s, and a boat load of fluid as he was transported by medivac to our regional trauma center.  The area of New Jersey where I was raised was very small, and through the grapevine, word came down that after his arrival at the trauma center he had passed away. We were told that due to the patient’s religious beliefs he refused a blood transfusion.  Because of his depleted volume and the seriousness of his internal injuries, without the assistance of blood products the trauma team was unable to save him. The reaction from some of my fellow EMT’s was one of sadness and anger.  Many could not understand how this man could possibly put his religious beliefs and his expectations in the afterlife above that of the life that they had worked so hard to try and save that late August afternoon.  But that is what he wanted, and the trauma center was willing to honor and respect it. A few weeks later my squad held an in-service in which they had someone of the same religion come in and answer questions about the how’s...