Just before the New Year, someone dropped off a huge bag full of Beanie Babies at our office. While its difficult to put unwrapped toys in the trucks for kids due to regulations, we graciously accepted the gift. In the weeks that followed, some of us adopted them as our personal “Mascots.” This guy caught my eye, and I snatched him up! His little Tag says his name was Paul. That really doesn’t seem appropriate to me, so I want to name him, and I want YOUR help! While some folks on Twitter offered up a few great suggestions, I think I’m looking for something more EMS related. So what do you think? What should I name...

2010 was a year of change for me, and a year of growth.EMSin the New Decade wasn’t my first attempt at blogging, but it’s the first time I’ve actually stuck with it.I was able to find my voice, and thanks to some help from some great people, I was able to get my voice out there to a much larger portion of our community. It all started with blogging for me, and after my experiences with some of the great friends I have made through the Social Media Community, that love of blogging expanded to Podcasting, which has become quite the addiction for me.What it all comes down to is if it wasn’t for people like RJ Stine, Kyle David Bates, Chris Montera, Natalie Quebodeaux and the whole Generation Medicine team, no one would have heard me. I created a simple pin, a symbol that has become a frequently displayed image on the internet, and has become associated with a great cause: EMS 2.0 and Chronicles of EMS.Thanks to Justin, Ted, and Mark for letting me play a little role as part of their team! Above everything else though, I’ve made some terrific friends.I could take up pages and pages naming them here.Through Tweets, text messages, Skype calls and blog comments, I’ve shared some great times and great moments with some incredible people.It’s an honor to know each and every one of you and I can’t wait to see what this year has to offer us. I have realized though that as 2011 opens, I still have a long way to go.While I have found my “voice” I am still growing comfortable with it.Very few people that I work with know about this blog.Slowly, I’ve become more comfortable with sharing it with some people, but that hasn’t been easy for me.I want more people to read it, but I also want more people to understand it, and learn from what I have said here, and the messages I plan on sharing in the future. While I was at EMS Expo in Dallas, I was sitting at the bar in the Sheraton with Steve Whitehead sharing a beer, while we waited for the rest of...

The first post of EMS in the New Decade went up on February 26th of this year. Now, 49 posts later, I’m finishing out 2010. I thought though, that I’d finish up the year with a story from the earlier part of my career. December 18th, 1998 started out not unlike many of my EMS shifts. I was home from college and working a volunteer day shift at Toms River EMS. This was my winter break before I started medic school, so this break would be my last opportunity to have any sort of “freedom” before I spent the next year learning how to be a Paramedic. We were dispatched across town for the female, possible CVA. I didn’t recognize the house when I pulled up and walked in, with the district’s police officer, the son of a family friend, right behind me. The woman sitting on the couch looked up at me, “Scott? Jeff?” I realized at that moment that this was a close friend both my parent’s and the parents of the officer. She had some increased generalized weakness and speech problems before calling 911. The symptoms had since resolved, much to her relief. Her BP was a little bit high, but everything out seemed to check out. My partner and I packaged her up and we were off to the hospital. I rode in back with her having a generally pleasant conversation, spending time catching up since I hadn’t seen her since my high school graduation party almost a year and a half prior. Once we turned over care, she thanked me for everything and gave me a big hug. I made sure to check back on her as much as I could during the rest of my shift just to make sure she was alright. Fast forward now, to two and a half years later. I had just graduated from College was having a graduation party down at my parent’s place in New Jersey. My parent’s friend, the TIA patient from a few years prior, came with a wrapped present for me. I opened it up, and found a framed copy of the following: “FIRST RESPONDER” A blood soaked hand...

Back in the 1970’s, my dad decided to take his shot at getting involved in the town’s First Aid Squad. When I was born in 1978, he stepped away from hit to be a father. In early 1992, he began working on getting his EMT Certification Recertified and rejoined the Island Heights First Aid Squad. Island Heights is a very small town at the Jersey shore. Approximately a mile by a mile, it has a year round population of 1,500 people, and gets a little higher in the Summer Time. Throughout the late 80’s and most of the 90’s, the majority of the EMS Runs the Island Heights First Aid Squad had were during the day, Monday thru Friday in neighboring Dover Township, now known officially as Toms River. Annually, they would run around 500-600 calls a year, about 150 of those in town. My dad was involved in EMS for about 6 months when my mom got tired of just sitting around listening to the pager go off all day. She decided that she would give this whole “EMS thing” a try. Her first year was very tough. She lost 15 lbs, and on some early mornings would cry when the pager would go off, although she probably wouldn’t admit to that today. She scaled things back a bit, and started running more abbreviated hours, and then decided that EMS really was for her. Through out the 90’s, my parents became more and more involved in EMS in the town. They both served as Captain, my dad spent time as Squad President, and they’ve both been the most active members of the squad for the last 18 years, and most importantly, they’ve been an inspiration to me. I got involved in EMS at the age of 15 as a Cadet with the Island Heights First Aid Squad, following in the footsteps of my parents. Say what you want about young people in EMS, but I think I handled myself the right way and learned how to be the right kind of EMT because of my parents, their involvement in the squad and their involvement in my early years in this field. They supported...

It’s Thanksgiving. The fire is burning in the fire place, football is on the TV and the bird is in the oven. I’m in New Jersey with my family, and all is well. The way would not be complete without talking about and recognizing the people and things that I’m thankful for. My Family — As some of you may know, I’m an only child. Shocking, right? As a result, I am extremely close with my parents. Over the years, they’ve helped me become the person that I am, taught me to be the best EMT and Paramedic that I can be, and they have supported me through every decision I’ve made in my life, good or bad. Joe and Amy Francis — Joe was my roommate in college for three years, and I have considered him my best friend ever since. He’s helped me through many, many crises in my life, and shared some of my best memories. Three years ago, he and his wife Amy brought into the world their son Thomas. They were the first in our group of friends to have a kid, and he was, as a result, adopted by all of us. I don’t know where I’d be without Joe and his family. Emily — A few of you have met her. She’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever met and she doesn’t realize it. Although she might not be at her best right now, I am proud of her, and will always stand by her no matter what. There are few people that I care about more than her. Natalie — We’ve both been through some tough times over the last couple of months, and frankly, I couldn’t imagine dealing with any of it without her friendship. She always brings a smile to my face, and always knows the right thing to say. She’s a strong, beautiful woman with a huge heart. I’m proud to call her my friend. Ted, Justin, Mark and the whole Chronicles of EMS Team — Never in my life would I have expected to be part of a community lead by a group as strong and amazing as these guys. They’ve...

During our careers, we all make mistakes. We’re human. It happens. What really matters is what you do with the lessons that you learn. The only thing that is more difficult than accepting that you made a mistake is admitting that you made one, so I thought I would share one here. I started out my EMS career working the weekend overnights. Every Friday and Saturday night, I spent my time flying around the city while everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves. Well, thankfully, I was enjoying myself too. I looked forward to going in every night. I had a great partner, and a great group of coworkers who I became very close with. Everyone had everyone else’s back, and as afar as an EMS environment goes, it was exactly how I hoped it would be. Every Saturday morning, the core of the group (about 6 or 8 of us) would head out for breakfast and drinks together at our local watering hole. We’d swap stories and talk about the experiences we had the night before, and then head to bed to ready ourselves for the Saturday night that was ahead of us. Occasionally, we would repeat this ritual on Sunday mornings. Sadly, our usual spot was closed on Sundays, so we would randomly pick another breakfast nook somewhere in the city. The Saturday night before the morning in question was a particularly busy one. We hadn’t seen much of each other, so a little quality time with the group was welcomed by all of us. As we sat waiting for our breakfast, the topic of conversation turned to two patients that we had encountered the night before. One had called us three times, the other twice. This was not an uncommon occurrence for either of these individuals. The three time caller, we’ll call him Fred, was our most notorious of frequent fliers. He was a lonely alcoholic who would take trips to the ER just to have someone to spend time with. On this night though, the ER didn’t want anything to do with him, so each hospital discharged him quickly, put him in a cab, and sent him home. The other...

For this edition of EMS in the New Decade, I’ve asked my father, Peter Kier to share with us his experience related to the events of September 11th, 2001. My father is an 18 year EMT and has over 20 years experience as a Prehospital Provider in New Jersey. A few days after September 11th, he was able to participate in the recovery efforts at Ground Zero. These are his thoughts and reflections on those events nine years later. As we approach the anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy, I can’t help but think back to the trip we took to New York on September 15th. When the attack happened, I had this compelling need to go and help. With all of the training and experience I had I was sure I could be useful. But, I also felt the need to be there, to experience first hand what I was seeing on TV night after night. Our First Aid Squad finally got a chance to participate when we became part of a convoy of 21 squads and Paramedic units assigned to help assist FDNY EMS units and other volunteer squads that were already in the city. With a stop in Newark to get a briefing, pick up supplies and eat, we ventured into New York by way of the Holland Tunnel, which had been closed to public traffic since the attack. It was an eerie trip into the city, being the only vehicles on the normally crowded highways, almost like a Sci-Fi movie about being the last people on earth. Once on the other side, the reception from the crowds that lined the streets was something to behold. In an article I wrote for our town paper, I likened it to being treated as a rock star. Nine years later I can still visualize the people, hear them cheering and I continue to wonder why. This was 4 days after the attack, but they were still out there, giving us food and water at every intersection. To this day I will never understand that. Maybe they had the same need as I did, to be there, to help and participate in whatever...

As you all know, I got started in EMS at a very young age. The area of New Jersey that I grew up in is rich with a long, distinguished history of Volunteer EMS and Fire personnel. I remember being in my EMT class at the age of 16. It was taught in a large auditorium filled with about 75 people. Every Tuesday and Thursday night, we’d sit there enjoying lectures, or break up into groups and run skills stations, with the ultimate goal of adding all of us to the long, distiguished list of graduates of Community Medical Center’s EMT program. That was where I met a man by the name of “Big John” Glowacki. He was a man whose reputation as a gruff, hard nosed, demanding yet professional person preceded him. John was an EMT Instructor, one of our dispatchers, and Life Member and Captain of the East Dover Volunteer First Aid Squad. It was impressive that had accomplished all of this by the age of 30. When I turned 18, John approached me and asked me if I would be interested in riding with him on his Tuesday Day Duty Crew on his squad. I wasn’t a member, but a lot of us who rode days down in Dover Twp (now known as Toms River) worked together to do what we could to get as many trucks on the road as possible. At some point during my career down there, I rode on a rig from five of the six Township departments. For the next three summers, and starting in the afternoons when I was in high school, I would come home, call John, and let him know I was in service. During that time, I learned a lot from him, not only from a patient care stand point, but also from an attitude and professionalism stand point. John wasn’t as mean as some people made him out to be. Sure, he was demanding and authoritative sometimes, but there are few people who I have encountered in my career who were more dedicated to the field. I never saw John lose his cool on a call. He was always so calm,...