Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I had someone ask me today if they call 911 (EMS) will they have to wait as long at the hospital. She said her friend told her if she calls 911 she would get right in. The cases are covered by the severity of the call. If its a true emergency you will get right in. But you will have to wait just as long if it is not an emergency. I'm not saying don't call 911 if you feel its an emergency, but if its not that time lost, just a few minutes could mean a life in a real emergency .
Not to mention the cost of an ambulance. I had a true emergency. I suffer from high blood pressure and was feeling numb all down my left side. I was at work and they took me to the fire department right down the street. They took my blood pressure and it was 210/130. They advised me that I should go. I really didnt want to go, but they thought it would best. I did get taken in immediately because they thought it was a stroke. Turned out everything was OK. But now I have a bill of $499. So, I agree, specifically for the reasons you state which are more important, but secondary you are creating yourself a big bill when you do this.
You were right in going to the hospital. Your co-workers should have called 911 right away, and let the ambulance come to your office. The drive to the FD was not the best choice. Having numbness in your left arm is a classic symptom of a cardiac or stoke call. In both cases, time is very critical in what we can do to help.
Please, I am not criticizing you at all, just adding my two cents as one who has 20 years experience in EMS.
First, we have a saying in this field when it comes to cardiac calls....."Time is Muscle" When a coronary artery is occluded, any part of the heart muscle that artery is served by starts to die.
At the BLS level, they would have given you high flow oxygen, at about five times the level of room air. This HUGELY lessens the demands on your body. They would have given you nitros to open up your arteries, perhaps stopping the blockage in it's tracks. They would have given you aspirin to thin your blood, helping further. If you went into cardiac arrest, they would have used an AED to perhaps keep you alive. This does not happen when friends drive you someplace.
At the ALS level, they would have put you on a state of the art cardiac monitor and would do a 12 lead EKG on you, all in the field, thus finding out instantly if there is any heart problems. Other drugs are also available, if needed. They would have gotten you to a hospital within a time frame so that, if needed, would have allowed you to get life saving thrombolitics, stopping the event almost instantly.
The cost of this is far less then the months/years spend in a nursing home drooling because of a major stroke has made you 1/2 of a vegetable.
On the subject, anyone who works in an office with more then a few employees.......do you have an AED there? Has anyone called the Fire Dept and had them come out and teach the employees CPR ? The best call we go on is the call that good care is provided before we get there.
Ask yourself.....if something like this happened in your office, does anyone there know what to do?
Lastly, we go on many calls that people ARE having a heart attack, but they deny it. Very common. They are embarrassed, and are afraid of losing their job, paying a big bill, etc. They say it is heartburn. Sometimes they are right. Sometimes they are wrong, and die. We cannot force people to get help, they are allowed to refuse. Sometimes it is the last bad decision they make.
Anyway, this holiday season, ask yourself if you would know what to do if there were a medical emergency. If not, sign up for a CPR or first aid class. They are fun, and you may help save the life of a loved one.....
OK, I'll get off my soapbox now......sorry for the long post. It's just that I've seen some pretty bad and sad things happen through the years because of people not knowing, or because they were afraid of a bill.
Frank D.
Professional Firefighter/medic and NYS EMS instructor.
p.s. firemed, good post you started.....kudos!
Last edited by faithfulFrank; 11-19-2007 at 06:06 AM..
Reason: the p.s.
I had someone ask me today if they call 911 (EMS) will they have to wait as long at the hospital. She said her friend told her if she calls 911 she would get right in. The cases are covered by the severity of the call. If its a true emergency you will get right in. But you will have to wait just as long if it is not an emergency. I'm not saying don't call 911 if you feel its an emergency, but if its not that time lost, just a few minutes could mean a life in a real emergency .
I have to say, I would be enraged if my loved one died unnecessarily because all of the emergency personnel were tied up taking lazy people with the sniffles to the hospital. It would have never occurred to me to use an ambulance to bypass the wait in the ER.
Years ago, I think it was on an episode of COPS, I saw an elderly woman call 911 and ask for the police. When they got there, she wanted them to give her a ride to the grocery store. Apparently, she didn't have money for a cab. The cops on the show actually gave her the ride. I had hoped it was for the sake of the cameras and that they weren't really doing this all the time. While they were taking her to the store, someone could have been robbing the local gas station and they wouldn't have been able to respond because they had Granny in the back seat.
Hate to say it, but it happens all the time.
Yesterday, we had a 600 pound lady who wanted to go to the hospital....took 5 people to get her to the ambulance.......why? She ran out of her prescription...easier for HER to go get them at the ER.....taxpayers will pay the bill.....(but won't make my back feel better).
Years ago I had a lady call the ambulance because of a broken nail....she was mad because she just had them done.
Then the hospital calls us for a routine transfer back to a nursing home, and they get urked because emergencies take priority. Hospitals discharge people "Sicker and quicker", so the patient calls the ambulance the next day to get re-admitted....should have stayed a few days longer, but the HMO's say no.
I could go on and on, but then it would make me sound cranky, and I'm not....I still do care about people and I love my job.
How could people help? Check on your neighbors. De-clutter your house so we can get a stretcher INTO your house. De-ice the steps and get the walk shoveled that has 3 foot of snow on it...(does not apply to you lucky Florida residents). Get more active, take better care of yourselves and you will need us less. Stop talking on your cellphone while driving...(reduce the amount of MVA's), etc,etc.
We are proud of our EMS service, but it could be better...we are stretched quite a bit nowadays.
On a related note, the senior citizens who travel this time of year, weather it be down south for the winter months, or those who are traveling for the holidays, if you have a DNR, make sure you bring it with you. In time of need, it must be presented to the medics to be honored......not left at home. Also, have a list of your CURRENT medications with you.
You were right in going to the hospital. Your co-workers should have called 911 right away, and let the ambulance come to your office. The drive to the FD was not the best choice. Having numbness in your left arm is a classic symptom of a cardiac or stoke call. In both cases, time is very critical in what we can do to help.
Please, I am not criticizing you at all, just adding my two cents as one who has 20 years experience in EMS.
First, we have a saying in this field when it comes to cardiac calls....."Time is Muscle" When a coronary artery is occluded, any part of the heart muscle that artery is served by starts to die.
At the BLS level, they would have given you high flow oxygen, at about five times the level of room air. This HUGELY lessens the demands on your body. They would have given you nitros to open up your arteries, perhaps stopping the blockage in it's tracks. They would have given you aspirin to thin your blood, helping further. If you went into cardiac arrest, they would have used an AED to perhaps keep you alive. This does not happen when friends drive you someplace.
At the ALS level, they would have put you on a state of the art cardiac monitor and would do a 12 lead EKG on you, all in the field, thus finding out instantly if there is any heart problems. Other drugs are also available, if needed. They would have gotten you to a hospital within a time frame so that, if needed, would have allowed you to get life saving thrombolitics, stopping the event almost instantly.
The cost of this is far less then the months/years spend in a nursing home drooling because of a major stroke has made you 1/2 of a vegetable.
On the subject, anyone who works in an office with more then a few employees.......do you have an AED there? Has anyone called the Fire Dept and had them come out and teach the employees CPR ? The best call we go on is the call that good care is provided before we get there.
Ask yourself.....if something like this happened in your office, does anyone there know what to do?
Lastly, we go on many calls that people ARE having a heart attack, but they deny it. Very common. They are embarrassed, and are afraid of losing their job, paying a big bill, etc. They say it is heartburn. Sometimes they are right. Sometimes they are wrong, and die. We cannot force people to get help, they are allowed to refuse. Sometimes it is the last bad decision they make.
Anyway, this holiday season, ask yourself if you would know what to do if there were a medical emergency. If not, sign up for a CPR or first aid class. They are fun, and you may help save the life of a loved one.....
OK, I'll get off my soapbox now......sorry for the long post. It's just that I've seen some pretty bad and sad things happen through the years because of people not knowing, or because they were afraid of a bill.
Frank D.
Professional Firefighter/medic and NYS EMS instructor.
You were right in going to the hospital. Your co-workers should have called 911 right away, and let the ambulance come to your office. The drive to the FD was not the best choice. Having numbness in your left arm is a classic symptom of a cardiac or stoke call. In both cases, time is very critical in what we can do to help.
Please, I am not criticizing you at all, just adding my two cents as one who has 20 years experience in EMS.
First, we have a saying in this field when it comes to cardiac calls....."Time is Muscle" When a coronary artery is occluded, any part of the heart muscle that artery is served by starts to die.
At the BLS level, they would have given you high flow oxygen, at about five times the level of room air. This HUGELY lessens the demands on your body. They would have given you nitros to open up your arteries, perhaps stopping the blockage in it's tracks. They would have given you aspirin to thin your blood, helping further. If you went into cardiac arrest, they would have used an AED to perhaps keep you alive. This does not happen when friends drive you someplace.
At the ALS level, they would have put you on a state of the art cardiac monitor and would do a 12 lead EKG on you, all in the field, thus finding out instantly if there is any heart problems. Other drugs are also available, if needed. They would have gotten you to a hospital within a time frame so that, if needed, would have allowed you to get life saving thrombolitics, stopping the event almost instantly.
The cost of this is far less then the months/years spend in a nursing home drooling because of a major stroke has made you 1/2 of a vegetable.
On the subject, anyone who works in an office with more then a few employees.......do you have an AED there? Has anyone called the Fire Dept and had them come out and teach the employees CPR ? The best call we go on is the call that good care is provided before we get there.
Ask yourself.....if something like this happened in your office, does anyone there know what to do?
Lastly, we go on many calls that people ARE having a heart attack, but they deny it. Very common. They are embarrassed, and are afraid of losing their job, paying a big bill, etc. They say it is heartburn. Sometimes they are right. Sometimes they are wrong, and die. We cannot force people to get help, they are allowed to refuse. Sometimes it is the last bad decision they make.
Anyway, this holiday season, ask yourself if you would know what to do if there were a medical emergency. If not, sign up for a CPR or first aid class. They are fun, and you may help save the life of a loved one.....
OK, I'll get off my soapbox now......sorry for the long post. It's just that I've seen some pretty bad and sad things happen through the years because of people not knowing, or because they were afraid of a bill.
Frank D.
Professional Firefighter/medic and NYS EMS instructor.
p.s. firemed, good post you started.....kudos!
Excellent post!! Where I work we have at least 1 AED in every building (We have 3 buildings on our campus and 2 buildings off campus) All our security staff is at least First responder/AED trained and some of us are EMT-Bs. We also have several employees who are first responder/AED trained. Each building has an AED at the security/receptionist desk. Then we have another AED in a couple of other places throughout the building so they are around when needed.
But I cannot stress enough if you are having any kind of heart/stroke like symptoms call 911 immediately and go to the hospital.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
