I'd rather have a hill billy in a pickup truck who cares, than a paid EMT in a fancy ambulance who doesn't

The more I thought about how the firefighters we pay $77000 to $88000 a year were treating people, the madder I got.

The attitude of the firefighters is unacceptable, the chief said they were mad. I'm sorry but if you work in public safety or emergency medicine you don't get the luxury to be mad, people's lives are at stake.

The LMRFD firefighters are paid more than anyone else in Dolan or Meadview. That's almost $90,000 a year to be a firefighter in Dolan Springs, and they're mad so they respond to heart attack call at 48 mph. Tell a lady to not call until her husband was dead when she tried to give them his DNR, Do Not Resuscitate orders.

On some calls it takes the firefighters 5 minutes and 25 seconds to leave the fire station after receiving a page. The NFPA standard for Turnout Time, the time it takes from when they receive the page for a call, to when they are in route is 60 seconds, NOT 5 minutes and 25 seconds.

At 7:20 or so in the morning the ambulance got a call at mp5 on US93. After turning North on US93 law enforcement on scene asked for an ETA. The EMT told the dispatcher their ETA was 45 minutes ot an hour. Dispatch told them to cancel, Lake Mead was going to respond.

What do you think? It was 7:30 in the morning and they get off at 8:00. They were 36 miles from the call at mile post 5 on US93, at 69 MPH it would take 33 minutes, at 75 MPH 28 minutes, and at 80 MPH only 28 minutes. Are they really that bad a judge of distance and time, or they didn't want to go on the call.

When the lady at the community meeting went to the fire station to give the EMT's a copy of her husbands DNR, and the EMT told her he didn't want it, to just wait until she was sure he was dead to call, that was just wrong.

An EMT should never do anything to violate the trust a patient has in them. To do so violates everything we are taught as EMT's and paramedics, and damages us all as professionals.

A DNR is a Do Not Resuscitate Order telling EMT's not to use life saving methods.

It DOES NOT mean for EMT's to do nothing. Many cancer patients suffer severe pain, and the EMT had better treat them like it was their dad dying of cancer. Make them comfortable, take care of the pain, and if they should code on the way to the hospital, follow the DNR and do nothing life saving. Just hold their hand and let them know someone was there who cared when they died. People arn't afraid to die, people are afraid to die in pain.

After thinking about how she was treated by the firefighter we pay over $77,000 a year, I got mad. If we consolidate we lose control. If NACFD takes over without volunteers for backup, we can't even fire one of these guys.

If I need an ambulance, I'd rather have a hill billy in a pickup truck who cares, than a paid EMT in a fancy ambulance who doesn't.

The mindset of a firefighter is that of public safety. Firefighters are required to be EMT's. The mindset of an EMT is that of a health care professional, and their primary concern is patient care.

On the worst day of my life, when I have to call 911, I don't want someone coming to help who had to take the test.

In the article Firefighters Don't Fight Fires it tells us over the past 35 years fires have decreased by more than 40%, while carrer firefighters increased by more than 40%. Medical calls on the other hand have gone up, so to justify all the money fire departments got into EMS.

Problem is firefighters don't want to be ambulance attendants. Read the Links to Firefighter EMS Links page look at the What Firefighters Think About Being Forced to Be EMT's or paramedic's.

Over 70% of calls for service to the LMRFD are medical calls. We need to seperate the ambulance from the firefighters, and use volunteer EMT's to run the ambulance. 

I don't know about you, but I don't want some EMT who drives up here from Lake Havasu to help the poor folk in Dolan Springs, then drives back home to Havasu.

Firefighters should be required to live where they can be at the fire station within 30 minutes in we need them. Not 100 miles away.

What We Need
What we need is a volunteer community paramedic program Rural Assistance Center Community-paramedicine program information.

Dolan Springs Meadview White Hills are in a special taxing district. We need to educate the people and those who agree draw a boundary and vote for an effective EMS system and a clinic.