When Seconds Matter

This blog is about educating people about the rolls of fire service and EMS in rural areas. People need to understand firefighter safety, and what firefighters, EMT's, EMT Advanced, and paramedics can, and can't do.

Everyone tells me when people moved here they knew what we had. Not True, for over 2 years until August the LMRFD web page mislead people telling citizens and tourist the LMRFD had 7 ALS ambulances, 4 rescue vehicles and lots of firefighters.

Time, in some calls every second counts, the difference between 5 minutes and 30 seconds, and 6 minutes can mean the difference between life and death.

I was so disappointed in our EMS crew responding to a heart attack at 48 mph the other day. On a call 10 miles from the fire station the difference between 48 mph and 55 mph is 1 1/2 minutes. That 1 1/2 minutes could well be the difference between life and death.

Most EMS calls are routine calls were two ambulance attendants can handle the situation fine. But there are those calls were you need more people, that's when every second matters.

This is no time to realize that you need help, then call for assistance from firefighters to move or load a large patient, or do CPR in route the hospital.

Working in law enforcement and EMS I've seen a lot of people die because of something simple could have been done, and someone said no.

Some patients, especially those with serve trauma you know won't survive no matter what you do, are many times eerily calm. Sometimes even trying to calm you as you try to work faster, all the time knowing there's little chance they will survive, and you both know it.

The patients who are the most frightened are those who can't breathe. These patients are scared to death, and you can tell just looking at them.

They're usually sitting up in what's called the tripod position, trying to breathe, their eyes are open wide and when they look you, there's no need to ask how they're doing.

For the first patient all you can really do is stay close and be there, but the second patient you can help.

To make someone who's short of breath wait any longer than absolutely necessary, is wrong. Waiting 30 - 45 minutes is torture when someone close with oxygen or medication could ease the suffering.

Some medical emergencies do require rapid response, assessment, and treatment....
Below are a few........

Sudden Cardiac Arrest (different than a heart attack)
A sudden cardiac arrest is when your heart has an arrhythmia, or bad heart rhythm.

If your heart goes into Ventricular Fibrillation, or Ventricular Tachycardia, you have 6 minutes to have a paramedic apply a defibrillator, or a citizen apply an AED. After 6 minutes your chance of survival drop's to near zero.

Anaphylactic Shock
NOTE ARS 36-2226 Exempts good Samaritans from liability for giving Epinephrine Arizona Anyone can give Epi in Arizona

If you give kids birthday parties then you know a lot of kids have food allergies today, other's are allergic to bees, cats, or something.

A lot of parents carry an EpiPen that contains Epinephrine to reverse the allergic reaction. It's important an EMT be close to make sure mom gave the shot, and follow up with respiratory assistance and transport to the ER.

Mom's are mom and the last thing they would ever do is hurt their child. Some not wanting to hurt their little boy or girl, wait to use the EpiPen to see if they improve. Sometimes they wait too long, and it's too late, the lungs are too tight by the time they give the EpiPen.

Drug Overdoses
Many older people today take pain medications, please keep your medications locked up, and away from kids.

Overdoses, especially for opioid overdoses there's a wonder drug called Narcan or Naloxone. If you get there in time you can reverse the effects of opioids in seconds.

Not all overdoses are people abusing drugs, accidents happen, children get in to medication.

In the video below Narcan is given to an unresponsive patient with CPR in progress, you'll be amazed at how fast Narcan works.

Narcan Being Given Narcan


Trauma
Take aspirin for your heart? Warning... What protects your heart from clotting, also make's it difficult to stop bleeding in trauma.

Most trauma is not life threatening, some trauma is. If you have internal bleeding it can be life threatening. If it's serious internal bleeding the only thing that will save you is rapid transport and a surgeon.

The four firefighters we would have can't save your home, and in some cases with two firefighters can't save your life.