Ass Whoopin' Needed

YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkaq9o_qe1M

By Carlos Miller
An Oklahoma State Trooper pulled over an ambulance on its way to the hospital Sunday, resulting in the police officer placing a chokehold on a paramedic as a patient lingered in the back.

It was all caught on video by the patient’s son, who was following in another car.
The officer was apparently upset that the ambulance did not yield for him.
However, it is evident that the ambulance had a real emergency on its hands, unlike the cop, who had been speeding towards some incident he was able to resolve in minutes, enabling him to refocus his attention on the ambulance.

The incident marks the second time this year that a police officer pulled a vehicle over as it was clearly on its way to a hospital for an emergency.
Paramedics say they were rushing a woman to the hospital who had suffered heat exhaustion when they noticed the trooper traveling at a high rate of speed behind them. They say the trooper had its emergency lights on but had its sirens off.
The driver of the ambulance did not notice the trooper until it got right behind him. He pulled over allowing it to pass. Through his microphone, the officer allegedly said, “You should consider checking your rearview mirrors.” The driver of the ambulance said he responded by lifting his hands in bewilderment.

Three blocks later, the trooper was seen pulling out of a side street - apparently having addressed his emergency or having picked up a female passenger - and pulled the ambulance over.

At first, paramedics thought the woman in the passenger side was having an emergency.
According to the paramedic’s transport incident report: The officer got out of his vehicle in a state of rage. He approached my partner and yelled, “Get your ass back here. I am giving you a ticket for failure to yield.” He also added, “What do you mean flipping me off?”

The trooper wanted to cite the driver of the ambulance but the other paramedic insisted on driving the patient to the hospital first, then allowing the driver to be cited.
The trooper then told the second paramedic that he was under arrest for obstruction and attempted to grab the paramedic’s arm. But the paramedic reminded him that it was a felony to assault a paramedic in the line of duty, especially when he needs to transport a patient to the hospital. They struggled briefly before the paramedic was able to hop in the back of the ambulance to tend to the patient.

By that time, another trooper had pulled up and started banging on the side of the ambulance, telling the paramedic that he was under arrest for assault. The paramedic stepped out of the vehicle and another struggle ensued - this one caught on tape - which resulted in a cop grabbing the paramedic in a vise-like-grip around his neck.

The officers finally allowed the paramedics to transport the patient to the hospital where they planned to arrest the paramedic. But then they finally got smart and contacted the district attorney, who insisted on reviewing the evidence before filing charges.
Police say they have their own version of the truth that was recorded by their dashboard cam. Of course they are refusing to release it.

At one point in the hospital, the trooper told the paramedic that he was so enraged about the perceived “flipping off” gesture that he considered pulling his gun out and using deadly force, according to the paramedic’s transport report.


Clearly this cop was WAAAAAYYYY over the line here and needs to evaluate his position within the scope of things. He would be better suited serveing fries at McDonalds.

I can tell you one thing for sure, he and I would be meeting off duty to "discuss" how he treated me.

If your in this business....

I started catching up on the comments of this blog today. Lots of people I never got a chance to respond to over the years. In the course of doing that I re-read a lot of my old posts and noticed that I used the phrase: "If your in this business any length of time" quite a few times. It struck me as odd at first that those were he only words repeated often. Then I came to the following conclusion. IT FITS.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
notice that your call volume increases sharply and proportionately to the las time you took a piss.

If your in the business for any length of time you will...
get screamed at for taking too long to get there, even though no one moved out of your way.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
know what it feels like to wear the same underwear for 48 or more hours.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
know the pain of a complete stranger crying on your shoulder.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
feel wracked with sadness over telling a parent their child is dead

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
eat from every single fast food restaurant in your area.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
miss your children's plays and sporting events, not to mention special evenings with your spouse. You will cancel and re-schedule appoints almost monthly.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
respond to find a friend or family member seriously injured or deceased and your the only truck available.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
see a near complete turnover at your station, leaving you feeling alone and with strangers.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
see new EMTs burn out and fade away even before their carrer starts, due to one bad run.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
witness the miracle of life and the sadness of death all within 24 hours.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
find your boots fit differently at the end of the day because your feet are swollen from all the walking.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
learn to eat when you can and never miss a chance to take a leak.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
know the difference between: mostly dead, almost dead and dead.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
opt to work when your sick and save your PTO for "Important" things.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
learn from someone everyday and teach others without knowing you did it.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
be constantly reminded to lift correctly, but still lift incorrectly and suffer back bain almost 50% of the time.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
ruin at least 2-3 perfectly good relationships, but replace them with stronger bonds than you ever thought possible.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
notice that most nurses don't even listen to your report.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
see at least 10 patients more than 10 times each per year. They will start calling you "friend"

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
stare blankly when someone approaches you in the mall rattling off a call you were on that helped them. You will struggle to remember the details.

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
measure your payment in the smiles you recieve from little old ladies, they know someone cares. (JS)

If your in this business for any length of time you will...
sit behind your computer and write lists of shit that occured to you...

There are literally hundreds more I think of day to day but forget to add here. Please leave a comment and I'll keep editing this post until we have covered as many as we can think of. I need to start carrying a tape recorder, lol.

Take care guys, stay safe out there.

EMTs, the OTHER health care professionals

EMS is the lowest paid of all health care professionals, but before you go to your boss and complain lets look at why this is the case.

1) Personal appearance: Although some of you take great pride in how you look, others look like they have just rolled out of bed 24/7. Stains on their un-tucked shirts, grossly overweight with a 5 O' Clock shadow at 8am. I don't care if your full time or a volunteer you can always take the time to look your best. A simple jumpsuit, hat and can of deodorant by your bed will solve almost all of these issues.

2) Attitude: I can't tell you the number of times I have ran across EMTs who are bad mouthing either the company they work for or the patient they just had because it was inconveniencing them in some way at that particular moment. Shape up, suck it up and do your job. There is always McDonalds if this line of work is too rough on ya.

3) Conduct: If you want to go out on a Friday night and raise hell DONT WEAR AN EMS SHIRT. No one care about your macho ass! Your making all of us look bad when you swill liquor and boast about how many lives you saved today. Grow up. People judge the entire profession on the things they see. Perception is everything.

4) Reimbursement: You are getting a lower wage because the reimbursement rate by the feds or state (Medicare, Medicaid) is garbage. We need a better lobby in Congress and State Departments to get things improved.

5) DOT: Department of Transportation. This is a joke, there is no way in this day and age that EMS should be under anything but the State Board of Nursing. There has to be a department more qualified to oversee us than the DOT. These is a huge disconnect between EMS and other health care professionals and until we bring all of them together on the same issues there will always be problems.

Ya, it's early in the AM and I just got back from a run...I am ranting a bit, deal with it.
It is EMS week, you can be happy about that. The one time during the year that people feel they are obligated to show us even the smallest amount of respect and graditude. We get a trinket from the local hospital and a free meal. They pass out some awards and pat you on the back and tell you GREAT JOB!

Wouldn't you rather have it that way year round? Wouldn't you rather have a living wage and the respect of all of your healthcare peers daily?

Stand up for yourself. Demand change both within yourself, your peers and the system!
Show respect and you will receive respect.

They presented me with the award for "Provider of the Year" today. I was proud and sad at the same time. We all deserve that award, not everyone can do what we do, but until every single one of us is willing to stand up for what we believe in and force a change in ourselves and our situations we will always be "other health care professionals"

G'night