Archive for November, 2009

You’ll be happy to know that I survived yet another overdose of Tryptophan. I hope you all have survived the horrors of the feasting table as well. Here are some posts from the EMS Blogosphere that I found to be dead on, timely, and interesting from any perspective:

• Rogue Medic pops another balloon in the EMS mythos, this time taking the sacred cow of c-spine immobilization to the slaughter house
• John Solomon is advocating “building a culture of preparedness one gift at a time“. I completely agree with this idea, and have already started compiling a list of items that make great gifts. I’ll share it in a future post
• Dave Williams weighs in on the healthcare debate and the truth about high end users of the current system that you will never find in the proposed bill currently at the Senate

And finally…

• If you haven’t had your fill of compilation posts, Steve Whitehead has posted the EMT Spot EMS November Roundup.

Be safe out there…

If you are a resident of Queens, you are undoubtedly aware that last year Parkway Hospital was forced to close by the State of New York, and then in February both St. John’s Queens and Mary Immaculate Hospital closed in bankruptcy. This left approximately 125,000 annual emergency room visits to be absorbed by other local hospitals.

Perhaps it is just coincidental karma or the work of the nefarious minded that the sign at Elmhurst Hospital (which absorbed a majority of St. John’s patients) sent a different message than what it’s city employed administrators intended. The darkened bulbs changed the sign from Elmhurst to lmhurt.

The dirty truth is that Elmhurst Hospital has not had the best reputation for expedient emergency care, even before the closure of the other 3 hospitals. The population of Queens continues to be under served and there is no sign of it improving anytime soon with or without Universal Healthcare.

The sign says it all…

Photo Source: Asylum via The Bitter American

NBC has officially ordered more episodes of it’s EMS inspired medical drama Trauma. This comes after an increase in the ratings, including a few weeks where Trauma garnered more viewers than it’s lead in, and once upon a time network leader, Heroes.

Now we all know that Trauma has been highly criticized by the EMS community. However, I would like to point out something that continues to tick me off about the mightier than thou attitude taken by some on this issue.

Last night I watched the WWE Survivor Series on Pay-Per-View. Say what you will, but I am a pretty big wrestling fan and have had the opportunity to work a number of their shows in New York City. The wrestlers are dedicated professionals and their medical staff is truly top notch.

Last night I watched as an EMS crew from Washington DC Fire EMS (or at least one of them was wearing a workshirt from DC Fire EMS) came down ringside and immobilized Rey Mysterio Jr. after his match with Dave Batista. Now I know that in all likelihood, they were told beforehand to come down and immobilize him. They were probably told by the trainers that they should do everything they would normally do for someone with a back injury that was in a car wreck. I know this, because I immobilized Shawn Michaels at the 2002 Summer Slam, and that’s exactly what I was told.

So I did just that. I used a backboard, a cervical collar, did a log roll, secured his head with a Headbed II (the standard at the time), and put him onto the stretcher to be wheeled into the backstage area… where Arn Anderson promptly came over, helped us to unstrap Shawn, and helped him off the stretcher and back to the dressing room. It was all part of the script, and I was totally okay with that because I treated him as I would any other patient.

My problem is that last night Rey was strapped to a backboard with a cervical collar on as it should be, but the head blocks that should have been on either side of his head were actually underneath the backboard as they wheeled him out. As far as I know, that’s an incomplete immobilization.

If the Washington DC protocols are different and allow you to transport without using the head blocks, then please feel free to correct me… but I think that as a profession we need to expect our providers to get it right before placing unrealistic demands of realism on a television drama.

Even if it is “fake” wrestling.