I'm becoming obsessed with First Aid

[1leglance]

Great news on the Quickclot gauze vs powder...I will revise what I tell people and might just add some to the kit.
I have seen a few folks flown into our trauma bay with the powder and it was a mess in the wound...and yeah the main folks complaining were the trauma dr's
Personally I am all for direct pressure but I can see when & where a clotting agent would be good to have.

Thanks Sun for the more indepth response than what I wrote, I think the fact that EMS is often under the license of a Dr is often overlooked.

For me it is less about my Duty to Act than it is about how I would feel if I could have helped and didn't.

[Amauri]

Ever heard of DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) cards? You're liable to find yourself in court, sued, over violating a person's wishes, if they carry the card.

If someone does not show you the proper documentation your ok.

I am an EMT, my first day working I went on a "trouble breathing" call. We show up there's a large man in his late 70's laying on a bed obvious signs of COPD, on oxygen, first thing I do while my partner is checking out the patient is turn up his oxygen. His daughter and wife are there the man and the wife don't speak a lick of English so I had to have the daughter translate, she had a very thick Russian accent and kept claiming the man had a DNR. My partner call me over, there's what appears to be a bone protruding from the guys upper abdomen. Turns out it's an aneurysm that he has had for years. If this guys dies on us we can't perform CPR because he would be dead anyway. We needed to get this guy to the hospital NOW! He starts breathing his breathing slowed and we where having trouble getting a pulse, I'm thinking this guy is dead. All the while his daughter is yelling at us telling us he has a DNR but couldn't find it. She grabs a large file and jumps in the ambulance with us, my partner is driving and I'm taking care of the patient. The daughter is asking us to take to take her dad to a hospital that is 30 min. away running code 3, dispatch sends us to one that is 10 min. She starts nagging. I'm asking the daughter to translate for me and she decides to get on the phone. If you have ever met me you know I am soft spoken and very calm, I rarely loose my cool. But this lady... I yell at her "Ma'am get off the damn phone and answer these questions or your dad is going to die! So she complies. We are almost at the hospital when she finally finds his DNR. I take a look at it basically he just did not want any artificial ventilation(tubes down his throat). I don't say anything to her I just keep doing my thing. We get to the hospital and turn him over. He lived.

Good times.

[ThomD]

I was 40 when I started med school...Run AWAY!!!!

So, it is official - you are crazy! I'd be 50ish before I could even get into Med school, so that isn't going to happen.

My next challenge is to find a way to reinforce what training I've had. Work is going to run some mass casualty drills later this year, but maybe I need a set of flash cards or something.

[SunTzuNephew]

So, it is official - you are crazy! I'd be 50ish before I could even get into Med school, so that isn't going to happen.

My next challenge is to find a way to reinforce what training I've had. Work is going to run some mass casualty drills later this year, but maybe I need a set of flash cards or something.

LOL, I had students in the Caribbean (there are some decent med schools there, classes in English and everything) who were in their late 50's...talk about guts. A few were medical professionals (mid levels, one was a British/Pakistani dentist trying to become an oral surgeon), a few were very brave people. Most did OK.