Regarding the EMTs yelling, could they have been trying to clear people away, to be confident the scene safe for themselves (one of the first steps I've heard some first responders have), or to get access to the patient? Or maybe the opioid epidemic is wearing heavily on them, though they keep doing their job?
(I looked into EMT-B training a while ago, and it's a really difficult, scary, and severely underpaid job. I probably couldn't do that job for very long, emotionally, even if I could afford it financially. Ironically, the compensation for being an EMT, helping people, seems unfortunately backwards, by societal value, with a lot of software jobs I'm considering right now.)
An example: in Georgia, just picking a random county, teachers make around 20,000~60,000$ a year, leaning more toward the lower end. It seems that importance to society and salary are negatively correlated...
You can look them up here: http://open.georgia.gov/openga/salaryTravel/list
Also, a somewhat-related video I watched recently (a fantastic channel, by the way:) https://youtube.com/watch?v=VOAaFyv_shY
It toils be interesting to see if these problems were related. Eg invest heavily in education and teachers, and would the demands on EMTs fall?
They can somehow hire enough even at this salaries, and appear to think that's enough. Quality of education is hard to measure, and it takes very long to measure, much longer than a typical election term.
See also:
- Truckers
- Farmers (though some do pretty well) and farmhands
- Janitors
- Babysitters
- Teaching assistants
- Receptionists
There are two drugs I carried that had an instand life saving effect: Narcan and D50 (50% dextrose solution). Somebody with low blood sugar will often present with a radically altered level of response, if they are even conscious. Start an IV, push D50 and within seconds, they sit up and talk to you as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Be advised, it is relatively short lived and the patient needs to consume some complex carbohydrates or protien to sustain their blood sugar levels.
Yes, it is terribly under paid, but there is great job security. I worked tech/research most of my adult life, but market and government priority changes made it really tough to work toward a retirement. It seems every few years, either the project was cancelled, or the line was shut down.
As an EMT/firefighter, my minimum week was 56 hours (by federal law due to the standard 33% duty cycle of a 24 hour, 7 day week) and sometimes nearly double that. Unfortunately, only the firstw 40 hours, (at just above minimuim wage) applied toward retirement benefits where I worked.
On what is so hard with putting the cell phone on speaker and setting it down next to the downed person? Your are still on the line but have your hands free?
Aside from that: thanks for helping a fellow human and congratulations on keeping it together under high pressure.
is because it creates adequate air exchange to keep somebody alive until Narcan is administered.
I had forgotten to ask if there is any legality or cover-your-ass issues there, say if they infect the person or the Narcan ends up being something else that kills the person. I imagine they probably thought this person is going to die and decided to do it anyway.
In my town, an ambulance was involved in a traffic collision. The ambulance was not moving, and was still found to be at fault. Go figure.