Re: New Orleans Paramedics on Discovery

On 02 Nov 2003 01:00:12 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Al Buterol)
wrote:

>One of the calls showed 2 Paramedics pulling a younger male, disoriented from a
>pickup truck. Their immediate concern was drug use. Thier solution included an
>IV start and later, D-50 by the same IV.

I don't see a huge issue here. Experience and local demographics can
give you one strong "possible" reason. Do you just go with that and
ignore other possibilities? No. It's merely one frame of reference. It
would appear that they found a different problem, and treated it
(unless of course they didn't run a sugar on the guy...there are a few
places still running "cocktails" for all altered mental status folks).
>
>The question I have > Why isn't the Paramedic wearing gloves in any of the
>shots, including the D-50 administration and the finger sticks?

You'd have to ask the paramedic. Certainly would be wise for finger
sticks (blood has a tendency to go places other than intended). For
the D50 administration? I guess, it depends on the situation. We run
needle-less systems here, so provided I don't have some other reason
to have gloves on at that point, I don't see a big issue. Frankly,
even with a D50 w/needle, it's kind of a moot point (those things will
pierce latex and non-latex gloves without you ever noticing....except
that likely the needle will immediately pass into your hand).

Call me a dinosaur, but unless I'm dealing with potential body fluid
contact, I see little reason to sit there with gloves on for every
patient/every call. It has de-personalized care (especially
prehospital where everyone is indoctrinated in the <weird hand
gesture> "gloves on" in training).

Bob

P.S. Do remember that the folks that do those ride-alongs edit the
crap out of the footage. I've seen calls that looked smooth, but to
talk to someone that was there, were complete cluster-fucks...and ones
taht look like they're screwing everything up, when in fact they did
good (editing doesn't necessarily leave things in chronological order
either).



>The difference between Genius and Stupidity is Genius has its limits. Albert
>Einstein