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Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:06 pm
by gras
jimlongley wrote:One had red lights and a siren, which were NOT authorized to him, on his vehicle, and our chief had to go bail him out one time when he was arrested as he responded to a fire more than 30 miles from our district.
Your chief should have let him take his lumps like an adult.

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:08 pm
by G.A. Heath
91wm6 wrote:Now for the other side of the coin. I was talking to a Volunteer FD guy yesterday about someone using exploding targets at the county LE range and damaging the property. He is investigating it and I will promise you that should he catch the parties responsible that he will arrest them. Now, with that said I should mention that he is doing so as a Deputy with the Sheriffs Office (his primary occupation) a job that he does along with his VFD and his EMS duties. He is the kind of person I am proud to call a friend, and glad to have out there.


Wouldn't this fall under some kind of conflict of interest?
Never seen anything to say its a conflict of interest. In fact much of the training and duties are as Excaliber said complementary. If you need an EMT at an accident/fire/shooting and the first person there is from the County SO wouldn't you prefer that they are a trained and licensed EMT and a member of the VFD so they are fully trained on what needs to be done right then and there?

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 9:09 pm
by jimlongley
gras wrote:
jimlongley wrote:One had red lights and a siren, which were NOT authorized to him, on his vehicle, and our chief had to go bail him out one time when he was arrested as he responded to a fire more than 30 miles from our district.
Your chief should have let him take his lumps like an adult.
He took his lumps, despite the chief bailing him out.

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 10:14 pm
by dac1842
Oh he was FBI alright.. Feather Brained Idiot..

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 10:44 pm
by Jasonw560
I had an EMT badge issued to me at the last place I worked in the field. It's in the bottom of one of my drawers, useless, and a waste of money.

I used to see the "woo-woos" all the time. I even worked with a couple.

The EMTs who were also VFFs would be the ones (as Basics) would have the trauma shears in their pants, tourniquets tied to them, and $100 stethoscopes around their necks. Also drove the jacked-up personal trucks with the Maltese cross or Star of Life on their windows, and all the sirens and lights they could afford. Not to mention the scanners hung on their belt loops.

These were also the ones us paramedics would LOVE to take down a peg or three on calls. In front of their colleagues. Or their chief.

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 1:27 pm
by ffemt300
Jasonw560 wrote:I had an EMT badge issued to me at the last place I worked in the field. It's in the bottom of one of my drawers, useless, and a waste of money.

I used to see the "woo-woos" all the time. I even worked with a couple.

The EMTs who were also VFFs would be the ones (as Basics) would have the trauma shears in their pants, tourniquets tied to them, and $100 stethoscopes around their necks. Also drove the jacked-up personal trucks with the Maltese cross or Star of Life on their windows, and all the sirens and lights they could afford. Not to mention the scanners hung on their belt loops.

These were also the ones us paramedics would LOVE to take down a peg or three on calls. In front of their colleagues. Or their chief.
Ahh yes. I know the type.

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:22 pm
by Deltaboy
Gald to see the Idiot off the streets for flashing a badge and pretending to be an FBI agent. :txflag:

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 6:44 am
by alvins
you guys would accually pull over for someone who flashed a badge at you?

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 12:06 pm
by Dragonfighter
Jasonw560 wrote:I had an EMT badge issued to me at the last place I worked in the field. It's in the bottom of one of my drawers, useless, and a waste of money.

I used to see the "woo-woos" all the time. I even worked with a couple.

The EMTs who were also VFFs would be the ones (as Basics) would have the trauma shears in their pants, tourniquets tied to them, and $100 stethoscopes around their necks. Also drove the jacked-up personal trucks with the Maltese cross or Star of Life on their windows, and all the sirens and lights they could afford. Not to mention the scanners hung on their belt loops.

These were also the ones us paramedics would LOVE to take down a peg or three on calls. In front of their colleagues. Or their chief.
I had made a habit of utilizing identified volunteers as much as practical as I was one before I went career. These were ones that demonstrated a sober, non-glory seeking attitude and if they had any hesitation or displayed any incompetence, they were out. This "practice" of mine ceased when we had a really bad crash on the DNT early one morning. An EMT from a private ambulance company identified himself and asked if he could be of assistance. We were short handed and had called for two extra rigs and a Shift Duty Officer, the firefighters were busy extricating so we triaged and picked the worst one we had access to. This young lady had an obvious femur fracture and had lost distal pulses. I tossed the "EMT" a c-collar which he applied correctly and he helped myself, my partner and another firefighter get her on a back board...so far so good. My partner and I started with the traction splint, we get her on the stretcher and load her up. As I climb in this yahoo decides he is following into the rig. I say, "Thanks for your help but we've got it now." He gets insistent and starts whining that he is helping and can't leave the patient. As he is doing this I catch the eye of a DPS officer and nod to this guy and the next thing he knows he is in cuffs and arrested for interfering with emergency personnel...all the time yelling he was helping. Lesson learned, I never allowed anyone not on the department or PD to help again. :oops:

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 10:53 pm
by Jasonw560
Dragonfighter wrote:
Jasonw560 wrote:I had an EMT badge issued to me at the last place I worked in the field. It's in the bottom of one of my drawers, useless, and a waste of money.

I used to see the "woo-woos" all the time. I even worked with a couple.

The EMTs who were also VFFs would be the ones (as Basics) would have the trauma shears in their pants, tourniquets tied to them, and $100 stethoscopes around their necks. Also drove the jacked-up personal trucks with the Maltese cross or Star of Life on their windows, and all the sirens and lights they could afford. Not to mention the scanners hung on their belt loops.

These were also the ones us paramedics would LOVE to take down a peg or three on calls. In front of their colleagues. Or their chief.
I had made a habit of utilizing identified volunteers as much as practical as I was one before I went career. These were ones that demonstrated a sober, non-glory seeking attitude and if they had any hesitation or displayed any incompetence, they were out. This "practice" of mine ceased when we had a really bad crash on the DNT early one morning. An EMT from a private ambulance company identified himself and asked if he could be of assistance. We were short handed and had called for two extra rigs and a Shift Duty Officer, the firefighters were busy extricating so we triaged and picked the worst one we had access to. This young lady had an obvious femur fracture and had lost distal pulses. I tossed the "EMT" a c-collar which he applied correctly and he helped myself, my partner and another firefighter get her on a back board...so far so good. My partner and I started with the traction splint, we get her on the stretcher and load her up. As I climb in this yahoo decides he is following into the rig. I say, "Thanks for your help but we've got it now." He gets insistent and starts whining that he is helping and can't leave the patient. As he is doing this I catch the eye of a DPS officer and nod to this guy and the next thing he knows he is in cuffs and arrested for interfering with emergency personnel...all the time yelling he was helping. Lesson learned, I never allowed anyone not on the department or PD to help again. :oops:
Oh, crud....that was YOU??? :smilelol5:

Just teasing. About a year ago, I was with my family when this car ran a red light and T Boned a mini-van in front of us. I helped as best as I could, but when it was time, I NEVER insisted on going. I payed attention during the "scope of practice" part of my EMT course.

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 8:03 am
by jimlongley
Jasonw560 wrote:I had an EMT badge issued to me at the last place I worked in the field. It's in the bottom of one of my drawers, useless, and a waste of money.

I used to see the "woo-woos" all the time. I even worked with a couple.

The EMTs who were also VFFs would be the ones (as Basics) would have the trauma shears in their pants, tourniquets tied to them, and $100 stethoscopes around their necks. Also drove the jacked-up personal trucks with the Maltese cross or Star of Life on their windows, and all the sirens and lights they could afford. Not to mention the scanners hung on their belt loops.

These were also the ones us paramedics would LOVE to take down a peg or three on calls. In front of their colleagues. Or their chief.
Yeah, I remember your type, "take them down a peg" just because they were volunteers. Well, thank you for your support and appreciation.

BTW, weren't you the one that told the guy in the little fancy sports car that he had a broken neck and he was going to die, so he had better make his peace with the Lord? This while the guy was bleeding to death from the compound fracture of his humerus which you were busy ignoring? He survived because I crawled in the back seat of the car and applied pressure to the artery while real professionals extricated him, after you walked away having applied the cervical collar.

Or were you the one who was so busy doing CPR on the young lady with the head injury that you failed to notice the blood pumping out of her head every time you did a compression? I could only stand by and watch in dismay because the scene was already in the hands of professionals and it would be intrusive if I jumped in.

Or, Or, Or?

My point being that such things were not limited to volunteers and over the years I knew just as many "paid professionals" who displayed less than professional traits as I did volunteers, and in my experience those who decided the volunteers needed to be "taken down a peg" were usually less competent and had a chip on their shoulders and were spoiling for a fight.

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:57 am
by The Annoyed Man
Jasonw560 wrote:I had an EMT badge issued to me at the last place I worked in the field. It's in the bottom of one of my drawers, useless, and a waste of money.

I used to see the "woo-woos" all the time. I even worked with a couple.

The EMTs who were also VFFs would be the ones (as Basics) would have the trauma shears in their pants, tourniquets tied to them, and $100 stethoscopes around their necks. Also drove the jacked-up personal trucks with the Maltese cross or Star of Life on their windows, and all the sirens and lights they could afford. Not to mention the scanners hung on their belt loops.

These were also the ones us paramedics would LOVE to take down a peg or three on calls. In front of their colleagues. Or their chief.
Wow, that's quite a superiority complex you've got there. I was never a paid in-the-field first responder, but I did work for pay in the ER of a large regional level I trauma center for a number of years, and I knew a little something about rendering ELS even in the field. During the years that I worked in that hospital, I was the first one on scene several times involving grisly motorcycle and car accidents on a popular mountain road where paramedic care was not always quickly available. I know of at least two people who literally owe their lives to my efforts—not that this makes me any better than anyone else. But I'm with Jim here. If you had the time to try and deliberately humiliate a volunteer, particularly in front of his peers and superiors, then I question whether you were giving the patient 100% of your effort. And if you actually used the time which you made available by not giving the patient 100% of your focus in order to humiliate a volunteer in front of his peers and superiors, then I question whether or not you possess the interpersonal skills to be a good paramedic. I would have been worried for what care the patient wasn't getting if you had time to play at social engineer. Furthermore, if he was there with his peers and superiors then he had every right to be there. If he is behaving inapproriately, take it up with his superior—who is the only one who has the right to reprimand him. If not, then let it go. It is unprofessional when competing agencies cannot work out their differences in the field without resorting to being a jerk. Public humiliation just makes you look like a bully, and it doesn't do a single thing to help your patient, who properly should be commanding all of your attention. You don't get paid to be a social cop or the arbiter of whether or not volunteer first responders have any value; you get paid to be a paramedic.

BE one.

:roll:

And oh, by the way, I never tried to climb into an RA or helicopter where I wasn't invited, and I never tried to manage a case once the paramedics showed up, although I did volunteer to help, even in the menial things like lifting a gurney into the RA or fetching something for the paramedic. Those guys were always classy and never abusive. Heck, I knew half of them anyway since they were transporting to the same trauma center where I worked. Still, there's no reason for nastiness, and the help I gave them was appreciated. Nobody ever tried to pull a superiority attitude with me. It simply wasn't called for or ncessary, and they always had other fish to fry.....like the patient's health.

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 1:21 pm
by Dragonfighter
The Annoyed Man wrote:<SNIP>

And oh, by the way, I never tried to climb into an RA or helicopter where I wasn't invited, and I never tried to manage a case once the paramedics showed up, although I did volunteer to help, even in the menial things like lifting a gurney into the RA or fetching something for the paramedic. Those guys were always classy and never abusive. Heck, I knew half of them anyway since they were transporting to the same trauma center where I worked. Still, there's no reason for nastiness, and the help I gave them was appreciated. Nobody ever tried to pull a superiority attitude with me. It simply wasn't called for or ncessary, and they always had other fish to fry.....like the patient's health.

Here, here. I started as a volunteer and that is why I always tried to utilize them or off duty medics if they were at seen. But as I said, that time on the DNT almost blew up on me, so I curtailed that practice. There were times after that someone might be securing a c-spine when we rolled up, that I would ask them to hold what they had until I got the collar(s) and board. Then I would thank them and some would hang around and watch but I never had that particular scenario repeat itself.

Likewise, there was a bad one on I-35 a number of years back up towards Denton, they were short handed and I displayed my credentials to the Sheriff and he waved me in. The FFs on scene had one medic and when I tried to identify myself a pair of gloves hit me in the face. That time the chief told me, as one of to PMs on scene that I'd need to go to the hospital (you can't reduce level of care in Texas) but as I was loading up, their additional equipment showed and an additional PM was there. I let him have it but treated four other people before the chief released me.

We had been returning from vacation and after we got home from that little deal and unloaded I ran in to get some Braum's. People were staring and looking at me like I had crawled from under a rock. I was thinking, "I know I've been on the road but c'mon...I can't look that bad." Well, as I went out to the car and was fiddling for my keys, I noticed that both legs of my white cargo pants (YES, cargo pants...it was the 90's) were caked in blood and brain matter from the knees down.

:oops:

BTW, I DO carry my badge as if I need to offer assist, it is more easily read and recognized than an ID card.

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 7:35 pm
by Jasonw560
I meant we would take them down a peg or two because they thought they knew everything. Fresh out of school, cocky as all get out. Not because they were VFFs. And they were a VERY small minority.

I'll be the first one to admit that our job would have been much harder without First Responders. Most of the VFFs (99.9% of them) were fantastic, catching things we missed, knowing what we needed before we even knew what we needed. Hell, there were many that were better than some of the basics that worked at the compnany. They would jump in the back of the ambulance to help do CPR for 30 minutes. I can't tell you how many times the patients were already packaged and ready to go with a great history already obtained. We just had to load and go. There were MVAs where no way we could have gotten the patient out safely without them. After every call they helped with, I thanked them for their help. Indispensible part of the system.



It wasn't my intention to step on toes. Maybe I worded it wrong. I apologize.

Re: Had a guy flash a badge at me...wasnt police.

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:50 pm
by jimlongley
Jasonw560 wrote:I meant we would take them down a peg or two because they thought they knew everything. Fresh out of school, cocky as all get out. Not because they were VFFs. And they were a VERY small minority.

I'll be the first one to admit that our job would have been much harder without First Responders. Most of the VFFs (99.9% of them) were fantastic, catching things we missed, knowing what we needed before we even knew what we needed. heck, there were many that were better than some of the basics that worked at the compnany. They would jump in the back of the ambulance to help do CPR for 30 minutes. I can't tell you how many times the patients were already packaged and ready to go with a great history already obtained. We just had to load and go. There were MVAs where no way we could have gotten the patient out safely without them. After every call they helped with, I thanked them for their help. Indispensible part of the system.



It wasn't my intention to step on toes. Maybe I worded it wrong. I apologize.
"The EMTs who were also VFF . . ." sure sounded more like a blanket condemnation than a select few, but apology accepted.

I was EMT #72 in upstate NY.