Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:22:17 UTC

If we're truly going to re-invent EMS, the people we'll need to influence are the public policy makers.

Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:33:11 UTC

Michelle Smith was struck and killed by a paraplegic who was operating his car's pedals with a stick

Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:34:45 UTC

ABC-7PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — A 9-1-1 dispatcher is on administrative leave, accused of mishandling a call that ended in a woman's death. Police say the dispatcher waited 14 minutes to send an ambulance to a 91-year-old woman who went into cardiac arrest."What we do know is there was a 14-minute delay in responding, sending an ambulance to the scene," said Punta Gorda Police Chief Albert ...

Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:24:51 UTC

By James Tyree The Oklahoman NORMAN, Okla. — Norman paramedics Mike Maddry and Randy Pickard, who will receive Star of Life awards tonight from the Oklahoma Ambulance Association, defy the odds every time they report to work. Robert Frantz, medical director of Norman EMSStat, said at this year's Norman Public Safety Banquet that the average career span for a paramedic is seven years. Yet Pickard ...

Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:18:13 UTC

By Marisa Donelan The Sentinel & Enterprise LEOMINSTER, Mass. — Something about the man's face made Leominster native Bernie Gardner turn his car around on his way to work, and ask whether he needed help.Gardner, 51, saw Suffield, Conn., resident Kelly Neale on his hands and knees on Neale's front lawn in early October, and initially thought Neale was playing with his 80-pound German shepherd ...

Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:09:15 UTC

By Darren Garnick The Boston Herald BOSTON — Derek Rappaport meets his clients on the worst days of their lives.It's a situation the career paramedic has experienced countless times from the back of a Boston ambulance and a Duxbury fire truck. But now he's operating under the additional stress of culture shock.Imagine you tumble down a canyon in the Andes Mountains or have a heart attack in the ...

Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:31:49 UTC

By Matt Richtel The International Herald Tribune NEW YORK — Theirs are the most wired vehicles on the road, with dashboard computers, sophisticated radios, navigation systems and cellphones.While such gadgets are widely seen as distractions to be avoided behind the wheel, hundreds of thousands of drivers — police officers and paramedics — are required to use them, sometimes at high ...

Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:41:24 UTC

Patient says she was only transported and put in intensive care unit after she called 911 a second time

Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:40:31 UTC

By Michael Warren The Associated PressSANTIAGO, Chile — President Michelle Bachelet leaves office Thursday with a chunk of her country in ruins - and her popularity in the clouds.Despite complaints that aid was slow to reach the hungry and homeless, experts say Chile's response to one of history's most powerful earthquakes has been a model for disaster recovery.At first, the problems were all ...

Posted on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:35:25 UTC

By Thomas Watkins The Associated PressNORWALK, Calif. — A 7-year-old boy who called 911 from a locked bathroom while armed robbers threatened his parents hugged and high-fived on Wednesday the sheriff's dispatcher who took his call.The boy, identified only as Carlos, told reporters at a news conference that he remained calm during the ordeal because his mother used to make him practice dialing ...