Trauma and Chest Pain

Chest pain and trauma were the themes for my most recent shift in the ER. I worked in urgent care on my most recent shift. I like working in urgent care because it is very hands on. Our urgent care center is where we send our less serious patients after triage. At our hospital, this is where you go if you come in with the flu, or an injury that won’t require stitches or serious pain medication.

When you are the EMT in urgent care you get to wrap a lot of ankles, knees and wrists. The other benefit to working as the tech in urgent care is that you are on the trauma team. You get alerted and participate whenever there is a trauma alert. I worked on three significant trauma cases. Two of those I met on the helicopter pad.




I participated in the decon of a man who had been burned with sulfuric acid. Luckily his burns were from the knees down and his airway wasn’t compromised. I hosed him down for close to 40 minutes while baking soda was used to neutralize the sulfuric acid. This man had my genuine sympathy. He was in so much pain, even after receiving a horse’s dose of morphine and a dose of dilaudid. He has a significant recovery ahead of him.

I helped an orthopedic surgeon set an open ankle fracture. I never had an opportunity in the field to do that. First of all, it was strange to undo the bandaging and splinting I would have done in the field. After sedating the patient, several of us held traction on the leg while the doctor set the ankle. Then we bandaged the open wound and used a fiberglass splint to secure the ankle until the patient went to surgery.

I spent the second half of my day in the chest pain center. Cardiac care is my favorite thing in the world. If trauma was my favorite, I might just stay an EMT. But I truly love cardiac care. That’s the biggest reason I want to get a paramedic license.

Recent Life changes

I’ve experienced a lot of life changes in the last month. That’s why I haven’t posted anything new. I’m married an amazing woman. I moved to a new city, and I’ve been lucky enough to find two new jobs. Like I’ve mentioned before, healthcare is one of the only sectors in the economy that’s growing. Even if you don’t want to be an EMT, you can find a job in healthcare.

Let me say how blessed I feel having a full and a part time job in this economy. I’m so thankful. My full time job is great! It’s something I’ve never done before. I’m working as an ER tech. For all intents and purposes, I’m an EMT in the ER.




This ER is set up in several departments. It is a very well run, well organized ER. It has a chest pain center, a woman’s center, a pediatric ER, a major care center (this is like your standard ER), and an urgent care center (this is where you send people who come in with back pain or the flu). It is also a level one trauma center. On any given day, I might be working in any of these centers in the ER. This job offers me a lot of variety. It also allows me to see a lot more patients in a day than I would working on the ambulance. This job will really help me practice my skills as I prepare to return to school and get my paramedic license.

Good trauma is really a rarity on the ambulance. I’m not saying it never happens. I’m just saying it doesn’t happen every day, or even every week. A lot of people who are considering a job as an EMT or paramedic might have the idea that they are going to see nothing but car wrecks and gunshot wounds. It’s just not true. When you work a 24hr shift you will more than likely go too a couple of MVAs (motor vehicle accidents). More often than not, there are no injuries, or light injuries. Depending on where you work, months might pass without seeing a GSW (gun shot wound) or a stab wound. It’s really not as sexy as it seems.

The majority of your calls will be medical in nature. Chest pain, difficulty breathing, seizure, or diabetes related. You’ll even get calls for back pain, leg pain etc. To be totally truthful, many of the people you see would probably been able to take a taxi to the doctor instead of an ambulance to the ER.

Don’t let that discourage you. I love being an EMT. I love working on the ambulance. You just have to accept the reality of what it really is as opposed to what you think it might be, or what you’ve seen on tv.

EMT Stories

EMT stories are sometimes hard to find. Good EMT stories are even harder to find. A lot of the people who visit my site are looking for a good story. I’m currently working on some, but sadly, I have to check and double check them to make sure I don’t violate HIPPA. I’m all for protecting my patients’ privacy, but I hate the fact that we live in such a litigious society.

Speaking of lawyers…. I recently found out that one of our local private EMS companies is owned by a trial lawyer. Conflict of interest? I think so. This guy doesn’t even have to be an ambulance chaser… He owns the joint.




Well, here are some places you can get some good ambulance stories while I work on more of mine. First of all, check out http://www.ems1.com/ems-blogs/ This is a great website that has a lot of information for EMTs and paramedics. This link goes to their blog listing, but be sure to check out the whole site. You’ll want to take a look at it if you are in school as well, so you can get a feel for what’s going on out there. This site is totally free.

Now I’d like to mention a couple of great books. I would recommend these to anyone looking for ambulance stories. If you are thinking about EMT training but you’re still not sure, these books could help you decide if this career is right for you.

I’d like to recommend "EMS: The Job of Your Life ." Here is a book that touches on the daily work of EMTs and paramedics in a way that is honest and easy to understand. This book is a great read for the general public, and as an eye opener for those who are considering EMS as a career. If you are a seasoned professional, this book will bring back memories.

Next I’d like to tell you about "En Route: A Paramedic's Stories of Life, Death, and Everything in Between ." This book is down to Earth and realistic. Reading this will put you behind the eyes of this rural Louisiana paramedic. This book will tell you about saving lives, and watching them slip away. From heart attack to stroke, from car wreck to drunk, this book is hard to put down. You can also check out this author’s blog at http://www.ems1.com/ems-blogs/ It is called A Day In The Life of an Ambulance Driver.

Last but not least… Do you think you want to be an EMT, but you’re not sure if you have the stomach for it? Read “My Ambulance Education: Life and Death on the Streets of the City
.” This book is gritty and graphic. It goes into great detail on the injuries and sickness this EMT saw on the streets of New York. It’s a great read, but it’s not pretty. Of course, life on the ambulance isn’t pretty.
I hope you’ll enjoy these great blogs and books!

Welcome to An Emt’s Blog

Welcome to An Emt’s Blog. It seems like most blogs start off the same lame way. Well, I guess I’m not that much different. I do have a few things to tell you about before I really start blogging. I have several reasons for writing this blog. Many of them you’ve heard before.

The first reason is a selfish one. I need an outlet to express some of the things I go through. I also think there is a lot of humor out there people will enjoy. I know many of you are in school or are considering EMT training. You might find the stories here helpful so you can know what to expect, or use them in a training scenario.

In the future I will provide free EMT training scenarios on this site. These will help you practice and study in your emergency medical technician classes.

Now for a disclaimer. A career in EMS provides a lot to write about, but I do need to be careful. To protect myself and my patients, I will be leaving out a lot of details. I will not be exposing my identity. I will not be giving details of the location where I work, or the company/county I work for. I will provide no details of a patient’s identity. Many of the stories I tell here will be fictionalized. I will present them as fiction or “mostly fiction” so I can protect myself and them. All stories will have a disclaimer at the top expressing this.

Why am I telling you this? There is a federal law called HIPPA. One of the purposes of HIPPA is to protect a patient’s privacy. I will tell you that I consider myself a big patient advocate. Even without HIPPA I would do my best to protect patient privacy. Click Here to learn more about HIPPA.

Now that I have all of this out of the way the rest of my posts can be fun and or educational. I hope you enjoy it.

Are you in an EMT training course? Here are some Online EMT and Paramedic Practice Tests

Do you want to be an EMT? Click Here to find an EMT training course near you.