Tag Archives: emergency
Secrets the ER Staff Won’t Tell You
1. “Denial kills people. Yes, you could be having a heart attack or a stroke, even if you’re only 39 or in good shape or a vegetarian.” —Dennis Rowe, paramedic, Knoxville, Tennessee
2. “Don’t call us for a broken finger. If there’s no real emergency, you’ve just clogged up the system.” —Arthur Hsieh, paramedic, San Francisco
3. “Your emergency isn’t necessarily our emergency. In my region, we send an ambulance for all calls, but we don’t use the sirens unless it’s Code 1, which means someone’s bleeding or having chest pain or shortness of breath—basically things you could die from in the next five minutes.” —Connie Meyer, RN, paramedic, Olathe, Kansas
4. “Don’t hang up after you tell us what’s wrong. The operator may be trained to give you instructions in CPR and other medical procedures that could be lifesaving.” —Dennis Rowe, paramedic
5. “In a true emergency, we’re not going to drive 30 miles to the hospital that takes your insurance when there’s a good one two miles away. But if there are many ERs near you, know which one you prefer because we might ask. Find out where your doctor practices, where the nearest trauma center is, and which hospital has the best cardiac center.” —Connie Meyer, RN, paramedic
6. “In most cases, we can’t transport someone who doesn’t want to go. Uncle Eddie may be as sick as a dog, but if he says he doesn’t want to get in an ambulance, we need to respect his wishes.” —Arthur Hsieh, paramedic
7. “If the patient is stable, and 97 percent are, there’s no reason to drive 60 miles an hour on city streets. Have you ever tried to put an IV into someone’s arm in the back of a speeding ambulance?” —Don Lundy, paramedic
8. “We hate it too! But don’t be angry at us. If you’re waiting, there’s one reason: We’re out of beds.” —Jeri Babb, RN, Des Moines, Iowa
9. “The busiest time starts around 6 p.m.; Mondays are the worst. We’re slowest from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m. If you have a choice, come early in the morning.” —Denise King, RN, Riverside, California
10. “People who are vomiting their guts out get a room more quickly. The admitting clerks don’t like vomit in the waiting area.” —Joan Somes, RN, St. Paul, Minnesota
11. “We like the rapid turnover, so we don’t want you stuck in the ER while you’re waiting to be admitted. If we wanted to care for the same patient for hours at a time, we would work on an in-patient ward.” —Denise King, RN
12. “Never tell an ER nurse, ‘All I have is this cut on my finger. Why can’t someone just look at it?’ That just shows you have no idea how the ER actually works.” —Dana Hawkins, RN, Tulsa, Oklahoma
13. “Don’t blame ER overcrowding on the uninsured. They account for 17 percent of visits. The underlying problem is hospital overcrowding in general.” —Leora Horwitz, MD, assistant professor, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
14. “We don’t have time to read the background on every patient. So if you’re having stomach pain, and you’ve had your appendix or gallbladder removed, tell us so we don’t go on a wild-goose chase.” —Dana Hawkins, RN
15. “Be honest about whatever happened. Don’t be a hypochondriac, and don’t answer yes to every question. It will only screw up your care.” —Emergency medical technician, Middlebury, Vermont
16. “I once had a patient say he didn’t take any medications. Later he mentioned he was diabetic. I looked at him and asked, ‘Do you take insulin?’ He said yes. Well, that’s medicine.” —Allen Roberts, MD
17. “If you haven’t had your child immunized, admit it. That’s important information for us to have.” —Marianne Gausche-Hill, MD, emergency physician, Torrance, California
18. “Some ERs don’t allow more than one visitor per patient for a reason: You get in our way. Nominate someone to be in the ER and have that person relay information to everyone else in the waiting room.” —Donna Mason, RN, ER consultant, Nashville, Tennessee
19. “Tell us about any herbal treatments you’re taking. I treated a young man who had put aseptil rojo on some abrasions. It turned his urine red—but we didn’t find the cause until after we’d done a lengthy workup.” —Marianne Gausche-Hill, MD
20. “It’s not uncommon that I get a patient who refuses to have the tests I recommend. I had a volatile conversation with a family who didn’t believe in medicine. What did you expect in the ER?” —Joan Shook, MD, emergency physician, Houston, Texas
How to Jump Start a Vehicle
A dead battery can be a bummer. It can also be a dangerous job jump starting it. Some do it differently. This is how I do it in 12 simple steps.
What you need
- Jumper cables
- Another car with good battery
Steps
Step 1: Position cars
- Position the working car as close to the “dead” car as possible. Ideally, that means hood to hood with a few inches in between.
Step 2: Turn off both engines
- Turn off both engines.
- Tip: Never light a match or smoke near a car battery. The battery contains hydrogen, a highly explosive gas.
Step 3: Open hoods of both cars
- Open the hoods of both cars.
Step 4: Identify terminals on car batteries
- Identify the positive and negatives terminals on both car batteries. They will be labeled with a plus sign for positive and minus sign for negative.
Step 5: Connect red clamp to dead battery
- Connect one of the red clamps on the jumper cables to the positive terminal on the dead battery.
Step 6: Connect red clamp to working battery
- Connect the other red clamp to the positive terminal on the working car’s battery.
Step 7: Connect black clamp to working battery
- Connect the black clamp on the jumper cables to the negative terminal on the working car’s battery.
Step 8: Clip black clamp to dead car’s engine
- Clip the remaining black clamp to a clean metal part of the dead car’s engine to ground the circuit.
Step 9: Attempt to start dead car
- Attempt to start the dead car. If it doesn’t start, disconnect the jumper cables in the reverse order: first the black clamps (starting with the once-dead car), then the red clamps (starting with the working car). Start the engine of the working car and allow it to run for about five minutes to boost its battery.
Step 10: Attempt to start again
- Turn off the working car and again attempt to jump the dead car by connecting the cables—in order—and starting the ignition.
Step 11: Disconnect jumper cables
- Once the car starts, disconnect all the clamps in the reverse order.
Step 12: Charge battery or go to repair shop
Simple as that. God luck!
Here’s How:
Tips:
- Be careful not to cause a spark. This could make a battery blow up.
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