sNOw Emergency

Living in MN has many benefits like cold and snow (yes i Love them both). But it can pose a challenge if and when we need to tag a hydrant. As you can see with all the hydrants we have across Eden Prairie we need each resident to do an occassional 'dig' following a snow storm.

Text Book vs. Real Life

NREMT

Dec 23 I took the National Registry for EMT. Ending up having to drive nearly a 100 miles down to Rochester in order to take the test (before the holidays). I was impressed at how ‘secure’ they are with this test. Not only do you need to provide two forms of photo id but they take your photo and require a finger print scan to enter the testing room.

I thought I was prepared. Pass every test. Studied. But this test was nothing like the question I used to prepare. 50 questions in I was starting to wonder if I was acing the test or failing it miserably. After 65 questions I done. It kicked me out. This is a test that could take 60 or 150+ questions based on how well you answer. The good news is I must have done well…still don’t know my score but I know I passed.

Later that same day I was able to respond to a medical that came across with a female seizing with prior brain surgery. It was a good thing I went with a few experienced Fire EMT’s. I went in totally focused on ensuring an airway and Oxygen but quickly realized there is the whole human touch that was just as important for the patient and the family. Like everything else there is the text book execution and then there is real life execution…..the key is to know when to use and balance the two.

NREMT

NREMT

15 weeks. 120+ hours of classroom and countless hours of study. I am glad to say I am now down with my EMT-B. Took and passed my national test on Dec 23. No idea how well I did (yet) but I did pass. Operator class is next!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas day and doing a standby at station #4. We are getting hammered with snow. 8 inches yesterday. 4 inches this morning. And the heavy wet stuff is still to come. This is pseudo duty crew where we are staffing six people in each district. Two for medicals and four for engine. Each crew is on for 3 hour shifts. Before the duty crew started Yesterday we had a car fire at 6am. Good way to start the day but it has been pretty quiet since. We’ll see what the next 6 hours bring.

Jingle Jingle Jingle.

Not the sound of change. This weekend the EPFD helped out the Salvation Army by ringing bells in front of Cub Foods. We were in full turnout gear which definitely got the attention of the shoppers but also kept us warm on a mild December day. This was my first time ringing bells for the SA and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised not only at the generosity of people but also their sincere appreciate for the fire department.

I was expecting people to drop some spare change in the bucket but instead 8 of every 10 person who walked by dug into their wallets to pull out a dollar or two. In fact we saw people donate $5, $10, $20 and even a $100. I have no idea what we raised but 9 hours of holiday grocery shoppers….I am sure it will help a lot of people in need.

This photo was taken after the first 10 minutes. Keep in mind we did not have the official collection bin or bells so we made due with an ‘ash’ bucket. Happy Holidays!

King Airway

Tonight's training was all around airway management for the unresponsive patient. The device looks a bit invasive which is why it only goes into a patient who is unconscious. The King Airway is one of many devices that is administered by EMT responders. After sliding it down into the esophagus the device has two balloons that are inflated as it is slowly backed up. The balloons secure the device and insures air is forced into the lungs.

EMT Class is nearly over. One more practice night, practical test, college test and then the national registry test.

In a nutshell

I am thinking of developing an educational program for the city of Eden Prairie to help generate interest and involvement between the schools and the fire stations. Every year we get a chance to spend 30-45 minutes in a classroom lecturing and demonstrating the dangers of fire and how to be safe. This is critical part to the education process. It also helps strengthen the role/bond between the department, fire fighters and the community. You hope the kids remember and apply the learning.
But to be certain, why not give the little ones a little motivation. My concept is to build or license (have someone build) a website that allows kids to select an age appropriate curriculum. Then proceed to a simple test to check their comprehension. Each curriculum allows the student to print a certificate of achievement. Each certificate can be brought in to a fire station to get an age appropriate gift (think coloring book, pencil, etc…) This gives the child an incentive to meet fire fighters and tour a station.

That is it….in a nutshell.

Sunday Morning Call

This morning we had a 6am page for a house fire. Page came across that owner came home to find fire inside the house. My first thought was some holiday lights gone bad. Upon arrival we were the 3rd Engine and proceeded to the deck. The home had some visible smoke rolling from the front door. We were asked to enter on the lower level “C” Side. There was moderate smoke from the basement with the fire up in the ceiling and floor joists. The fire was under control quickly after pulling some ceilings. We were back at the station cleaning gear by 8:30. Not a bad start to a Sunday morning.

Smoke Alarms—Do They Wake Children?

Another Article by the MN Fire Marshal Dept (by Becki W.)

I was presented with a challenge this month. I was asked to investigate why there are all these news stories out there about how children don’t wake up when the traditional smoke alarm goes off, but at the same time, we don’t see personalized smoke detectors being marketed widely. If you haven’t seen the news stories, of which there are many, here are a few:

News story from Hawaii: http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/1758/

News story from Wisconsin: http://www.channel3000.com/video/9143807/index.html

Follow-up report from Wisconsin: http://www.channel3000.com/money/1797516/detail.html

There was also a comprehensive study done by Pediatrics—the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics: Comparison of a Personalized Parent Voice Smoke Alarm With a Conventional Residential Tone Smoke Alarm for Awakening Children
Gary A. Smith, MD, DrPH, Mark Splaingard, MD, John R. Hayes, PhDa and Huiyun Xiang, MD, PhD, MPH PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 4 October 2006, pp. 1623-1632 (doi:10.1542/peds.2006-0125) http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/4/1623

In a story by WISC-TV in Madison, Wisconsin, (http://www.channel3000.com/family/9150907/detail.html) Dr. Kathryn Middleton, a sleep medicine specialist for Dean Health System/St. Mary's Hospital, said that there are physiological reasons why kids may not respond to loud noises while sleeping.

"You really cannot count on a kid of any young age awakening knowing what to do," Middleton told WISC-TV, “Children have more deep-sleep than adults, the sleep that's difficult to awaken from.” A child may spend 30 percent, a third of their night, in deep sleep. “Whereas an adult could often be more like 10 percent," said Dr. Middleton.

St. Mary's Hospital Sleep Lab Technician Dave Sprecher said kids sleep soundly because they're growing."The body releases more growth hormones in deep sleep than it does during the entire day," said Sprecher. "Kids do the majority of their growing at night when they're sleeping." Studies show that even when children wake during a deep, or “slow-wave” sleep, they are often not alert.

"You wouldn't be surprised if a person would awaken from slow-wave sleep, and not know where they were and not know to get out of the smoke," said Dr. Middleton.

As a fire educator and the mother of a small child, these stories shock and frighten me! I tried to find personalized smoke alarms on the market, but was able to track down only one company that offers these alarms — Kid Smart Talking Smoke Alarms: http://www.redi-exit.com/talking-smoke-alarms.html. They offer alarms for approximately $40. The alarms are also available on other sites where they average $60-$80.

Many other major companies offer a “talking smoke alarm,” but these are all pre-recorded messages that cannot be changed. I could find no studies that tested the effectiveness of the pre-recorded message alarms.

One way to help kids wake up to the sound of the smoke alarm is to practice your fire drill often — including the middle of the night. Train children to hear, understand, and react to the alarm, and teach them precisely how to react.

Test your smoke alarms often; make sure you hold the test button down long enough to set off all the connected alarms in the house. Make sure that everyone can hear the alarms behind closed doors where family members might be sleeping.

ER Shadow

Friday morning I spent for hours shadowing an EMT Tech at Methodist Hospital. I needed five patient contacts which was no problem so we were fairly selective avoiding the H1N1 patients and kept an eye for some trauma….no luck.

First patient was a COPD with a chief complaint of difficulty breathing. Other patients included a few other respiration related issues, chest pains and a bowel obstruction. I did get a see two catheter procedures as they looked for coronary lesions and blockages. Very impressive to see how quickly a catheter can be pushed up the femoral artery all the way up to the R. Atrium.

I did miss a eviscerated bowel by fifteen minutes….that would have been something to see…..okay, after googleing “eviscerated bowel” maybe I am glad I missed it.

Great Message

The following post (and few more to come) are published by the MN State Fire Marshal Office and more specifically, fellow fire fighter, LT 7 and now Deputy Fire Marshal Public Educator...Becki W.

Becki publishes a newsletters with some great content.

Children Playing with Fire

NFPA just rereleased their latest study on Children Playing with Fire. The report summary stated that in 2006, an estimated 14,500 child-playing structure fires were reported to U.S. municipal fire departments, with associated losses of 130 civilian deaths, 810 civilian injuries, and $328 million in direct damage. Fifty-eight percent of these structure fires took place in the home. Most child-playing home fires begin with lighters or matches. The items ignited by home fire-play are principally mattresses, bedding, or clothing followed by magazines, newspaper, or writing paper, and upholstered furniture or vehicle seats. Nineteen percent of people who start reported fires by playing are four year olds. Nearly two thirds (63%) of all fatal victims of fires by play are children five years old and younger. There is a fact sheet available at nfpa.org.
Source: Children Playing with Fire, by Jennifer Flynn, NFPA, Quincy, MA, January 2009

A downloadable factsheet is available at: www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/ChildrenFactSheet.pdf

One video worth watching.

Fire + Oil + Water = Explosive Fireball This is a great example that was demonstrated at the EPFD Open House this weekend. The ingredients are simple…..heat (stove top) a pan of hot oil (think deep frying) and water. Stove top cooking oil can easily catch fire and sustain a flame. When this happens the best way to extinguish the fire is to remove the oxygen by placing a lid on pan. Pouring water into the oil fire will …..well cause a giant fire ball. I may not get this exactly right but water vaporizes (steam) around 212 degrees. The oil is likely at 500 degrees. When the water hits the 500 degree oil it quickly converts to gas. As it expands into gas the oil droplets adhere to the water molecules and as the steam rises (water), so does the fire-based oil and there you have it…..a huge and dangerous fire ball.

EPFD Open House

EPFD (and EPPD) hosted their annual Open House yesterday. Besides a the weather (blanket of snow, wind and 30 degrees) we still had a few thousand people come through! The event would not have been as successful if it were not for all different organizations that provided volunteers (above and beyond EPFD) including CenterPoint Energy, LifeLink Helicopter, HCMC ambulance service, CERT (community emergency response team); MN State Fire Marshall for Sprinkler and Kitchen Fire Demo’s and many more.

I think one of the most exciting parts to the day was for the crowd to see how quickly we actually respond to real incident. During the middle of the day we had a (real) kitchen fire that took half the department (T41, E41 & E21) to respond. It was ‘cool’ for the group to see how quickly we transitioned from public educators to public service. (The good news it the responding squads knocked down the fire before it extended beyond the kitchen.

Great Demonstrations including two car fires & extrications, what happens in a kitchen grease fire when you add water (not good) plus EPPD showing how to properly secure car seats.

Pre Open House plan...

Going into the open house tomorrow morning I thought I would take a stab a setting the plan to see how well it actually come to fruition. I guess being out of the country four consecutive days prior and not attending the final staff meeting did not help but I think it is come together.

11:00 New Crash/Engine 12 – we have a brand spanking new engine that is ‘officially’ going into service at 11:00 as our Mayor cuts the ribbon.
11:15 we’ll demo auto extrication
11:45 we’ll begin to prepare for a vehicle fire. The thick black smoke usually gets the attention of the crowd.
12:30 the EPPD will demo their police dogs
1:30 will be the second auto extrication
2:00 being the final vehicle fire

In between the events there are a number of other demonstrations and things to see & do including:
Kid Photo in gear
Kitchen Fire Demo—what can happen with hot oil/grease fires
Safety Trailer – how smoke behaves in a room
Sprinkler Trailer – How sprinkler systems can help suppress room/content fires.
Technical Rescue – Demo of neighboring technical rescue
Show/Tell:
• LifeLink Helicopter
• HCMC Ambulance
• Technical Rescue Trailer
• Engine
• Tower
• Crash
• Rescue
• Police Car
Plus free treats & goodies including cookies, bars, hotdogs, popcorn, t-shirts and more……

Hopefully it goes like clockwork. Although the weather forecast is calling for high 30’s and snow the crowd might not be as large as years past.

No. 4 Year Olds Allowed

Spent last week entertaining half dozen 4 & 5 year olds at Station #4 for a birthday party. The birthday boy was concerned because when they drove by the station earlier in the week he saw a large sign that read: No. 4 and he thought four-year olds were prohibited from visiting the station.

The good news is he was turning 5 but some of his friends were still 4! Once assured that we would ‘bend’ the rules he as a happy camper.

Although you think 5 year olds would be excited they were a little intimidated at first. But after donning some gear, climbing on the trucks and throwing a little water they felt much better.

TLA…..not during EMT Class

EMT Week 3 (or four)....

Three Letter Acronyms are the least of my concerns during EMT training. The entire course is littered with MLA (Multi-Letter Acronyms) which are actually very helpful in assessing patients and performing treatment.

Lets start with the simple one:

• PPE: Personal Protective Equipment
• ABC: Airway, Breathing, Circulation
• AVPU: Alert, Vocal, Painful, Unresponsive
• DCAP-BTLS: Deformity, Contusion, Abrasion, Puncture/Penetration, Bruising, Tenderness, Laceration & Swelling
• SAMPLE: Symptoms, Allergy, Medicines, Pertinent History, Last oral intake, events leading up
• OPQRST: Onset, Provokes, Quality, Radiation, Severity & Time

That is only the first few chapters of training. So far we have managed trauma and medical assessment, airway management, vitals, scene size up and lifting.

Great class.

Time to Start Blogging EMT

EMT Training

Two weeks in and we finally started some hands on training. The first few classes have focused on the physiology & anatomy. I enjoyed back in high school and still find interesting. I think I’ll experience more medical/rescue calls than I will fire calls during my time in Eden Prairie so I am very motivated to learn it and perform it well.

Hands On tonight is not quite the same as the fire department but still very interesting.
Tonight we focused on three stations:

Chair Stair- a uniquely designed chair to transport people up/down stairs to an ambulance/stretcher. This device will certainly save backs and make life easier for patients and EMT’s.

Stretcher Operations – Operating a stretcher is more than pushing a wheeled cart from door to ambulance. It looks simple (and it is) but getting some hands on experience in lowering, raising and moving in/out of an ambulance certainly helps.

And finally, we did airway management. O2 Operations; oropharyngeal & nasopharyngeal airway; suction and artificial respiration with a Bag Valve Mask.

EMT ....

In honor of pursing my EMT license I have decided to rewrite the old classic “Dry Bones”

The Phalanges connected to the Metatarsals, The Metatarsals connected to the Tarsals,

The Tarsales, connected to the Tibia, Tibia connected to the Patella, The Patella connected to the Femur,

The Femur connected to the Pelvis, the Pelvis, connected to the Coccyx/Sacrum, Lumbar, Thoracic, Cervical

The Cervical connected to the Cranium

Oh hear the word of the Lord!