Life

I always want to blog, but when I sit down in front of the computer, I manage to do everything BUT write the posts that are circulating in my head. I think many of us have these problems.

I find myself stuck in a rut right now. I’m honestly not sure where I want to go in life right now, so I’m comfortable maintaining my current existence. I’m looking at starting graduate school in the fall (MPH), because I don’t have a compelling reason to NOT do so. I question if I could truly be happy working in a cubical, writing health policy. On the flip side, If I do run that option out, then there’s the potential to actually make REAL change happen for EMS on a larger-scale level than I could ever hope to enact as a street paramedic – so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

At the same time, I’m also looking for full-time employment, and I’m open to relocating (probably staying in the mid-Atlantic area to be close to family/friends, though).

I’m also sitting on a couple of things I need to do in the next week, the biggest being that I need to complete my protocol review for my Maryland Paramedic certification.

So... that's where I am this week.

Burn (The Movie) - A Review

Last night, I went to go see the movie Burn (BURN: One Year On The Front Lines Of The Battle To Save Detroit). The filmmakers are actually hosting 4 fund-raising screenings in Philadelphia (Last night and tonight) at the Prince Music Theater – Tickets and info here. Having seen the various trailers and sneak peeks (here, here, and here) for Burn, I was really looking forward to the film

The audience was probably 85-90% male, and many had fire service t-shirts on. First, I was trying to figure out why the theater was full of folks with IAFF and FD shirts from all over the USA. Then I remembered that the IAFF is holding their convention in Philly right now, so it made a little more sense.

The film covers, at least peripherally, the “big things” that have been going on in Detroit for the last few years. From Charlie LeDuff's investigative reporting (DaveStatter tells of LeDuff's antics reporting here), Detroit's “browning out” of companies, the death of Ivory Ivey in 2011, and serious firefighter injuries and deaths, including an 8/13/10 (Friday13th) building collapse with serious FF injuries, and the 11/15/2008 LODD of Senior Firefighter Walter Harris in a roof collapse.

As the film opens, we are introduced to the crew of Engine 50, one of Detroit's busiest fire companies, on the war-zone East Side of the city, and we follow them through a year of fighting fires and personal battles. A big point is the equipment issues faced by Detroit's firefighters, such as apparatus that is out-of-service, or run down to the point of falling apart. One scene shows a firefighter with duck tape on his turnout boots, because the rubber toe cap was falling off. Another shows the (current, for now) Fire Commissioner touring the apparatus shops, showing the truck that was hit by a train, an engine that was driven under a bridge, and other battle scars on apparatus.

Part of the story is shown through the eyes of FEO (Engineer) Dave Parnell a 30-odd-year veteran of DFD. He's presented as the senior man in the firehouse, and he's also a resident of the East Side. Parnell is presented alongside arson investigation staff and serves as a “tour guide” of the burned out hulks and vacant lots that cover the city. Detroit has 80,000 or so of those abandoned structures., lots of which are boarded up after fires or vandalism that has already weakened them. Those structures are time bombs for the Fire Department – only a matter of time until someone lights them off again, and in their already weakened state, they are practically death-traps for the firefighters. Many of the firefighters in the film punctuate the discussion of these risks with stories of their own injuries.

Speaking of injuries, the filmmakers spend a lot of time covering Firefighter Brendan Milewski, and his recovery after being paralyzed in the 8/13/10 building collapse. That, coupled with the other injuries that are covered really seemed to hit home with a lot of the crowd, and the potential for death and serious injury was discussed at some length in the Q&A session. During that Q&A, Brendan even mentioned that volunteers take the same risks, and EVERYONE needs to understand the potential for a life-altering injury or death.

In the end, the film does a fantastic job of covering the PEOPLE that are fighting to save Detroit, one fire call at a time. It's like a cinematic Report From Engine Company 82 – except with fewer resources and quite probably more fire. In the Q&A, the firefighters said that after the most recent cutbacks, Detroit is only running 40-50 companies a day, instead of the almost 70 that are on the books as in service. they are leaving the firehouse every evening and running non-stop until almost 5am – every shift. The movie does as good a job of capturing the intensity of their job, and the drama of their lives as well. As honest, and therefore bad, as it presents the City of Detroit, it really honors the firefighters.

So – Keep an eye on Burn's website, Facebook, and Twitter. Go to a fund-raising screening, if you can. If not, keep your eyes open. They say they are hoping to release the film this fall – but the filmmakers need to raise HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars to cover costs before the film can be released. They have funded almost the entire movie like this (there's a big list of donors in the credits). So if you really want to see this film released – consider donating a few bucks to make it happen. This is a story that needs to be told.

Other background on the film:

http://www.firehouse.com/news/10464768/film-seeks-to-tell-detroit-ffs-story
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98743950
http://firegeezer.com/2010/07/16/detroit-engine-50-striking-the-pecial/

Music Monday - Lit

Alright. It has been a little while since I blogged. I've got a whole pile of almost-done blogs, and en even longer list of ideas. I just need to get them to a state where I can post them.

For today, I'm going to take the easy way out. It's Monday, so I'm going to do a Music Monday post.

It is the classic “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit. Yeah – a near one-hit wonder.

In my experience, this is a song that EVERYONE in my generation knows – and everyone seems to feel it is a sing-along song – in a bar, in a movie, anywhere. Granted, I'm guilty too – but what is it about this song that makes it so memorable?

EMS Today 2012 - Part 2

Yesterday was the first full day of EMS Today. My day started at 0830 for Kelly Grayson (@AmboDriver / http://ambulancedriverfiles.com/). His presentation was "EMS Blogging and Social Media: How To Do It and Keep Your Job."

Kelly's presentation was good. It wasn't anything too eye-opening, but he made a link I hadn't thought of before, and pointed out that foursquare and geotagging makes obscuring patient info much more difficult.

Next up was "Report from the Eagles" - not the football team... This is the major metropolitan medical directly group - a bunch of real winners. Topics were many, including that atropine appears to do no good in cardiac arrests, and it actually does harm in asystolic arrests. Also discussed: drug shortages and pushing drugs past the expiry dates.

Presentations from their 2012 meeting (last week) are here: http://gatheringofeagles.us/2012/2012Presentations.htm

Then it was a very interesting afternoon session put on by Doug Wolfberg and Steve Wirth of the PW&W EMS law firm (http://www.pwwemslaw.com/). They discussed the good, bad, and ugly of testifying in court and being cross examined. The class ended with an actual cross examination roleplay. They always told me there are 2 types of EMT's - those that have been to court, and those that will go to court. So while I hope I never have to - its only a matter of time, most likely. Steve and Doug are great speakers, and they lecture at a variety of local an national events. Much of their staff maintains EMS certs, and understands our field. If I ever have to go to court? I sure hope they are my lawyers.

The sessions ended with a keynote by Randolph Mantooth. Lots of "who's he" and "what did he do"?

Randolph Mantooth (Wikipedia) played Johnny Gage on Emergency! (Wikipedia). If you've never seen it, it's on Netflix. Go watch a few episodes. Emergency! did great things in advancing out profession, and the late Jim Page (the P in the PW&W law firm above) was a technical advisor to the program. Yes, it's dated, but it's a great EMS history lesson. If your service hasn't changed much since 1974, perhaps it's time to try to change things!

Actually - one more thing. Before Randy Mantooth spoke, AJ Heightman of JEMS spoke and urged everyone to support the PSOB update bills - its great to see a national publisher getting behind something so great for EMS (I'll post more about the PSOB bill once I'm home next week).

Then we hit the exhibit hall. Got to see the World Premiere of Code STEMI (http://codestemi.tv/). It's a Setla film production, and a great collaboration between PhysioControl (http://www.physio-control.com), Tom Bouthillet and the EMS 12-Lead group (http://ems12lead.com/), Ted Setla (http://setlafilms.com/), and the First Responders Network (http://firstrespondersnetwork.com/codestemi/).

It's a good start. It'll be nice to see the story continue to be told. STEMI's are something we, in EMS, can make a big difference in.

Then it was dinner and bed early - I was tired. I'm bummed I missed the MeetUp/TweetUp over at Uno's, but I needed sleep... Friday will be a long day, I'm sure

EMS Today 2012 - Part 1

I came into Baltimore Wednesday night in time for the EMS 10 awards. It was great to see Tom Bouthillet get an EMS 10 award for the EMS 12-Lead blog (http://ems12lead.com). Oh and let's not forget about the rest of his team - David Baumrind and Christopher Watford.

Congrats to Tom and the rest of the award winners, and a HUGE thank to to PhysioControl for putting on the event and inviting me.


Then it was off to Pratt Street Ale House for the EMS 2.0 reunion. Gotto see Random Ward (haven't seen him for all of 3 days), MedicSBK, Ted Setla, Chris Montera, and the rest of the gang. Also got to meet a fellow Ham Radio geek that I've known online for a few years... Good actually meeting you, James!

Looking forward my first sessions on Thursday.