On EMS response and why it took half an hour

[nadinbrzezinski]

The call came in 11 minutes into the incident.

Now in Mexico when I was still doing this crap, everybody, cops, EMS, fire goes into the hot scene.

In the US... EMS is held back UNTIL the scene is deemed secured. So taking half an hour is NOT that crazy or off. In fact, in shootings I at times ordered my units to stand back anyway. Nothing more fun than walking into a hot scene, have the shooter still there, and a hot gun.

[Dappleganger]

1. Thanks for the explanation.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. You welcome

[SharonAnn]

3. It took 11 minutes for the call to come in? In this age of cell phones?

Wouldn't EMS come near the scene so that as soon as the scene is secured they can move?

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Depends on local protocols

My local EMS their standard is to wait out at one mile from the scene, unless it is a swat assigned unit and with medics who are swat medics.

As I said in Mexico I went into a few scenes where guns were on the ground... nothing more fun than that.

[RB TexLa]

4. .

[RB TexLa]

5. 30 minutes is fast for fire and police to get somewhere when called. Expecting less time than that

is really being unrealistic.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Standards of response in the US for EMS

are 10 minutes on scene, and 10 minutes to respond, That is the gold time.

Of course that is in a high density urban area, with NO shooters.

[RB TexLa]

10. I would consider 30 to 45 for police, fire or ems to be very fast. If they came in less than an

hour I'd be very thankful to them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. If you are in a rural area, you got a point

in high density urban areas, I gave you the standard. That is the standard that I strove for in a city on the other side of the border with far less resources than my neighbors to the north. We managed to keep a 12 minute response on 95% of our calls.

[RB TexLa]

13. Not in a rural area

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Well then your EMS service is not following protocol

I just gave you THE PROTOCOL... a NATIONAL PROTOCOL.

[kestrel91316]

8. Yep. Let the victims die, then move in. Especially when they are liberals.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Not quite

that standard takes not into account who you are. SImply the dictum of EMS is as follows

Take care of yourself
Take care of your partner
Take care of your gear
Lastly take care of the patient.

If you, or your partner are injured or killed, you cannot take care of your patient... period.

If you do not take care of your gear you cannot do your job.

This standard came to be written in blood by the way... and why a few times I ORDERED my EMS units TO STAND BACK.

DId I do that because my patients were liberal?

The only exception to this are EMS personnel who are also SWAT trained in the US. Again, for very good solid reasons, written in blood.

[Dappleganger]

11. No, we don't want more people to die.

Secure the area first, that's the protocol. Those emergency folks have families, too.

[kestrel91316]

14. My point is, the police are very RW and will drag their feet if the have

information that it's liberals being killed. IMHO.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. That would be criminal

and not all cops are right wing.

And as I said, I have crawled into shoot outs... yes I was nuts. I have gone into very dangerous hot scenes, where I was damn lucky NOT to get shot at, at very close range, I have gotten shot at by AK-47s at mid range... yes the rig's radiator and radio died a cruel death. Thankfully we had a portable radio and got SWAT to rescue our silly asses, as we were pinned.

Hell one of my last calls the bullet when through the rig, over the O2 tank regulator and missed me by an inch or so. Did I mention that was supposedly a more or less secured scene?

That is the reason why EMS is held back... that is the cold hard truth. It has nothing to do with politics.

[Dappleganger]

19. You know, even I'm not that cynical.

It was at a grocery store with families.

[Hello_Kitty]

16. My peeps in Tucson tell me the response was superlative

They had the intersection of Ina and Oracle blocked off and helicopters landed within minutes.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. I am sure once the scene was secured

they did what they always do.

And they need to be saluted. It probably took the cops five minutes to conclude that they only had one shooter.