Posted on 10/26/2016 5:19:31 PM PDT by GrootheWanderer
I’ll bet they don’t hang up on callers.
“but when I’m in cardiac tamponade after a car accident on I-95 I want an adult...a professional...scooping me off the Interstate.”
Darien has a contract with Stamford EMS to ensure you are properly scooped up.
I grew up in a small town that had a volunteer fire department. A couple of members had EMT training. Ambulance was 45 minutes away. Competent high school kids could be just as effective. Don’t venture out of the city. You may end up dealing with volunteers.
OK,*that* makes sense.But if that's the case why the story about high school kids doing ambulance work?
You got your cart before the horse. Rethink this and straighten out your traces. One could posit that is so rich because it treats its citizens like adults. Liberals think because the suburb is rich, it should spend its money. Hmmm, but then it would not have volunteer citizens, and that is quite important in our culture. Has been forever, it is one of the things that makes our nation great, and you can't buy it.
Apples and oranges.
Or didn’t you read the part where they take the same courses...
It doesn't matter...to me at least.When lives are at stake...or,at least,when *my* life is at stake...I want experience.I have a strong preference for health care personnel who have at least a touch of gray.
But it seems to me that Darien is doing this at least partially as a cost saving measure.If,as another poster suggested,Darien has an agreement with next-door Stamford (a much bigger city,US headquarters of several major European banks) then that's cool.But if not....
Spend a little time in Darien,Greenwich and New Canaan (three fantastically rich towns within a few miles of each other) and one of the things you'll notice is that the teenagers are driving the Bimmers and the adults are driving the Buggati Veyrons (one of the two Buggatis I've seen in my life I saw in Greenwich).
Priorities.
I,for one,don't mind saving a few pennies by buying day old bread....but I don't skimp on health care.And,curiously,the people of Darien skimp on the one thing you'd think they...top executives, physicians,surgeons and lawyers...wouldn't.
But that's just me I guess.
When you are in cardiac tamponade, the paramedics will almost certainly be there as well as the local EMS.
I volunteer as an EMT, and we have cadets (teenaged EMTs). They are not allowed to ride after 11 pm - not sure how Darien manages the overnight hours. Like you, I would not like them to be handling a critical situation without adults and more years of experience, and in our town they are not allowed to respond without an adult EMT.
However, I can imagine certain training programs that would produce competent EMTs by the age of 18, if they start at 14. How old were combat medics in WWII?
And sometimes, book learning beats experience. The first femur fracture I ever saw was after I’d been a crew chief six years. Badly deformed. The person who was most up on using the Hare traction splint was an 18 y.o trainee who hadn’t even graduated yet but had drilled on the Hare the previous weekend.
Yes, I was the one who knew to keep the patient warm and insulated from the cold cellar floor, how to move him, to assess for shock, to call for extra resources, but the ER docs told us the Hare lined up the femur so well they left it on for twelve hours until the surgeon got there to pin it.
I’ve never seen cardiac tamponade in nine years. It wouldn’t surprise me if a cadet was on it (muffled heart sounds, narrowed pulse pressure, JVD) because that’s what the pre-pre-meds live for - the rare, dramatic and critical.
Already has:
The Darien crew provides basic life support, utilizing EMT skills. When they need a advanced life support (paramedic skills) they get Stamford EMS providing intercepts.
I’m a paid, union EMT in New Haven. We don’t have a suburb like Darien and pretty much cover the county for all the BLS calls and share the ALS with local fire departments. The situation in Darien is an anomaly that has stood the test of time.
So you’ve got a bunch of executives earning six-figure salaries volunteering as firefighters? I bet Darien may be the only place in American where that happens.
Wife and I lived in Darien for about 8 years way back in the 1960’s. Great little town.
No, the execs couldn’t do it because of their long hours. But there are still a number of townies, who carry on the tradition. It is considered a big deal in the town, and the firemen can make a lot of useful connections if they are so inclined. The execs just sleep in their mansions and run for the train at 6 AM, but the townies run a lot of the businesses and most of the town government.
I want experience. I have a strong preference for health care personnel who have at least a touch of gray.
I take you haven’t been in/to a hospital recently. Most of the doctors and nurses look like they might still be in high school, and the ones with the ‘touch of gray’ don’t speak very good English.
Take your pick.
Personally I don’t care if they’re Doogie Howser. I figure if they are that young, and in that position, they must be really good.
As far as ‘touch of gray’guy, the old joke is What do they call the guy who graduated last in his class in Medical School?
Doctor.
Connecticut, while it has troubles (mostly liberal Dems taxing and spending), has lots of towns (no counties) with volunteers in EMT and fire. A town where was business was had volunteer fire department, but they do train to might fires. Saves money...
Re: post 35 might is supposed to be fight. Falling asleep...
NJ is the same; the strange part is that even with volunteers our property taxes are still among the highest in the nations (due to teachers/cops).
I had to deal with EMTs a few months back, and was surprised by not just how young they were (they were led by an older, more experienced person), but the fact that three of the four were young GIRLS. No reflection on their abilities (they seemed to be there for training), but it was a big difference from 30 years ago where this was a primarily male field. These weren’t “big girls” who could carry an average American adult.
It appears young men are simply retreating from a mainstream culture that has completely marginalized them with the full blessing of the law.
One issue in nearby NJ is that in affluent areas young people (the few there are) do no work at all. Foreigners are trafficked there to work the convenience stores, gas stations, restaurants, landscaping, etc. for “the execs”.
When I was younger many (American) high school classmates had jobs; now I see my children’s classmates and this is no longer the case.
When my nieces turned 16, my brother told them they had to get jobs. The money spigot was turned off, and if they wanted to buy anything, they would have to supply their own money. They didn’t like it at the time, but now they say it is what really turned them into self-sufficient adults who have good jobs.
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