Free Republic

When EMTs arrived at Michael Jackson's home yesterday, the medics wanted to pronounce him dead on the scene -- but Michael's personal doctor refused to let them "call it" -- this according to sources close to the situation. When EMTs arrived there was evidence someone had been performing CPR on Michael for "quite some time." There was evidence of Lidocaine -- an old-school drug that can be used to treat disturbances in the heart's rhythm. Medics took over performing CPR but determined Jackson was lifeless -- and wanted to call the coroner to pick up the body. We're told Jackson...

A bilingual, bicultural advisor with the 364th Civil Affairs Brigade instructs members of the Basrah International Airport fire department during a Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation class as part of a four week refresher training hosted by the Baghdad International Airport fire department. Photo by Staff Sgt. Luke Koladish, 114th Public Affairs Detachment. BASRAH — Fifteen members of the Basrah International Airport fire department conducted Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation training last week at the Baghdad International Airport in an effort to have the two airports certified by the International Civil Aviation Organization. "The ICAO requires the departments have certain standards; response times, the quality of...

More Than 800 Responders Stage Ground Zero Emergency Drill NEW YORK (AP) ― It was an emergency drill, yet the scene of hundreds of firefighters, police officers and other first responders hustling around the World Trade Center site Sunday evoked the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Firefighters carried oxygen tanks, hoses and heavy axes into an underground train station, while police and other emergency personnel helped those playing injured — all part of a large disaster response exercise at ground zero.

Just when we really needed a miracle, we got one. "Miracle on the Hudson," Gov. Paterson rightly called it. Paterson was standing with the mayor and the police commissioner and the fire commissioner and other faces that have become too familiar to us in moments of tragedy. They must have all been stricken with the same dread when word came that a passenger plane had gone down in the icy Hudson River on a day of killing cold. The dread was shared by all the cops and firefighters and paramedics who raced to the scene, emergency lights garish in the...

Numerous Minneapolis-Saint Paul area EMS agencies, headed by the U.S. Secret Service, undertook special preparations to handle EMS operations during the Republican National Convention held Sept 1-4, 2008. Following is an inside account of the experience along with some lessons to take away for future events. Fake Ambulance Spotted On Tuesday, the second day of the RNC, a Twin Cities Paramedic spotted an "ambulance" with unusual generic markings in the city of St. Paul. The medic had attended RNC briefings on the need for heightened awareness, and as an Iraq War Veteran, he was well-educated and possessed a keen eye...

I was greatly impressed with the 2 first responders who took off lapel pins and gave them to John and Cindy McCain, and not Mr. Obama, as they all toured the site at Ground Zero........It made me feel good that New Yorkers can still tell the difference between those who do and those who claim to......You have to wonder which way Obama and McCain would be going when you think of those stairs inside the World Trade Center, who would be going up to help, who would be going down.......

The German shepherd, who lives with his owner, James Symington, in Los Angeles, was picked by BioArts International, a Californian cloning firm, as the most "clone-worthy" canine in a competition offering an owner a free chance to replicate their pet. Mr Symington said he and Trakr were among the first search and rescue teams to arrive at the New York site after the attacks, and were responsible for locating the last human survivor under about 30 feet of debris

(La Crosse, WI company will track health of ground zero workers) Washington - As President Bush's health chief, Tommy Thompson proudly trumpeted millions of taxpayer dollars to help workers sickened by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center, even amid complaints that his agency wasn't doing enough. Now, Thompson's private company has won an $11 million contract to treat some of those same workers - the latest twist in a fitful government effort to determine how many people were made ill by the toxic debris and to care for them. The contract awarded by the U.S. Centers...

At 9:37 a.m., on 9/11, those aboard Arlington Fire Department Engine 101 were headed north on I-395 for a training session near the Pentagon. Firefighter Jamie Lewis saw the American Airlines Flight 77 first. “Hey, look at the plane!” he shouted. “What’s he doing?” Nearby, on the Columbia Pike, Paramedic Claude Conde was loading a stroke victim into an ambulance when a plane roared overhead. “He had never seen a plane so close. Something wasn’t right. The airport wasn’t far away, but the plane was already at treetop level, well below the glide path it should be on for National...

Fresh Air from WHYY, May 22, 2008 · After American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, it took firefighters three days to extinguish the flames. Firefighter Patrick Creed and journalist Rick Newman join Fresh Air to talk about the Pentagon blaze and the book they wrote about it, Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11. Firefight tells the stories of the people inside the Pentagon when the plane hit, the rescue efforts that followed the attack and the three-day battle to extinguish the blaze. Firefighters faced unique circumstances, Creed and Newman write,...

You can skip the mouth-to-mouth breathing and just press on the chest to save a life. In a major change, the American Heart Association said Monday that hands-only CPR - rapid, deep presses on the victim's chest until help arrives - works just as well as standard CPR for sudden cardiac arrest in adults. Experts hope bystanders will now be more willing to jump in and help if they see someone suddenly collapse. Hands-only CPR is simpler and easier to remember and removes a big barrier for people skittish about the mouth-to-mouth breathing. "You only have to do two things....

New CPR advice: chest compressions only Heart Association hopes simpler guidelines save lives Monday, March 31, 2008 4:00 PM By Suzanne Hoholik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Hands-only CPR When you see an adult collapse: * 1. Call 9-1-1. * 2. Start hard, fast compressions at the center of the chest. Trade off with someone if you get tired. If no one else is around, continue compressions until paramedics arrive. In an effort to get more bystanders to perform CPR, the American Heart Association issued new guidelines today changing the way it teaches the lifesaving technique by eliminating mouth-to-mouth breaths. When an...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Capt. Clint Roberts makes his living cutting accident victims out of hideously mangled vehicles, but even he could hardly believe it when two people in a 2007 midsize car survived a head-on crash with a full- sized pickup last year. The Ford Fusion's reinforced steel construction probably saved the lives of the 18-year-old driver and his 16-year-old passenger. But Roberts said it gave his Hillsborough County Fire Rescue crew fits as they tried to free them last November. Because hydraulic cutters couldn't shear the roof posts, rescue workers had to turn to heavy-duty electric saws, replacing...

Emergency Responders At Risk. hybrids may also hold a hidden danger if they are involved in a serious accident... a risk of electrocution. "If you don't know what you're doing you can be hurt seriously, if not killed by the voltage," said hybrid-certified mechanic Kevin Klein."There's 330 volts of electricity running through the lines," ... It only takes 50 to 100 volts to kill a person. "My coworkers know when I set these up, nobody's allowed in here but me," said Klein as he set up orange cones around his work area. "We have to wear face protection in case...

New York (AP) -- Nearly 300 workers who want to sue the city for illnesses or injuries suffered at ground zero will have their claims heard in federal court, a state appeals panel has ruled. The Appellate Division decision Thursday reversed a lower court ruling that had allowed the workers' bids for litigation to proceed. The requests were filed by people who worked at the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The appeals court said federal law gave the U.S. District Court in Manhattan jurisdiction over all claims for loss of property, personal injury, or death...

Politicians and labor leaders held a rally at Ground Zero Saturday pledging to support efforts to get federal funding for first responders, construction workers, volunteers, residents, and students exposed to health risks during and after the 9/11 attacks. On the sixth anniversary of that day, three New York Congressman––Democrats Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, and Republican Vito Fossella––will introduce the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. The bill would provide healthcare and monitoring to all the people exposed to the environment of downtown Manhattan after the attacks. It will also require the federal government to fund data collection so that the...

Much of what is known about the health problems of ground zero workers comes from a small clinic in Manhattan that at the time of the trade center collapse had only six full-time doctors and a tiny budget. Yet in the weeks after 9/11, its doctors stepped into the fray in the absence of any meaningful effort by the city, state or federal government to survey, interview or offer treatment to potentially sickened recovery and cleanup workers. Since then, the clinic, the Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, based at Mount Sinai Medical Center, has examined more...

September 3, 2007 By Mark Mix - After years of scheming, waiting, and investing forced dues into the campaigns of their handpicked politicians, Big Labor bosses believe they are just one step away from a big payoff. Their goal is simple: Ram the Police and Firefighter Monopoly Bargaining Bill (H.R. 980) into law by any means necessary. Just before the August recess, under suspension of the rules, union-label politicians succeeded in passing the Police and Firefighter Monopoly Bargaining Bill through the House. Thanks to the union bosses' propaganda machine, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ran into little difficulty. Misguided congressmen from...

Retiree Gene O'Brien hurried to the World Trade Center site after Sept. 11, 2001, as a volunteer helping to shuttle supplies to police and fire workers. Some days, his only ID to get into the disaster site was a tattoo on his forearm. "A couple times I showed them my Marine tattoo, and they said go ahead," recalled O'Brien, adding that he and other volunteers also came up with their own makeshift identification cards. "We didn't forge anything, we just made them up with our own pictures and at one point we copied a UPC code off a Pepsi can...

NEW YORK - As Rudy Giuliani campaigns around the country highlighting his stewardship of New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he is widely hailed for bringing order to a traumatized city. But he has also raised the hackles of rescue and recovery workers by likening his experience to theirs. On at least three occasions, in responding to accusations that city officials failed to adequately protect the health of workers in the wreckage, he has boasted that he faced comparable risks himself. In one appearance he declared that he had been in the ruins "as often (as), if...