Don’t Be A Jerk

I didn’t draw the graph at right. It was made by a woman named Jessica Hagy over at www.thisisindexed.com. Jessica is not in the medical profession. She draws her observations about the world on index cards and posts them online.

She also has a long and growing list of blogging awards from around the world. Mostly due to her brilliantly irreverent style and her ability to make social observations that resonate with people.

Like this one.

It’s a sad but true observation. For some reason, it seems like many medical personnel have an interesting combination of helpfulness and jerkiness. Why do you suppose that is? I’ve thought a lot about that over the years.

I think a friend of mine, Steve Brien put it best when he said, “Some of us still have a lot of us still in us.”

Our profession is about the patient. It’s not about us. Remembering that simple fact, and keeping it at the forefront of our thoughts, isn’t as easy as it might seem.

What Is Muscular Dystrophy Anyway?

Since we’ve been talking about the fill the boot campaign the annual MDA telethon, why not use our “what is” series to take a closer look at the group of diseases we commonly refer to as muscular dystrophy.

While most EMS caregivers have a general idea of what to expect in a muscular dystrophy presentation, few of us are as knowledgeable as we should be about what muscular dystrophy is and what it does to the body. Let’s take a closer look.

While we tead to refer to muscular dystrophy as a single defined disease process, it is actually a group of disease that share some common characteristics. Add to that the fact that all of these diseases are degenerative in nature and you can imagine how remarkably different these patients can be.

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EMT Charged With Patient Abandonment

                          … It could happen to you

That’s what EMT Paul Casson of the Bronx is learning. On New Years Eve, Paul was waiting to drop off a five year old child at Lincoln Hospital. Per investigators, Paul got tired of waiting, so he decided to forge a signature on his run sheet and leave the child behind.

Apparently the child had non-life threatening injuries and Paul figured someone would be by shortly to take care of him. Now Paul is being charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Here’s the crazy part.

If he’s convicted, this guy could spend the next seven years in prison thinking about what it means to be an advocate for your patient. The good news is that most of us don’t need laws to tell us to take good care of people and protect them. But Paul’s story is certainly a good reminder.

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