Greetings to everyone, I’ve just finished reading the Introductions thread and feel like I’ve found a wonderful place to hang my hat. I’m amazed I hadn’t stumbled upon this site in my years on the net. Many thanks to Indigo Girl for sending me the link.
As far as who and what I am, I’m a decrepit retired paramedic (age 53 tomorrow), with a lot of miles on him.
I got started in EMS when I was 18, and began working for a volunteer ambulance in Land o’ Lakes, Florida. After a few months, with some calls under my belt, I moved on to several `professional’ ambulance services in Pinellas County, and quickly completed an EMT course.
In the summer of 1974, St. Petersburg J.C. offered the first DOT 480 hour paramedic course in the State of Florida. I was lucky enough to be accepted, and graduated in Sept of that year. Unfortunately, there were no ALS equipped ambulance services (Duval County FD being an exception), so I moved to Phoenix, Arizona and worked for Kords Ambulance, running a funky ALS unit (actually a converted RV) out of Scottsdale Memorial Hospital with a couple of ICU nurses.
I returned to Florida and worked for Manatee County EMS for several years, and was granted the first State grant ALS unit in early 1976. We used the old Motorola Orange Box Telemetry and Lifepack 5’s. For a year, I was the only paramedic in the county, and pulled a lot of overtime shifts!
I was an American Heart Association and an American Red Cross CPR instructor, and was the in-service paramedic-training instructor for our county EMS. I also spent a good deal of time on the `rubber chicken circuit’ doing public education presentations for the local health department and EMS.
I left the EMS in 1979 due to an injury, but stayed active in the medical world by becoming a computer programmer/consultant that had many doctors and a couple of hospitals as clients. I developed nosocomial infection tracking software, among other goodies.
I’ve spent a good deal of my adult life living aboard sailboats, and have cruised the waters of Florida extensively. I still hold hope that I’ll make it to the South Pacific someday.
Today I’m temporarily landlocked, but spend my time maintaining a blog on avian influenza, and writing articles on (of all things) austere medicine for several flu/survival related forums. I'm also a mod on a hurricane forum.
I look forward to being a member of this group.
Fla_Medic
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I love the one on one and teaching part of my job........you can have the rest.
Originally Posted by cactus wren
