Medic Interrupted

My heart goes out to Haiti’s earthquake victims. I have read that the United States of America has pledged financial help in the amount of 100 MILLION dollars. Let me ask you something….. if we, as a nation gave 50 Million instead of 100 Million, wouldn’t it be possible to use the other 50 Million to get people off Medicaid and other public assistance vehicles which would actually save us taxpayers money in the long run? Let’s say we used some of the 50 Million earmarked for Haiti to compensate businesses and families to allow for the absence of volunteer EMS workers? I personally tried to volunteer as an AEMT-CC and firefighter my services in Haiti, and couldn’t find anyone who was grouping them together. I also met many like me online in the same exact situation.

I’m just never gonna get it no matter how much I think it through. I’m never gonna get how I go into homes where the residents are supported by public assistance (e.g., me, you, and the rest of the tax paying world) and I have to ask them to turn the big screen TV and boom box down so I can listen to lung sounds or a pulse. And I’m never gonna get how the mother of the 20 year old girl I picked up for abdominal cramps 3 days post DNC disconnects from her daughter so easily and readily. I’m never gonna get how Jean Wyclef, the operator of Yele, the alleged cause to help Haiti, has filed one tax return in the last 12 years, has enough to donate millions to his native country, and yet chooses not to pay his taxes. I’m never gonna get why we as a nation don’t demand that workfare, not welfare, be put in place. I’m not saying by any means that those being supported by public assistance are worthless. Far from it in fact. I’m never gonna get why, if after a certain amount of time on welfare someone hasn’t found a job, they are not put to work reconstructing places like Haiti. And I’m never gonna get why those on medicare are allowed (even expected) to rely on people like me, a volunteer Medic and Firefighter, but I cannot even think about relying upon them in return- say, someone to clean up the neighborhood on a volunteer basis.

If Haiti was a failed nation before the earthquake, it is most certainly a failed state now. 100 Million isn’t going to fix it. And most of the country’s residents are coming here to New York anyway.

Give it to Doctors Without Borders you say? None of the money from the recently run telethon will go to the wholly admirable Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders, which has already received enough money over the past three days to keep its Haiti mission running for the best part of the next decade.

How about the Red Cross? The last time there was a disaster on this scale was the Asian tsunami, five years ago. And for all its best efforts, the Red Cross has still only spent 83% of its $3.21 billion tsunami budget — which means that it has over half a billion dollars left to spend. Not to put too fine a point on it, but that’s money which could be spent in Haiti.

I’m never gonna get why the entire world kept hidden the fact that these buildings in Haiti which collapsed were being built on a fault line. It was hidden, right? I mean… who would build such structures on a fault line without proper architectural precautions? I guess next time the buildings in Haiti will be built more solidly…. like the homes of americans all over our nation who can’t pay their mortgages, and aren’t benefitting from 100Million from the feds.

Never….Gonna…. Get It…. Never.

Sing it to me, ladies!!!

NEVER GONNA GET IT!!!!

My son’s hebrew name is ‘Shalom’ – שָׁלוֹם. I declared his name for the world to know at his bris, and had an opportunity to explain its meaning- Peace. Completeness. But more than a name, Shalom is a sentiment; an esoteric mindset that serves as a light to shine upon the path of principle, which leads to character. It is something that transcends race, religion, language, borders, and humanity itself.

I took my six year old son to hockey practice this morning at 715am. As excited as he was, I think  I was more elated just to watch him take the ice in his little Islander uniform with the rest of his team, the “Mini Mites”. I never have a problem getting Brandon up from his sleep to go to practice early Sunday mornings. And like clockwork, I get up at 6am to get ready to go with him. He is, after all, my son. But more than that, what he does on the ice inspires me. It moves me. And it carries me through my work week. Melodromadic? Definitely. Here is a scene from one of my favorite movies ‘Vision Quest’, that captures what I’m trying to say:

Just the day before, Brandon sunk a basket at his basketball game at the buzzer. He threw his hands up in celebration. He owned the world at that moment. And as his father, so did I. Achievement. Accomplishment. Triumph. Victory. These are the moments to live for and to celebrate. Melodramadic? Definitely. But its this melodrama that, like the name Shalom, transcends race, religion, color, wealth, status, and everything else.

I’m addicted to the drug, and I freely admit it. It’s part of why I ride the ambulance so much- to get that rush. The last call I went on was a “Delta Overdose” in front of Pathmark. Some drunk guy with nothing else better to do on a rainy, cold Sunday afternoon. I asked the bum in Spanish if he had any kids. “Yeah.  These are my kids right here,” as he held up to me his half-filled bottles of rum.  I tried to explain to him the concept of having too much of a good thing, in the midst of which he vomited right next to me. Lovely.

I wonder though, if its possible for me to get too much of my kids, and what would happen to me if I did. I think the difference is this: my  melodrama mush makes OTHERS vomit, not me. I havent barfed yet from it. I suppose I have a built up a high tolerance for it. I feel bad for those who haven’t.

Led Zeppelin- Going To California- Beautiful Song, and a beautiful rendition of it. What a great performance. Enjoy. Play it in HD.

How many of you EMS providers in/around Brentwood Legion and those that work at SSH have had this patient at least once a day?

Tiger Woods’ alleged mistress just hired attorney Gloria Allred. This should be a fun ride for the media. Thankfully there’s nothing more important to report on, like, oh, I dunno…. anything else at all?!?!?!

No matter who I have met in the EMS field, when I ask them why they went into it in the first place the universal response is something like… “‘cuz i like helping people out”. And then I listen to the older paramedic generation (who really aren’t so old- like 37 or 38) whine about how they are “burnt out”.  Hmmmm….. so let me get this straight…. you’re ‘burnt out’ of helping people? Just sounds all like a matter of convenience to me really.

I think I’m going to throw something through my TV if i have to see that Lexus car commercial where the guy in it has a rambling monologue comparing his new lexus to the Big Wheels toy he got when he was a kid. I would rather just see a copule of views of the car and some statement saying “get this car… it will make you feel like you were a kid again.” Or show some nut job driving the car across a high school lawn doing donuts, and drag racing- “this car will make you feel like a kid again.”

Everyone likes to try to feel like a kid again. That’s why we eat ice cream, and go on amusement park rides. If there was some way for me to feel like a kid while being an attorney, I’m sure I would love my job as much as I do volunteering in EMS/Fire. But right now, I haven’t found much that beats the adrenaline rush of going from zero to 100 when a call comes in, and the feeling of satisfaction and comraderie I get after a job well done with a patient or at a fire. My baby sweetheart princess and my power ranger son are always doing kid things- splashing in puddles outside, playing in mud, you know, doing things that 4 and 5 year olds just do because they are kids, and they like being kids. My wife and I constantly tell them not do do those things- but what match could our authority possibly be to their feelings of just being a kid?

All the time I spend going to continuing education classes; doing rotations at hospitals and county ambulances; responding to calls, training at the fire service academy, etc. etc. its all about feeling like a kid again. Even for the paid guys around here though, it certainly ain’t for the paycheck! Here is what FDNY pays. Cha Ching, baby.  Yah, right. I don’t think my wife would have a problem with me becoming a full time paramedic if there was an extra zero at the end of those figures. She still tells me “don’t go on the call, Rich,” whenever she hears my pager tones sound off.  That’s followed by the obligatory “it’s too dangerous” or “you’re gonna catch something from these sick people” from her. But what she’s really saying is, “help me with the laundry instead.” Doesn’t matter much though. Same thing’s happening… such pleas are no match for a chance to be a kid again, if only for a short while.

People in Star Wars never eat. But they must have, right? There must have been a canteen on the Death Star.

I have seen Along Came Polly a thousand and one times, and I still think it has some of the funniest scenes ever. How prolific and diverse is Phillip Seymour Hoffman? “RAINDROPS!!” “OLD SCHOOL!!!”

In 2011, most baby boomers will begin to turn 65.