New St. Louis (MO) Program to Divert Mental Health Calls Away from 911
Robert Patrick
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(MCT)
ST. LOUIS — If all goes according to plan, thousands of 911 calls beginning this month will not reach St. Louis police or fire personnel.
Calls involving people with mental health issues, or in a mental crisis, may instead be diverted to specially trained behavioral health professionals.
Tiffany Lacy Clark, COO of the contractor involved in the program, Behavioral Health Response, said the broader goals of the program are to relieve police and EMS workers from responding to many mental health crises, to prevent people undergoing a crisis from going to jail or th...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - January 4, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Communications & Dispatch News News Feed 911 Mental Health Missouri Source Type: news
Head-On Crash Kills Seven Kids, Two Adults in Central CA
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Investigators are asking for the public’s help to determine what led up to a head-on crash that killed seven children and two adults in central California on New Year’s Day.
The California Highway Patrol says everyone who reported Friday’s fiery crash on rural State Route 33 came upon the scene after the collision. The CHP hopes to talk to witnesses who saw what happened in the seconds before the SUV and the truck collided between Avenal and Coalinga.
The children, who were between 6 and 15 years old, were members of two related families traveling in a Ford F-150 truck that w...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - January 4, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Rescue & Vehicle Extrication California Crash Source Type: news
Feds Calculate Riskiest, Safest Places in the United States
BY SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer
Spending her life in Los Angeles, Morgan Andersen knows natural disasters all too well. In college, an earthquake shook her home hard. Her grandfather was affected by recent wildfires in neighboring Orange County.
“It’s just that constant reminder, ‘Oh yeah, we live somewhere where there’s natural disasters and they can strike at any time,'” said the 29-year-old marketing executive.
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Innovative Approaches to Management of Mass Casualty IncidentsThe Basics of Mass Casualty Triage
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has calculated the risk for every...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - January 4, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Major Incidents FEMA MCI Rescue Source Type: news
KS Paramedic Dies of COVID-19 Complications
Cortlynn Stark
The Kansas City Star
(MCT)
An Edwardsville paramedic died of COVID-19 complications on New Year’s Day, the fire department said Saturday.
Jason Taylor had served the Edwardsville Fire Department for three years, the department posted on Facebook.
“We are saddened by the loss of Paramedic Taylor,” Fire Chief Tim Whitham said in a statement. “Jason served our city and our citizens with compassion and expertise; we will miss him dearly.”
In a Facebook post, the City of Edwardsville Professional Firefighters Association wrote tha...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - January 4, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Coronavirus Kansas Source Type: news
Businessman, Family Die when Plane Hits MI House
LYON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A small plane flying from Georgia crashed into a house in southeastern Michigan, killing the pilot and two family members.
The victims were David S. Compo, the former president of the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan, his wife Michele and their son Dawson, the association said in a news release.
The Federal Aviation Administration said a single-engine Piper PA-24 Comanche crashed in a residential area at 3:47 p.m. Saturday, roughly half a mile from Oakland Southwest Airport, according to preliminary information. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are inves...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - January 4, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Major Incidents Crash Michigan Plane Crash Source Type: news
Fauci: Vaccinations are Increasing in a ‘Glimmer of Hope’
By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press
The U.S. ramped up COVID-19 vaccinations in the past few days after a slower-than-expected start, bringing the number of shots dispensed to about 4 million, government health officials said Sunday.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, also said on ABC’s “This Week” that President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to administer 100 million shots of the vaccine within his first 100 days in office is achievable.
And he rejected President Donald Trump’s false claim on Twitter that coronavirus deaths and cases in the U.S. have been great...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - January 4, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Coronavirus Public Health Source Type: news
Flight Medics, Nurses in NM Provide Crucial Rural Lifeline
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Healers & Builders 2021: Flight medics and nurses provide crucial rural lifeline
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(c)2020 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)
Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at www.lcsun-news.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Source: JEMS Special Topics - January 3, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Coronavirus News News Feed Flight Medic New Mexico Source Type: news
‘If They Could See What I See Every Day’
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: ‘If they could see what I see every day’: EMS worker faces coronavirus pandemic frontline
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(c)2020 The Indianapolis Star
Visit The Indianapolis Star at www.IndyStar.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Source: JEMS Special Topics - January 2, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Coronavirus EMS Indiana Paramedic Source Type: news
International Prehospital Medicine Institute Literature Review, January 2021
This study compares the 10-g AC to the 14-g AC for decompression of a tPTX and rescue from a tension-induced pulseless electrical activity (tPEA) in the setting of 30% estimated blood volume loss without hemothorax. The authors hypothesized the 10-g AC would be more effective and have a faster rescue from tension physiology than the 14-g AC currently used by most EMS systems.
This was an animal study utilizing anesthetized pigs. The researchers placed arterial and venous lines for hemodynamic monitoring. They then placed 12-mm trocars through each diaphragm through which they could infuse carbon dioxide to simulate a te...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - January 1, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Exclusives International Prehospital Medicine Institute Source Type: news
EMScapades: January 1, 2021
Previous EMScapades: December 15, 2020
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Source: JEMS Special Topics - January 1, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Exclusives EMScapades Source Type: news
Patient Care Falters as COVID-19 Devastates L.A. County (CA) Hospitals
Soumya Karlamangla, Rong-Gong Lin II, Luke Money
Los Angeles Times
(MCT)
Los Angeles County’s healthcare system was buckling Wednesday under the unprecedented surge of COVID-19 patients, with bodies piling up at morgues and medical professionals resorting to increasingly desperate measures as they brace for conditions to worsen in the coming weeks.
With hospitals overwhelmed by patients and no outlet valve available, doctors, nurses and paramedics are being forced to make wrenching choices about who gets care and at what level.
“No one would believe this is in the United States,” ...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - December 31, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Coronavirus News News Feed California EMS Hospital Paramedic Source Type: news
Firefighters Honor Volunteer EMT Killed at WA Hospital
Mallory Gruben
The Daily News, Longview, Wash.
(MCT)
Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue Chief Dave LaFave said he first met Liliya Zagariya as he does most of the people working with his fire department — over a conversation at a table in the station’s break room.
The 20-year-old’s positive attitude and big dreams to become a paramedic, despite the long and intensive path to get there, stood out to LaFave. Though she had only spent about eight months as a volunteer emergency medical technician with the department, she was quickly working her way into the Cowlitz 2 “family,” La...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - December 31, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: News News Feed Source Type: news
Nashville (TN) Bombing Spotlights Vulnerable Voice, Data Networks
By TALI ARBEL AP Technology Writer
PHOENIX (AP) — The Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville led to phone and data service outages and disruptions over hundreds of miles in the southern U.S., raising new concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. communications.
The blast seriously damaged a key AT&T network facility, an important hub that provides local wireless, internet and video service and connects to regional networks. Backup generators went down, which took service out hours after the blast. A fire broke out and forced an evacuation. The building flooded, with more than three feet of water later pumpe...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - December 31, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Communications & Dispatch 911 Tennessee Source Type: news
Search Continues for Survivors after Major Norway Landslide
By JARI TANNER Associated Press
HELSINKI (AP) — Rescue workers in Norway on Thursday continued searching for 10 people, including children, who are missing a day after a massive landslide struck a residential area near the capital.
Time was running out to find survivors in destroyed buildings amid wintry weather conditions. Authorities said it was too dangerous to send ground rescue patrols to the ravaged area in the village of Ask in the municipality of Gjerdrum, some 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Oslo. Instead, the search was carried out with the help of helicopters, drones and heat cameras.
“We stil...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - December 31, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News International Rescue Source Type: news
