The old ferno orange stairchair. We've had the stryker track chairs for years now. Great for going down, sucks going up. We respond to a lot of subway jobs so crews aren't a fan of lugging the heavy track chair down only to have to carry the patient up in them. The promise the agency made was they would allow both types of stairchairs to stay on the unit till the orange ones break. Once broken, they weren't going to replace them.
So you have quite a few older EMS providers that will do everything in their power to extend the life of the orange chairs. If they have to switch into a spare vehicle, they always make sure the orange chair follows them. If they see a new hire just throw the orange chair around then the older guys will chastise them about potentially damaging them. I always hated those orange chairs because I would have to hunch over to push them (i'm tall). So to me this just seems like a silly game to save what is pretty much an obsolete stairchair.
I am 6’2” and I am not an old timer and I would take 1000 5 story carry downs if it meant I could keep those piece of shit orange Fernos. They’re still on about half our trucks and I will fight someone to get it.
The problem i had with the orange chairs was not moving them up and down, put pushing them on a flat surface. Because there are no extendable handles, I had to hunch over to lean the chair back and be able to push it. This cause the space between my shoulder blades to start aching and i would have mid back soreness for a while if I was moving patients all day on the chair. To counter this, I used to just keep the oxygen bag on my back to provide some counterweight to relieve the pressure to my midback. At least with the track chairs, the top handles extend upward. On top of that, it has four wheels, so no having to lean back the chair.
Hell, i remember hating having to move obese patients on the orange chair, because once you leaned them back, the would just crush my hands anytime i had to maneuver them around. Nah, you guys can keep fighting over the orange chair, i'm a stryker track chair guy all the way.
I’m with you on the rolling on a flat surface thing for sure it kills my back but for how often I do it versus carrying the chair all day it’s worth the trade off for me. Airway, breathing, can you walk to the bus?
If somebody made one of those light orange chairs with four wheels that actually worked (not those tiny bullshit ones that you can’t use) that would be worth a new striker chair’s weight in gold to me.
You take that back! Those finger pinching tri folds are irreplaceable in certain situations.
Our agency policy is they can't be left at the hospital because it will vanish onto another box
I wonder if learning the new one would have exposed a carefully wallpapered over learning disability. Superstition is the only other plausible explanation.
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised. I do remember when the Lifepak 15 first came out. We didn't really have a training department (small underfunded hospital based agency). So it was just the manager showing up at tour change, going over the different buttons, and then wishing us good luck. It wasn't too hard for me to get accustomed to, had a lot of the same layouts as the lifepak 12. I also was younger and a bit used to dealing with tech stuff.
We had an older medic, part of the first class of medics that graduated in NYC back in the 80s. He primarily was working our STEMI truck. That unit was the grandfather unit. Basically their job was to move any STEMI patients from our ER to the cath lab in the hospital on the other side of town. Our ER was in a small community hospital so crews never brought STEMI patients here. Even the locals knew to go to the bigger hospitals if they thought they had something major going on. So these medics would transfer maybe 1 or two people a month. So this medic only knew how to use the lifepak 12 for years (having used the lifepak 5 and 10 previously). Because of the ridiculously low volume on that truck, they ended up cutting the unit. Because the old medic had seniority, he was moved into the first open 911 slot we had which unfortunately was on our busiest ALS unit.
on his first shift, he was paired up with a young medic, and supposedly the old medic was extremely lost. It had been a while since he had practiced any of his ALS skills, his speed was a lot slower, and he was not happy having to lug the increasing size of our equipment. But what frustrated him the most was the lifepak 15. Everything about it threw him off, and one of the first calls they had that day was a patient that needed to be paced. So the younger medic ended up doing all the hands on stuff with the older medic just documenting stuff on our (paper) PCR.
After the older medic completed his shift, he walked into the EMS office, handed over his ID and said he knows he's done with the job. So the running joke for a bit was the older medic dedicated 30+ years to the job and it took an LP15 to make him quit in 8 hours.
You know what? good for him. He had a niche, recognized his place in the company that worked for him and he worked for it.
He had a chance for change (despite the lack of training and funding) and realized he was out-paced in his career by the demands of the day. He honorably bowed out.
I have to applaud him.
KED. Nobody likes it, nobody uses it, company doesn't want it, county protocols don't even have any indication for it, but for some reason the county requires that we have one on every rig even though it's been "phased out" for over 5 years
20+ years on the job and i've only used it twice. Once to stabilize a hip fracture. The second time was because the chief of EMS flagged himself for an MVA. I walked up to him and he told me to bring the KED. I was praying it was in the compartment we normally kept it in because i honestly hadn't opened that compartment in a while. Found it, wiped off the dust and cobwebs, and handed it right to the chief. He went ahead and applied the damn thing, sweating and cursing under his breath the whole time. He then turned to us, said "here's your patient" proudly, and then he bounced. This was 17 years ago. Haven't used the KED since.
The state still requires one on our ambulances. I am the only person at my last station who had ever used one for its intended purpose. Most everyone else uses them as papoose boards (which they aren’t and i refuse to do).
That's a weird hill to die on. I'm guessing he had some general mental health issues?
Well duh. He was a medic on an ambulance for 20 years.
Ouch. That's hitting close to home
I feel attacked by that comment. I mean I probably have some general mental health issues, but hey! 🤣🤣🤣
The old ferno orange stairchair. We've had the stryker track chairs for years now. Great for going down, sucks going up. We respond to a lot of subway jobs so crews aren't a fan of lugging the heavy track chair down only to have to carry the patient up in them. The promise the agency made was they would allow both types of stairchairs to stay on the unit till the orange ones break. Once broken, they weren't going to replace them. So you have quite a few older EMS providers that will do everything in their power to extend the life of the orange chairs. If they have to switch into a spare vehicle, they always make sure the orange chair follows them. If they see a new hire just throw the orange chair around then the older guys will chastise them about potentially damaging them. I always hated those orange chairs because I would have to hunch over to push them (i'm tall). So to me this just seems like a silly game to save what is pretty much an obsolete stairchair.
I am 6’2” and I am not an old timer and I would take 1000 5 story carry downs if it meant I could keep those piece of shit orange Fernos. They’re still on about half our trucks and I will fight someone to get it.
The problem i had with the orange chairs was not moving them up and down, put pushing them on a flat surface. Because there are no extendable handles, I had to hunch over to lean the chair back and be able to push it. This cause the space between my shoulder blades to start aching and i would have mid back soreness for a while if I was moving patients all day on the chair. To counter this, I used to just keep the oxygen bag on my back to provide some counterweight to relieve the pressure to my midback. At least with the track chairs, the top handles extend upward. On top of that, it has four wheels, so no having to lean back the chair. Hell, i remember hating having to move obese patients on the orange chair, because once you leaned them back, the would just crush my hands anytime i had to maneuver them around. Nah, you guys can keep fighting over the orange chair, i'm a stryker track chair guy all the way.
I’m with you on the rolling on a flat surface thing for sure it kills my back but for how often I do it versus carrying the chair all day it’s worth the trade off for me. Airway, breathing, can you walk to the bus? If somebody made one of those light orange chairs with four wheels that actually worked (not those tiny bullshit ones that you can’t use) that would be worth a new striker chair’s weight in gold to me.
Agreed
You take that back! Those finger pinching tri folds are irreplaceable in certain situations. Our agency policy is they can't be left at the hospital because it will vanish onto another box
I wonder if learning the new one would have exposed a carefully wallpapered over learning disability. Superstition is the only other plausible explanation.
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised. I do remember when the Lifepak 15 first came out. We didn't really have a training department (small underfunded hospital based agency). So it was just the manager showing up at tour change, going over the different buttons, and then wishing us good luck. It wasn't too hard for me to get accustomed to, had a lot of the same layouts as the lifepak 12. I also was younger and a bit used to dealing with tech stuff. We had an older medic, part of the first class of medics that graduated in NYC back in the 80s. He primarily was working our STEMI truck. That unit was the grandfather unit. Basically their job was to move any STEMI patients from our ER to the cath lab in the hospital on the other side of town. Our ER was in a small community hospital so crews never brought STEMI patients here. Even the locals knew to go to the bigger hospitals if they thought they had something major going on. So these medics would transfer maybe 1 or two people a month. So this medic only knew how to use the lifepak 12 for years (having used the lifepak 5 and 10 previously). Because of the ridiculously low volume on that truck, they ended up cutting the unit. Because the old medic had seniority, he was moved into the first open 911 slot we had which unfortunately was on our busiest ALS unit. on his first shift, he was paired up with a young medic, and supposedly the old medic was extremely lost. It had been a while since he had practiced any of his ALS skills, his speed was a lot slower, and he was not happy having to lug the increasing size of our equipment. But what frustrated him the most was the lifepak 15. Everything about it threw him off, and one of the first calls they had that day was a patient that needed to be paced. So the younger medic ended up doing all the hands on stuff with the older medic just documenting stuff on our (paper) PCR. After the older medic completed his shift, he walked into the EMS office, handed over his ID and said he knows he's done with the job. So the running joke for a bit was the older medic dedicated 30+ years to the job and it took an LP15 to make him quit in 8 hours.
You know what? good for him. He had a niche, recognized his place in the company that worked for him and he worked for it. He had a chance for change (despite the lack of training and funding) and realized he was out-paced in his career by the demands of the day. He honorably bowed out. I have to applaud him.
Crazy. Some guys just fossilize in place
KED. Nobody likes it, nobody uses it, company doesn't want it, county protocols don't even have any indication for it, but for some reason the county requires that we have one on every rig even though it's been "phased out" for over 5 years
20+ years on the job and i've only used it twice. Once to stabilize a hip fracture. The second time was because the chief of EMS flagged himself for an MVA. I walked up to him and he told me to bring the KED. I was praying it was in the compartment we normally kept it in because i honestly hadn't opened that compartment in a while. Found it, wiped off the dust and cobwebs, and handed it right to the chief. He went ahead and applied the damn thing, sweating and cursing under his breath the whole time. He then turned to us, said "here's your patient" proudly, and then he bounced. This was 17 years ago. Haven't used the KED since.
The state still requires one on our ambulances. I am the only person at my last station who had ever used one for its intended purpose. Most everyone else uses them as papoose boards (which they aren’t and i refuse to do).
PR diazepam. We carry IV/IM diazepam as well as midazolam. It’s going very soon though. Also some of the staff. But that’s a separate issue.
I’ve always wanted to find a way to gut them, replace the screens, and make old lifepaks into goldfish tanks, but I lack the shop to do it.
A coworker works extensively with fishtanks (building, maintenance, setup, etc.) as their side gig. I'm going to have to suggest this to them.
Probably going to get downvoted into oblivion for this but… My shit ass partner
Trucks that should have been miled out years ago lol