Does Your County Have a Constitutionalist Sheriff!

[Wilma]

Where do your emts come from?  When my heart attack happened, here in Howard, the ambulance was here within minutes of being called.  I knew what was happening and if we had tried to go by car I might not have made it.  I had the best of care while my husband rode in front to direct the driver who had never taken a patient to my hospital in Wichita.

[larryJ]

That is scary to me to have to drive so far to get to a hospital.  I have been urbanized too long.  I think I can understand why some of my older relatives moved from their farms to Howard in their golden years, because farming became too strenuous and they preferred an area closer to medical care and groceries, etc.

I had a flashback reading all this.  When I was a teen baling hay west of Howard, one of the kids working with us fell off the hay wagon and the back tire rolled over his abdomen and chest.  The hay wagon was halfway loaded so he got the heavy end.  We loaded him in a car and drove into Howard and I think we went to the doctor's house as he was home that day or maybe the office had closed for the day as it was kind of late in the afternoon.  Turns out he was okay, but he wore tire tracks on his chest for a long time until the bruises went away.  

Larryj

[Roma Jean Turner]

I have had some people question my decision to move to Elk Co because of the distance from medical facilities.  But it seems to me from being on this Forum for several years that everytime there is an emergency people talk about how well it is handled, so I'm not worried about it.  Ultimately I think I will live longer in a more peaceful, laid back setting than I will in all this traffic everyday.

[srkruzich]

Where do your emts come from?  When my heart attack happened, here in Howard, the ambulance was here within minutes of being called.  I knew what was happening and if we had tried to go by car I might not have made it.  I had the best of care while my husband rode in front to direct the driver who had never taken a patient to my hospital in Wichita.

Howard.  When Sarahs baby died, last year, it took EMT's 45 minutes to get there and they are only 10 miles from howard. 
I can drive to howard in 12 min from their house. 

IF we had of had a working vehicle at that time that could haul Louis and i while we were giving cpr and sarah driving, we would have gone ourselves.   

[srkruzich]

I have had some people question my decision to move to Elk Co because of the distance from medical facilities.  But it seems to me from being on this Forum for several years that everytime there is an emergency people talk about how well it is handled, so I'm not worried about it.  Ultimately I think I will live longer in a more peaceful, laid back setting than I will in all this traffic everyday.

Well quite frankly roma, i have lived in areas where emt's took 30+ min to arrive when they were 5 min from my place.  I am not all that confident in emt's.  Cops are even worse. 
I have had enough attacks to know when i am close to having another one.  I notice things days before one would happen now days.  I go in to the doc every 3 months and get checked.  Its far easier to go in and check and correct a artery that is almost blocked than to go in and find out that its 100% blocked and they can't fix it.   

[Diane Amberg]

We have four EMT ambulances at our four fire stations spread around our service district, plus back up from others nearby and several advanced life support Paramedic ambulances, one stationed at one of our fire stations and several others who aren't in our district but are close enough. The only time we might be a little slow is if we have a very serious accident that ties up all our ambulances at once and a cover up has to come in but the neighboring companies know that if something for us comes in near to their boundary line, they'll take it. Since we all hear each other they know what's happening and will make sure they are ready to roll. We do the same for them. We also have a "nearest ambulance available" policy so we might get an on the road dispatch if we are on the way back home from a hospital. Most of our patients go to the big Christians hospital but some patients prefer going to St Francis in Wilmington or the Wilmington Hospital which is part of the Christiana hospital system.
 I know Steve knows I worry about going all the way to Wichita before there is any care given, but as long as he isn't driving, I guess its his choice. Of course he wouldn't need to wait once he gets there, but that means he doesn't even have any oxygen prior to arrival.The ambulance can treat in route. As the docs say, time is muscle. Steve did you ever check the dispatch time for the ambulance in Sarah's case or did it just seem like 45 minutes? No helicopter? We get people saying the same thing here and when someone checks for them it turns out to be only 8 or 10 minutes, or even less.  We have to be out the door in 4 min. or less, usually way less because we have crews in the station. (Of course bad weather hurts us just like everyone else.)  That is one of the give backs to living way out somewhere, no close services. Most people say it's worth it though. I grew up that way too.

[srkruzich]

no we timed it.  I worked on her for 45 min before the sherrif showed up and then it took another 10 minutes for the EMT's to show up.
I know for a fact cause i looked at the clock as i was doing cpr. 

[srkruzich]

On the time is muscle i know very well it is.  I also know and have learned how to control the attack when it happens.  Most people panic. That sends the heart rate up which creates more damage and more pain.  I learned after my second one that if i calm down, breath deeply, regulate my heart beat that it will slow down the attack and in some cases allow enough blood to flow through to feed the muscle til i can get to the hospital.  

I'm 25 miles from eureka i think, and 55 miles from my heart hospital.  Eureka is not equipped to handle heart patients other than maybe give a tpa shot, and o2.  they always send them in to wichita.  Now if i do have an attack, i would know whether or not i could make it to wichita.  After all, i lived with level 5 angina for 8 years.  THere are levels to the angina that tell you how far away from a attack you are.

Besides, i usually keep a fresh bottle of nitro around all the time and i have no problem eating the nitros when i  need them.

[Diane Amberg]

I believe you. It's just such a shame. Nitro makes a huge difference but eventually as the disease progresses may not do the trick someday. Please tell me you don't drive yourself to the hospital!

[srkruzich]

I believe you. It's just such a shame. Nitro makes a huge difference but eventually as the disease progresses may not do the trick someday. Please tell me you don't drive yourself to the hospital!

No not now, I have in the past when no one else was around to help.  I think that time i was closer to the hospital than the emts were to me, and i didn't have a phone at that time, and you do what ya gotta do.

I think why you are surprised is that most of the places i have lived there are no FT EMT's.  Only volenteer fire departments.