Emergency!

[Lawdog Dago Dom]

47 years ago.

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

 

 

 

 

 

   .............. yeah, ... that happens here too ...  

[Rip Snorter]

Doesn't do himself any favors with the hairy look.  IMO as you get older it is a good idea to be well groomed and well dressed, particularly avoiding youthful fashion trends, but that's just me!

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

17 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

Doesn't do himself any favors with the hairy look.  IMO as you get older it is a good idea to be well groomed and well dressed, particularly avoiding youthful fashion trends, but that's just me!

 

 

     ......... yeah, ..... that happens here too .........   

[Doc X]

The show Emergency heavily influenced my decision to become a volunteer firefighter and EMT many years ago.  

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

^ same here.  Was a volunteer firefighter for 9  years and EMT--SS for 5.  

 

we even used one of the rescue techniques on a ravine call.  Kid hurt himself down by river and we used which on Emergency Truck to bring the litter and two firefighters up to the top

 

I loved that show

 

[Muggle]

I can barely tell the difference. 

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

Great show!  Us cousins used to take turns “wrecking” our Big Wheels and rescuing each other, all inspired by the show.

 

But I don’t believe it was that long ago.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

12 minutes ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

Great show!  Us cousins used to take turns “wrecking” our Big Wheels and rescuing each other, all inspired by the show.

 

But I don’t believe it was that long ago.

It was a good show. Still see it on the bird now and then. I really don't like these kind of pictures. Besides making me feel old I'd rather remember them the way they looked back in the day. Just goes with the territory I guess.

JHC

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

As a Just so you Know, the L.A. County Fire Museum has the restored vehicles from the show on display. 

[Lawdog Dago Dom]

I seem to recall a very sultry nurse named Dixie McCall played by Julie London on that show. 
Anyone else remember Dixie?

[Pat Riot, SASS #13748]

Shows like this and other tv shows do inspire people. 
 

I joined the Navy because of “McHale’s Navy”.. 

 

 

[Alpo]

44 minutes ago, Lawdog Dago Dom said:

I seem to recall a very sultry nurse named Dixie McCall played by Julie London on that show. 
Anyone else remember Dixie?

I seem to recall that she appeared romantically interested in the dark-haired doctor, while in real life she was married to the white hair doctor.

[Trailrider #896]

On the original show, the paramedics had to call into the ER to get permission to start an IV.  Nowadays, most places that isn't necessary, and the PM/EMT's can do a lot of other things almost automatically.  The telemetry that allows the ER docs to check heart beats came from the space program, back when they wanted to monitor the vitals of high altitude balloon riders and the Mercury astronauts. 

[Alpo]

Used to be, on TV and in the movies, that when someone would start CPR the first thing they would do was pound on the breastbone. I've noticed they don't do that anymore. They just start pumping.

 

They had this old fart one time and his old fart buddy. And the Buddy, who was about half drunk, was just so proud of himself. The two old farts were sitting there drinking beer, and one of them grasped his chest and fell to the ground. The Buddy explained that he knew his friend was having a heart attack, so he pounded on his chest like they do on TV. And the doctor tells him, "You possibly saved your friend's life. You absolutely broke his ribs".

[Alpo]

Just had a thought.

 

Almost every patient they worked on they were told to, "start an IV with D5W TKO, and transport immediately".

 

D5W - that's a 5% solution of dextrose in water. Dextrose is sugar.

 

If your patient had diabetes, would pumping a quart of sugar water into their veins be detrimental?

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Alpo, D5 is weak enough it won't hurt a diabetic ... remembering that if the situation is bad enough they need an IV, once they hit hospital level care, they'll be sugar tested and insulin administered right away.

D5W was the IV of choice if the run was even suspected of being cardiac, as D5 is the most compatible solution if you have to push drugs.
If you're running an IV of normal saline, for instance, and you inject sodium bicarb, your IV tubing instantly clogs with crystals (same result in the vein but you can't see it) ... never mind that nowadays everything we learned as paramedics is out the window.
No more backboards.
No more sodium bicarb, no more lidocaine.

(We always thought we were so cool on a scene when we popped the caps on bicarb, one in each hand, then screwed the two halves together ... just like Gag and Dodo ... that was always a great crowd pleaser!)

The one thing I do NOT!!! miss from those days is the Ferno type 30 ambulance cot, the reason every veteran medic I know has a bad back now.

Yes, I include myself in that statistic!

As has already been said, Gage and Desoto are the reason I too pursued a paramedic's path, and in the years that followed, stayed the course for a very long time, layering other professions on top of it, until I was wearing too many hats and had to let several fall away and let their certifications lapse.  Nowadays I wear that T-shirt that says "The older I get, the better I was!"

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

I did enjoy the show!  

 

Back in early 1979 (ish) I was working for Western States BankCard Association, the original Master Charge company, in San Francisco.  Our building was literally across the road (The Embarcadero) from the bay.  My office was in a corner on the second floor of the 3-story building with a million dollar view of the bay, the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, and countless boats and ships passing by every day.  The City was still in it's "just weird" stage; everyone was accepting of everyone, and all in all it was a cool place to be and life was good.

 

Well, we'd had some sort of an operations crisis or t'other that took an immense effort by all hands to work through and recover from.  When we'd achieved an even keel, my boss told me to take my crew to The Waterfront, an appropriately named upscale restaurant, and treat 'em to a really nice (read expensive!) meal, including adult libations.  Did I mention that life was good in those days...?

 

So there we were, minding our own business, celebrating, eating a bunch of pricey stuff on the boss's dime (well, on MY dime until I could get re-imbursed.  Did I mention that it was expensive...?)

 

When we'd gotten to the point where we'd had at least one drink, the waiter (a totally insouciant fop) was blessing us by taking our food orders.  If his manner was an indication, he probably drew our tables by losing  a bet or coin toss.

 

When he finally made it around to me, I was delivering my request for halibut with the trimmings, trying to obtain some sort of eye contact to affirm my order was understood.  I was actually somewhat enjoying his obvious discomfit at having to serve people of our sort.  But it was not to last.

 

Suddenly, through the picture windows behind him and about a thousand feet away, there came a flash, followed by a HUGE fireball, punctuated by multiple black-smoke-streaming metal drums launching skyward and a few more explosions.  About a second later the windows rattled from the concussions.  BOOM!  BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

 

There immediately followed a blast of sirens and flurries of red and blue flashing lights from emergency vehicles, and uniformed first-responders scurrying about.

 

The women at our table all shrieked.  A couple of the men shrieked.  One fella launched an ice cube he'd been sucking on, and I (quite naturally!) launched to my feet with a properly colorful expletive.  Or three.

 

 Mister Smooth casually looked at me and with a bored expression inquired as to my preference of salad dressing.

 

"Damn your eyes, Man!  Are you blind?  Are you deaf??  Didn't you SEE what just happened out there??

 

"Man!  People out there just DIED and all YOU can do is ask if I like ROQUEFORT??" 

 

Mister Cool just looked at me, sighed, and replied in a superior tone: "Sir.  Please calm down," he sniffed.  "It's just a crew filming some TV show."

 

With that, he snatched my menu, turned on his heel, and marched off with a not-quite silent snicker.

 

The meal was okay, I guess; it surely cost enough.  'Specially the extra drinks everyone needed to regain an even keel.  Actually, the Jack Daniels was about the only part of the meal that I enjoyed.  I was thankful that no one had died - but a mite annoyed that that they didn't give us some warning.  Oh... and they did two more "takes" while we were eating drinking.

 

 

As it turned out, he was correct.  It was an episode of Emergency!.

 

Season 7, Episode 8, "What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing...?", broadcast June of 1979.

 

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 04:21 AM by Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967

[J.D. Daily]

That show is why my 50 year's old son is a captain in a two city fire dept. in northern CA.  Before that he was a paramedic, then fireman paramedic.

[Doc X]

On 8/7/2022 at 5:12 AM, Alpo said:

Used to be, on TV and in the movies, that when someone would start CPR the first thing they would do was pound on the breastbone. I've noticed they don't do that anymore. They just start pumping.

 

They had this old fart one time and his old fart buddy. And the Buddy, who was about half drunk, was just so proud of himself. The two old farts were sitting there drinking beer, and one of them grasped his chest and fell to the ground. The Buddy explained that he knew his friend was having a heart attack, so he pounded on his chest like they do on TV. And the doctor tells him, "You possibly saved your friend's life. You absolutely broke his ribs".

The "precordial thump" used to be taught to EMT's. It was going out of use by the time I was first certified in the 1980's. It lingered in use a lot longer on TV. Brutal but true fact is, if you don't break ribs, you aren't doing effective CPR. First time I did it for real the patient sounded like a bowl of Rice Crispy's, scared the heck out of me.

[Rip Snorter]

Learned it, never had to do it.  Broken ribs beats the heck out of dead!

[Doc X]

2 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

Learned it, never had to do it.  Broken ribs beats the heck out of dead!

That's a fact. You just grit your teeth and keep going. But that first time, even though they tell you to expect it to happen, it still takes you by surprise.

[John Barleycorn, SASS #76982]

I still remember when Johnny got bit by the rattlesnake 

[Rip Snorter]

14 minutes ago, Doc X said:

That's a fact. You just grit your teeth and keep going. But that first time, even though they tell you to expect it to happen, it still takes you by surprise.

Dad was a Doc and wanted me to be one,  Best I could do was an advanced EMT course in conjunction with the local VFD after he had passed.  He was a fine physician, and he told me about breaking ribs.

[Utah Bob #35998]

Never missed an episode. 
And Nurse Julie London!