When it comes to the EMT stuff, I was always an Airway, Bleeding, A-B-C kind of guy.  Just keep ‘em alive until you get them to the hospital.  I just don’t have the inherent skills to get very deep into medical procedures.

One of my shortcomings is diagnosis.  Try as I may, I’m just not very good at it.  Oh, I can tell a broken bone ok.  But when it comes to asking 20 questions to narrow down why you have trouble breathing while your eyelid is twitching, or something, it’s  not my gig.  That’s why I never had any desire to go on to paramedic school.

But no matter how good you are at diagnosis, I’ll bet you never would have spotted this one when even skilled physicians were surprised when they got inside this man and found out what was really bothering him.  It happened recently in Russia when a young man complained about chest pains.  The surgeon was certain he had a tumor in his lung and they scheduled surgery to remove it.  But they ended up taking something else out, instead.  Take a look at this video and see what you think:

Keep in mind that this story comes out of Russia and historically they have been a bit loose with the truth for the past 100 yrs. or so.  But you still have to wonder, Did he or didn’t he?  Personally, I’m a little dubious of the accuracy of the story.  But again, if someone tells me “It hurts right here,” I can’t tell you why.

But I can tell you that we need some coffee, pronto.  So get started on the equipment check and I’ll go start the pot.

We’ve been chiding the Cincinnati (Ohio) Fire Chief for several months now over the continuing embarrassment of having a firefighter either arrested or fired for major misconduct at the rate of one every three weeks.  One of the more recent stories on it is HERE and it has links to previous reports that we’ve filed.  And it’s not just the fire chief but the police chief who has also been stricken with the same labor problems.

The city manager, who appointed them both, has apparently had enough.  He publicly told both of them to get their houses in order and they were unable to do it, with more arrests still hitting them.  The fire chief who refers to the citizens as “satisfied customers” has been particularly ineffective in reducing the incidence of bad behavior.  So this week the city manager announced that they will begin psychological testing of all applicants who want to be firefighters.  The Cincinnati Enquirer reported yesterday:

Future Cincinnati firefighters will start undergoing psychological evaluations again before being hired as part of changes city officials hope will reduce the number of firefighters in trouble and increase public confidence in the department.

The testing was stopped years ago, Fire Chief Robert Wright said this afternoon, but will resume with the next recruit class, expected to start in the middle of next year.

The chief, City Manager Milton Dohoney, City Solicitor John Curp, Human Resources Director Hilary Bohannon and Assistant City Manager Scott Stiles have started meetings with firefighters, a plan they will continue until meeting with all 840 (members).

Well, at least somebody has taken the initiative to do something productive about it.

It’s time for us to do something productive now, so let’s get the equipment checked out.  You know where I’m heading – to the Bunn-o-matic.  We’ll meet later in the day room.

Update:  STATter911 has a copy of the letter that Cincinnati Fire Chief Robert Wright sent to all the firefighters HERE.

As promised (to myself), I got the income tax return into the mail yesterday.  I use the short form, so it really doesn’t take too long to get them done.  But it’s the idea of sitting down and plugging through until they’re done.  It’s not fun anymore.

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File this one under “Most Memorable Ambulance Calls.”  You can bet that they’ll be talking about this one for quite a while in Indianapolis. Late last week two men got into an argument around 1 am (the worst time to start arguing about anything, you know) and one of them grabbed a sword and threatened the other.  In quick order the other man also drew his sword.

No, I can’t yet tell you how it is that two enraged men were able to get their hands on swords on a moment’s notice.  But as they started parrying and foiling, the wife of one of them tried to break up the fight by getting between them.  That was wrong move #2.  She was fatally stabbed and that’s what brought the PD and EMS into the picture.  But wait, there’s more.

Yesterday the dead woman’s husband also died from the stab wounds he received from the swordfight.  Now the police have charged the other swordsman with his murder.  But they don’t know who to charge yet for the woman’s murder.

“We’re unsure yet who started this fight, how the swordplay got involved,” said Indianapolis police Sgt. Matt Mount. “We’re not sure who it was who stabbed the woman. We’ll have to do some testing on the swords and figure out who had which sword, whose blood is on which sword.”  That has to be logged in as “The PIO Quote of the Week.”  The lone survivor?  He’s still in the hospital under police guard……being treated for sword wounds.

Well, let’s take a stab at getting this equipment checked out.  I need to get the coffee started.  We’ll meet back in the day room.

It was a busy weekend on the fire and rescue front, mostly a lot of bad news.  Houston FD is especially hard hit with the double LODD early yesterday morning.  Probably the best resource to read up on that event is the expanded coverage at STATter911.  Start HERE and click on his links to the earlier postings.  That tragedy came right on the heels of the news that the woman who was crushed by the ladder truck in that apparatus collision last week had died on Saturday.

That huge brush fire in Staten Island yesterday (our report HERE) was certainly a curiosity.  Here you had a wildfire with its unique demands being tackled by a fire department that is outfitted to fight structural fires.  Wrong clothing, wrong tools, wrong apparatus.  Of course, they got it done.  But it must have been quite the sight to see a tower-ladder being used on a brush fire.  You gotta work with whatcha’ got.

And probably the biggest property loss fire over the weekend was that large fire (can it be classed as a conflagration?) in New Hampshire where at least 40 dwellings were burned up in a matter of a couple of hours.  (scroll down to the next posting to see that one.)  They were mostly summer cottages that were unoccupied and protected by the FD of a town with only 900 permanent residents.  It was headlined with “11 Alarms.”  But that just means “Send me everything you’ve got” being sent out on the telegraph wire to whoever is on the line.  That was some battle and I feel for those poor guys who were up against it for as much as 12 hours in an almost-futile effort.  But like a wise man once said, you gotta work with whatcha’ got.

Did you notice that the sidebar video this weekend was featuring Roy Orbison?  I always liked his unique style of music.    I think his first major hit was his classic Pretty Woman which is still associated with him.  He was a true talent who not only sylized his music, but wrote a lot of hit tunes as well.  One song that he wrote, Blue Bayou probably earned him and his estate more money that anything he ever did.

After hitting it big in the U. S. in the early 1960′s, he went to Britain to tour and brought along with him as a follow-up act a rising group called The Beatles.  With the fast-rising popularity of the British rock genre, they soon became the lead group on the tour and Orbison was the warmup act.  Orbison and the Beatles were strong, lifelong friends after that.

One facet of his life that you might not know is the tragedy that struck his family.  Just two years after his wife Claudette (immortalized in still another of his song hits) died in a motorcycle accident, Orbison was touring in England in September, 1968, when his house back in Tennessee burned down.  Two of his three sons, ages 10 and 6, perished in the fire.  Roy’s parents who were staying with them managed to rescue the youngest boy who was 3-yrs. old at the time. 

I think it’s time we got this equipment checked out now.  I need to start another pot of coffee, so let’s get going.  I’ll see you back in the day room.