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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Paramedic here, we don’t have access to a fully stocked pharmacy in our ambulance. Ketamine is pretty much the industry standard for situations like this. Its efficacy, safety profile, wide dose range, and rapid onset make it the ideal drug for managing violent behavior and sedation in a prehospital setting. I am not saying the medics made an appropriate decision in this situation but that is the appropriate mediation to use in situations like this. Versed would be a good runner up but is less effective in some situations with low doses and higher doses have a higher risk of respiratory compromise. Ativan is an option, if they carry it, I wouldn’t personally use Ativan in this situation because it has a longer onset/duration and higher chance of adverse reactions.

    Ketamine might seem a bit excessive but it’s a very good medication for prehospital use. This is a situation that a lot of stuff went wrong and someone died. The cause of the death is more likely an adverse reaction that was not appropriate addressed by the paramedic, but that’s probably why they just got a conviction. But ketamine is used every day across the US without situations like this happening.


  • Fair enough, I don’t think I have an direct answer to the big picture of your question but in my own experience improving my confidence and the mentality I’ve adopted to do so has in turn reshaped how I view myself. So as you stated there might be an overlap of the two topics.

    I’m not trying to advertise it (I have it as a pdf and would offer to send you a copy if I knew how to do that on here) but the book i was referring to is called “The confident mind” It’s by Nate Zinsser. It felt a little dry but it isn’t trying to be a science fiction novel and makes it points very well. An example being from my last comment just repeating something to yourself over and over leads to you starting to believe it. It also uses pro athletes and their mentality and talk about how one could apply the same approach to everyday life. It’s not earth shattering revelations, but for me it did connect things in a way that helped shift my perspective.


  • I might be misinterpreting your post but it sounds like you’re talking a little bit more about confidence. The key to having confidence and fighting away imposter syndrome is to find and focus on the positives, how you got to the spot you’re in and all of the times you’ve had to succeed. Forget about the failures and spend time every day reflecting on your accomplishments.

    It’s that simple. You don’t even need to believe the stuff you tell yourself, but if you keep repeating it to yourself, you will start the believe it. Confidence requires active effort to build, independent of how good at something someone is. I struggled with my confidence and occasionally still do but had a friend recommend a good book that legitimately changed how I view myself. I can’t remember the name of it off the top of my head but if you want I will look it up and edit my comment.


  • I also don’t like talking to the police, even more so when I’m off duty, but I work in Florida and I’ve worked in a few counties, some after I attempted resuscitation I’d call the medical examiner’s office and tell them what’s going on and then they’d say if they wanted to come investigate or not, but currently where I work operates the same as you’re describing medical examiner comes out and investigates any death that didn’t happen under direct care of a physician.

    Anyway, I’m sure you’ve got a lot going on so please toss that bag of garbage, it isn’t worth your time and effort to think about and I wish you the best in this tough time.



  • OP, sorry. Resuscitation can be chaotic and there is a chance that the bag got pushed off to the side and then they missed it cleaning up.

    That does not make it okay because it looks like their BVM is in the bag, which means that was placed their after the resuscitation. Your picture doesn’t show anything aside from the little bit of blood that isn’t just garbage, so don’t worry about how to get rid of it, just throw it in the trash. But again, sorry, I’ve never personally and I haven’t worked with anyone who would intentionally leave garbage on a scene after an attempted resuscitation, it’s a small detail that someone’s family shouldn’t have to think about in this kind of situation.