Got revenge?

HEN  you are faced with opposition...

I don't like conflict but I rarely back down...I do decide what battles I will fight and which ones to quietly walk away from, but I rarely raise a white flag.

As promised the uncapped needle.  So I have to educate you a little bit about needles. As a paramedic, I had to learn a lot about needles, sizes, what use for what needle, I had to start IV, (intravenous)and give IM injections (intramuscular) And we carried needles in our Tech Bag.  We did lots of other things with needles, but you get my drift. 


my badge

Each time we were given a "bus" in the morning at the beginning of our shift we were also given a locker key...in that locker was the tech bag and narcs we were assigned to for that day...again this is not like I get the same bag every day I get a different bag every day! In that bag is all the syringes, iv start paks, as well an intubation kit, meds like dextrose, iv fluids and drip bags, and needles...and lots of other things that may be needed in the course of the day as a Paramedic...this bag is Super heavy!!


cert cards

In the narc kit which is the drugs we would use to sedate someone who may need to be intubated, such as propofol,  midazolam, diazepam, all narcotics.  We also carried Morphine.  These we had to carry on our person, I had a little fanny pack I put mine in.  

So each drop had to be accounted for it is a controlled substance.  So we sign it out, check it, and sign it back in..at the end of the day if you had to use any you had to record it and if you didn't use it all you had to have an official witness you Waste it, shoot it into a sink and discard it and this form would go in with the kit to be refilled.  


shirt patches

So in training we are taught to never never recap a needle, because in the process of recapping you can stick yourself! So we had syringes for dextrose with big needles that we attach to the dextrose in a bottle you push the bottle into the syringe then you twist on the needle use it then discard the whole thing in a sharps container...Syringes are in packages, as are the needles that attach..we had different sizes, of syringe and needle.  

So after a while you get slack...you always check your narcs but the bag....uh not so much...

So our paramedic supervisor was responsible for making sure our bags had everything in it and he would routinely take bags back to his office to re-supply them.  This particular guy and I didn't like each other.  On several occasions we butted heads..like shift schedules, the whole bus thing, and more.  One day when I went in to speak to him about a shift change he kept me waiting while he conversed with someone on Instant Messenger.

I was ready to start my shift and I was impatient..so I blurted out "can't you chat on  your own time, I'm already on the board." meaning I could be sent to a call I'm on the dispatch board..

HE did not like that one bit!! His face got red and he told me to get out of his office and key him up on the Nextel radio when I got in my bus...So I stomped out.  I did key him up he refused my shift change and I was not happy...
The next morning when I got to work I was told I was not on the schedule...WHY NOT I inquire,,,,I had worked Wed, Thurs, Friday 9-9 for 2 years!  We never got off at 9 they gave us our last call at 9 I normally got home at 11 or later on these days.
SO I was told to go see the paramedic supervisor..
That guy...so I did..
He told me..."upon last inspection of your tech bag, I found an UN-capped Needle," so you are on 3 days suspension...without pay. (meaning I could not put in for 3 vacation days)

"WHAT?" I never opened a needle, so he said, "doesn't matter who actually left it there you were the last one to check that bag out and I found an uncapped needle in the bag." REALLY? I was probably the 4th tech to have that bag that week.

SO I got pay back big time for telling him to chat on his own time...that is how you could be retaliated against in that line of work.  I took my  3 days and I wrote in my response to the charge, that "I felt that he set me up with the needle story to retaliate against me for finding  him using instant messenger while on the clock." He did not like my response but it was my right to say in writing if I agreed with or did not agree with this suspension...
SO that became part of my record, I was written up many times for insubordination which is sassing  your superior.  And I got another suspension for telling the dispatcher to "(*&^%$) that was 2 days...and one day for not in uniform, refusing to wear a tie...;o/ in my response I disagreed, and said "I had it in my back pocket and in the handbook it says uniform consists of a shirt pants, belt and tie, It did not say the tie had to be around the neck!!" Later they made the change to "around the neck" but I was gone by then...
Anywho....I decided that I was not cut out for "military" life which ems grew out of, the mash units in the Vietnam war and so when my certification expired in 2006 I left the biz....and never looked back. I did complete my NATIONAL REGISTRY  CERTIFICATION and that expired in 2008...I was so happy to not have to remember the dose of how to titrate a Lidocaine drip, or the protocol for cardiac arrest...it was such a relief.


That supervisor was fired 3 months after that incident when it was discovered he was using a work computer to have sex chats while on duty...OMG

Well then I knew the rest of the story.