48 Fun Facts About EMT

The small clip an ambulance crew puts on a patient's fingertip measures what?

Oxygen in the blood: the pulse oximeter shines light through the fingertip and works out the level from how much gets through. No needle is needed, and the patient feels nothing.

An AED, the box on the wall in airports and gyms, treats cardiac arrest by delivering what?

An electric shock from the defibrillator can jolt a quivering heart back into a normal rhythm. The unit talks the user through each step, so even an untrained bystander can use one.

Which device do ambulance crews strap round an arm or leg to stop life-threatening bleeding?

A tourniquet takes its name from the French for 'to turn': early ones were tightened by twisting a rod or screw. It goes 2 to 3 inches above the wound, never over a joint.

An ambulance staffed only by EMTs is called what kind of unit?

Basic life support (BLS) is the level a crew of EMTs can give; federal ambulance rules require at least one on board. Put a paramedic on the crew and the same vehicle becomes an advanced life support unit.

Which body's exams do most US states use to certify their EMTs?

The National Registry of EMTs (NREMT) dates from 1970, after President Johnson's highway-safety committee called for one agency to set uniform standards. Until then ambulance training varied from one region to the next.

Which of these medications is within the scope of a basic EMT in the US?

Oxygen, epinephrine, dextrose, albuterol and aspirin are among the others on the short list.

EMS protocols in the US are developed under the guidance of whom?

A physician medical director is in charge of the protocols and, under the national model, must also credential each crew member: a state licence alone is not enough to use a skill.

What sits at the centre of ambulances' Star of Life?

A snake coils round the rod of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, at the star's centre. Each of the six bars around it stands for a step in a rescue, from detecting the emergency to handing over at hospital.

US ambulances swapped an orange cross for the blue Star of Life in the 1970s after which organisation complained?

The Red Cross complained that the orange cross on a white square imitated its own emblem. Federal highway safety officials answered with the six-barred blue star, registered as a certification mark in 1977.

A landmark 1966 US report said the seriously injured had better survival odds where than on a city street?

In a combat zone, said experts back from Korea and Vietnam, where first aid and fast transport had cut battlefield death rates. The report, Accidental Death and Disability, launched modern American EMS.

Freedom House Ambulance Service, the first US paramedic service, was founded in 1967 to serve which neighbourhood?

Pittsburgh's Hill District supplied the crews as well as the patients: the service recruited local Black men, many written off as unemployable, and their work became a national model for emergency care.

CPR pioneer Peter Safar worked with a Norwegian toy maker on which training mannequin?

Resusci Anne came from Asmund Laerdal, who made dolls and model cars before turning to medicine. Her face copies a Paris death mask said to be of an unknown young woman drowned in the Seine.

Adult chest compressions in CPR should be delivered at what rate?

100 to 120 per minute is close to two pushes a second, each about two inches deep. Pushing hard and fast keeps blood moving to the brain until a defibrillator arrives.

The American Heart Association suggests humming which Bee Gees song to keep CPR compressions on tempo?

Stayin' Alive has a beat that matches the pace rescuers need. The American Heart Association built a hands-only CPR video around it, starring comic actor and qualified doctor Ken Jeong.

The coma scale that ambulance crews use worldwide is named after which Scottish city?

Glasgow neurosurgeons Graham Teasdale and Bryan Jennett published the scale in 1974. Eyes, speech and movement are each scored from 1 up, so even a deeply unconscious patient scores 3, never zero.

The word 'triage' comes from a French verb meaning what?

To sort or select: French 'trier' gave English a word first used for grading goods by quality. English borrowed the medical sense from French field hospitals in the First World War.

In the START triage system for mass-casualty incidents, which colour tag marks the walking wounded?

Green goes to everyone who can get up and walk: rescuers simply call for the walking wounded to move to one spot. Red, yellow and black tags then go to the patients who stay put.

Baltimore trauma surgeon R Adams Cowley is credited with which phrase for the vital window after a serious injury?

The golden hour was Cowley's name for the gap 'between life and death' after a critical injury. To beat the clock, his shock trauma unit began receiving patients by Maryland State Police helicopter in 1969.

The first portable defibrillator, fitted to a Belfast ambulance in 1965, ran on what?

Car batteries powered Frank Pantridge's 70-kilogram machine, which let crews restart a heart at the roadside instead of racing to hospital. He later cut the weight to about 3 kilograms.

The first 911 call in the United States was made in 1968 in which small Alabama town?

Haleyville's first call ran from Alabama House speaker Rankin Fite to Congressman Tom Bevill, who picked up at the police station. The local Alabama Telephone Company had set the service up.

Which 1972 NBC drama about Los Angeles paramedics is credited with popularising the profession?

Emergency! made paramedics famous when the job barely existed, and programmes like the one it showed sprang up across the country.

The Squad 51 paramedics of the 1970s TV drama worked for which real agency?

Los Angeles County Fire began training firefighters as paramedics at Harbor General Hospital in 1969, before any state law allowed them to practise. The show went on air three years later.

In the FAST stroke mnemonic, what does the T stand for?

Time to call for help: the last letter is an instruction, not a symptom, because the sooner a stroke is treated the less damage it does.

In the SAMPLE patient history mnemonic, what does the A stand for?

Allergies follow signs and symptoms; then come medications, past history, last oral intake and the events leading up. If the patient cannot answer, crews put the same questions to relatives or bystanders.

EMTs give aspirin to a patient with a suspected heart attack because the drug does what?

Helps stop blood clots forming: aspirin makes the blood's platelets less sticky, so the clot blocking a heart artery grows more slowly. It is one of the few drugs a basic EMT is allowed to give.

Which California governor signed the 1970 Wedworth-Townsend Act, the law that first let paramedics practise in the state?

Ronald Reagan signed it as governor. Until then California's first firefighter-paramedics could not answer a call without a hospital nurse riding along, because no law let them practise alone.

Naloxone, carried by EMTs to reverse opioid overdoses, is sold under which brand name?

Narcan can wear off in 30 to 90 minutes, sooner than many opioids do, so a revived patient can slip back into overdose. That is why crews still want them seen at hospital.

An epinephrine autoinjector such as the EpiPen is most often used to treat what?

Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening allergic reaction, so the pen is built for speed: it goes into the outer thigh, straight through clothing if need be.

The recovery position is used for a casualty who is what?

Unconscious but breathing casualties go on their side so the tongue cannot fall back and vomit can drain from the mouth. If breathing stops, they are rolled onto their back for CPR instead.

The Heimlich manoeuvre, or abdominal thrust, is a first-aid treatment for what?

Choking on a foreign object is what the thrust treats: a sharp squeeze just above the navel forces air up from the lungs to pop the blockage out. It is only for someone who cannot cough, speak or breathe.

A Kendrick Extrication Device (KED), carried on many ambulances, is used to remove victims from what?

Motor vehicles after a crash: Richard Kendrick designed the wrap-around vest because a rigid backboard is nearly impossible to slide behind someone sitting in a car's bucket seat.

Napoleon's surgeon Larrey called his battlefield wagons 'flying ambulances' because they were what?

Rapidly moving is the sense: Larrey's horse-drawn wagons went in during the fighting to bring out the wounded, instead of waiting until the battle was over.

In the US national EMS system, what is the lowest of the four certification levels?

Emergency medical responder is the rung below EMT. They are often first on scene and start life-saving care, but the national model says they should not be the senior person looking after a patient during transport.

An advanced EMT can do which of these that a basic EMT generally cannot?

Start an intravenous line is the big step up: advanced EMTs can put fluids and a few drugs straight into a vein. Defibrillators, oxygen and splints are already in the basic EMT's kit.

In 2019 the NREMT dropped which requirement for candidates seeking national EMT certification?

The age limit went in 2019: until then candidates had to be at least 18. States can still set their own, and California and Wisconsin both require an EMT to be 18.

In the 1960s, about half of American ambulance services were run by which kind of local business?

Funeral homes had the one vehicle in town where a patient could lie flat: the hearse. A landmark 1966 report counted 12,000 morticians running about half of the country's ambulance services.

In 1996, New York City moved its ambulances from the public hospital system into which agency?

The fire department took over the city's EMS from the Health and Hospitals Corporation in March 1996. Rudolph Giuliani pushed the merger, under which firefighters trained in medical care turn out to medical emergencies too.

Which actor played burnt-out New York paramedic Frank Pierce in Martin Scorsese's 1999 film Bringing Out the Dead?

Nicolas Cage plays the sleepless medic, haunted by the ghost of a patient he could not save. The film comes from Joe Connelly's 1998 novel of the same name.

The Star of Life was adapted from a symbol for patients' ID bracelets and cards, created by which organisation?

The American Medical Association devised the six-barred star for medical ID tags. Leo Schwartz, the federal EMS chief, borrowed it for ambulances in the 1970s and gave each bar a rescue task.

Peter Safar, who helped launch America's first paramedic service in 1967, had lost his young daughter a year earlier to what?

An asthma attack stopped Elizabeth Safar's heart in 1966 before her father, the doctor who championed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, could reach her. Within a year he was helping to design the training for Freedom House's crews.

Which emergency phone number, the world's first, did Britain launch in London in 1937?

999 was picked over 111 because phone wires rubbing together in the wind could dial 111 by accident. The service began after five women died in a London fire.

Ambulance crews' Cincinnati stroke scale checks face, speech and what else?

Arm weakness completes the three-item check: crews watch whether one arm drifts down. Cincinnati doctors cut it down from the much longer NIH stroke exam so crews could use it on scene.

Which of these procedures is within a paramedic's scope but not an EMT's?

Paramedics may also perform cricothyrotomy, cardioversion, pacing and pericardiocentesis.

The Wallace rule of nines exists mainly to estimate what?

Body surface area burned is what the rule measures: each arm counts as 9 percent, each leg 18, and the total steers how much fluid the patient needs and whether to head for a burn centre.

Which city official's opposition ended Freedom House's ambulance service in 1975?

The mayor cut the service's funding and then replaced it with a city-run ambulance corps. Before Freedom House, police had answered the city's emergency calls and did little more than drive patients to hospital.

Elevators marked with the Star of Life indicate what?

The car is big enough for a stretcher: US building codes require at least one such elevator in buildings of four or more storeys, sized for a 24-by-84-inch ambulance cot.

Across Canada, which title marks the entry level of paramedic practice?

Primary care paramedic is the national name for the first paramedic rung, but each province regulates its own crews, so the official title can differ from one province to the next.

In the UK, which body's registration protects the title 'paramedic'?

The Health and Care Professions Council also registers physiotherapists, dietitians and arts therapists, so Britain's paramedics are regulated alongside the therapy professions, not with doctors or nurses.