You have got to be kidding - Anyone who is in the EMS industry can't even support or believe this show. I work in EMS in Portland, Oregon and this show is completely phony. It is the grossest misrepresentation of EMS I have ever seen on TV. Isn't this supposed to be a "true to life drama"? It misses the mark completely.
In this show alone, I counted 20 blatant untruths, factual errors and violations of EMS Protocol, protocols as laid down by qualified, licensed medical directors and followed as the EMS bible by every EMT and Paramedic in the real field in Portland, Oregon. A medic never goes against Medical Direction advice or orders to give medications to a patient when explicitly ordered not to. A real medic would never scream at the hospital nurse receiving a report "I'm here and you're not" and not suffer the serious consequences of discipline.
In this particular show, the variables in the patient condition were too great to know how the medications would affect this patient, as pointed out by the nurse, because the patient had been pinned in in the auto that went off-road for 3 to 4 hours prior to EMS arrival. Both medics "hot dogged" by immediately jumping into unstable vehicle that clearly was teetering on the verge of plummeting down an embankment before Fire arrived to stabilize the vehicle-a very serious safety protocol violation.
Then, when Fire did arrive, they stood around and did nothing to stabilize the vehicle or help the medics with the patient. They meandered around their fire engine in full turnouts as if nothing was happening. Completely unrealistic. Stabilizing the vehicle is the first priority to ensure safety of the medics to safely reach and treat the patient. The C Collar was applied by the medic "yanking" the patient's neck upward while putting it on, subjecting the patient to possible paralysis or further injury. The hot dog medic Wyatt miraculously (and improperly) diagnosed what was wrong with the patient by only taking a blood pressure. He gives medication to the patient under direct orders not to, and used two large bore needles (why???) to administer "crush medications" (there is no such thing) and the patient crashed immediately. Then their CPR was completely laughable.
The other mistakes were so blatant I found myself laughing through the rest of it. The dispatcher was completely outside of protocol when dispatching. Wyatt argued with the nurse over the radio at Good Samaritan Hospital (another disciplinary offense) and went against explicit orders about patient care that no drugs were to be administered and to transport immediately.. both orders ignored. A fireable offense. The supervisor then lied to the nurse on the crew's arrival at the hospital with the patient and said no medications were used when she nailed him about it. Not realistic, and also another fireable offense. I suppose these medications aren't going to show up in the patient's labs? Poorly thought out. The star of this show, Wyatt, is such an incredible hot dog he's laughable. He does things his way, irregardless of the rules and protocols set forth by the medical director of his county. He's insolent, reckless and dangerous. He wouldn't last a day in the real world, his ass would be fired for "doing his own thing his own way". Not to mention he's a liability hazard to the company. Had this happened in the real world, there were so many lawsuit opportunities, I couldn't believe it.
Where is the consultant for this show? Did he do any ridealongs with real ambulance and fire crews before he wrote this stuff? Obviously not since he's clearly lacking in factuality and realism. The banter back and forth about personal issues while ignoring critical patient care is also a disciplinary matter. Ignoring a patient's needs and proper care as a first responder is against the code of ethics. Also, since when would an ambulance in Portland Oregon take a "detour" for a patient en route to a hospital to show them the ocean? That's a detour of no less than two hours. The receiving hospital would be wondering why the ambulance hadn't arrived after the hear report was given, not to mention the dispatcher keeps tabs on arrival times being reasonable. Completely unrealistic. Sorry folks, for realism this show gets a zero. Entertainment value for someone not wanting to watch a realistic EMS show could be much higher rated.
As to the "expert" below who's commenting on idiocy, I made my points solidly. Where are your points? And please, provide a solid basis for them rather than resorting to name calling and shallow accusations.
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