Learning First Aid in the Mountains

After twenty-five years in career EMS, I'm going to learn firs-aid! Seriously. This weekend I'll be traveling to the High Peaks area of New York State in the Adirondack Mountains to spend some time with instructors from Wilderness Medical Associates.

A weekend in the ADK and putting a new twist on some old skills...learning how to manage situations without a med bag, cardiac monitor, or an ambulance. I can't wait!

Of course, a full review will come in the form of the next "off duty" segment of Mitigation Journal.

Do they get it, or don't they?!

On November 1, MSNBC reported that Gitmo detainees were in line to receive H1N1 vaccine. The article quoted "Army Maj. James Crabtree, a spokesman for the U.S. jail facility in southeast Cuba, said the doses should start arriving this month, with guards and then inmates scheduled for inoculations" and further acknowledged "He acknowledged there may be an "emotional response" from critics who argue that terror suspects should not be allocated swine-flu medications while members of the U.S. public are still waiting due to a vaccine shortage." The full article is shared on the blog, too.

I was outraged at the potential of Gitmo terrorist detainees receiving a vaccine I can't get for my kids! I also posted this on Facebook and got a unanimous response from other "pissed off" people...by the way, I did get one email calling me a "hater" - you figure it out.

Anyway, Reuters News is reporting that "The White House denied on Tuesday that any H1N1 flu vaccine is now going to terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, heading off controversy over swine flu prevention priorities."

Public opinion must have gotten the best of them...so, do they get it, or don't they?

Possible Chemical Assisted Suicide, Ontario County, NY

Possible Chemical Assisted Suicide, Ontario County, NY:
News just being posted on a couple of local media sites (WHAM 1180 and Rochester D and C) indicating that a person has been found dead in a car with five-gallon buckets of chemicals in the back seat and a sign in the window warning of "toxic gas". Residents within a half-mile radius have been evacuated...

We've written about this in the blog and talked quite a bit about it on the podcast...this trend of using over-the-counter chemicals to create what I call "Consumer-Level Hazardous Materials Events" is a grave threat to responders and the public. In cases of chemical assisted suicide, also known as detergent suicide, a mix of several simple household materials combine to create Hydrogen Sulfide...a blood agent similar and potentially more potent than cyanide. I've listed the Podcast and Blog entries related to this topic (We've been following these situations since early 2008 and have quite a collection of information).

If you'd like to see my notes on this topic, click here for my site and scroll to the Training File at the bottom of the page. If you have trouble with any of these files, please email me or call 585-672-7844.

Listen to Mitigation Journal Podcast (free) editions #114 , #104 , #72 , #59
Read the Mitigation Journal Blog postings: More Chemical Suicide (5/31/09), Chemical Suicide in Cars (3/3/09) and Suicide by Blood Agent (4/28/08)

Should we believe it this time?

10 Million more units of H1N1 due by next week. Should we believe it? Or, is it more of what we heard? Remember back in the beginning of September 2009 we were going to have 85 million units of vaccine. I'll believe it when I see it...

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