While This is True is a “weird news” publication, — its bigger mission is “Thought-Provoking Entertainment” — social commentary, or an exploration of The Human Condition. While True is my full-time job, I also volunteer as an on-call first-responder medic in my community. These are some of my stories from real medical emergencies.
I Write About Some of my experiences to help educate the public about this vital “third service” (after police and fire departments). Modern EMS only goes back a couple of generations in the United States (and often much shorter time periods in other parts of the world): I talk specifically about that here and here.
EMS Story Entries
This list (oldest first, starting with this page) is also available in the sidebar: choose “EMS Story” in the “Blog Categories” pulldown on every page (in newest-first order).
- EMS Stories: a New Series - What to do when you call 911 — before, during, and after.
- Ability Meets Need - A Different Way to Give Back.
- War on Drugs - Here's how to win the War on Drugs....
- Ouray Ice Festival Photos - Cool (ice cold, even) photos of climbers at Ouray's ice park, with bonus rescue action!
- Big Changes at TRUE Central - A job interview turns into an EMS story ...right in front of our house.
- School Bus Plunge (On Purpose) - Over the side of a steep embankment on Ouray County's famous "Million Dollar Highway" below Red Mountain Pass.
- Missing In Action - She begged me to let her call a paramedic.
- Honest to Goodness Good Stuff - "Great story. Will you be sharing it with your readers?" OK then, I will.
- Tough Weekend - Kit and I ran "just" two ambulance calls, but they were doozies.
- The Life You Save May Be… - Dispatchers are the first of the First Responders.
- Psychic Pay - There are some amazing people who help families through their worst nightmare.
- Bonfire of the Gravities - Huh?! A 16-year-old girl fell in the middle of NOWHERE in the middle of the night?
- The Risks of Emergency Responses - I sometimes write about my fantastic experiences as a volunteer medic. Yet sometimes the experience isn’t so fantastic. All emergency responders put themselves at great risk whenever they go on a call. This is a story of not beating the odds (but it could have been a lot worse).
- Hours of Boredom Punctuated by
Moments of Sheer Terror - It was one of those cases of serendipitous timing, and why I find EMS so interesting as an avocation. This morning, I jumped out of bed to help a helicopter land on the highway. - “They’re Landing On My Car!” - Well, that’s the way it felt, anyway! For a brief moment. Last fall I talked about helping a helicopter to land — in the middle of the highway in the middle of the night. Just got back from doing it again, except this time it was the middle of the day …and I had my ... Continue Reading
- The Very, VERY Beginning - My buddy “Jawn” from my NASA days is one of those natural social networkers. I don’t mean on Facebook, I mean in real life, and throughout his whole life. Several of his friends are on a mailing list together; I know them all in Real Life myself, and they’re all great guys. One, Hy, sent ... Continue Reading
- One Heck of an Evening - As you’ve probably heard in the news, Colorado has been suffering a lot of catastrophic fires this year. A few of them have hit too close to home.
- Randolph Mantooth: Still Active in EMS - How a 50-year-old TV show helped save millions of lives by encouraging improved pre-hospital care.
- The First Paramedics - The first paramedics were not “Johnny and Roy”. You may be surprised to learn who the real heroes were.
- Revenue-Virginius Mine Disaster - I write This is True (and edit the submissions of the contributing writers) each Sunday. On Mondays I write the surrounding material, like the Honorary Unsubscribe. It’s a fair amount of material, and it’s almost always possible to get it done in two days. But not this week.
- OK Buddy, Where’s the Fire? - I looked out the window and saw flames shooting 40 feet into the sky.
- Rescue Me - Ask Kit: it’s scary as hell to watch, and calling for help was the right response.
- Sometimes You Lose One - "If they don't have a third crew available, I'm the closest." -- an EMS story.
- Mark Miller: We’ve Got It From Here - Our EMS agency has three full-time “Advanced Life Support” medics to run on calls with the ambulance crews, which are usually staffed by “regular” EMTs. That gives us a primary, a secondary (calls often come after long waits of nothing, and then we get two …or three), and room for the third to have a ... Continue Reading
- Overlooked Heroes - I Was Hoping to Write a different Honorary Unsubscribe this week, but couldn’t because I couldn’t get information. Debbie Crawford, a 25-year veteran paramedic in Denver, died this weekend. The scuttlebutt is that her PTSD got so severe, she committed suicide — she could no longer handle the stress of the job. If that is ... Continue Reading
- Everyday Heroism - A car crash becomes a moment that changed a young girl's life. One guy took a moment to make it better.
- A Short Personal Note - A couple of pieces of artwork I carry with me everywhere.
- “What Happened”? - That public display of respect by so many people choked me up.
- Medical Mystery - One of my most memorable medical mysteries as a medic.
- 002: Reverberating for Decades - Three amazing stories of medical professionals going outside protocol to do the right thing: to be fully human in the face of death — all in just 9 minutes. Show Page: https://thisistrue.com/podcast2
- Preparing for a Mass Shooting: Behind the Scenes - Five Years Ago Now (yikes!), I wrote in this blog about a serious “multi-casualty incident” (or MCI) in my county. That happened on a Sunday — coincidentally the day after we finished a two-day MCI training.
- Luke Perry and Strokes - Trust me: you really, REALLY don't want to have a stroke, and you can dramatically reduce your odds of having one.
- 034: I Have a Scenario For You - A reader tells how she was inspired to change her life. And that leads to a powerful thinking tool: running scenarios can save your life. I’ll show you how, and tell the story of how they probably saved my life. Show Page: https://thisistrue.com/podcast34
- Come To Me - A quick video of a medical chopper landing right in front of me yesterday, in support of an emergency operation as a volunteer medic. I had a radio to talk directly to the pilot in one hand, and my phone in “camera” mode in the other.
- What It’s Like to Lose a Child Patient - Rescuing one of my stories from a lost archive.
- The Best Thing All Week - This isn’t a story about me, but rather something awesome that I witnessed while working at a big fire this weekend.
- Round Trip - A story in this week’s issue stirred up some my past. I’d love to take you along that trip.
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