Welcome to the FDNY EMS Website.

AND........WE'RE BACK

So, as I am sure you have heard by now FDNY will not close any Fire Companies this year. What a shock... After all the talk and threats they will stay open for
another year. That is the good news. The bad news is that as a trade off the City of New York wants to dismantle all of the emergency call boxes. Yeah,
Bloomberg wants to save a few dollars by endangering public safety. Of course it is not like the city keeps the call boxes in working order. They (for the most part)
look like rusting totem polls that dot the landscape of NYC.

In the mean time the Bloomberg administration has asked a federal court to clear the way for a plan to eliminate 15,000 emergency-help boxes on New
York City streets, setting aside concerns that it might discriminate against deaf residents.

This of course is all happening only months after FDNY and the City of New York made a video that shows the hearing impaired how to use the call boxes
to get help in an emergency. The video, which probably cost thousands of taxpayer dollars to make shows FDNY's tappa, tappa, tappa, system for summoning
help. Basically, if you need help and you can't hear or speak you...(1) go to the alarm box, (2) pray it works, (3) start slapping your hand on the alarm box using
different tapping patterns for different emergencies. Using different patterns will get you a different responses from different agencies. I guess if your life is in
danger and someone is coming after you with a knife to kill you, that you may want to tap faster as he approaches. Hopefully the police will get there before you
are killed. Either way Bloomberg should keep his hands off the call boxes. You should not be allowed to save money by putting people in danger.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Now on to more grim EMS news...North General Hospital has bit the dust. Not that I thought that they were the greatest hospital in the world, but NYC is losing
hospital beds. The patients are crowding other hospitals and the other Emergency Rooms are bursting at the seams. It makes you wonder what hospital will be
going under next.

NYC PARKS DEPT TO THE PUBLIC "DROP DEAD"

According to an audit completed by Comptroller John C. Liu. The New York City Parks Department had inadequate oversight, planning and maintenance of
life-saving automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public places, The audit uncovered the Parks Department did not fully comply with a five-year old public
safety law (Local Law 20 of 2005) that mandated the placement of AEDs in public places where they would be accessible and available in emergencies.

The Audit found:

RESPONSE PLANS UNAVAILABLE OR INCOMPLETE: Required Site-Specific Response Plans were either unavailable or incomplete at all 12 sampled sites.
Response Plans have all the information required at each facility with an AED, including a list of trained responders, procedures to follow in notifying trained
responders of the emergency and how the trained responder(s) would be dispatched to the site of the medical emergency. Without these Plans, there is limited
assurance that personnel will know what steps to take in the event of a medical emergency, who the trained first responders are, and how to contact them.

INADEQUATE OVERSIGHT INSPECTIONS: The oversight inspections that were performed were not always complete nor covered all of the law’s key
requirements. In addition, not all of the recreation centers were inspected as required and there was no evidence of follow-up of deficiencies identified during
oversight inspections.

EXPIRED OR LACKING AED SUPPLIES: Eight of the 12 sites (67 percent) sampled did not have all required AED supplies and/or had expired supplies, i.e. spare
batteries, child pads and sterile gloves. Parks Department records showed that previous internal inspections revealed five centers had inoperable AEDs at times
because of low or expired batteries or expired defibrillation pads.

INADEQUATE COVERAGE BY TRAINED FIRST RESPONDERS: New York State Public Health Law states that no person may operate an AED unless that person
has successfully completed a training course in the operation of an AED. However, there was no assurance that a trained first responder was always present
during the recreation centers’ operating hours.

LACKING OR INADEQUATE AED SIGNAGE: Eleven of the 12 sites (92 percent) sampled did not have all required wall signs or the signs did not include all the
required emergency contact information.

AEDS NOT PROPERLY REGISTERED: Parks Department did not register all of its AED devices with REMSCO as required. AEDs must be registered with
REMSCO with a contact person, number of trained personnel and number of AEDs at each site. REMSCO then provides this information to professional
emergency responders such as the Fire Department for use if needed in a medical emergency.

Now the worst part of this whole ugly affair isn't mentioned. The worst part of this is that even though (Local Law 20 of 2005) mandates the placement of AEDs in
public places where they would be accessible and available to the public in emergencies, unless you are trained to use an AED it is illegal in NYC and NYS for you
to use one. Thats right. Public Health Law Article 30 states:

"No person may operate an automated external defibrillator unless the person has successfully completed a training course in the operation of an automated
external defibrillator approved by a nationally-recognized organization or the state emergency medical services council, and the completion of the course was
recent enough to still be effective under the standards of the approving organization."

There is no reason to discourage use of AEDs. CPR will not correct a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. The public should be encouraged to use AEDs.

Nice right? No wonder CPR survival rates in NYC are so dismal. If you get a chance you should read Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: Celebration and Challenges
by Mickey S. Eisenberg M.D., PhD and Bruce M. Psaty, M.D., PhD in the July 7th, 2010 issue of JAMA. You will see in the article that we have a very, very long
way to go. Laws like the one above do nothing to help survival. Laws like the one above are a reason that the survival rate in NYC is under 2%.