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ALS and BLS Medical Care: Which should I have at my event?

Paramedics Unlimited

What is the difference between ALS and BLS Medical Care? In Basic Life Support (BLS) emergencies, a single EMS provider can not deliver optimum care, such as when trying to hold direct pressure on a bleeding wound, while preparing bandages, to stop bleeding. Paramedics provide pain management treatment in the field.

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Rock Bottom

Peter Canning

We’re dispatched to an overdose on Ashley Street. I am in the fly car and a BLS crew is in the ambulance. I don’t see anyone on two passes, but then I hear the BLS unit radio they’ve found him. I have done many overdoses like this one of homeless people who were in fact down alleys and behind dumpsters.

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SGEM#179: Chase the Dragon and Naloxone

The Skeptics' Guide to EM

Do heroin overdose patients require observation after receiving naloxone? Do heroin overdose patients require observation after receiving naloxone? Opioids depress the heart rate and breathing and overdoses can result in death. The second new recommendation was about opioid overdose treatment. Clinical Toxicology 2017.

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2023 AHA Update on Management Cardiac Arrest or Life-Threatening Toxicity Due to Poisoning

EMDocs

Opioid overdose remains the leading cause of cardiac arrest due to poisoning in North America. For a patient with suspected opioid overdose who has a definite pulse but no normal breathing or only gasping (ie, a respiratory arrest), in addition to providing standard BLS and/or ALS care, it is reasonable for responders to administer naloxone.

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The Harms of Stigma

Peter Canning

They treated me like s**t the time I overdosed. One day I was dispatched to an overdose. I was in the paramedic fly car and a BLS crew was in the ambulance. I didn’t see anyone on two passes, but then I heard the BLS unit radio that they’d found the patient. You have just overdosed. They don’t like me there.

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How to Become an EMT in New Jersey

Paramedic Training Spot

Before BLS, or Basic Life Support, was able to administer Narcan, agencies would have to wait for a MICP unit to arrive on scene to administer the lifesaving medication. They had overdosed, and this was before the widespread use of Narcan. Although protocols differ from state to state, local and agency protocols may vary as well.

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