Have you or a loved one that has been saved by your local EMS system? They were having a seizure and the paramedics stopped the seizure before their brain became damaged from lack of oxygen. How about being in a lot of pain from an accident and the paramedic administered pain medication? The number of situations are numerous in which these medications are life saving and necessary. If this bill IS NOT PASSED EMS may lose their ability to administer life saving drugs (Schedule II, III, IV, and V drugs on this website: http://www.dea.gov/druginfo/ds.shtml).

So how does this affect everyone? I work for a local EMS system. I am currently an Advanced EMT which is a middle level EMS provider. I am in school to be a Paramedic. For those that are unsure of what a Paramedic can do here is a link to specifics: http://www.healthcaresalaryworld.com/paramedic-job... We could potentially lose the ability to administer controlled substances listed on the DEA site in all of these situations. I have a specific story in which this is relevant. My partner and I responded to a woman experiencing leg pain. She was up a flight of stairs and in bed. We found out later from the hospital that she had broken two bones in her leg. While on scene, she was in a lot of pain. We attempted to move her to a chair that we use to get patients down the stairs. She was unable to tolerate any movement without screaming in pain. In order to be able to move her, we had to administer pain medication (100 mcg of Fentanyl). This made the movement down the stairs bearable for her. Had we not given her this medication, she would have undergone an extreme amount of pain that may have even caused her to pass out while relocating her to the truck. If this bill is not passed, we will lose the ability to administer this pain medication.

A colleague had a patient that fell down a flight of stairs and hit his head. He proceeded to walk back upstairs and pass out. His breathing capabilities became impaired. He was found by his friends who then called 9-1-1. EMS personnel found the patient having had a seizure and was unconscious and had symptoms indicative of a brain injury. A life saving procedure called rapid sequence intubation needed to be done in order to ensure that this patient received enough oxygen to remain alive and prevent further injury. This procedure involves at least 4 different controlled substances, in some cases 5. If this bill is not passed, we will lose the ability to perform this procedure.

If this bill is passed, we will lose our ability to make decisions to do these procedures without calling a physician. There are several issues with having to call a physician in the middle of a life saving event. First of all, time is needlessly wasted. The airway procedure discussed above takes about 8 minutes. Having to call and talk to a physician could make the procedure 15 minutes or longer. Once the brain has been deprived of oxygen for 10 minutes, irreversible brain damage happens. Also, sometimes orders are not given by a physician for a procedure that NEEDS to be done.

This is the link to the proposed bill for those that would like more information: https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/hr4365/BILLS-11...
The National Association of Emergency Medical Service Physicians is supporting this bill as well: http://www.naemsp.org/Pages/Advocacy.aspx
If you would like to also write your congressman about the issue, go to the above address and click on list of house health staffers and email your state representative. We appreciate your time reading this and your support of our continued life saving efforts!