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If you ever write a scuba diver character, a deep sea diver, a search/rescue/recovery diver, a Navy submariner, etc., you’ll need to understand Decompression Illness (DCI), a serious illness caused by trapped nitrogen. There are two mechanisms of DCI:   1)      Decompression Sickness   2)      Arterial Gas Embolism   SCUBA (Self-Contained-Underwater-Breathing-Apparatus) divers breathe a purified air mixture…

When I hear a reader say: “That’s not realistic; all of that couldn’t happen to one character.” I think, “That reader has skirted through life with little trial.”Spring 2009, a cop barreled into our car, injuring my oldest daughter, my son and myself. My husband and our youngest daughter escaped uninjured. The two kids healed;…

EMS 4 diabetic emergency at 123 Fox Street, at 123 Fox Street on TACH Channel 12 I stuff the rest of my sandwich into my mouth and gulp down some water as I rush out of the fast food joint to hop into my ambulance. As my partner signals RESCOM (dispatch) we’re en route to the above…

Dianna is back for her monthly EMS post. I’d like to pass along my congratulations to her for winning in the ACFW Genesis contest this year! This is a much sought after award and will turn the heads of editors her way. I know we will be seeing her books published in the coming years.…

Dianna Benson is back for her monthly post discussing the different types of personal protective equipment healthcare professionals wear in different types of situations. As a writer, these will help you write authentically. As an EMT, a Haz-Mat-Operative, and a FEMA Mass Casualty Incident Operative, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is vital to my safety and health.…

Mart asks a fairly detailed medical question so I’m going to split this post up over two days. Today, our resident EMS expert, Dianna Benson, will offer the EMS response. Next post, I’ll cover the emergency department treatment. Mart asks: This is the scenario: Ruby, Gio and their parents are in a car that submerges…

When Safe Scenes Turn Dangerous Unlike inside a hospital, EMS operates in uncontrolled settings and environments. At any given moment a scene can and does suddenly become unsafe for us while we’re in the process of medically treating a patient. As an EMS crew is enroute, responding to a 911-Call, if Dispatch informs us PD (police department) or LEOS…

Dianna’s back for her monthly blog post. Today, she focuses on HazMat Decon (otherwise known as cleaning gross stuff off of you that could kill you). I particularly love the photos she included to help aid the writer with those accurate descriptive details. Don’t forget, leave a comment this month and be eligible for Brandilyn Collin’s…

It’s tax day! Are you suffering? Feeling the need to call 911? Dianna Benson, Redwood’s resident EMS expert, is back for her monthly post. Today, types of EMS calls… in case you’re feeling the need for a little 911 service. But more importantly, for accurate descriptions in your ms. This should give you lots of ideas.…

Our resident EMS expert Dianna Benson is back discussing EMS and Dispatch for those pre-hospital scenes. Our station buzzer and waist-radios go off, dispatching us to a scene of an incident (if we’re not at our station at that moment, obviously we’d only hear our waist-radios). A split second later, a computerized voice over our…