Medical Focus: National EMS Week
'Nobody ever really plans to need an ambulance that day, for the most part. And you know, there's a lot of situations that arise,' said Mike Ross, Freeman Ambulance Svc. Dir.
For Mike Ross and his 40 plus years of experience, that's most often chest pains.
'I mean, we're able to do a 12-lead EKG on a patient to see if there is an acute mmediate need, you know, for the cath lab. And then in that instance, we coordinate with the cath lab to let them know that we're coming. We actually send them a copy of the 12-lead EKG so that the cardiologist can look and see what they're dealing with, and activate the cath lab if needed.'
The response area for the Freeman Ambulance Service covers every corner of McDonald County – and comes with a unique set of challenges.
Medical Focus: National EMS Week
Mobile MU hospital simulation stops in Joplin to provide specialized training
Freeman Health System celebrates National Nurses Week dedication
Healthcare workers advocate mental health awareness in May
Freeman Safe Sitter program trains middle schoolers in CPR and first aid skills
'We have no hospital, actually, in McDonald County, but we have a lot of resources around the county in Northwest Arkansas, Joplin, that type of thing. So transport times are long. Turnaround time from leaving the station to getting back to the station on a call that is out in the county that may go to Joplin would be two and a half hours.'
Ross adds that while working in Emergency Medical Service is a job – that EMS team feels a lot more like family.
'I mean, you spend almost more time with people at work than you do with your own family. And I mean, we're here for breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime, early morning, all times of the day. So there really and truly has to be a trust built and a camaraderie built for that type of thing.'
And at the end of the day – it's all about a quick response and saving lives.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
19 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Costco will not sell abortion pills after pressure from conservatives
Despite lawsuits and letters pleading to lawmakers, their campaign to thwart access to abortion pills has otherwise been slow-moving. Patients can still access medication abortion in all 50 states, even those where the procedure is illegal, because of laws allowing the pills to be remotely prescribed and mailed. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In a statement Thursday, Costco said the decision was 'based on the lack of demand from our members and other patients.' The company did not answer further questions from The Washington Post about the influence of outside groups. Advertisement This month, Costco officials said they would not look to become certified to dispense mifepristone after a coalition of religious and conservative financial groups approached them ahead of formally requesting action on the issue, according to people familiar with the conversations. The company's decision was 'a step in the right direction,' said Michael Ross, an attorney on the corporate engagement team of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal organization. ADF was a leader in the charge to keep mifepristone off Costco's shelves. Advertisement 'It doesn't make sense as a fiduciary matter for these companies to be injecting themselves into this political controversy,' Ross said. For two decades, the Food and Drug Administration, which in 2000 approved mifepristone for use through 10 weeks of pregnancy, required that the drug be picked up in person, a mandate abortion rights advocates saw as a hurdle in accessing the procedure. In 2021, the agency halted the in-person requirement. Then, after the Supreme Court in 2022 struck down the constitutional right to an abortion, triggering abortion bans across the country, lawmakers in blue states passed 'shield' laws designed to protect abortion providers from prosecutions. Those measures, active in eight states, allow providers to legally prescribe abortion pills regardless of where a patient lives. The battle over whether mifepristone would be sold in retail pharmacies began in March 2024, when CVS and Walgreens received FDA certification to sell the pill. Four months later, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander sent letters to a handful of other household-name pharmacies, urging them to follow in the footsteps of CVS and Walgreens. In his letters to Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and McKesson, Landers reminded the companies that New York City's pension system owned shares in them. The shares in Costco alone at the time were valued at $443.9 million. Getting certified to dispense the pill, Lander wrote to Costco CEO Ron Vachris, 'aligns with both long-term shareholder interests and women's health care needs.' Conservative opponents swiftly disagreed. A coalition of groups and individual investors sent letters to the same five companies. At the time, their stock in Costco was worth about $56 million. Thousands of Costco members and investors also signed a petition saying they did not want the company to sell mifepristone, an effort spearheaded by Inspire Investing, a Christian financial firm that is part of the coalition. Advertisement As pressure from investors mounted, Costco indicated it did not plan to become certified to sell mifepristone, citing customer interest. Tim Schwarzenberger, Inspire Investing's director of corporate engagement, said Costco's choice 'protects its brand, serves families, and keeps the company focused on what it does best.' 'By recognizing there was no customer demand and avoiding an ideological path, Costco steered clear of moral, legal, and business risks while staying true to its mission,' he said in a statement. As of Thursday, it was unclear how the other companies would act. Kroger told The Post that it was still reviewing the FDA's requirements to dispense mifepristone. Walmart declined to comment. McKesson, which includes the Health Mart franchise, and Albertsons did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ross, the ADF attorney, said the coalition had also filed a shareholder proposal to CVS, which has been selling mifepristone for more than a year, and plans to do so for other companies. 'We're hoping to build on this win,' he said.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Yahoo
RFK Jr claims one of his new vaccine panel members works at GW University. The school says he doesn't
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is facing questions after apparently misrepresenting the academic career of one of the eight people he appointed to a crucial vaccines panel. After firing the entire 17-member line-up of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on June 10, Kennedy named eight replacements the following day. The secretary announced his new panelists in a post on X, along with brief biographies for each. One of their number was Dr Michael Ross, whom Kennedy described as 'a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, with a career spanning clinical medicine, research, and public health policy.' However, NBC's Washington affiliate has since approached both of those universities and been informed by George Washington that Dr. Ross has not taught there for eight years and by Virginia Commonwealth that he has not worked there in four. The network quotes another biography of the same man from the website of the private equity fund Havencrest, which makes the same claim, stating: 'A Professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University and a Professor of OB-GYN at Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr Ross serves on the boards of multiple private healthcare companies.' The Independent has approached the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for clarification on the situation. Several of Kennedy's other appointees to ACIP have also raised eyebrows due to their track record of vaccine skepticism, controversial past statements on the Covid-19 pandemic, or lack of experience. Noel Brewer, one of the former members of the panel dismissed by Kennedy, told MSNBC recently: 'It was a bit shocking. None of us had any idea that something like this would happen. 'One of the implications of this is a bit of chaos in healthcare. It's unclear what insurance will cover and it's unclear who providers should look to when they're trying to understand what's the best practice for delivering HPV vaccine and other life-saving vaccines.' Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told NBC that the recent change of guard at ACIP was 'disturbing.' 'I think if you go around the table, there's a lack of expertise and experience and institutional memory,' he said. 'And what do you do now? Where do you go for information? Where do you go for advice? And I guess the answer, for right now, is go to your doctor and hope that he or she can figure it out.' For all of the upheaval at the HHS on Kennedy's watch – which has seen huge DOGE cuts, the CDC stop recommending the Covid vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women and the secretary himself declare war on ultra-processed foods – a new poll by NBC has found that an extremely narrow majority of the American public, 51 percent, are in favor of his performance in the job. That said, 48 percent of respondents to the survey expressed disapproval, leaving just 1 percent undecided. Asked about the secretary's 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda, a report on which was accused of being compiled using AI, roughly one-third of people questioned said they believed junk food was the prime cause of the country's declining health, while another third blamed individuals' broader lifestyle choices. Twelve percent blamed socioeconomic status, 10 percent cited unaffordable health insurance premiums, and six percent attributed the issue to environmental toxins.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Yahoo
She took the dog out for a quick walk. Then, her mom fell down the stairs. Canadian woman opens up about the moment she knew her mom couldn't live at home
In May 2024, Pam Ross had to quickly pop out of the house to take her dog, Dexter, to relieve himself. Before she left her home in Stoney Creek, Ont., she put a laundry basket of towels in front of her mother, Lillian. Her mother had just been diagnosed with dementia two years before, and she couldn't be left alone for very long, but Ross had planned to be gone for less than 10 minutes. She thought it would prevent her from wandering of getting into something dangerous while she was out. "I have cameras in my house so I can watch her everywhere, because I was so scared of what might happen,' Ross said in an interview with Yahoo Canada. Dog in one hand, phone in the other, Ross kept her eye on screen as she made her way down the street. But she hadn't made it far when she noticed her mom had left the room. She started racing back to her house when she heard the creak of her stairs coming from the phone's speaker, followed by a loud bang. She knew instinctively that her mother had fallen down the stairs. 'I grab my dog, pick him up, and I'm running as fast as I can,' Ross remembered. When she returned to the house, she found her mom at the bottom of the stairs. 'I still feel panic when I think of that.' After that incident, Ross was hypervigiliant about looking after her mother. 'I didn't want to ever leave her,' she said. 'It was getting really hard.' But over the next couple of months, it became clear that Ross and her sister could no longer care for their mother alone. Lillian was resistant to home support services coming into the house, so the family tried to find a compromise. Ross and her sister tried divide Lillian's time between houses and enrolling her in an adult day program through the Salvation Army. Finally, after many discussions and deep thought, the sisters decided to tour care homes. 'We were starting to lose sleep, and everything was starting to be too much,' Ross said. The sisters moved Lillian to an assisted-living facility last July. It was not an easy decision. 'She would say to us, 'Do not move me into a home. I'm not going into a home. I want to stay in my own house.'' Wanting to remain in their own home is a common sentiment among seniors. In fact, 96 per cent of Canadians aged 65 and older would do 'everything they could' to avoid going into a long-term care facility, according to the National Institute on Ageing. The reality is, it can be hard to recognize when it's time to move a parent into a retirement community, nursing home or long-term care facility. Many caregivers experience guilt, stress, and emotional complexities when navigating the transition with their senior loved ones. Like Ross and her sister, many families try multiple care strategies before choosing a care home. According to Stephanie Chan, a senior living advisor and founder of Home to Home, a care planning business in Vancouver, B.C, there are some common signs to look out for when considering a move for your senior loved one. Mobility is one warning sign to gauge whether a living environment is still right for aging parents. Are they having difficulty doing daily tasks, such as taking their medications, tidying the house, or cooking for themselves? A lack of socialization is another factor. If a senior loved one seems to be lonely or isolated with limited daily social interaction, that could be another sign to think about moving them into a care home. Chan also asks families to consider their loved one's cognitive abilities, like if they cannot find their way back home from a walk. Finally, big life-changing events, like the loss of a spouse or the diagnosis of a serious illness, could be a sign to downsize. Providing care for a loved one can take a toll on the caregivers, too. 'Caregiving can be very lonely at any stage of the caregiving experience,' says Amy Coupal, CEO of the Ontario Caregiver Organization, a charitable organization that aims to support Ontario's four million caregivers. 'Part of what can help to reduce that loneliness is to connect with resources and supports in the community.' Nearly one in four Canadians are caregivers at some point in their lives and nearly eight million Canadians provide care for family members or friends with a long-term condition, a physical or mental disability, or problems related to aging. According to the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence, a program of the Azrieli Foundation, caregivers provide on average more than 30 hours of unpaid care each week, which is nearly the equivalent of a full-time job. For caregivers in Ontario who feel overwhelmed, Coupal advises they call the Ontario Caregiver Organization's 24/7 helpline, or visit the website to view tip sheets with information on support options, including peer mentors and peer support groups. 'We also have counselling and coaching for people who may be facing burnout or experiencing significant caregiving challenges,' she said. The choice did not come lightly for Ross and her sister to move their mother into a care home. 'The guilt for us is really challenging,' Ross said. But they kept coming back to what Ross calls the Four Ss: safety, social ability, life satisfaction, and sanity. In other words, was her mother safe? Was she social? Did she have any life satisfaction? And what about the sisters' sanity? 'When we really started to look at them all, it seemed like it had to be the right decision for us." For other families who are struggling to know whether it's the right time to move their senior loved one into a care home, Ross offers this advice: 'These are discussions you should have with a healthy parent. These are uncomfortable discussions,' she said. 'I feel like if we had had these conversations with my mom when she was fully cognitively aware, she would have said, I don't want you having to worry about this.' The last year has been an adjustment. The sisters visit their mother five times a week, and check in with the staff every day. Still, it's a difficult transition. 'We know that she's being cared for and safe, but there's a ton of guilt. You don't want to leave her alone. And at the same time, I know that my mother would be devastated to know how much this has affected our lives.'
