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Article: Service bridges language gap- Kansas-Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical says a new "language line" service will help them communicate on scene quickly with patients and emergency victims who speak any of 140 languages

How to tell if you are an 'old' medic....you will know the tune to use with this?

Volunteers... Do You Just Belong?



Are you an active member,
The kind that would be missed?

Or are you just contented,
That your name is on the list?

Do you attend the meetings,
And mingle with the flock?

Or do you meet in private,
And criticize and knock?



Do you take an active part,
To help the work along?

Or are you just satisfied,
To be the kind that just belongs?

Do you work on committees,
To this there is no trick.

Or leave the work to just a few,
And talk about the clique?



So come to meetings often,
And help with hand and heart.

Don't be just a member,
But take an active part.

Think this over colleagues,
You know what's right from wrong,

Are you a valued member,
Or do you just belong?

Man thanks paramedics, donates 400 glucose kits 
 POWAY, CA -- Mark Baber says his life has been touched repeatedly by the kindness and skill of paramedics who have responded to his diabetic emergencies.
So the Poway man and his wife, Molly, donated 400 Freestyle blood glucose monitoring kits to outfit all of San Diego County's Advanced Life Support emergency medical service teams. The $30,000 donation was split with TheraSense, the Alameda company that makes the monitors.
"We just wanted to give something back to the community," Mark Baber said. The 49-year-old La Jolla native, who had a kidney transplant two years ago, has had diabetes since he was 12.
"Poway's ALS paramedics truly are wonderful," said Baber.
"If it weren't for the expert care of the ALS paramedics, Mark wouldn't be here," his wife said. "We owe them a lot."
When Baber goes into the first stages of diabetic shock, he often clenches his hands, making it extremely difficult to draw blood from his fingertips. 
Last August, Baber began experimenting with the newly developed Freestyle unit, which allows a tiny blood sample to be taken from other places on the body, including the upper arm, thigh, calf and on the fleshy part of the hand.
Late last year, when Poway paramedics were called to the couple's home, Molly Baber used the Freestyle kit instead of letting them lance her husband's finger. The paramedics were impressed with the results, she said, and the donation idea was hatched.
 Bob Krans, Poway's fire chief, said the donation gives paramedics a less painful alternative for taking blood samples.
"It makes it easier for everyone, especially when it comes to children," he said.