VF (Ventricular Fibrillation) – This is when the heart has gone nuts.  Nothing is firing properly and can be best describes as having an epileptic fit.  Whilst it is like this, it is filling with blood but not pumping anything.  The rhythm is shockable and often, shocking the patient will kick start the heart back into a proper rhythm (of sorts).  Unless there are underlying causes of course.  However, it is important that CPR is performed immediately because the more blood there is swelling the heart, the less likely a shock will work.

PEA (Pulseless Electrical Activity) – This is a rhythm seen on the FR2 or Lifepak machine which resembles the heart beating.  And to an on-looker would look like the person is alive.  Sadly they aren’t at that stage as there is no pulse.  The electrical circuits are firing fine, but the heart isn’t beating.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.  A generic term used for a long term illness associated with the lungs – e.g., Asthma, Emphysema, Bronchitis etc.  Patients with COPD usually present with difficulty in breathing (DIB) and are a high percentage of our call-outs.  Smoking is a massive influence to this condition – I reckon if we could take the general public round with us sometimes to visit the folk who are COPD due to smoking, it would probably turn things around.

Location Match – This means the address we’re going to has a history.  Usually to do with violence but sometimes based around a general clinical history.  It also means that in most cases we need to hold back and wait for the Police to attend – for our safety.  This process of protecting us works for the most part – but on very few occasions we get the ‘Loc Match’ details <em>after</em> we have made contact with the patient!

thoracotomy – an incision into the chest wall to gain access to the vital organs therein.  Best performed under clean hospital conditions but sometimes done “on the road” in emergencies.  This is the perfect time for a doctor to “lose” their watch.

ETOH – In medical terms this means ‘Ethanol’.  In Paramedic terms it means ‘patient been drinking alcohol’.  So one potential way it can be written is ‘Patient ?PFO, ?ETOH’ (Patient query Pissed and Fell Over, query drunk).