Thursday, May 27, 2010

** California paramedic’s son becomes youngest to scale Mount Everest

** Hundreds of Massachusetts and New Hampshire medics working with bogus credentials?

UNITED STATES NEWS

** The 13-year-old son of a California paramedic reached the summit of Mount Everest Saturday, becoming the youngest person in the world to conquer the peak. That is the word from the AFP (May 26) which said Jordan Romero, accompanied by his father Paul, accomplished the feat in the final days of this year’s climbing season. Though acknowledging that the hike was a challenge, Romero Jr. said only a small team of Sherpas assisted them on the mountain’s Chinese north face where climbing age restrictions do not apply. Conquering Mt. Kilimanjaro when he was only ten, Jordan has only to climb Antarctica’s Vinson Massif to successfully complete tackling the highest peaks on all seven continents.

** State health officials in Massachusetts and New Hampshire continue to investigate a scam in which hundreds of EMS practitioners have secured illegitimate certifications. According to the Boston Globe (Donovan Slack/boston.com/May 26) the case to date has discovered over 200 EMTs and paramedics practicing with credentials secured from certificate mills. According to the news site, some of the bogus papers were used when the provider needed to renew his or her licence;however, several were acquired by individuals who had never treated patients before. Reaching back some 2 years and including at least 12 communities, the situation blew wide open last year when legitimate EMTs complained about bogus colleagues.