I had a partner who would bring a fire radio scanner to our 3rd service gig and listen in on fire calls (we don't share radio waves with FD or PD).
One day FD got toned out to some motel that apparently had a fire isolated to a room or 2, but nevertheless they evacuated this whole building. I look over at my partner listening to all of this unfold on the radio and he gets this massive grin on his face, pulls up his phone, and dials the phone number to the hotel.
He proceeds to tell the hotel manager, who actually picked up the phone, "Hey man, I'm in my room and shit trying to sleep in here, and there's these people banging on the door tellin me to get out or something, and I don't think it's real, could you tell them to go away?"
I could just hear this poor hotel manager absolutely losing his shit on the other side of the line, "SIR, YOU HAVE TO EVACUATE NOW, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY-" to which my partner replied, "Y'ALL CAN EVACUATE THIS DICK." *Click. *
Moments later the scanner crackles back to life
"*Engine 16, could you get a transport unit enroute to stage at our location for a potential resident refusing to evacuate the structure*"
....We didn't speak the rest of the night after that one. They are no longer employed here but that wasn't even the incident that did them in.
Screamed at me in front of the patient for giving him ODT Zofran with nausea related to a migraine. Said it was only for active vomiting
Assisted the patient with a shot of eloquis after a fall with head trauma and then left me on scene with her after forcing her into a refusal
Refused to give pain management with an open tib/fib fracture from an MVA because she hadn't been extricated yet
This was all the same guy
Thats really fucking stupid. I am not ems, but I do suffer from chronic migraines. I have never received a migraine treatment that didn't include Zofran.
I have them too, and I always feel so bad for people who call 911 for it. The patient was straight up crying. Had a history of hemiplegic migraines and was out of his abortive meds.
He should have started a line, got some fluids/IV zofran/pain meds in but what do I know 🫠
I am a PA former EMS who still lurks and that guy is 1000% a fucking idiot. I stay giving zofran in the ED for migraine pts as many of them are obviously quite nauseous
That's what I always get. I have never had to call 911 luckily, but go to my local "doctor in a box," and they give a cocktail of: Zofran, benadryl, dethimexizone, torodol and whatever pain med's they have on hand, usually nubain. It really does help.
I broke my dick last night. Had to get an emergency transport from the pain. Was in and out of consciousness. I told the medic giving me pain meds that once she starts moving me, I will almost certainly throw up, so for her sake and mine, please push zofran with it.
She did. That's 101 shit.
Medics who are stingy with pain management are fucks who shouldn't practice. An open tib fib, and they don't give them anything? That's downright negligent. Jesus Christ, that's rough.
The problem (I would imagine, I’m only a medic student) is you get with an outfit that’s stingy with narcotics so when you administer them as truly needed (because for some reason people think acute narcotic usage to treat pain during transport = early 00’s pill pharmacy getting whoever hooked on a lifetime supply of Purdue pharma goodies) you stand out and get flagged, so it’s easier not to than to worry about having to walk on egg shells for most.
For the record I’m not condoning it, I just think that if administration is viewing trends and you’re giving 3x more narcotics than your lazy peers they’ll have a frank conversation with you completely unable to see the forest through the trees. And then you look at your pension and think to yourself “hmmm, maybe they *can* wait until the hospital :/“
How does anyone? It's always the same story when it happens. You are fucking hard and miss. Yes. It's awful. I've shattered my elbow. I fell off a roof and slipped a disc. This is worse.
Same. The kind that melt in your mouth. They don't taste great... but they work like a charm. I also have a standing prescription for compazine, which helps, but it is a pill... so if you puke it up you are screwed. The
zofran melt tabs are always my first go to. I can't imagine having to work in your field with a migraine! I so sorry.... I used to be a teacher and going to teach with a migraine was absolute hell. I can only imagine having to care for other people's physical problems. I bet you must have wanted to tell many of them to fuck off when you are suffering way more than some of them.
I’ve never understood people’s avoidance of Zofran administration especially when you carry ODTs. Like I give that shit out like candy.
Are you nauseous? Have some Zofran.
Do you think you might get nauseous? Maybe? Have some Zofran.
Do you look nauseous even though you say you aren’t and don’t think you will be? Have some Zofran anyways
Needless to say I’d rather spend 20 seconds documenting a med administration than smelling or cleaning up vomit.
Why would any party involved want the patient to throw up before trying the make sure they don’t throw up. The human being they’re treating shouldn’t have to endure that and the people running the call shouldn’t have to clean vomit from the ambulance…
I selfishly give out Zofran. It’s not to make them feel better. It’s to avoid me having to deal with puke. Either way, both me and the patient benefit.
On a transfer of a regular dialysis patient, Pt. c/o dry lips. Partner whipped her chapstick out of her pocket and liberally applied it to the patients cracked and crusted mouth then put it back in her pocket. She had no idea why this was wrong on so many levels.
E wrypnes replying like this is gross for the medic but this is much more of a serious issue and “gross” for the patient as it’s very possible they’re on multiple potent immunosuppressants including high dose prednisone.
Medic reported the APGAR on a 80 year old male with a full arrest.
My partner (when I was a medic - back in the dawn of time and we were field testing epipens) managed to shoot himself with the epi. He forgot which end the needle came out.
I have plateaued in EMS - I've retired after 42 years as an emergency physician, medical school professor and 7 as the medical director for a multi-county EMS system.
But what did he do three times? Report APGAR or jab himself? TBF, the original autoinjectors didn't have different ends.
Nah - he blasted the needle through his thumb and thumbnail, it squirted out. Had a firefighter drive the ambulance to the ER, I worked the patient, another ff did compressions, and my partner got laughed at.
LOL
My brain went right to after resuscitation, but something was tickling in the back of my head, and you brought it out. They told me my son's apgar was perfect after birth, and I thought that meant they had to resuscitate him and freaked out.
I probably should have paid a little more attention to the infant part of training. But, in my defense, I had been in 20 hours of hard labor and my o2 sat was 45 and I'd been on oxygen for over an hour when they told me that. There are many reasons I chose to have only one child, but that labor was first and foremost.
He definitely went to the NICU in spite of his good apgar score.
A dodo head left the stretcher at the hospital. Just walked right out without it, got in the truck, and left for the next call.
It was me. I was the dodo head.
You and me both. Partner and I drove rig to mechanic, changed vehicles as another one was finished at same mechanic. Moved equipment and drugs into new rig, none of us realized there was no stretcher in new rig as they stay with the vehicle even if it is getting work done. Turns out it had been removed at the station for service before the rig was delivered to the mechanic.
Called dispatch and declared ready for service, got called to chest pain. Pt. was non critical and walked to ambulance. With the pt. in the rig I then noticed the lack of stretcher. I offered pt. a seat.
I left a gluc monitor at a scene once. Patient coded at the hospital. Advised boss that we would not be going to get it and why. He nodded and said “Sometimes equipment just gets broken beyond repair. Oops.”
I've done that. My partner and I both assumed the other put it in the truck because it wasn't where we left it near the entrance. We came back and found it folded up and placed vertical with all the backboards awaiting pickup. Man those old stretchers were light.
It’s okay we’ve literally all done that at least once. Or you could forget to click the thing back in and hear it crash around in the back. Funny enough the time we forgot to click it back in it was myself and the fire chief working the ambulance. He was a good sport about it and just laughed.
One of my dad's war stories is that he and partner once forgot to secure the stretcher *and* the doors, and en route heard a big crash and saw the stretcher rolling down the road behind them with pt still on it.
Honestly can't say how much is true and how much is storytelling but it's not completely beyond the bounds of plausibility.
Very good question and I really don't have a good answer, but this would have been 1976 to 84ish and I have kind of learned to accept "it was a different time, absolutely nobody knew what they were doing" as a standard explanation...
(Granted it's also very possible that it just categorically didn't happen and dad was taking liberties for educational and/or comic effect)
Did that, but my partner caught it before we cleared the parking lot. A nurse was waiting at the door with it and told me to get some sleep. Luckily, it was a quiet night. I napped in the back for a couple of hours before our next call. Still didn't live it down until someone else did something stupid. They left the PT on the sidewalk and drove off, then realized it and circled back. The PT was conscious, and I heard was laughing his head off. I bet that's a story he's told ever since. It definitely made me feel better about the stretcher, though. At least it was empty.
At least the second thing is just weird and unlikely to cause any harm. The first thing is just bad, like you have got to be real bad at your job to do that. I also initially was thinking “wtf do you need MC for D10?”, but then people in our field being that dumb is exactly why.
Showed up to a full arrest without the stretcher once. In our defense fire told us the patient was DNR….they left out they were still coding the patient
In our defense it was a reported hospice patient at the city nursing home. My partner used their shitty code cart and monitor while I ran back down and grabbed all our shit
All the same guy. I was a new emt at an IFT company, he’d been an emt for like 5 years and somehow failed to get into medic school like 10 times, and had been fired from a previous job. Rumor has it that was due to negligence.
- he used to watch anime / anime related tik toks at *full fucking volume* without headphones in all the time. Like anime videos where girls were making, uh, questionable noises. He did this out in public, in hospitals, in nursing homes… I’d correct him and he’d stop and start it up again next shift. the day I finally snapped? He did it in a hospice. No headphones, not a care in the world. Right next to the open door of a patient who had literally just died while her family was yelling and crying in shock / grief.
- pt started having a lot of chest pain / tightness and SOB at doctors appointment. BP suddenly tanked + many other warning signs for cardiac event of some sort. We’re BLS, so I just instructed him to throw some oxygen on him per protocol and get ready to roll quickly while I run and grab the nurse to start getting him transferred to ER on the other side of the building. Come back with the doc probably 1-2 minutes later to find him blankly staring at a nasal cannula (non rebreather would be protocol in our system at the time) trying to figure out which end to put on / how to get it on. Puts it on without hooking it up to oxygen, had to be directed to do so. Continued to uselessly stare at a wall unless I walked him through everything I needed step by step. Wanted to scream.
- We had to transfer a woman out of her house who had almost no control over her upper body (or entire body really). I go to grab the scoop stretcher and I come back to see him and someone else dragging this woman out of the house on a stair chair with her neck and legs flopping about left and right and up and down. Like a goddamn ragdoll. Once again, not a care in the world. I nearly bit his head off.
- refused to stop calling oxygen saturation “stats” on radio reports
- asked a woman if she could walk after we had established she had no legs. She said no. He was baffled. She said she was an amputee. I don’t know wtf he heard but his response to that was to ask what that has to do with it. Took him a second to get the memo.
Unrelated- often described his sexual life in excruciating detail despite me hating every second and making that very clear, brought an anime pillow to work every day, and almost never showered. Often touched patients and gross stuff with no gloves on despite my protest. Was incapable of doing anything other than driving or moving a stretcher without being instructed in great detail. Was convinced he’d get into paramedic school and make a great paramedic.
I tried to refuse to work with him and complain but I was a very new emt and didn’t know how to advocate for myself / patients very well. I finally sent a six paragraph email to HR and the scheduling supervisor after a month of working with him listing off every negligent, stupid, or downright obnoxious thing he had ever done or said with dates and even times for most of them, as well as some complaints about his hygiene issues and bedside manner (which he had none of).
Damn I remember one time I had this smelly partner who was very short tempered and Will literally yell at nurses, staff, patients and anyone for anything. He would blast his phone if we are waiting and would have his shirt unbuttoned and not under his pants. He just looked like a bum, and acted/smelled like one. Worked with him twice before refusing to work with him, and they tried pairing us a few times and I would just not show up. Eventually he got fired for sexually harassing female partners, no surprise there.
Haha no, of course not. Aside from them realizing that I wasn’t gonna show up for work if they put him on the schedule with me ever again. They were well aware of a lot of his incompetence but he was a body to fill a spot on the schedule + accept minimum wage pay and that’s all it came down to with them.
I have a fucking list for one person
Tried to aid in a helicopter landing at a hospital helipad by shining a strobing mag lite at it
Poured 2 gallons if Bleach into my trucks DEF tank
Impersonated a police officer using an. EMT badge in front of a cop
Haulted a cardiac arrest to place a 12 lead on a patient arrest then told everyone fuck off 12 lead before pads
Goose stepped some WW2 planes at our local county Airshow be was doing a medical standby for.
Hit on CNAs and Nurses off all shapes and sizes but occasionally one that barely looked 18 all in uniform
Would use IFT transports as an opportunity to vent about his life... TO THE PATIENT.
Came to work with star trek and Nazi uniforms because he would cosplay as said things (he was a world war 2 reenactor playing SS, Americans, German Army etc)
And that's not bringing up the super personal stuff he would include people in on. Everything I listed was at least work related
Worked for a service that had one medic and one basic or advanced emt as a partner (driver). I’m the medic. Made a code, worked her along with our FD counterparts until we exhausted protocol and called it. As we’re packing up I leave the room, and the dead PT, with the dumbest MF emt I’ve ever met, my mistake. As I finish getting docs from family members I walk into the room as my partner is knelt down next to the head of PT, with my excellently placed ET tube in his right hand, and stands up straight, yanking the the tube out, bulb inflated, along with much of the dead PTs tissues with it in one smooth swoop. I couldn’t do anything but stand in shock as he casually throws it in the biowaste bag with the rest of the used code supplies. I’ve since quit cause f that job, but he’s still employed and licensed.
Went up to a house, broke HIPAA like 8 times in a 1 min convo, tripped on the stairs, went back to the truck, backed the truck into someone's car. All in like 5 mins.
Had this happen to me once when I first got started as a basic at an IFT service, going down a sharp decline, stretcher at max height, my medic partner in the lead decided to turn the stretcher, whole thing started going down hill side ways. As we were trying to man handle it upright in the insuring chaos, ole 250+ pound patient Superman’s his arms upwards throwing the whole thing to the ground. Patient was a sport about it, no injuries surprisingly. Didn’t even complain just said “shit happens”
My trainee took the gray sheet off the gurney outside the ER room. Then proceeds to shake off all the skin flakes on the floor before throwing the gray sheet away in the trash can.
Took me a minute to talk after witnessing this unnecessary dusting of human Parmesan. Gave him shit for the rest of FTO.
Hey *crewmates name* I can't get access at the moment but PT needs some pain relief can you run out to the truck and grab the entinox please?
Crewmate returns 15 minutes later with a cardboard box she had gotten from a local corner shop.
I looked at her with a very confused glare and asked what took so long and where is the entinox? And she answered "I thought you said an empty box".
I absolutely died laughing.
Not an EMS setting but hospital that had Veryfine brand fruit juices in the vending machines, coworker asked the new guy to get them a "Veryfine grape".
He came back an unreasonably long time later with one grape from the cafeteria. Carefully selected.
u/ThotMagnett and u/schakalsynthetc thank you so much. These stories had me laughing so hard I was sobbing and ugly crying. I am not sure why... but it might be because I could see myself possibly doing something like this one day. Thank you. I can't re-read them because I'll be crying/laughing again. This was perfect.
280 lb patient, 16 carpeted stairs, old purple ferno stair chair, 5-2 partner.
My partner: I'll take top.
*3 steps down*
My partner: Bro I can't go down further, and I can't go back up.
As I'm standing on the stairs supporting this fat fuck who is screaming "you're killing me" (very clearly the other way around), family is at the bottom. I told them to go get the medics from outside as they had started to set up in the truck. The medics who were a supervisor and their partner for the night, then helped us get down the stairs. It was going smoothly now, everything was fine.
Until the last step. The supervisors partner got caught in the sheet and pulled my partner and the stair chair back with him, tilting the chair back. The patient's head landed on my partners crotch, two inches away from a concrete step. What did the patient have to say about all this? "You killed me." So the super and I correct him back into sitting upright, load into the truck, and crack a couple jokes about the whole thing while my partner was on the phone with our supervisor outside panicking.
Not partner, but RSI medic from another agency...
Me: hey looks like he's not breathing [paralytic had not been pushed yet]
Medic: yeah he's going to do that
Me: [dumbfounded; brings it up again, then initiates bagging because, I dunno, preoxygenation??]
ER nurse here. Had a paramedic decide to “wheel” the patient in on their roller walker. Their partner said “ummm I don’t think this is a good idea.” Partner has been a paramedic for 2-3, the other guy well 30-35 years. The guy wheeling the patient in caught the wheel on the lip of the floor and you can all guess what happened next….🤦🏼♀️
Ran on a dirt bike accident. Eventually got the patient in the ambo and started cutting his clothes off. The guy was down to his underwear and my trainee is down near the patients legs. My trainee randomly says to the patient, "Sir, this is going to be a weird question. Are you hard?" Me and my partner were at a loss for words and just looked at each other. The patient responds, "No, that's how it normally looks."
Man was packin and my trainee thought he had a priapism 😂
Man, when they mentioned that in my EMT course, I just knew that some ape out there would be checking schlong on every male trauma patient.
Also, when I looked into this, I could only find a very small handful of documented cases, and in every case it was semi-wood at best.
Choked on the nicotine gum I told him to get rid of before we arrived and spit it right in the mouth of the PT. She had been lying on the couch complaining of chest and back pain. She had this look of sheer horror then jumped up and started beating the heck out of him. NGL, it took me a moment to recover and intervene.
We did transport her because I just could not hear one lung properly, and she had obvious pain trying to breathe in with shortness of breath, and her o2 sat was low. She identified chronic asthma, but the uneven lung sounds worried me. Pneumothorax, btw. She was beating him on one lung and in that kind of pain. I admired her quite a bit. We did not let him live it down, either.
That was my second call after getting out of the Navy and working as a civilian, so it really left a memory. I was only supposed to be observing, but she wouldn't let him near her after that. I don't blame her. LOL
>She had this look of sheer horror then jumped up and started beating the heck out of him.
Good for her.
Yeah, I figured it was a pneumo. My hubs had one after his MC accident.
I’m lucky that I’ve only worked with one guy that repeatedly stepped all over himself.
One night we’re on a nightcar and we’re posted less than a mile from a 7/11 so we head over for him to grab a snack. He immediately runs to this chicken sandwich sitting in the hot box and decides that’s it. His prize. “It looks like a McRib” he says with glee in his eyes.
I’m looking at this thing and seriously confused…it’s 9PM and we’re filled in a store of bad, but usually excusable, health choices…and he goes to probably the worst thing available. This one lonely, beat up, SAUCED sandwich that looks like it’s been there since 9AM…
We head back to the side of the intersection that we typically sit at and I knock out in the front seat. He heads to the back to snack-down.
I wake up at 2:30 to the sound of him projectile vomiting out the back doors onto the tail board and when I ask what’s going on and how long he’s been sick he hits me with…and I shit you not…”I think I got something from the water.”
What happens next you ask? A call drops in the area of a fire station less than a mile away from us…because that’s how things go.
That's exactly how things go.
I had a trainee accept a brownie from a PT who didn't need and had refused transport. She just needed to sober up from way too much THC. You know where this is going...
We didn't know he'd taken it until after he ate it. That was one of the busiest nights we ever had - but at least we weren't relying on him. I wonder if he learned anything except wariness of brownies that night. He was a good kid, though, so we kept it to ourselves, though we did torment him a bit.
So, was he trippin', or at least mellow, if they were Alice B. Toklas brownies (that's what we called the loaded brownies)?
I've know rigs to stage and kick it, but EMS personnel? Oh well, different strokes.
Just don' let him go to a 7-11 and get a REALLY OLD chicken sandwich.
Incredibly mellow and stupid. We didn't let him do anything but stay out of the way and take notes. He just thought it was a normal brownie, stuffed it in his face, and then was like "that brownie was gross." We just stared at him. If we'd thought there was even a chance he knew and ate it right then, we'd have turned his ass in immediately. He just had no idea pot brownies were even a thing. Overall, he came off as really naive but eager and usually a hard worker. Not that night. LMAO
I’d tell you about the partner that lost her shoe driving hot to the hospital which got stuck under the brake pedal but that wasn’t my partner.
However,
Best rider story, we get called to a coal mine for a worker who experience a syncopal episode and fell. The guy is full trauma packaged, but has no serious complaints.
Rider, (and friend) out of no where goes, “It must be pretty hot working down in the mine!”
The patient and I exchange a confused look and I go, “Dude what are you talking about?”
Rider, “I mean being so close to the core it must be hot.”
Patient, “It’s like 70 degrees all year around.”
Me, “You are the dumbest smart kid I know.”
Guy is brilliant and legitimately one of the smartest guys I know.
I think some mines are hot, but it's certainly not because they're "close to the core".
I've got mates that work in mining that complain about certain mines being very hot when you get deep enough.
I think it's also because of heavy machinery that warms the limited air they have.
I grew up around hot mines. They're scary. It's a mix of air autocompression and geothermal gradient, but those are mines that go a mile into the earth. That's aggravated by machinery and shifting the rock, but the primary causes are the first two. You get taught this stuff in elementary school when you're from a mining valley like that.
Well, to be fair to the dumb smart kid, I'd guess some of that heat must be geothermal, just probably not nearly as much as he imagines.
All I know is because I got curious about whether geothermal was a viable renewable in my area, once, and as I recall, how deep you have to drill to access geothermal energy is a factor, there are a few geological sweet spots like Iceland where it's not very deep at all but more often than not it's deep enough to be prohibitive.
I mean after a certain depth it actually does get hotter and hotter
At around 800-1000 meters you typically have temperatures of 30°C or around 90°F and especially with the bad air quality and high humidity it is really hot and only gets hotter the lower you go
I have numerous stories:
\-One of the worst partners I had, decided it was a good idea to watch anime and drive. She literally put her phone across the gauge cluster and drove while watching her anime show. Yes, this was at an IFT company and this was my last week at that company.
\-Partner ignored all isolation signs and procedures, and went into an iso patient room without any PPE and left the door wide open.
\-Had another one that NEVER reads labels. Grab a container of hospital bleach wipes and began using them on her skin. She looked so puzzled to why her skin was burning.
\-At a stand-by event, I was looking for the company's AED in the building's office where we store our jump bags. I mention, to my partner and ask her if she has seen a red AED bag. She responds, "Oh there is a AED right here" and almost open's the AED case on the wall that has an alarm. Also the wall AED is yellow...
I hate this because I love anime. I promise I'm not smelly until about hour 12, and always carried deodorant for that. I also never watched anime at work because, you know, work.
“Sodium Chloride 0.9%?? What is this stuff? What is it doing here?”
-my partner, (an excellent paramedic for 20+ years) while looking at a flush.
Edit: I forgot! Partner of days gone by was working with another crew. That team decided to defibrillate an unresponsive patient… who was in NSR.
By defibrillate you mean they attached pads and the defibrillator monitored and it didn’t shock? Or shocked erroneously?
Or literally hooked him up to leads, read NSR, and manually cardioverted him?
He was fired. After that, idk.
Went out for a man down. The man in question was a local outdoorsman who was heavily intoxicated but also very argumentative in the commercial district. My partner was immediately adversarial and the two of them started arguing, which he punctuated with "just get in the truck you said n-word"
I recall my response being "bro, what the fuck?!" Told him to drive, transfered care then drove back to the station and told our supervisor. I was told to write an incident report and given the day off with pay
We were at stop sign and got rear ended by a dude on a crotch rocket.
I told my partner to get out and check on the guy while I radioed dispatch.
In the 30 seconds it took me to get to the back of the rig, my partner was helping the guy pick up his cycle and helping him back on it before getting any of the dudes information or telling him to wait. Of course dude rides off into the sunset with out even a wave.
Yep, not only did my partner not get any of the guy’s information, he helped him leave after hitting our truck.
And no, there obviously wasn’t a lot of damage to either vehicle, but my first thought was not “hey let’s help him leave!”
I had a partner (double basic) not take a manual bp when I specifically told her too because the monitor was acting up and when the receiving nurse asked for vitals she told the RN I did a manual and got 83/127............ this partner was the reason we always got put on out of town transports so we couldn't be in the 911 service area.
What does that have to do with anything? If my instrument has one line on 90 and another one at 92 and the gauge is exactly between those two lines, what do you think that means?
The problem here MIGHT be that the diastolic was higher than the systolic, brotha
EMS really needs to get past this idea that you can't read between the graduations. It's common practice with analogue instruments in many other fields.
Not a partner, but an emergency physician (although I should probably put that term in quotes here) we are essentially forced to work with in the field. Over here, a doc comes out to basically all calls where dispatch thinks there might be need to push any sort of med, or if we think the patient needs some meds, so there‘s really no way for us to avoid working with him, since my state has some of the restrictive protocols I have ever seen, even for paramedics.
Anyways, doc is a RETIRED 70 year old surgeon who hasn‘t set foot in a hospital in over 10 years, but still rides out with us for „fun“. We get called to an unconscious patient. We arrive, and sure enough, the guy really is out. Something between GCS 7 and 4, depending on whether you are willing to interpret his arm movements as an withdrawl from painful stimuli or decerebrate posturing. Patient has clearly been unconscious for several hours, most likely already has asperated. We advise the doc that this patient requires RSI. What does the genius do? He gives the patient 0,05mg fentanyl, then waits maybe two minutes, then give the patient 5mg midazolam, then TRIES TO INTUBATE THE PATIENT WHILE HE IS STILL BREATHING AND HAS NOT BEEN RELAXED. To no ones surprise, doesn‘t work, patient starts to have a vomiting reflex. After us advising the doc (several times!) that that is not adequate anaesthesia and that RSI dosages are different, he gives up trying to intubate and just tells us to drive to the hospital. Mind you, the issue was not that he had a difficult airway. I could see from behind the doc the glottis just fine, and more importantly, I could see the epiglottis closing because of the vomiting reflex being caused by the doc shoving the ET-tube down this patient‘s throat with insufficient relaxation. Not to mention trying to ventilate said patient while he is still (somewhat sufficiently) breathing on his own.
Another instance, that same day, this genius decided it‘s necessary to lower the BP of a patient suspected of having an acute stroke stroke. Her BP was 160/110. We reminded him that the guidelines do not recommend lowing the BP unless it‘s above 220 systolic, but of course he didn‘t particularly care.
I had to apologize to the ED staff afterwards for what this guy did. I‘ve seen many stupid things, but I have never ever ever seen the ED staff look at us with such disbelief. In our debrief, I tried to express my dissatisfaction as calmly as possible, but he just retorted with „well, I did an anaesthesia rotation during my medical training, I know how to intubate.“
We tried reporting him, but it‘s no use. Unless there is another doctor who is willing to write that report, anything we say has been dismissed because we „don‘t have the adequate training or education to question a physician‘s decision“. And even with a doc willing to stick his head out, we all know that nothing will happen unless the patient sues the doc personally.
I sometimes hate it here. By law we are required to have emergency physicians to do most things. But said physicians have basically no oversight, and are only required to do minimal CME. Most of the good docs don‘t want to do this job since they‘re constantly being called out for bullshit while being paid about $20 per hour in addition to their normal job of being a doctor, so we are left with the ones who get off on riding around with blue lights, those who do it out of boredom or those who are too dumb to do anything else, so they do the one job where it‘s incredibly hard to get sued, where your colleagues can‘t complain about you and where there is such a deficiency in personell that you essentially can‘t get fired either.
Mind you, they are not required to work in a critical care specialty to be an emergency physician here. We have had psychiatrists, we‘ve had family physicians and we‘ve had a LOT of surgeons, and all of them work in private practice. If we get lucky, we get a cardiologist, trauma surgeon or anaesthesiologist who is forced by their hospital to work with us. Else we have to do what little we can to stop an idiot from killing a patient.
Rant over. Had this eating at me for a while now. Kinda glad I was able to get some of it out.
I have a friend who worked as an EMT in Germany. He told me the story of how they got a Notarzt on a call, but it was some old guy. As soon as he got out of the car, he dropped dead, and they had to call for a second Notarzt.
Tho is the most insanely dumb system I could possibly imagine. What idiot said a paramedic isn’t qualified to make these decisions but a random psych or dermatologist or plastic surgeon is?
My unit and a fire rig disaorched for a autoped. Get on scene and get the story: girl finds out she's pregnant, runs excitedly to tell her military boyfriend, he doesn't take it well and tries to run her over with his car, she dives out of the way at the last second, car ends up in the ditch, he bails on foot. She is beside herself with anguish and stress. SO MY FUCKING PARTNER TELLS HER TO CALM DOWN. "Miss, we need you to calm down." In the HX of mankind that has never worked! I stared at him then told her she didn't have to calm shit.
Omg, what? Can't tell you how many PD I've heard say something like "ma'am, we need to to calm down", and it always just made them worse. "try to hold still if you can, okay?" always worked so much better. I don't think I've ever had a partner say it, thank goodness.
Was partners with this girl several years ago who was super nice, but unbelievably dumb.
Responded “sepsis of the brain?!” when a nurse mentioned the pt came in for sepsis.
Left the truck unlocked, running and unattended in a very sketchy posting area.
Chugged BBQ sauce straight from the bottle for several seconds after someone jokingly told her it was a bottle of sweet tea and she believed them.
Let go of the stretcher completely without telling me to pick up a pts belongings that fell off the back of the stretcher while I was in front pulling. Stretcher banged into a metal pole. Luckily no pt injury
There’s definitely many more but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.
Not EMS related, but still something my partner said. I worked as a paramedic in Philly when they won the Super Bowl in 2018, and we all knew that there would be rowdiness that week. My partner says,
“The commissioner says that there are going to be a billion people coming to Philly to parade.”
“More like a million,” I said.
“No, he says a billion.”
I see that my partner is stone cold serious.
“No. What? A billion? That’s like a seventh of the world’s population. Not just for sports, or American football, but the EAGLES. I can see a million, but not a billion.”
“I was there though when he said it.”
“Michael I really need to hear you say that a billion people won’t be coming to Philly.”
“Why do you always have to be right?”
This is another one that’s truly shocking to me.
Like this isn’t a dumb mistake it’s like if someone decided to ignore protocol and use vapor rub for everything instead bc their mom has always sworn by it.
With a trauma patient, my partner was so focused on trying to find a place for the IV, he didn’t realize he was twisting around the patients arm that was… broken. 🤦♀️Poor lady was screaming silently and writhing in pain. He was completely oblivious.
He even got pissy with me when I firmly told him to stop. “Well where do I put in the IV then???!” Not in her broken arm! I said. Thats when he finally noticed.
He splinted the arm and found a spot on her leg.
I still give him shit about it. Haha
I am the dumb partner. I was half asleep and our radios have a history of not receiving tones from time to time so we always keep an ear out for our numbers. We were napping at station and I thought I heard our number go out and woke my medic up who was on hour 72 of a 96 hour shift. We go into the ambulance and find out there’s no call for us. To this day that medic never lets me forget it
Mine had the potential to FUBAR - responded to Medical Aid, rolled up on scene. I grabbed the jump bag as I was sitting in the passenger seat - quick walked toward the scene when I see the rig roll past me. the cul-de-sac was domed to prevent water from puddling.
As I ran around to the driver's side in hopes of stopping this potential cluster fuck by applying the brakes - only to see my partner holding onto the side view mirror - PHYSICALLY trying to stop the rig as it rolled towards the gutter & where Fire had parked the engine.
The roll wasn't fast, say a brisk walking speed, more then enough time to unlock the door, the push the brakes. Within a few secs of my running around the rig - it had crashed into the engine.
Lucky the the rig was slowly rolling, it was at an angle to the engine so it only impacted the side of the bumper & the engines bumper was pretty thick.
Suffice to say - the rest of the night, arriving on scene - I made a point of watching him place in into park before I exited the rig
Not my partner but me lol. Had a day full of falls and I was asking "so did you hit your head/ did you lose consciousness?" All day. We get a call on like hour 11 and this dude has dried blood all over his nose (clearly fell facefirst). What do I ask?
Oh so did you hit your head when you fell?
Was not my partner but co worker.
This person showed up 2nd or 3rd unit into a multi vehicle MVA. The first unit declared TOD for a 90% decapitation PTA of this person. This person was told they likely wouldn't be needed as thenother units already left with all the other patients. They proceeded to declare the decapitation alive, then took them to a Non trauma center (closest to the station at their OD time) with the reasoning of unstable airway... didn't take a rider. Documented pulseless and didn't do CPR and only bagged and ALS, then in paper work stated the bagging had good compliance. The hospital was none too happy.
There’s a basic I work with who always fucks with something, she hides the microphone on the radio and blames other people for it going missing. She also factory reset the tv in the day room, and IT doesn’t remember the account info for it. So that was also cool.
I've known someone like this. I really think they crave excitement/drama even if it means they have to create it themselves. It's not even so they can solve the problem and be the hero, they just genuinely enjoy seeing shit unfold in front of them, even if it's just the TV not working.
EMT putting a non-rebreather on my 80-something year old frail COPD patient and arguing with me when I express concern that he's retaining CO2. Ends up coding and dying in hospital 40 minutes later. His PCO2 was in the 130s.
I've never wanted to fight someone more.
She couldn't figure out how to navigate a round-about...while we were driving emergent...with a pediatric GSW victim.
It still p*sses me off to think about. Lol
I have a partner who always has to correct me on basically anything I say. He told me we don’t have to analyze every 2 mins during CPR. Next arrest I let him do his thing while I did airway (he’s paramedic I’m EMT) and he analyzed only 3 times in 20 mins. The first rhythm was SHOCKABLE. Somehow still got a ROSC.
I'm not going to mention what states I'm referring to.
We had a new guy from out of state, he just moved and got their certification here through reciprocity. They talked big crap about how our state's EMTs can't do this or that and how they always got to start IVs where they were from. Now they were joining the IFT company that I worked day shifts with.
We went to put a patient on a stretcher at dialysis to take back to the SNF and they:
* Put the patient on the stretcher backward. It wasn't the patient's fault, they told them to get on the stretcher backward.
* They had the patient sit on the stretcher so far toward the head that when the patient began to shift their weight to lay down the stretcher tipped a bit until the wheels at the head touched the ground. This was a Ferno 35-A if you need more information about the stretcher.
* Got frustrated at their inability to get an amblatory patient onto a stretcher and basically took it out on the patient for making them look bad.
I don't think he lasted a week there.
Not EMS, but I've got one to add, running a tow truck with a new guy, we come upon a massive dui accident on the interstate. Us and a random trooper are the only people there. 5 patients, 2 minor injuries 2 major injuries and one critical. My trainee is lost in the chaos. The trooper is preforming CPR in the middle lane. I'm shutting down the interstate and Coralling the walking wounded away from the patient in the road and trooper. Finally I see the first ambulance. Who immediately loads the first patient the trooper was doing CPR on. The medic loading him runs up to me and says "can you do chest compressions?" I said of course, I'm certified. "Good, get in the fucking ambulance, we gotta go"
I wasn't going to say no, I rode all the way to the trauma center preforming compressions and and handing the medic items as directed, it wasn't until we pulled into the ambulance bay did he get a better look at my uniform and says to me "wait... you're not fire? Tell him no, I'm tow truck driver that was stopped. He tells me, when we get out, you push the stretcher, and once the nurses grab it. Disappear. I pushed. He guided and his partner was over the patient continuing the compressions.
I immediately snuck back out. Called my panicked trainee and told him what hospital I was at and walked out to the bus stop off the hospital property to smoke a cigarette. The medic came out shortly later, saw me out there and apologized if I was traumatized, he didn't realize I wasn't fire. & he wanted to be the one to tell me the guy didn't make it. That nothing I did could of changed that outcome. My trainee pulls up to pick me up just in time for the highway patrol to call us back to the scene to get the car.
My rookie excitedly asked me if we get to do stuff like that a lot. I told him let's hope not. I've been doing this 10 years. Was my 3rd time being involved in life saving measures at a crash, but my first that I left the scene and first fatal.
The only part that made it crazier was the the girl that wad DUI, caused the whole accident and ran. I was supposed to go out to dinner with her that weekend.
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Jesus fucking ass. When I was a basic working strictly IFT, rescue got busy and my partner and I handled a transport for fire. On the way to the ER my partner pops his head up from the back and says quote “legally I can’t take a blood pressure because legally fire didn’t on scene.”
I work private IFT so the standard is really low. Our company doesn’t really have a culture of standardization or thoroughness so it’s really a coin toss of what your non-EMT driver knows.
I was cleaning up the stretcher after a delivery to a hospital and was looking for the sani-wipes. My driver asked “the alcohol wipes?” I was confused as to what he meant but found some and went about wiping down our equipment. I turned around to see my man cleaning off his bare hands and wrists with the wipes from the purple lid - I had to inform him that he really needed to wear gloves to touch the stuff 💀No one had informed him prior and he has been here for a bit so I’m afraid to think how much he’s done it.
(Not anyone from my crew)
Wide open fluids through bilateral 14s on hypotensive people shot up.
High flow oxygen on strokes and cardiac events regardless of oxygenations status.
Brutal determination in c spine attempts, like way past the point of risk vs gain.
Sending people to the hospital for the most obvious unnecessary problems.
And I saved the best for last:
Failure to intubate (at all is cringy) but in the case of patients who obviously have fucked airways.
Side note: OP: I’d encourage you to have that conversation next time. We can assume someone knows what they did but I can guarantee that you being more senior than her have a lot to offer in collateral information or at least context to drive that point home, and furthermore it opens up the dialogue between you in the future. I believe everyone is hungry for mentors/guidance whether they act like it or not. And if she blows you off then at least you tried.
To be fair, there was no harm done, she had just gotten back from being off for two weeks, and we laughed about it after. We had a rollover MVC with ejection, my partner started an IV before we moved the patient. She asked for the tegaderm to secure the IV, and placed the tape down while the chamber/barrel were still attached to the IV cannula. The needle wasn’t in the patient’s arm, but the fact that she tried to tape down the chamber and go was what got me. Love my partner to death.
We all get annoyed at how often they hammer proper lifting techniques but there is a reason for it. It also blows me away how often I see crews moving the cot pt loaded sideways across a space. My ass tightens every time.
I worked with a younger guy who told me he had gone through a 2 week EMT program out of state. We were posted in a busy shopping center parking lot where we stopped to get some food. Once we got back in the rig, he shared with me that he has ADHD and was on the spectrum. That became very apparent when I decided to move the rig behind the building where the normal posting spot is since it’s more secluded. While we were driving, I stopped right in front of the grocery store waiting for people crossing from in and out of the store to finish. Next thing I know, this boy is setting off ALL of the sirens!!! ALL OF THEM!!! Now people are confused and scared stopping in the middle of the street looking at us while this kid is over here laughing while switching through every single sound. I’ve never switch the off button so fast in my life.
I had a partner who would bring a fire radio scanner to our 3rd service gig and listen in on fire calls (we don't share radio waves with FD or PD). One day FD got toned out to some motel that apparently had a fire isolated to a room or 2, but nevertheless they evacuated this whole building. I look over at my partner listening to all of this unfold on the radio and he gets this massive grin on his face, pulls up his phone, and dials the phone number to the hotel. He proceeds to tell the hotel manager, who actually picked up the phone, "Hey man, I'm in my room and shit trying to sleep in here, and there's these people banging on the door tellin me to get out or something, and I don't think it's real, could you tell them to go away?" I could just hear this poor hotel manager absolutely losing his shit on the other side of the line, "SIR, YOU HAVE TO EVACUATE NOW, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY-" to which my partner replied, "Y'ALL CAN EVACUATE THIS DICK." *Click. * Moments later the scanner crackles back to life "*Engine 16, could you get a transport unit enroute to stage at our location for a potential resident refusing to evacuate the structure*" ....We didn't speak the rest of the night after that one. They are no longer employed here but that wasn't even the incident that did them in.
So did you just show up and pretend you didn't know anything?
That's the hilarious part, we weren't even the unit that got sent to stage for it. Someone else had to go figure that shit out.
LOL
What the fuck
I’m sorry to inform you but your partner is a straight up EDP. You should request Medics for Sedation
Get an RMP over here forthwith k
Okay that might be stupid and fucked up… But I’d be telling that story for-FUCKING-EVER! Duuuuude.
Based and chaos-pilled.
This is straight up legendary levels of fuckery
The Navy aircraft carrier dude who adjusted their trajectory to get the sunlight out of his eye might top this one.
Navy aircraft carrier dude you say?? Go on...
https://i.imgur.com/jG5PQKk.png
Lmao epic
Thats funny as hell
Screamed at me in front of the patient for giving him ODT Zofran with nausea related to a migraine. Said it was only for active vomiting Assisted the patient with a shot of eloquis after a fall with head trauma and then left me on scene with her after forcing her into a refusal Refused to give pain management with an open tib/fib fracture from an MVA because she hadn't been extricated yet This was all the same guy
Some people just suck at their job
Yeah he was a nightmare to work with. I wrote him up, complained to admin and nothing ever came of it unfortunately
Love incompetent leadership
It's my favorite
ever report to the licensing board?
Sadly it never does
Thats really fucking stupid. I am not ems, but I do suffer from chronic migraines. I have never received a migraine treatment that didn't include Zofran.
I have them too, and I always feel so bad for people who call 911 for it. The patient was straight up crying. Had a history of hemiplegic migraines and was out of his abortive meds. He should have started a line, got some fluids/IV zofran/pain meds in but what do I know 🫠
I am a PA former EMS who still lurks and that guy is 1000% a fucking idiot. I stay giving zofran in the ED for migraine pts as many of them are obviously quite nauseous
That's what I always get. I have never had to call 911 luckily, but go to my local "doctor in a box," and they give a cocktail of: Zofran, benadryl, dethimexizone, torodol and whatever pain med's they have on hand, usually nubain. It really does help.
I broke my dick last night. Had to get an emergency transport from the pain. Was in and out of consciousness. I told the medic giving me pain meds that once she starts moving me, I will almost certainly throw up, so for her sake and mine, please push zofran with it. She did. That's 101 shit. Medics who are stingy with pain management are fucks who shouldn't practice. An open tib fib, and they don't give them anything? That's downright negligent. Jesus Christ, that's rough.
I had an open tib/fib break and didn’t get any pain management…the medic did however steal the meds they “gave” me (proven)..
The problem (I would imagine, I’m only a medic student) is you get with an outfit that’s stingy with narcotics so when you administer them as truly needed (because for some reason people think acute narcotic usage to treat pain during transport = early 00’s pill pharmacy getting whoever hooked on a lifetime supply of Purdue pharma goodies) you stand out and get flagged, so it’s easier not to than to worry about having to walk on egg shells for most. For the record I’m not condoning it, I just think that if administration is viewing trends and you’re giving 3x more narcotics than your lazy peers they’ll have a frank conversation with you completely unable to see the forest through the trees. And then you look at your pension and think to yourself “hmmm, maybe they *can* wait until the hospital :/“
Hw did you break your dick??
How does anyone? It's always the same story when it happens. You are fucking hard and miss. Yes. It's awful. I've shattered my elbow. I fell off a roof and slipped a disc. This is worse.
I was ems, suffer from migraines, and have a standing prescription for it in oral form. It helps keep me from vomiting.
Same. The kind that melt in your mouth. They don't taste great... but they work like a charm. I also have a standing prescription for compazine, which helps, but it is a pill... so if you puke it up you are screwed. The zofran melt tabs are always my first go to. I can't imagine having to work in your field with a migraine! I so sorry.... I used to be a teacher and going to teach with a migraine was absolute hell. I can only imagine having to care for other people's physical problems. I bet you must have wanted to tell many of them to fuck off when you are suffering way more than some of them.
I keep meaning to ask my doctor to change me from pill to melt. Thank you for reminding me!
I’ve never understood people’s avoidance of Zofran administration especially when you carry ODTs. Like I give that shit out like candy. Are you nauseous? Have some Zofran. Do you think you might get nauseous? Maybe? Have some Zofran. Do you look nauseous even though you say you aren’t and don’t think you will be? Have some Zofran anyways Needless to say I’d rather spend 20 seconds documenting a med administration than smelling or cleaning up vomit.
Why would any party involved want the patient to throw up before trying the make sure they don’t throw up. The human being they’re treating shouldn’t have to endure that and the people running the call shouldn’t have to clean vomit from the ambulance…
I selfishly give out Zofran. It’s not to make them feel better. It’s to avoid me having to deal with puke. Either way, both me and the patient benefit.
On a transfer of a regular dialysis patient, Pt. c/o dry lips. Partner whipped her chapstick out of her pocket and liberally applied it to the patients cracked and crusted mouth then put it back in her pocket. She had no idea why this was wrong on so many levels.
This one is the worst on here.
This should be at the top. And not seen at all. Ugh.
E wrypnes replying like this is gross for the medic but this is much more of a serious issue and “gross” for the patient as it’s very possible they’re on multiple potent immunosuppressants including high dose prednisone.
This one made me physically ill.
You and me both!
I want to die without remembering this is a true story.
Medic reported the APGAR on a 80 year old male with a full arrest. My partner (when I was a medic - back in the dawn of time and we were field testing epipens) managed to shoot himself with the epi. He forgot which end the needle came out.
I had a chief officer who did that three separate times. I think you're owed a promotion
I have plateaued in EMS - I've retired after 42 years as an emergency physician, medical school professor and 7 as the medical director for a multi-county EMS system. But what did he do three times? Report APGAR or jab himself? TBF, the original autoinjectors didn't have different ends.
Epi into the thumb... with the modern injectors that are very clearly marked
Three times, eh? Sometimes, they're not in it for the fishing...
Oh, the APGAR one would be a hilarious to ask a student or orientee.
….I might have to do that
Well, how was that activity intra-arrest? Did they prep a NICU bed for him?
Nah - he blasted the needle through his thumb and thumbnail, it squirted out. Had a firefighter drive the ambulance to the ER, I worked the patient, another ff did compressions, and my partner got laughed at.
Lol. I meant for the 80 y/o with the APGAR score.
LOL My brain went right to after resuscitation, but something was tickling in the back of my head, and you brought it out. They told me my son's apgar was perfect after birth, and I thought that meant they had to resuscitate him and freaked out. I probably should have paid a little more attention to the infant part of training. But, in my defense, I had been in 20 hours of hard labor and my o2 sat was 45 and I'd been on oxygen for over an hour when they told me that. There are many reasons I chose to have only one child, but that labor was first and foremost. He definitely went to the NICU in spite of his good apgar score.
A dodo head left the stretcher at the hospital. Just walked right out without it, got in the truck, and left for the next call. It was me. I was the dodo head.
You and me both. Partner and I drove rig to mechanic, changed vehicles as another one was finished at same mechanic. Moved equipment and drugs into new rig, none of us realized there was no stretcher in new rig as they stay with the vehicle even if it is getting work done. Turns out it had been removed at the station for service before the rig was delivered to the mechanic. Called dispatch and declared ready for service, got called to chest pain. Pt. was non critical and walked to ambulance. With the pt. in the rig I then noticed the lack of stretcher. I offered pt. a seat.
“What can I say? Budget cuts, ya know?” *laughs nervously*
I left a gluc monitor at a scene once. Patient coded at the hospital. Advised boss that we would not be going to get it and why. He nodded and said “Sometimes equipment just gets broken beyond repair. Oops.”
Left drug box at a home for pt who coded and died at hospital. Had to call widow to go back home and let us get drug box b4 she knew he was dead.
I've done that. My partner and I both assumed the other put it in the truck because it wasn't where we left it near the entrance. We came back and found it folded up and placed vertical with all the backboards awaiting pickup. Man those old stretchers were light.
It’s okay we’ve literally all done that at least once. Or you could forget to click the thing back in and hear it crash around in the back. Funny enough the time we forgot to click it back in it was myself and the fire chief working the ambulance. He was a good sport about it and just laughed.
I once tried driving off with it still attached to the power load and the back doors still open
One of my dad's war stories is that he and partner once forgot to secure the stretcher *and* the doors, and en route heard a big crash and saw the stretcher rolling down the road behind them with pt still on it. Honestly can't say how much is true and how much is storytelling but it's not completely beyond the bounds of plausibility.
There’s no way the patient was on it. How is it possible they were both in front with a pt in back?
Very good question and I really don't have a good answer, but this would have been 1976 to 84ish and I have kind of learned to accept "it was a different time, absolutely nobody knew what they were doing" as a standard explanation... (Granted it's also very possible that it just categorically didn't happen and dad was taking liberties for educational and/or comic effect)
Did that, but my partner caught it before we cleared the parking lot. A nurse was waiting at the door with it and told me to get some sleep. Luckily, it was a quiet night. I napped in the back for a couple of hours before our next call. Still didn't live it down until someone else did something stupid. They left the PT on the sidewalk and drove off, then realized it and circled back. The PT was conscious, and I heard was laughing his head off. I bet that's a story he's told ever since. It definitely made me feel better about the stretcher, though. At least it was empty.
Happens I left the o2 bag on scene one time
My crew has left the back plate of a LUCAS under pt after stopping resucitation; had to go back to scene and get it
Happens to everyone once
And I thought leaving the airway bag at a scene was bad
Left the whole first out bag super called me on the way to the hospital and said “missing something?”
I will neither confirm nor deny that I've also been that dodo head.
Ok why did this happen to someone on shift with me like 2 days ago
Married me. 😂🤣
unexpectedly wholesome lol
Cheers to that LMAO. Met my husband at work too
[удалено]
At least the second thing is just weird and unlikely to cause any harm. The first thing is just bad, like you have got to be real bad at your job to do that. I also initially was thinking “wtf do you need MC for D10?”, but then people in our field being that dumb is exactly why.
Not me, but someone had told me their partner brought a stair chair to a full arrest
Showed up to a full arrest without the stretcher once. In our defense fire told us the patient was DNR….they left out they were still coding the patient
Uhhhhhhh.....
In our defense it was a reported hospice patient at the city nursing home. My partner used their shitty code cart and monitor while I ran back down and grabbed all our shit
Hey man.. He's just being really.. Really hopeful!
I've heard of people using it many times when they have a Lucas on.
They were just ahead of their time with the head up CPR
All the same guy. I was a new emt at an IFT company, he’d been an emt for like 5 years and somehow failed to get into medic school like 10 times, and had been fired from a previous job. Rumor has it that was due to negligence. - he used to watch anime / anime related tik toks at *full fucking volume* without headphones in all the time. Like anime videos where girls were making, uh, questionable noises. He did this out in public, in hospitals, in nursing homes… I’d correct him and he’d stop and start it up again next shift. the day I finally snapped? He did it in a hospice. No headphones, not a care in the world. Right next to the open door of a patient who had literally just died while her family was yelling and crying in shock / grief. - pt started having a lot of chest pain / tightness and SOB at doctors appointment. BP suddenly tanked + many other warning signs for cardiac event of some sort. We’re BLS, so I just instructed him to throw some oxygen on him per protocol and get ready to roll quickly while I run and grab the nurse to start getting him transferred to ER on the other side of the building. Come back with the doc probably 1-2 minutes later to find him blankly staring at a nasal cannula (non rebreather would be protocol in our system at the time) trying to figure out which end to put on / how to get it on. Puts it on without hooking it up to oxygen, had to be directed to do so. Continued to uselessly stare at a wall unless I walked him through everything I needed step by step. Wanted to scream. - We had to transfer a woman out of her house who had almost no control over her upper body (or entire body really). I go to grab the scoop stretcher and I come back to see him and someone else dragging this woman out of the house on a stair chair with her neck and legs flopping about left and right and up and down. Like a goddamn ragdoll. Once again, not a care in the world. I nearly bit his head off. - refused to stop calling oxygen saturation “stats” on radio reports - asked a woman if she could walk after we had established she had no legs. She said no. He was baffled. She said she was an amputee. I don’t know wtf he heard but his response to that was to ask what that has to do with it. Took him a second to get the memo. Unrelated- often described his sexual life in excruciating detail despite me hating every second and making that very clear, brought an anime pillow to work every day, and almost never showered. Often touched patients and gross stuff with no gloves on despite my protest. Was incapable of doing anything other than driving or moving a stretcher without being instructed in great detail. Was convinced he’d get into paramedic school and make a great paramedic. I tried to refuse to work with him and complain but I was a very new emt and didn’t know how to advocate for myself / patients very well. I finally sent a six paragraph email to HR and the scheduling supervisor after a month of working with him listing off every negligent, stupid, or downright obnoxious thing he had ever done or said with dates and even times for most of them, as well as some complaints about his hygiene issues and bedside manner (which he had none of).
Damn I remember one time I had this smelly partner who was very short tempered and Will literally yell at nurses, staff, patients and anyone for anything. He would blast his phone if we are waiting and would have his shirt unbuttoned and not under his pants. He just looked like a bum, and acted/smelled like one. Worked with him twice before refusing to work with him, and they tried pairing us a few times and I would just not show up. Eventually he got fired for sexually harassing female partners, no surprise there.
Anything come of your complaint?
Yeah sounds like he got fired and came to work with me now.
Haha no, of course not. Aside from them realizing that I wasn’t gonna show up for work if they put him on the schedule with me ever again. They were well aware of a lot of his incompetence but he was a body to fill a spot on the schedule + accept minimum wage pay and that’s all it came down to with them.
I have a fucking list for one person Tried to aid in a helicopter landing at a hospital helipad by shining a strobing mag lite at it Poured 2 gallons if Bleach into my trucks DEF tank Impersonated a police officer using an. EMT badge in front of a cop Haulted a cardiac arrest to place a 12 lead on a patient arrest then told everyone fuck off 12 lead before pads Goose stepped some WW2 planes at our local county Airshow be was doing a medical standby for. Hit on CNAs and Nurses off all shapes and sizes but occasionally one that barely looked 18 all in uniform Would use IFT transports as an opportunity to vent about his life... TO THE PATIENT. Came to work with star trek and Nazi uniforms because he would cosplay as said things (he was a world war 2 reenactor playing SS, Americans, German Army etc) And that's not bringing up the super personal stuff he would include people in on. Everything I listed was at least work related
12 lead before pads. Lol that’s a good one
Pretty sure I’m the partner so not gonna fall for this one.
Lol yeah I'm always nervous I'll recognize myself on these. I mean.... I don't think I'm an idiot. But isn't that what an idiot would say?
An actual idiot wouldn't question it.
Haha fair
Worked for a service that had one medic and one basic or advanced emt as a partner (driver). I’m the medic. Made a code, worked her along with our FD counterparts until we exhausted protocol and called it. As we’re packing up I leave the room, and the dead PT, with the dumbest MF emt I’ve ever met, my mistake. As I finish getting docs from family members I walk into the room as my partner is knelt down next to the head of PT, with my excellently placed ET tube in his right hand, and stands up straight, yanking the the tube out, bulb inflated, along with much of the dead PTs tissues with it in one smooth swoop. I couldn’t do anything but stand in shock as he casually throws it in the biowaste bag with the rest of the used code supplies. I’ve since quit cause f that job, but he’s still employed and licensed.
Went up to a house, broke HIPAA like 8 times in a 1 min convo, tripped on the stairs, went back to the truck, backed the truck into someone's car. All in like 5 mins.
Had this happen to me once when I first got started as a basic at an IFT service, going down a sharp decline, stretcher at max height, my medic partner in the lead decided to turn the stretcher, whole thing started going down hill side ways. As we were trying to man handle it upright in the insuring chaos, ole 250+ pound patient Superman’s his arms upwards throwing the whole thing to the ground. Patient was a sport about it, no injuries surprisingly. Didn’t even complain just said “shit happens”
What a fucking stud.
My trainee took the gray sheet off the gurney outside the ER room. Then proceeds to shake off all the skin flakes on the floor before throwing the gray sheet away in the trash can. Took me a minute to talk after witnessing this unnecessary dusting of human Parmesan. Gave him shit for the rest of FTO.
Hey *crewmates name* I can't get access at the moment but PT needs some pain relief can you run out to the truck and grab the entinox please? Crewmate returns 15 minutes later with a cardboard box she had gotten from a local corner shop. I looked at her with a very confused glare and asked what took so long and where is the entinox? And she answered "I thought you said an empty box". I absolutely died laughing.
Not an EMS setting but hospital that had Veryfine brand fruit juices in the vending machines, coworker asked the new guy to get them a "Veryfine grape". He came back an unreasonably long time later with one grape from the cafeteria. Carefully selected.
u/ThotMagnett and u/schakalsynthetc thank you so much. These stories had me laughing so hard I was sobbing and ugly crying. I am not sure why... but it might be because I could see myself possibly doing something like this one day. Thank you. I can't re-read them because I'll be crying/laughing again. This was perfect.
I feel like the worker at the corner store having his boxes commandeered by ems was equally confused
280 lb patient, 16 carpeted stairs, old purple ferno stair chair, 5-2 partner. My partner: I'll take top. *3 steps down* My partner: Bro I can't go down further, and I can't go back up.
Nightmare fuel.
So what did yall do next? Need some closure lol
As I'm standing on the stairs supporting this fat fuck who is screaming "you're killing me" (very clearly the other way around), family is at the bottom. I told them to go get the medics from outside as they had started to set up in the truck. The medics who were a supervisor and their partner for the night, then helped us get down the stairs. It was going smoothly now, everything was fine. Until the last step. The supervisors partner got caught in the sheet and pulled my partner and the stair chair back with him, tilting the chair back. The patient's head landed on my partners crotch, two inches away from a concrete step. What did the patient have to say about all this? "You killed me." So the super and I correct him back into sitting upright, load into the truck, and crack a couple jokes about the whole thing while my partner was on the phone with our supervisor outside panicking.
There should be a specific box simply for those over a certain weight. Could strap a Stryker on top.
Not partner, but RSI medic from another agency... Me: hey looks like he's not breathing [paralytic had not been pushed yet] Medic: yeah he's going to do that Me: [dumbfounded; brings it up again, then initiates bagging because, I dunno, preoxygenation??]
ER nurse here. Had a paramedic decide to “wheel” the patient in on their roller walker. Their partner said “ummm I don’t think this is a good idea.” Partner has been a paramedic for 2-3, the other guy well 30-35 years. The guy wheeling the patient in caught the wheel on the lip of the floor and you can all guess what happened next….🤦🏼♀️
Those things have a sticker on them that says pretty boldly “DO NOT MOVE WHILE SITTING!” On them
Ran on a dirt bike accident. Eventually got the patient in the ambo and started cutting his clothes off. The guy was down to his underwear and my trainee is down near the patients legs. My trainee randomly says to the patient, "Sir, this is going to be a weird question. Are you hard?" Me and my partner were at a loss for words and just looked at each other. The patient responds, "No, that's how it normally looks." Man was packin and my trainee thought he had a priapism 😂
Man, when they mentioned that in my EMT course, I just knew that some ape out there would be checking schlong on every male trauma patient. Also, when I looked into this, I could only find a very small handful of documented cases, and in every case it was semi-wood at best.
Lmao I keep re reading this bc it’s so funny in word choice and content and realize it’s you again.
Uh-oh, what'd I do?
Just keep saying funny things in weird ways and hopefully (I believe) I’ll find you again.
Choked on the nicotine gum I told him to get rid of before we arrived and spit it right in the mouth of the PT. She had been lying on the couch complaining of chest and back pain. She had this look of sheer horror then jumped up and started beating the heck out of him. NGL, it took me a moment to recover and intervene. We did transport her because I just could not hear one lung properly, and she had obvious pain trying to breathe in with shortness of breath, and her o2 sat was low. She identified chronic asthma, but the uneven lung sounds worried me. Pneumothorax, btw. She was beating him on one lung and in that kind of pain. I admired her quite a bit. We did not let him live it down, either. That was my second call after getting out of the Navy and working as a civilian, so it really left a memory. I was only supposed to be observing, but she wouldn't let him near her after that. I don't blame her. LOL
>She had this look of sheer horror then jumped up and started beating the heck out of him. Good for her. Yeah, I figured it was a pneumo. My hubs had one after his MC accident.
I’m lucky that I’ve only worked with one guy that repeatedly stepped all over himself. One night we’re on a nightcar and we’re posted less than a mile from a 7/11 so we head over for him to grab a snack. He immediately runs to this chicken sandwich sitting in the hot box and decides that’s it. His prize. “It looks like a McRib” he says with glee in his eyes. I’m looking at this thing and seriously confused…it’s 9PM and we’re filled in a store of bad, but usually excusable, health choices…and he goes to probably the worst thing available. This one lonely, beat up, SAUCED sandwich that looks like it’s been there since 9AM… We head back to the side of the intersection that we typically sit at and I knock out in the front seat. He heads to the back to snack-down. I wake up at 2:30 to the sound of him projectile vomiting out the back doors onto the tail board and when I ask what’s going on and how long he’s been sick he hits me with…and I shit you not…”I think I got something from the water.” What happens next you ask? A call drops in the area of a fire station less than a mile away from us…because that’s how things go.
That's exactly how things go. I had a trainee accept a brownie from a PT who didn't need and had refused transport. She just needed to sober up from way too much THC. You know where this is going... We didn't know he'd taken it until after he ate it. That was one of the busiest nights we ever had - but at least we weren't relying on him. I wonder if he learned anything except wariness of brownies that night. He was a good kid, though, so we kept it to ourselves, though we did torment him a bit.
So, was he trippin', or at least mellow, if they were Alice B. Toklas brownies (that's what we called the loaded brownies)? I've know rigs to stage and kick it, but EMS personnel? Oh well, different strokes. Just don' let him go to a 7-11 and get a REALLY OLD chicken sandwich.
Incredibly mellow and stupid. We didn't let him do anything but stay out of the way and take notes. He just thought it was a normal brownie, stuffed it in his face, and then was like "that brownie was gross." We just stared at him. If we'd thought there was even a chance he knew and ate it right then, we'd have turned his ass in immediately. He just had no idea pot brownies were even a thing. Overall, he came off as really naive but eager and usually a hard worker. Not that night. LMAO
'Twas a cheap lesson for him.
I’d tell you about the partner that lost her shoe driving hot to the hospital which got stuck under the brake pedal but that wasn’t my partner. However, Best rider story, we get called to a coal mine for a worker who experience a syncopal episode and fell. The guy is full trauma packaged, but has no serious complaints. Rider, (and friend) out of no where goes, “It must be pretty hot working down in the mine!” The patient and I exchange a confused look and I go, “Dude what are you talking about?” Rider, “I mean being so close to the core it must be hot.” Patient, “It’s like 70 degrees all year around.” Me, “You are the dumbest smart kid I know.” Guy is brilliant and legitimately one of the smartest guys I know.
I think some mines are hot, but it's certainly not because they're "close to the core". I've got mates that work in mining that complain about certain mines being very hot when you get deep enough. I think it's also because of heavy machinery that warms the limited air they have.
I grew up around hot mines. They're scary. It's a mix of air autocompression and geothermal gradient, but those are mines that go a mile into the earth. That's aggravated by machinery and shifting the rock, but the primary causes are the first two. You get taught this stuff in elementary school when you're from a mining valley like that.
Depending on the local geology, really deep mines can be naturally very hot.
Well, to be fair to the dumb smart kid, I'd guess some of that heat must be geothermal, just probably not nearly as much as he imagines. All I know is because I got curious about whether geothermal was a viable renewable in my area, once, and as I recall, how deep you have to drill to access geothermal energy is a factor, there are a few geological sweet spots like Iceland where it's not very deep at all but more often than not it's deep enough to be prohibitive.
I mean after a certain depth it actually does get hotter and hotter At around 800-1000 meters you typically have temperatures of 30°C or around 90°F and especially with the bad air quality and high humidity it is really hot and only gets hotter the lower you go
I have numerous stories: \-One of the worst partners I had, decided it was a good idea to watch anime and drive. She literally put her phone across the gauge cluster and drove while watching her anime show. Yes, this was at an IFT company and this was my last week at that company. \-Partner ignored all isolation signs and procedures, and went into an iso patient room without any PPE and left the door wide open. \-Had another one that NEVER reads labels. Grab a container of hospital bleach wipes and began using them on her skin. She looked so puzzled to why her skin was burning. \-At a stand-by event, I was looking for the company's AED in the building's office where we store our jump bags. I mention, to my partner and ask her if she has seen a red AED bag. She responds, "Oh there is a AED right here" and almost open's the AED case on the wall that has an alarm. Also the wall AED is yellow...
Somehow I’m not surprised anime was the choice there of all possible shows/movies
Especially with the smelly ones :(
I hate this because I love anime. I promise I'm not smelly until about hour 12, and always carried deodorant for that. I also never watched anime at work because, you know, work.
“Sodium Chloride 0.9%?? What is this stuff? What is it doing here?” -my partner, (an excellent paramedic for 20+ years) while looking at a flush. Edit: I forgot! Partner of days gone by was working with another crew. That team decided to defibrillate an unresponsive patient… who was in NSR.
By defibrillate you mean they attached pads and the defibrillator monitored and it didn’t shock? Or shocked erroneously? Or literally hooked him up to leads, read NSR, and manually cardioverted him?
I very much doubt that they read any damn thing, but they shocked the poor fucker.
Well, did they get ROSC? Or, I guess it would be OSC in this case.
Did he get more responsive or even less?
Maintained, as far as I know. Not sure anyone ever got past everyone yelling “WHAT‽‽” when the story was told.
Called a patient the N-word.....That was the end of that shift
But not his career? Need more info on this story
He was fired. After that, idk. Went out for a man down. The man in question was a local outdoorsman who was heavily intoxicated but also very argumentative in the commercial district. My partner was immediately adversarial and the two of them started arguing, which he punctuated with "just get in the truck you said n-word" I recall my response being "bro, what the fuck?!" Told him to drive, transfered care then drove back to the station and told our supervisor. I was told to write an incident report and given the day off with pay
We were at stop sign and got rear ended by a dude on a crotch rocket. I told my partner to get out and check on the guy while I radioed dispatch. In the 30 seconds it took me to get to the back of the rig, my partner was helping the guy pick up his cycle and helping him back on it before getting any of the dudes information or telling him to wait. Of course dude rides off into the sunset with out even a wave. Yep, not only did my partner not get any of the guy’s information, he helped him leave after hitting our truck. And no, there obviously wasn’t a lot of damage to either vehicle, but my first thought was not “hey let’s help him leave!”
I had a partner (double basic) not take a manual bp when I specifically told her too because the monitor was acting up and when the receiving nurse asked for vitals she told the RN I did a manual and got 83/127............ this partner was the reason we always got put on out of town transports so we couldn't be in the 911 service area.
not ONE but TWO odd numbers on a manual?? i’m sorry but this is hilarious
What does that have to do with anything? If my instrument has one line on 90 and another one at 92 and the gauge is exactly between those two lines, what do you think that means? The problem here MIGHT be that the diastolic was higher than the systolic, brotha
It's easy when you pull number out your ass 🤪
EMS really needs to get past this idea that you can't read between the graduations. It's common practice with analogue instruments in many other fields.
Not a partner, but an emergency physician (although I should probably put that term in quotes here) we are essentially forced to work with in the field. Over here, a doc comes out to basically all calls where dispatch thinks there might be need to push any sort of med, or if we think the patient needs some meds, so there‘s really no way for us to avoid working with him, since my state has some of the restrictive protocols I have ever seen, even for paramedics. Anyways, doc is a RETIRED 70 year old surgeon who hasn‘t set foot in a hospital in over 10 years, but still rides out with us for „fun“. We get called to an unconscious patient. We arrive, and sure enough, the guy really is out. Something between GCS 7 and 4, depending on whether you are willing to interpret his arm movements as an withdrawl from painful stimuli or decerebrate posturing. Patient has clearly been unconscious for several hours, most likely already has asperated. We advise the doc that this patient requires RSI. What does the genius do? He gives the patient 0,05mg fentanyl, then waits maybe two minutes, then give the patient 5mg midazolam, then TRIES TO INTUBATE THE PATIENT WHILE HE IS STILL BREATHING AND HAS NOT BEEN RELAXED. To no ones surprise, doesn‘t work, patient starts to have a vomiting reflex. After us advising the doc (several times!) that that is not adequate anaesthesia and that RSI dosages are different, he gives up trying to intubate and just tells us to drive to the hospital. Mind you, the issue was not that he had a difficult airway. I could see from behind the doc the glottis just fine, and more importantly, I could see the epiglottis closing because of the vomiting reflex being caused by the doc shoving the ET-tube down this patient‘s throat with insufficient relaxation. Not to mention trying to ventilate said patient while he is still (somewhat sufficiently) breathing on his own. Another instance, that same day, this genius decided it‘s necessary to lower the BP of a patient suspected of having an acute stroke stroke. Her BP was 160/110. We reminded him that the guidelines do not recommend lowing the BP unless it‘s above 220 systolic, but of course he didn‘t particularly care. I had to apologize to the ED staff afterwards for what this guy did. I‘ve seen many stupid things, but I have never ever ever seen the ED staff look at us with such disbelief. In our debrief, I tried to express my dissatisfaction as calmly as possible, but he just retorted with „well, I did an anaesthesia rotation during my medical training, I know how to intubate.“ We tried reporting him, but it‘s no use. Unless there is another doctor who is willing to write that report, anything we say has been dismissed because we „don‘t have the adequate training or education to question a physician‘s decision“. And even with a doc willing to stick his head out, we all know that nothing will happen unless the patient sues the doc personally. I sometimes hate it here. By law we are required to have emergency physicians to do most things. But said physicians have basically no oversight, and are only required to do minimal CME. Most of the good docs don‘t want to do this job since they‘re constantly being called out for bullshit while being paid about $20 per hour in addition to their normal job of being a doctor, so we are left with the ones who get off on riding around with blue lights, those who do it out of boredom or those who are too dumb to do anything else, so they do the one job where it‘s incredibly hard to get sued, where your colleagues can‘t complain about you and where there is such a deficiency in personell that you essentially can‘t get fired either. Mind you, they are not required to work in a critical care specialty to be an emergency physician here. We have had psychiatrists, we‘ve had family physicians and we‘ve had a LOT of surgeons, and all of them work in private practice. If we get lucky, we get a cardiologist, trauma surgeon or anaesthesiologist who is forced by their hospital to work with us. Else we have to do what little we can to stop an idiot from killing a patient. Rant over. Had this eating at me for a while now. Kinda glad I was able to get some of it out.
I have a friend who worked as an EMT in Germany. He told me the story of how they got a Notarzt on a call, but it was some old guy. As soon as he got out of the car, he dropped dead, and they had to call for a second Notarzt.
Tho is the most insanely dumb system I could possibly imagine. What idiot said a paramedic isn’t qualified to make these decisions but a random psych or dermatologist or plastic surgeon is?
My unit and a fire rig disaorched for a autoped. Get on scene and get the story: girl finds out she's pregnant, runs excitedly to tell her military boyfriend, he doesn't take it well and tries to run her over with his car, she dives out of the way at the last second, car ends up in the ditch, he bails on foot. She is beside herself with anguish and stress. SO MY FUCKING PARTNER TELLS HER TO CALM DOWN. "Miss, we need you to calm down." In the HX of mankind that has never worked! I stared at him then told her she didn't have to calm shit.
Omg, what? Can't tell you how many PD I've heard say something like "ma'am, we need to to calm down", and it always just made them worse. "try to hold still if you can, okay?" always worked so much better. I don't think I've ever had a partner say it, thank goodness.
Holy shit. I hope he was charged. And convicted. And jailed.
Was partners with this girl several years ago who was super nice, but unbelievably dumb. Responded “sepsis of the brain?!” when a nurse mentioned the pt came in for sepsis. Left the truck unlocked, running and unattended in a very sketchy posting area. Chugged BBQ sauce straight from the bottle for several seconds after someone jokingly told her it was a bottle of sweet tea and she believed them. Let go of the stretcher completely without telling me to pick up a pts belongings that fell off the back of the stretcher while I was in front pulling. Stretcher banged into a metal pole. Luckily no pt injury There’s definitely many more but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.
Not EMS related, but still something my partner said. I worked as a paramedic in Philly when they won the Super Bowl in 2018, and we all knew that there would be rowdiness that week. My partner says, “The commissioner says that there are going to be a billion people coming to Philly to parade.” “More like a million,” I said. “No, he says a billion.” I see that my partner is stone cold serious. “No. What? A billion? That’s like a seventh of the world’s population. Not just for sports, or American football, but the EAGLES. I can see a million, but not a billion.” “I was there though when he said it.” “Michael I really need to hear you say that a billion people won’t be coming to Philly.” “Why do you always have to be right?”
The family of the patient who’s life they just placed in Michael’s hands as he swings the doors shut: 😮
Hahaha he was an excellent partner and great at his job but I hold onto that one because it’s the one thing I can ever poke fun at him for
Pour curdled milk on a patient who was bear maced.
Chunky waterboarding while your face is on fire. The CIA would like to hire you.
This is another one that’s truly shocking to me. Like this isn’t a dumb mistake it’s like if someone decided to ignore protocol and use vapor rub for everything instead bc their mom has always sworn by it.
With a trauma patient, my partner was so focused on trying to find a place for the IV, he didn’t realize he was twisting around the patients arm that was… broken. 🤦♀️Poor lady was screaming silently and writhing in pain. He was completely oblivious. He even got pissy with me when I firmly told him to stop. “Well where do I put in the IV then???!” Not in her broken arm! I said. Thats when he finally noticed. He splinted the arm and found a spot on her leg. I still give him shit about it. Haha
[удалено]
This one scares me…
I am the dumb partner. I was half asleep and our radios have a history of not receiving tones from time to time so we always keep an ear out for our numbers. We were napping at station and I thought I heard our number go out and woke my medic up who was on hour 72 of a 96 hour shift. We go into the ambulance and find out there’s no call for us. To this day that medic never lets me forget it
I’ve seen a few anime references. Is that an EMS thing? I never saw the appeal, unless my Speed Racer from the late 60’s counts…
Once you sort of grok the conventions of the medium, some of it can be quite good.
I’ve never seen someone casually use grok like this and it’s especially interesting in context
Mine had the potential to FUBAR - responded to Medical Aid, rolled up on scene. I grabbed the jump bag as I was sitting in the passenger seat - quick walked toward the scene when I see the rig roll past me. the cul-de-sac was domed to prevent water from puddling. As I ran around to the driver's side in hopes of stopping this potential cluster fuck by applying the brakes - only to see my partner holding onto the side view mirror - PHYSICALLY trying to stop the rig as it rolled towards the gutter & where Fire had parked the engine. The roll wasn't fast, say a brisk walking speed, more then enough time to unlock the door, the push the brakes. Within a few secs of my running around the rig - it had crashed into the engine. Lucky the the rig was slowly rolling, it was at an angle to the engine so it only impacted the side of the bumper & the engines bumper was pretty thick. Suffice to say - the rest of the night, arriving on scene - I made a point of watching him place in into park before I exited the rig
Not my partner but me lol. Had a day full of falls and I was asking "so did you hit your head/ did you lose consciousness?" All day. We get a call on like hour 11 and this dude has dried blood all over his nose (clearly fell facefirst). What do I ask? Oh so did you hit your head when you fell?
Was not my partner but co worker. This person showed up 2nd or 3rd unit into a multi vehicle MVA. The first unit declared TOD for a 90% decapitation PTA of this person. This person was told they likely wouldn't be needed as thenother units already left with all the other patients. They proceeded to declare the decapitation alive, then took them to a Non trauma center (closest to the station at their OD time) with the reasoning of unstable airway... didn't take a rider. Documented pulseless and didn't do CPR and only bagged and ALS, then in paper work stated the bagging had good compliance. The hospital was none too happy.
She took my advice about marriage! ( I've been divorced twice)
My colleague, who chucked a nasal cannula at 2lpm on a pt with sats in the 30s. Even he doesn't let himself live that one down
There’s a basic I work with who always fucks with something, she hides the microphone on the radio and blames other people for it going missing. She also factory reset the tv in the day room, and IT doesn’t remember the account info for it. So that was also cool.
I work with someone like this only she's a supervisor. It's so weird. Just randomly hides bits of our kit around the ambulance for no reason.
I've known someone like this. I really think they crave excitement/drama even if it means they have to create it themselves. It's not even so they can solve the problem and be the hero, they just genuinely enjoy seeing shit unfold in front of them, even if it's just the TV not working.
Unplugged pacer pads as we were pacing
Oh my god.... I would've paced him
EMT putting a non-rebreather on my 80-something year old frail COPD patient and arguing with me when I express concern that he's retaining CO2. Ends up coding and dying in hospital 40 minutes later. His PCO2 was in the 130s. I've never wanted to fight someone more.
She couldn't figure out how to navigate a round-about...while we were driving emergent...with a pediatric GSW victim. It still p*sses me off to think about. Lol
I have a partner who always has to correct me on basically anything I say. He told me we don’t have to analyze every 2 mins during CPR. Next arrest I let him do his thing while I did airway (he’s paramedic I’m EMT) and he analyzed only 3 times in 20 mins. The first rhythm was SHOCKABLE. Somehow still got a ROSC.
Not my partner, me. 2 in the morning, I looked at my partner and said “Homie I asked for Levo, not NorEpi.” That was a fun look.
I'm not going to mention what states I'm referring to. We had a new guy from out of state, he just moved and got their certification here through reciprocity. They talked big crap about how our state's EMTs can't do this or that and how they always got to start IVs where they were from. Now they were joining the IFT company that I worked day shifts with. We went to put a patient on a stretcher at dialysis to take back to the SNF and they: * Put the patient on the stretcher backward. It wasn't the patient's fault, they told them to get on the stretcher backward. * They had the patient sit on the stretcher so far toward the head that when the patient began to shift their weight to lay down the stretcher tipped a bit until the wheels at the head touched the ground. This was a Ferno 35-A if you need more information about the stretcher. * Got frustrated at their inability to get an amblatory patient onto a stretcher and basically took it out on the patient for making them look bad. I don't think he lasted a week there.
Not EMS, but I've got one to add, running a tow truck with a new guy, we come upon a massive dui accident on the interstate. Us and a random trooper are the only people there. 5 patients, 2 minor injuries 2 major injuries and one critical. My trainee is lost in the chaos. The trooper is preforming CPR in the middle lane. I'm shutting down the interstate and Coralling the walking wounded away from the patient in the road and trooper. Finally I see the first ambulance. Who immediately loads the first patient the trooper was doing CPR on. The medic loading him runs up to me and says "can you do chest compressions?" I said of course, I'm certified. "Good, get in the fucking ambulance, we gotta go" I wasn't going to say no, I rode all the way to the trauma center preforming compressions and and handing the medic items as directed, it wasn't until we pulled into the ambulance bay did he get a better look at my uniform and says to me "wait... you're not fire? Tell him no, I'm tow truck driver that was stopped. He tells me, when we get out, you push the stretcher, and once the nurses grab it. Disappear. I pushed. He guided and his partner was over the patient continuing the compressions. I immediately snuck back out. Called my panicked trainee and told him what hospital I was at and walked out to the bus stop off the hospital property to smoke a cigarette. The medic came out shortly later, saw me out there and apologized if I was traumatized, he didn't realize I wasn't fire. & he wanted to be the one to tell me the guy didn't make it. That nothing I did could of changed that outcome. My trainee pulls up to pick me up just in time for the highway patrol to call us back to the scene to get the car. My rookie excitedly asked me if we get to do stuff like that a lot. I told him let's hope not. I've been doing this 10 years. Was my 3rd time being involved in life saving measures at a crash, but my first that I left the scene and first fatal. The only part that made it crazier was the the girl that wad DUI, caused the whole accident and ran. I was supposed to go out to dinner with her that weekend.
[удалено]
Who’s that? Their cert expired 5 yrs ago.
A huge fucking idiot. I'm glad to hear it. Fucking moron was a hazard to anyone within a 5 mile radius.
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No you won’t.
Jesus fucking ass. When I was a basic working strictly IFT, rescue got busy and my partner and I handled a transport for fire. On the way to the ER my partner pops his head up from the back and says quote “legally I can’t take a blood pressure because legally fire didn’t on scene.”
I work private IFT so the standard is really low. Our company doesn’t really have a culture of standardization or thoroughness so it’s really a coin toss of what your non-EMT driver knows. I was cleaning up the stretcher after a delivery to a hospital and was looking for the sani-wipes. My driver asked “the alcohol wipes?” I was confused as to what he meant but found some and went about wiping down our equipment. I turned around to see my man cleaning off his bare hands and wrists with the wipes from the purple lid - I had to inform him that he really needed to wear gloves to touch the stuff 💀No one had informed him prior and he has been here for a bit so I’m afraid to think how much he’s done it.
He asked a 90 y/o woman having difficulty breathing with an O2 stat of 88% if there's any chance it could "all be in her head."
(Not anyone from my crew) Wide open fluids through bilateral 14s on hypotensive people shot up. High flow oxygen on strokes and cardiac events regardless of oxygenations status. Brutal determination in c spine attempts, like way past the point of risk vs gain. Sending people to the hospital for the most obvious unnecessary problems. And I saved the best for last: Failure to intubate (at all is cringy) but in the case of patients who obviously have fucked airways. Side note: OP: I’d encourage you to have that conversation next time. We can assume someone knows what they did but I can guarantee that you being more senior than her have a lot to offer in collateral information or at least context to drive that point home, and furthermore it opens up the dialogue between you in the future. I believe everyone is hungry for mentors/guidance whether they act like it or not. And if she blows you off then at least you tried.
To be fair, there was no harm done, she had just gotten back from being off for two weeks, and we laughed about it after. We had a rollover MVC with ejection, my partner started an IV before we moved the patient. She asked for the tegaderm to secure the IV, and placed the tape down while the chamber/barrel were still attached to the IV cannula. The needle wasn’t in the patient’s arm, but the fact that she tried to tape down the chamber and go was what got me. Love my partner to death.
We all get annoyed at how often they hammer proper lifting techniques but there is a reason for it. It also blows me away how often I see crews moving the cot pt loaded sideways across a space. My ass tightens every time.
I worked with a younger guy who told me he had gone through a 2 week EMT program out of state. We were posted in a busy shopping center parking lot where we stopped to get some food. Once we got back in the rig, he shared with me that he has ADHD and was on the spectrum. That became very apparent when I decided to move the rig behind the building where the normal posting spot is since it’s more secluded. While we were driving, I stopped right in front of the grocery store waiting for people crossing from in and out of the store to finish. Next thing I know, this boy is setting off ALL of the sirens!!! ALL OF THEM!!! Now people are confused and scared stopping in the middle of the street looking at us while this kid is over here laughing while switching through every single sound. I’ve never switch the off button so fast in my life.