What was your most SPECTACULAR (or scarey) equipment failure yet?

[mycrofft]

Not just hearing the O2 cylinder whisper empty, how about public embarassment, personal injury or humiliation, somthing you could submit to the Mythbusters producers for a show idea? (Or to "Jackass").

PS: Let's skip the getting lost on dispatch stories unless it contributed to your driving into a nudist colony or somesuch...the equipment failure here being between your ears

 

[mycrofft]

I'll start...Ultimately adjustable seating.

The factory-converted Dodge RV's we flogged around had pedestal seats up front, which needed to be retightened to the floor occasionally. It was not unusual to get in and the seat was a little wobbly, but nothing major. No shoulder harness (Yes, Fred and I hitched Dino to the front and drove around Bedrock), seatbelts anchored to the floorboards.

After one particularly pothole-riddled, driveway-jarring ride, my coworker opened his door, loosed his seatbelt, and fell half out the door...his seat's floor bolts had loosened, the the resultant play had finally allowed the sheet metal seat pedestal to shear off the bolt heads (which had in turn chewed up the seat pedestals). All that had kept him off the dashboard as I drove was his seatbelt.

 

[MMiz]

I once helped out while a pt exhibited symptoms of a MI on an airplane. The guy was on O2 via one of those airplane masks at 6 LPM. Right before we landed he said that he couldn't breathe, like he wasn't getting enough O2. I told him that he should keep breathing, even if the bag did not inflate (while people around smiled). When we landed I was looking at the pressure gauge and realized that there was no O2 left.

After googling around it turns out that you are not receiving oxygen on an airplane if the bag does not inflate. Flight attendants are instructed to tell you that so that you don't panic and create a scene if your bag doesn't inflate. The truth: he was out of O2.

 

[VentMedic]

Lift rated for 1000 lbs broke and dropped pt weighing 775 lbs. Luckily the patient was over the other bed we were changing to and not between the beds. The broken bar coming down across the patient didn't help matters either.

 

[Bosco578]

I let out a sneaky quiet toot in the back of the ambulance,and it nearly brought the pt. to tears. Partner thought pt. had been incontinent,as she was 90y/o.

 

[reaper]

Driving to a call and something kept making a slight noise. Pulled up on scene and got out. Only to find our box was half off the frame!!! Some how the mounting bolts work loose and fell out. Glad I wasn't in the back at the time.

 

[JPINFV]

Not just hearing the O2 cylinder whisper empty, how about public embarassment, personal injury or humiliation, somthing you could submit to the Mythbusters producers for a show idea? (Or to "Jackass").

PS: Let's skip the getting lost on dispatch stories unless it contributed to your driving into a nudist colony or somesuch...the equipment failure here being between your ears

Not once, but twice I've had the side equipment door of a type 3 open up while driving, including once on the freeway. Luckily nothing fell out.

 

[Blacke00]

After googling around it turns out that you are not receiving oxygen on an airplane if the bag does not inflate. Flight attendants are instructed to tell you that so that you don't panic and create a scene if your bag doesn't inflate. The truth: he was out of O2.

Doh! Understandable I guess, but it still sucks! Can't even bank on havin the oxygen "high" before you plow into the ground...that was the only up-side. :glare:

 

[firecoins]

The rig got stuck in a snow bank while backing into the driveway during a massive snow storm. Thankfully the call was not serious.

 

[yowzer]

I was taking someone out of the ambulance once and the undercarriage on the cot failed to lock. Heavy patient, of course. I kept lowering and lowering waiting for the wheels to hit ground... and then I couldn't stop lowering. Ended up lying on the ground with the stretcher on top of my feet in front of lots of bystanders. At least it was a controlled drop... and I was wearing steel-toed boots.

 

[KEVD18]

ive watched a ferno 35-a fold up like a paper mache replica under an absolute whale of a patient.

i too have gotten into an argument with a snow bank. the funny part was how i got out. a town owned front end loader was cruising by, saw the rig half burried in a snow bank(literally) and one particularly portly emt shoveling out(or at least trying to) the bus with a shovel roughly the size of a dixie spoon. so he comes up and asks me if i want help. im sure you can guess my answer. so he proceeds to pile up snow behind the truck, a pile taller and wider than the truck and maybe ten feet deep. so he backs up a ways, tels me to get in, strap in, cut the wheel hard tight and hold the hell on. revs up the loader, pops the clutch and knocks us out of the snow bank. cost us a rear step and both back windows, but we got out of that snow bank.

i dont know whether you want to call it a wardrobe mal fuction or an equipment failure, but ive split more than one pair of pants on the job.

sorry for the spelling. ive been drinking

 

[Flight-LP]

1. Door popping open on the helicopter in flight.

2. Engine failure in the helicopter.

3. An IABP machine losing power (pucker factor, especially when set at a 1.1 ratio)

4. Not having invertor power, then the pump's battery fail with multiple drips going.

5. Losing the ET tube while moving the pt. and not having the mask portion of the BVM anymore. DOH!

 

[mycrofft]

I was out of the unit thankfully!

I heard this from my asst chief after my Kelly day. The 1970 Dodge Powerwagon 6-PAX we used for the rescue truck at Offutt would shear off the little bolts holding the seal over the hub on the forward wheels if we did too vigorous a 4-wheeling response in the snow (never could figure ot why or how). The mechanics were working on it, the equipment having been moved to another truck, and decided to drive the truck to lunch across the runway as though on official business instead of around the runway in their goverment POS.

Before they made it to the main intersection to cross, but after they had turned on the red rotating roof beacons, they made a slow wide left turn and the right front wheel kept going straight. No lug nuts...the heavy utility body behind the cab, plus a gingerly application of brakes, kept them upright, the wheel rolled into a drainage ditch instead of closing SAC HQ's main runway, while the Security Police and the Tower called the FD to go get their truck.:blush:

 

[medicdan]

Type II van drivers door fall off on arrival to a high speed MVA. With three rolls of tactfully placed duct tape (care of the FD) we made it to the hospital. A stair chair frame bending under the weight of a patient (pre-double lift assists). Plenty of stretcher malfunctions (partly personell, partly equipment), and WAY too many preventible garage-ambulance accidents involving stupid mistakes and expensive repairs.

 

[mycrofft]

You mean the ever-popular "drive out with exterior compart door open" maneuver?

...................

 

[BossyCow]

Not once, but twice I've had the side equipment door of a type 3 open up while driving, including once on the freeway. Luckily nothing fell out.

Yeah, we had a generator fall out when that happened to us. Door Open alarm hadn't gone off and we didn't even know it was missing until the guy who found it on the side of the road turned it in.

 

[imurphy]

Don't trust Tool booths!

This, like many of my stories happened in Ireland. So there will be a bit of an explanation!

In Ireland, ambulances are exempt from tool charges, however we are not issued easy passes (They're called that over the pond too!) So we have to wait for the operator to open the tool barrier (there's no barrier free lanes)

So we were going to Cork University Hospital transporting a critical. My partner was bagging (BVM, not Body!) in the back.

It was 10PM and we were going through the M8 motorway inbound. The toll operator saw and heard us coming and opened the barrier. The car in front went through to let us go, and the operator waved us through.

There was a siren (breaking toll) and then a smash as the steel barrier smashed my windscreen! Oops!
We of course continued the 10 miles to the hospital. I put on my helmet with safety visor to stop any glass getting into my eyes!

Oops!

 

[triemal04]

Had the brakes fail on an ambulance I was driving...twice...on the same day...in the same ambulance.

Guess the mechanic didn't really get it fixed the first time...

Come to think of it, that happened once before while I was driving a fire engine downhill.

 

[mycrofft]

Not exactly a malfunction, but I bet I'm not alone

Pull-starting a generator some helpful soul has already hooked up to a load, or turned on the load switch to preattached lights etc.

Oh, yeah...I was showing some Boyscouts how a JAWS scissor shear can sever a foot long 4X4...luck they were standing back a little!

 

[mycrofft]

It's been over a year...must have updates!!!

Someone used a trauma bag's contents, and without restocking it put on new pilferage seals. Broke seal, opened it, looked into a mess of wrappers, missing IV supplies and some empty space.