# things you will never live down



## c-spine

We've all got those stupid things we've done or said that someone remembers. Those stupid things that we will NEVER live down.. What are they?

Last year in my basic class, my partner and I, (before the b***h abandoned me); were in the cardiac station. My "patient" was having difficulty breathing, so my first thought -> Respiratory! (Granted, the name of the station was cardiac).  I get the bright idea - Ok... let's give him a neb! My partner looks at me like I'm stupid. My patient is trying to not laugh at me, and I'm adamant about the neb treatment.

My patient is now my best friend, and every time something goes wrong (with my car, or I'm angry/upset about life); his suggestion? 

GIVE IT A NEB!!


----------



## gradygirl

Not that I mind, but I will never live down my tat. Of course as soon as I showed it to a few close friends on our squad, every other responder made me show it to them as soon as we ran into one another. And at our general informational meeting for new interests, my friends made me strip and show everyone the tat. It's even been suggested to me by my partners to flash it at a patient once in a while.

Oh, and the fact that I'm friends with or talk to most of the EMT/medics, PD, FD, etc. who we work with on scenes promptly got me labeled as having "boyfriends." And the title of Uniformed Emergency Personnel W***e, which actually evolved from a few other nicknames on a similar line...jerks...


----------



## BrandoEMT

At my service when I first started a couple months ago we have two types of rigs.....new one's and old one's....

The new one's don't require to turn on a battery to start or use the patient compartment electric...so just get in, turn the key and go!

The old rigs...only need the battery turned on to run the patient compartment, lights and such...get in, turn on battery and turn key and go!


One day we're going to an MVA with multiple persons involved, have to drive through busy traffic, traffic lights and then along county roads...anyway, I'm driving jump in the rig and leave...hit the siren and as I'm going through the intersections I tell my partner our Opticom isn't working...

I flip the switch on and off trying to get it going and no luck...now, no one is pulling over for us and I'm hitting the air horn along with the siren and people finally move....we get to the scene about 15-20 miles away and I get out....the lights aren't on....

All my partner asks is, "Did you turn on the battery?"

I won't live that down.....

One quick cool time....I got the rig airborne going through an intersection....didn't mean to but it was AWESOME....also didn't set off our drive cam either!


----------



## c-spine

lmao!! I hope the rigs on my service (once I **find** a service) don't have extra battery things

Airborne, ey? sweet!!


----------



## Jon

Airborne is BAD - Gravity exists for a reason.

On occasion I've forgotten to turn on the battery switch. It happens... Although, our sirens and radios are on the same switch... it soon becomes obvious that I missed it.


What will I never live down:
Checking oil on a rig I'd never been in before during the pre-shift check and grabbing the wrong handle. I didn't realize I'd actually moved it. 35 Gallons of Diesel Fuel went out the "fuel line water drain" opening over 30 minutes. Said Diesel Fuel than went down Storm Drain and was tracked down 4 city blocks by trucks using the loading dock we were parked next to.

Yeah... that was a bad day.


----------



## c-spine

wow - sounds like a really bad day.


----------



## akflightmedic

Hmmmmmm, where do I even begin with this one???

I am bored, so sit back and laugh and I will share as many as I can recall.

1. Early in my career, returning from water rescue training in the EMS Bronco which has a lift and a way too heavy winch mounted on a steel bumper up front so the weight distrubution is way off, I am also towing the rescue boat. I come around a blind corner known for kids playing close to the road, however this day a chicken and her babies ran out in front of me. My first reaction was to tap the break cause I did not yet register what was in front of me...once I realized it was chickens, I had already left off the break, however I sent myself in a sideways spin that I could not recover from. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic as I took up both lanes. I went off into a ditch, the Bronco went up on two wheels hit a tree and then came back down...the boat trailer broke off and rolled. Henceforth for quite a while I was know as Chicken Man and even recieved a rubber chicken award at the Xmas party.

2. I was responding up the bypass for an MVC and obviously traffic was backed up. I was making goor progress for a bit, then I came to a stop. I opted to hit the median not remembering it had rained earlier that day. Needless to say, I mad it about 50 feet before bogging it down to the bumper. Good Stuff! A dump truck pulled up behind me and pushed me out so I could continue to respond.

3. Ok disclaimer...this one was so long ago I can not remember if I put gas in a diesel or diesel in a gas ambulance, but either way everyone made fun of me for quite some time.My truck was the last of our gas units(yes, youngins, ambulances used to run on gas, much faster too)lol. Anyways, I had been in diesel for a few shifts then got switched back to gas. So I made a mistake at the pump..oops.

4. Split pants...need I say more?
Unforunately I have split quite a fe pair of pants in my day, all that damn proper lifting technique,etc.
Anyways, we were called for a lift assist. A 450lb woman had slid out of her chair and could not get up off the floor. So when we get there, I squat down in front of her and there is such a loud rip from crotch all the way to the belt loop. We did not finish the lift as I immediately retreated to a bathroom. Her family looked at me funny but no one said a word, very odd I thought. I get on the radio and call for the engine to go en route, I also asked them to contact me orivately before going en route. Well typical of this crew they just went en route. All I wanted was them to bring my pants out of the locker. So now since they are en route I have to call them on the radio and ask them to return to get my pants. My batallion chief was also listening and he keys up wanting to know whats going on with the engine and all the radio traffic, blah blah blah. Anyways, the engine crew finally brings me my pants, I change and come out of the room. At this point, the patient and her family start laughing, cause this whole time they thought I had farted and crapped myself since I retreated to the bathroom and didnt come out. We all had a good laugh on that one.

Ok thats enough for now...there are many more, but the moral of all this is remember to never take yourself too seriously in this business. Have fun and enjoy life, its the only way to guarentee you will survive past the 5-7 year burnout rate for EMS professionals.


----------



## Epi-do

I was a fairly new EMT, and we were dispatched to the scene of a possible suicide/woman with a gun and told to stage away from the scene.  We arrive at the apartment complex and the street the address is on is filled with police cars.  They still haven't secured the scene, so we are looking for a good place to stage, find it, and I get on the radio to mark that we are "On scene, staging at the funeral home."  Boy, did I hear about that one for quite a while afterwards...


----------



## c-spine

"On scene, staging at the funeral home." 

LMAO!! Sounds like something our medics here would say - intentionally - just to be funny. -.-


----------



## Ridryder911

There are so many...that I won't have the space to write them. But, my partner who just got his P-med patch .. have found out it comes with a price. On his first day as a medic, we get called to a funeral home on a <LOC... as he was attempting to get her to talk, he said " hey.. wake up, your not dead!".. gulp.. yeah a crowd of about 200 watching... I looked up and the F.D., P.D. was all snickering... yep, he will never live it down.

R/r 911


----------



## sarahharter

*my first call*

i am in the military and that is where i got my first call. i was in the E.R. doing my clinicals for my AFSC (my job thingy, if you have q's about hat i'll answer later) anyway and we get called to the BX for a woman experiencing abdominal pains. i volunteered to go cuz i thought it would be fun. Yeah was i wrong. We get there and my preceptor was like go talk to her, do your job think of your training. well let me begin with i hate, hate, hate OBGYN problems! that is what i got for my medical when i did practicals for my NREMT, and i cryed when they gave my the scenario. anyway, i am talking to her and she let out a scream, and i said okay can i look and see what is going on. we are in the employee break room and it is private only me the pt and my preceptor now. well i looked, gulped and just about fainted. we were going to deliver on scene.  So i was shaking getting stuff ready and by the time i had the kit out she had sneezed and out came a baby. i just stared and fell on the floor. i was grossed out like i had never been before. Well my preceptor is checking out the baby and i forgot that something comes after the baby, ohmygod did i scream and run the other way. i didn't relize the door was closed smacked right into it and gave my self a nice concusion. well the mom started laughing and we had to call for a second rig because i was passed out on the floor. we get back to the hospital and who is waiting for me when i wake up but my class laughing their butts off with balloons and stuff saying it's a girl that the mom sent down for me because she felt bad and later she came down with the baby to see me. but ever time i go back to that hospital to see people well i see a picture of me in the back of the rig with my preceptor laughing because he never had anyone freak out like i did.


----------



## c-spine

hehehe... that's something I would do, minus the running away part. I'd probably pass out; but not run away. I almost failed the OBGYN part of my registry test. I hope I NEVER have to deliver a baby - I'd drop it with my luck. I'd turn a healthy, screaming baby into a PNB in no time.... :S  

It's sweet that she brought baby down to see you though!


----------



## Jon

Yeah... I did the pants thing, too... that was embarrasing.


----------



## c-spine

I haven't yet found a service, and the only pair of emt pants I could find that aren't 40$ per pair were on ebay (Gall's pants; way too big in the crotch); so the splitting of the pants wouldn't happen with those. The crotch hangs halfway to my knees. -.-;


----------



## IaEMT

*Did that just happen*

I'll bump ya one on the ripped pants category.  I responded to a call, where as with yours, it was a very heavy person FDGB.  As I squatted to help my two female partners lift this patient, my pants split...more like exploded.  It was almost like the inseam through the crotch was velcro all the way down to the knees on both sides and up the zipper seam in the front and the ...midline... seam in the back.  The only thing holding the lower pants up was the outside seam.  

Embarrasing...right?  Well.....to add to the humiliation....I am a Marvel Comic nerd......and....(are you ready?)......I was wearing my brand new Spiderman boxers.....and it was extremely apparent, from any angle.  So.....now..my team at random times will just call out and say, "Hey Spidey, how's it going?".


----------



## mikeylikesit

I have had my belt break on a stretcher i don't know how many times. Once we were moving fast so i had to waddle to the back of the bus in front of about ten people in my sponge bob boxers.


----------



## sarahharter

ok lets just start with im a clutz and well very accident prone. i have had my moments and well this one was the best of them all and my company still brings it up esp. during evoc classes.

ok we got a call and i started to go responding and the truck would not start. than the lights started going crazy and the radio was going nuts. so we went to get out and i missed the step and fell right out onto my knee. it hurt like hell. i felt it pop and crack. so im laying on the floor screaming and laughing cuz im just in so much pain and cant believe i just did it and i dont know what to do. so my partner is laughing and says that looks like it hurt. so i go to get up and i grab the door and the lights go again and the siren goes off. i turn and slam my knee between the door and truck and fall again. my partner starts to laugh and is almost in tears about o pee herself. so im screaming this time cux damn did that hurt. so i get up and hop to the other truck and go on the call. which was hard to do when i couldn't really walk. so we get bakc from the call and i have to call our supervisor and he gets there and doesnt know what to do but laugh. so in the end i cracked my knee cap and damaged the tendons and :censored::censored::censored::censored: in it. i was out of work for like forever. so not to long ago i was assisting with an evoc class. during the class they make me tell the story and the instructor says now this is what not to do when getting in and out of the truck. it is funny to think back on now but damn does it suck when people start talking about it and bring up my other clutz days which is just about everyday but that by far is the most memorable.B)


----------



## el Murpharino

I got drunk at a fire dept banquet and sang the 'ding, fries are done' song at the karaoke machine.  That video still gets sent each year at the dept.

**EDIT**  I didn't realize this thread originated 3 years ago...wow!


----------



## BossyCow

el Murpharino said:


> I got drunk at a fire dept banquet and sang the 'ding, fries are done' song at the karaoke machine.  That video still gets sent each year at the dept.
> 
> **EDIT**  I didn't realize this thread originated 3 years ago...wow!



My kids sing that sober! And where does a fire dept allow you to serve liquor at a banquet. Ours had to stop.


----------



## Sasha

When we were starting IVs on eachother, I hit a vein, slid the cath in, forgot to pop the tourniquet or tamponade when I removed the needle and it was like a fountain of blood spewing forth from the cathater. Instead of reaching up and popping the tourniquet, I just slapped two hands down to hold pressure.

I have since been known as The Blood God! And have not lived it down.

I've also fallen out of the ambulance at one of my ride sites, and have been reminded everytime I've been back since to watch my step!


----------



## TgerFoxMark

Pants here too... and lets not mention what happened last year at FDIC and me at the after party at IFD Hall....   just a note.. dont try to match drink for drink energy drinks vs someone drinking beer.... YES, YES, YOU CAN OD on CAFFINE.


----------



## Sapphyre

TgerFoxMark said:


> YES, YES, YOU CAN OD on CAFFINE.



I will attest to this, transported what turned out to be a caffeine overdose a while back


----------



## Hal9000

Once went up to a man ejected from his car in to a tree who subsequently fell on to a rock pile.  The first thing I asked was, "Is there any pain?" :glare:

Of course my partner gave me the "You're being stupid again." look.


----------



## imurphy

On standby at a conferrance on banking back home. Got a call that the speaker was having chest pain. So I went up on the stage, about 200 people in the place remember, and I knelt down to the patient on the stage. Felt a horrible wind on my butt....

My partner was laughing uncontrollably so I got the security there to clear the room, as the patient needed privacy....

Horrible!


----------



## motownems

imurphy said:


> My partner was laughing uncontrollably so I got the security there to clear the room, as the patient needed privacy....
> 
> Horrible!



Excellent use of security


----------



## Sasha

MAN you guys need some bigger pants!


----------



## tydek07

Haha, I have done plenty of things...  but still have managed to not blow out my pants yet  I am afraid time is against me on this one, and its just a matter of time until I can say I have done "the pants thing too".


----------



## stephenrb81

Sasha said:


> When we were starting IVs on eachother, I hit a vein, slid the cath in, forgot to pop the tourniquet or tamponade when I removed the needle and it was like a fountain of blood spewing forth from the cathater. Instead of reaching up and popping the tourniquet, I just slapped two hands down to hold pressure.



Similar happened to me in class but I was the one bleeding.  I don't know if it was just that my blood pressure was up or what, but when he pulled out the needle, I began GUSHING blood.  Ruined a brand new pair of jeans (I wouldn't have wore them if I knew we were going to be back in the lab).


As if the ruined jeans wasn't bad enough, I bled all over my right thigh and toward the crotch of my jeans.  It's a decent hour drive home for me and I had pretty much forgot about it by the time I got back to my town.  Even stopped for gas, then got reminded about it when I noticed the cashier staring at my waist.  I had a ton of evil remarks i could've made but decided with just a smile and "Don't worry, its all MY blood _this time_"


----------



## RSQRYDER

i once answered the phone at the station in the middle of the night "hi pookie, i cant come over right now". the dispatchers have never let me live it down


----------



## MJordan2121

*I'm Embarassed*

Taking the lightbar off Unit #79. Let's just say the awning wasn't marked with the clearance and I thought I had it....well I did not.


----------



## Sasha

MJordan2121 said:


> Taking the lightbar off Unit #79. Let's just say the awning wasn't marked with the clearance and I thought I had it....well I did not.



IVE DONE THAT! 

Well.. The lightbar didn't come off, but I did scrape the top enough! That's why you gotta love the vanbulances, the light bar isn't at the very top of the truck.


----------



## eggshen

Drunk para socked me in the sniffer in the middle of a crowed bar. Told him "I will beat your crippled ***!" in front of the attentive crowd. For the tape; I did not beat his crippled ***.

Egg


----------



## DarkHuntressMedic

My first night of ride time for medic school, I was nervous as hell. My preceptor and his partner and I go to Dunkin Donuts for coffee. We get coffee and head back to the station. (I, for some unknown reason decided to try the french vanilla coffee and the XL size.) On the way back to the station we get a call for an overdose. 
While enroute, we hit a bump, my coffee cup lid comes undone and french vanilla coffee goes all over my pants and the back of the ambulance. After the initial shock of hot coffee in my lap (and the horrible squeel I made) I tried to clean the truck up as best as I could. By the time we got to the call, my pants were still soaked and it looked like I peed myself.
So needless to say I had to run my three ALS calls with wet pants, smelling like a bad air freshener because we couldn't get back to the station before 2 more dispatches.
Worst of all the head of the program called me the next day asking why one of the trucks stunk like french vanilla.


----------



## Aidey

I have a pants story, but I didn't quite cause them to split. Shortly after I became a basic I was on a call for someone being flown out from a hike. They called us waaay early, and made us sit around at the airport while they looked for the guy. 

Anyway, it was a nice day out so we had the back doors of the Amb open and I was sitting in the doorway. At some point I decided to jump down and the seat of my pants caught on the nader pin in the floor, ripping them from mid butt all the way down to my knee. I shut myself in the ambulance and put them back together with duct tape and finished the call. My partner did get a good laugh out of it though!


----------



## BossyCow

eggshen said:


> Drunk para socked me in the sniffer in the middle of a crowed bar. Told him "I will beat your crippled ***!" in front of the attentive crowd. For the tape; I did not beat his crippled ***.
> 
> Egg




So, was this listed on your report as "Attempted verbal de-escalation" ?

My only pants story and apparently one I'll never live down because it was brought up at drill last night... again.... 

Treating a stroke pt/frequent flier. He's lying on the floor in his very dark living room. His mentally disabled son is trying to find the lights while I'm doing my initial assessment. As I stood up, I noticed my knees were wet... no.. correct that.. soaked.... the gentleman had been a bit incontinent.  I ended up wearing scrub pants home from the ER. 

Now, every time we talk about PPE or infection control my knees get mentioned as an example of how gloves aren't always going to protect you.


----------



## mikie

*Not as great...*

This doesn't quite live up to everyone's really embarresing stories but I was known for always showing up for calls (yes, we responded in POVs) in my sandals (which I always wear when I'm off duty (snow, sleet, rain, cold, etc)) thus always having to wear my bunker pants w/o socks (on EMS calls).  Was called many different names..

Gross.


----------



## mhink3989

*First Code*

I'm a white cloud in the EMS world, it was almost a year before i got my first code, and well i thought it would be "just like in the books". i have since learned quickly that nothing is by the books...
well its about 5am and we get dispatched for the diff. breather...we work with a fly car medic service and arrived o/s  with the medic. and expecting this to be bs like every call i get at 5am all my partner suggest to grab is the red bag. walking in the house we find a elderly woman who in completley cyanotic and all i ever witnessed was one agonal breath...so i turn to the medic whos hooking up the monitor and say "uh oh...thats not good"...now my partner has since run out to the truck to grab the suctionin/backboard/stretcher/O2 bag. i start bagging the pt while the medic tries to get a line...i'm in such denial that i look at the medic (who happens to be my best freind) and he just cracks up because he understood my look of "wtf!?!" so we get the lady loaded into the ambulance after some difficulty (damn pack rats)...and once situated the medic advises me to start CPR...i looked at him like "What?!?! are you serious?!?! are you sure?!?!" and he just says it again...so i start CPR...first off NO one warned me of the crunchin' i'd be feeling..which grossed me out...and 2nd NO one warned me not to count...so here i am "1...2...3...4..." and the medic looks up from his laryngoscope adn says "are you seriously counting"...and i confirmed this...to which he found much amusement and began laughing hysterically...i did not find the humor at first...but after the call we had a long talk on how everything is not by the book, and one does not count while doing CPR. it was funny and now i laugh at it...and whenever i run a code with him i tend to count just to see him laugh...

only in ems can one find humor in such situations. LOL


----------



## A36

Pants seem to be popular, so here's mine.
Working an MCI (commuter train vs runaway railcar) and we get a pt that requires c-spine. So we do our duty just like everyone else. Next day my partner shows up with a local newspaper. I'm on the front page at the head of our pt. My excitement turned to horror when I saw my shirt had ridden up and my pants had ridden down while bent over. Fortunately it was only a quarter moon, but now I had the most famous :censored:crack in company history.


----------



## BossyCow

mhink3989 said:


> NO one warned me not to count...so here i am "1...2...3...4..." and the medic looks up from his laryngoscope adn says "are you seriously counting"...and i confirmed this...to which he found much amusement and began laughing hysterically...i did not find the humor at first...but after the call we had a long talk on how everything is not by the book, and one does not count while doing CPR. it was funny and now i laugh at it...and whenever i run a code with him i tend to count just to see him laugh...
> 
> only in ems can one find humor in such situations. LOL



We always count during CPR and audibly so your partner knows where you are in the cycle. Also if you lose count someone will catch it for you.


----------



## fma08

A classmate of mine announcing that hypoxia is a contraindication of the combitube... :unsure:


----------



## marineman

BossyCow said:


> We always count during CPR and audibly so your partner knows where you are in the cycle. Also if you lose count someone will catch it for you.



We don't do manual CPR too often with the autopulse but when we do we count to 25 in our head then the last 5 we count out loud.


----------



## Sapphyre

marineman said:


> We don't do manual CPR too often with the autopulse but when we do we count to 25 in our head then the last 5 we count out loud.



We do the same, count only the last 5 out loud, as a prompt to the person breathing.  That is, of course, until the medics get the tube.


----------



## Jon

BossyCow said:


> ...
> My only pants story and apparently one I'll never live down because it was brought up at drill last night... again....
> 
> Treating a stroke pt/frequent flier. He's lying on the floor in his very dark living room. His mentally disabled son is trying to find the lights while I'm doing my initial assessment. As I stood up, I noticed my knees were wet... no.. correct that.. soaked.... the gentleman had been a bit incontinent. I ended up wearing scrub pants home from the ER.
> 
> Now, every time we talk about PPE or infection control my knees get mentioned as an example of how gloves aren't always going to protect you.



Been there, done that!


----------



## mhink3989

I'm really good friends with a medic who works with my volly service as a fly car unit and who also works for AMR. he intived me to ride along down in the city on the o/n with him and his partner so i could get some real action rather then the bs calls i get up in the valley. we got a few good calls in the night, more then id see up at my service, so i was in all my sparky glory. we got dispatched as a 2nd unit for the mva roll over with ejection. i'd never had a really good accident like that and the scene was just chaos. he went to assist the other ALS car who was treating the pt who was ejected. the other passengers were fine, they were wearing their seatbelts of course....so i went to join him with assisting with the guy who got ejected. he became extremely combative, and started rippin off the collar, spittin blood, it was pretty brutal from what i'm used to seeing so where i was his tail, i kept some distance. he climbed in the back of the ambulance with the other medic and the driver of that car had gotten in the front seat unbeknown to me....so when the guy started screamin the cops o/s closed the ambulance door...with me outside...and next thing in know the ambulance is driving away. i turn around to return to our actual truck and its gone! his partner had transported the other ppl in the truck with an officer o/s so they could be with their friend who was ejected at the hospital. so here i am, left on scene @ 4 am without a clue as to where i am....so i went and hung out with the FD who found this quite hilarious. after about 10 minuets my phone rings and its my friend calling asking "ummmm where are you" and when i told him he left me o/s he started profusley apologizing and spating out how sorry he was....he came back and got me, and i got breakfast out of the deal...but i dont let him live it down lol.


----------



## Sasha

Recently in class for some reason or another we were talking about the spine, and I had a moment of pure stupidity. 
"So.. six cervical vertebrae"
"Wait.. aren't there seven?"
".. No."
"But... are you sure?"
"Uh YEAH! Look. Here's a picture of the spine! That's C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4, C-5, C-6...And there's C-7... Oh wait.. THATS T-1!" and then he threw a dry erase marker at my head

Then my brain kick started back into action and I can't imagine where I got seven cervical vertebrae, but since that night I've been known as "C-7".

Jerks.


----------



## medicdan

First Call riding along in a foreign country, misunderstood the driver's instruction, and locked the keys in the truck. THAT went over well...


----------



## emtbill

Sasha said:


> Recently in class for some reason or another we were talking about the spine, and I had a moment of pure stupidity.
> "So.. six cervical vertebrae"
> "Wait.. aren't there seven?"
> ".. No."
> "But... are you sure?"
> "Uh YEAH! Look. Here's a picture of the spine! That's C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4, C-5, C-6...And there's C-7... Oh wait.. THATS T-1!" and then he threw a dry erase marker at my head
> 
> Then my brain kick started back into action and I can't imagine where I got seven cervical vertebrae, but since that night I've been known as "C-7".
> 
> Jerks.



But...there are seven cervical vertebrae...and 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral, and 4 coccygeal for 33 vertebrae total. Sounds like you need to call your instructor C-6!


----------



## Sasha

emtbill said:


> But...there are seven cervical vertebrae...and 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral, and 4 coccygeal for 33 vertebrae total. Sounds like you need to call your instructor C-6!



OH MY GOD. 

Oh my freaking god.

There ARE seven cervical vertebrae.

They fought with me so freaking much over it that I conceeded and haven't looked it up since..because.. you know.. I trust someone who has been in EMS longer than I've been ALIVE to know more than I do. But I just DID look it up.. Oh my GOD I'm so angry! >:[ They fought with me, told me to go back to EMT school, made me think I had remembered it wrong, hit me with a dry erase marker, etc. And I was RIGHT!


----------



## medic417

Sasha said:


> OH MY GOD.
> 
> Oh my freaking god.
> 
> There ARE seven cervical vertebrae.
> 
> They fought with me so freaking much over it that I conceeded and haven't looked it up since..because.. you know.. I trust someone who has been in EMS longer than I've been ALIVE to know more than I do. But I just DID look it up.. Oh my GOD I'm so angry! >:[ They fought with me, told me to go back to EMT school, made me think I had remembered it wrong, hit me with a dry erase marker, etc. And I was RIGHT!



Never give up, Never surrender.  Right or wrong always fight.  And if you find out your wrong don't tell them.  

You should find the largest anatomy book you can find and go throw it at them for being wrong.  Bet it hurts more than the dry erase marker.


----------



## Sasha

> Never give up, Never surrender. Right or wrong always fight. And if you find out your wrong don't tell them.



I've been accused of that many times, actually. I usually never conceed if they can't show me how I'm wrong and have proof of their answer. But man. Been in EMS 24 years and doesn't know how many vertebrae are in the spine!

Arrrgh!


----------



## medic417

Sasha said:


> I've been accused of that many times, actually. I usually never conceed if they can't show me how I'm wrong and have proof of their answer. But man. Been in EMS 24 years and doesn't know how many vertebrae are in the spine!
> 
> Arrrgh!



Maybe evolution created another vertebrea since they got in EMS.

Hopefully was just a bad day and they don't want to admit they were wrong.


----------



## NomadicMedic

Sasha said:


> OH MY GOD.
> 
> Oh my freaking god.
> 
> There ARE seven cervical vertebrae.
> 
> They fought with me so freaking much over it that I conceeded and haven't looked it up since..because.. you know.. I trust someone who has been in EMS longer than I've been ALIVE to know more than I do. But I just DID look it up.. Oh my GOD I'm so angry! >:[ They fought with me, told me to go back to EMT school, made me think I had remembered it wrong, hit me with a dry erase marker, etc. And I was RIGHT!




...and you're going to be a medic?

:huh::lol:

just kiddin'.


----------



## stephenrb81

Sasha said:


> I've been accused of that many times, actually. I usually never conceed if they can't show me how I'm wrong and have proof of their answer. But man. Been in EMS 24 years and doesn't know how many vertebrae are in the spine!
> 
> Arrrgh!



I feel your pain.  I got into an argument with our arrhythmia instructor over what I interpreted as a junctional rhythm.  



The instructor is a VERY intelligent CCRN, former medic, sits on the regional subcommittee for our OEMS, even most of those in the area who don't know her personally recognize her name through the grapevine..............And then there is me....a simple medic student questioning her when I am positive I see a junctional rhythm.

She will question you nonstop even if you give the right answer so that you can explain your rationale.  Problem is that if you are wrong, you look and feel like a HUGE idiot (Hell, the way she questioned you, you felt like an idiot even when you were right).

Long story short, she informed me that I couldn't interpret it as a junctional rhythm because she didn't specify which lead the strip was representing.  To which the subject of every one of my counter-arguments was: "You never specified which lead all the ones that were correctly answered as NSR's were so whose to say they were sinus in origin"

Me and her argued for a full 25 mins after the class was *suppose* to end, keeping everyone there late, so I was everyone's 'top guy' that day.

I conceded.  I fully understood her point in regards to lead placement and conduction pathways but my point was a real one too.  So for every rhythm I was faced with on one of her tests I would mark my answer and then write aftewards "Assuming Lead <II, III, MCL, etc....>"


----------



## Sasha

n7lxi said:


> ...and you're going to be a medic?
> 
> :huh::lol:
> 
> just kiddin'.



You betcha. And a great one too :]


----------



## Sasha

> The instructor is a VERY intelligent CCRN, former medic, sits on the regional subcommittee for our OEMS, even most of those in the area who don't know her personally recognize her name through the grapevine..............And then there is me....a simple medic student questioning her when I am positive I see a junctional rhythm.



So what was the final verdict? We have had clashes like that before, where all the students and the instructor saw something different, and we usually go find another instructor to give their feedback, if everyone still sees something different we ask the ER doc next time someone is in there.


----------



## aussieemt1980

This is not prehospital related, but I did two things this week on a med/surg placement for nursing degree that I probably will not live down.

1. A new pt coming over from ED, track down a bed, claim it as mine and have to organise the bedmakers to come over to set it all up. I am tasked to contact the bedmakers. I dial a number, it answered "bed..." and went slightly quiet, so I assumed that I had rang the bedmakers. I give them my details, the ward and the bed number, and comes the reply "I tell you what beds to put the patients in. I dont make them dear."

At that point I realised out loud (to the laughter of other nurses) that I had called the bed allocation manager of the whole hospital....

2. I nearly got booted from a shift handover when I made a comment about a patient. An 80 yr old alzheimers pt had been admitted following a motor vehicle accident and managed to get her car airborne through a roundabout.

Day shift staff knew, I am sure they told arvo shift, but no one told night shift. When we came in the next day, the night shift nurse was told what happened, to which she replied "wow, she must have been flying high" (in reference to the psych issues), I could not help my reply:

"She was, over the top of the roundabout"


----------



## lightsandsirens5

Sasha said:


> OH MY GOD.
> 
> Oh my freaking god.
> 
> There ARE seven cervical vertebrae.
> 
> They fought with me so freaking much over it that I conceeded and haven't looked it up since..because.. you know.. I trust someone who has been in EMS longer than I've been ALIVE to know more than I do. But I just DID look it up.. Oh my GOD I'm so angry! >:[ They fought with me, told me to go back to EMT school, made me think I had remembered it wrong, hit me with a dry erase marker, etc. And I was RIGHT!




This is great! Don't you just love being vindicated?


----------



## 9Wacker1

Yup - we all have those circumstances beyond our control - or the ones that should be under our control but just aren't.  Here's a couple of mine...and one I witnessed.

1. I've been running with a paid service for about a year and half (been in EMS for 8 years total).  Inevitably if I do something dumb, it will be on shift with one particular medic.  He's a great guy and we get along well, but I'm sure he looks at me and just scratches his head.  Like while I was precepting...during the morning truck check, I opened the driver's door and placed my 16 oz. hot chocolate (no - I don't like coffee!) on the armrest.  I checked what I needed there and proceeded to the rest of the rig.  Meanwhile, somebody realized the driver's door was still open and decided to be helpful and shut it.  Yup - all over the driver's seat.  Now this Medic usually prefers to drive - and I was still precepting (READ AS: supposed to be the third wheel in the back of the rig) - but I got the privilege of chaffuering that day, and had damp pants for the whole shift.

2. Same medic - different day.  He takes care of some of the vehicle maintainence and I had to inform him that Ambulance 1 needed some repair work.  I had taken a call to the local old folks home and had backed into a metal pole.  It hadn't looked too bad at the time, until I got out to open the back doors at the hospital - the back step bumper was falling off.  My partner and I taped it back on and drove to the station (33 miles).  The medic and I went and got the needed parts and as I was putting things back together - I ended up as a picture on his phone, so every time I call him...

Last one (cuz this is longer than I thought)...

3. In 2001, I took the First Responder course to begin my volunteer time in EMS.  During our practical time learning to take blood pressure readings, we had one student practicing by palp.  Said student had the cuff on his arm and was having trouble locating a radial pulse.  He finally shrugged, and said, "No problem, I know I can find this one" and proceeded to palpate the carotid artery while pumping up the cuff.  Everyone else began laughing and I finally had to explain to him where the cuff would have to go in order to get a palpated BP using that artery.


----------



## LSalander

*new emt never gonna live down...*

1. Telling pt "I'm gonna get you off now" and "It's gonna be a bit bumpy getting you off"

2. Telling pt "We're gonna drop you now" (just warning them....)

3. Telling pt to "Enjoy your stay" at hospice facility

4. Calling in to dispatch "Please be advised we have an on-scene delay.  Our patient is ill and unable to walk" (....we were waiting for a w/c at psych facility)


----------



## Bosco836

Although this is not my story, a well respected medic in our service once told us about one of his first calls in his younger years.  

They were doing a standby at a gymnastics tournament when they encountered with pain in her legs.  The pt. informed him that she  had shin-splints.  He proceeded to ask the pt., "Well..if you have shin-splints...why aren't you wearing them?"


----------



## b2dragun

Late one night, after a nice nap, we get a call for a motorcycle accident.  We roll up and it is fairly obvious that the pt is 419.  Completely zoned out I put the pulse ox on instead of the ekg.  Luckily no one dogged me but my partner just said lets go ahead and print a strip for our paperwork.  Felt like a moron.

Another time we ran a call...another nighttime call, we pull our brand new power gurney out with our brand new monitor.  Get inside and find out FD is going to transport.  I hop in their rig and give them a hand while my partner puts our stuff away.  They transport and my partner rides in, code 3, I meet yhem at the hospital to pick him up.  When we clear we get a call 40min away up on a mountain, we finally get there, I go to grab our equipment...no bed and no monitor.  Needless to say we freak.  Luckily we get cancelled.  Turns out my partner just rested the bed against the back of the rig...at the top of a very high hill.  We rush back to the last address and can't find it.  We drive down the hill, 17 houses down we find our bed and monitor flipped and on the ground.  Monitor is a good 10 feet from the bed.  Pick it all up...not a single thing wrong, not even a scratch.  We gave eachother a huge hug and vowed to never speak of tge incident.


----------



## Leafmealone

b2dragun said:


> We gave eachother a huge hug and vowed to never speak of tge incident.





Until today...


----------



## b2dragun

Leafmealone said:


> Until today...



The statute of limitations on that has come and gone, LOL.  Plus my partner has since left the company


----------



## Sasha

LSalander said:


> 3. Telling pt to "Enjoy your stay" at hospice



Part of my "routine" is after giving report i pop back in the room to say goodbye. I feel like a butt because more than once I have popped back in and said "You get better, okay?" Or "I hope you get well soon!" To a hospice patient.

Sent from LuLu using Tapatalk


----------



## Sasha

b2dragun said:


> The statute of limitations on that has come and gone, LOL.  Plus my partner has since left the company



There are quite a few things some of my previous partners and I are taking to the grave.

Sent from LuLu using Tapatalk


----------



## marcus2011

Once used the pulse ox as v4 on a 12 lead...yeah everytime we do 12 lead training I have to tell my story


----------



## lightsandsirens5

Not EMS related, but once the engine crew pulled crosslay #1.....and I charged #2. :-S 

That hose sprang out of it's bed like it was possessed by the devil himself. 

Every time I run the panel now, inevitably, someone will pull a line and holler "Charge number ONE!!! Repeat, number ONE!!!


----------



## DGreno

1) I once tripped over the 12 lead cable while getting out the back to go drive. This successfully ripped most of the leads off the pts chest, along with a lot of hair. My partner could hardle compose himself he was laughing so hard. The pt just kinda ignored it, not sure how, they ware CA&O. 

2) We had shore lines on our trucks to keep the heater on in cold weather. We got a call when it was raining and ran to the truck. I had my head down and didn't even think about unplugging the truck. The power cord came with us for about 500 yards and then came unhooked with a hell of a noise. I looked in the mirror and saw it laying on the side of the road and decided we would grab it when we got back. Yeah, it wasn't there by then. My partner never let me live that down.


----------



## DGreno

lightsandsirens5 said:


> Not EMS related, but once the engine crew pulled crosslay #1.....and I charged #2. :-S
> 
> That hose sprang out of it's bed like it was possessed by the devil himself.
> 
> Every time I run the panel now, inevitably, someone will pull a line and holler "Charge number ONE!!! Repeat, number ONE!!!



Been there too, sort of. I charged CL1 before it was completely pulled out at a car fire. 

I also saw an overly excited Bat. Chief charge an entire hose bed of 2 1/2. That was fun.


----------



## mycrofft

*I've shared them all. Use "SEARCH" (hahahaha).*

One of my cohorts in the FD, nervous at his impending next wedding, one late autumn day was cleaning his P2 crash truck and responded code three to the flightline wihout shutting the side gullwing door, which weighed about fifty pounds and was supported by two dashpot and spring contraptions. The building's overhead door was so damaged we had to wait through two months of Nebraska winter with a 30 X 25 foot door wide open awaiting replacement. He drove down the flightline with the door hanging by its lighting wire until the chief caught up and gestured for him to stop (he left without his crew chief, and he was not answering to the radio).





(The hatch is under the number "3" and has red printing on it. Ours was still red then).


Me? Responding code three and arriving sans litter. Had to make do with a FW folding one.


----------



## IRIDEZX6R

So my phone rings in the middle of the night, and being used to 24's I jump up and answer "1302, this is Welch"... Ya, being it was my personall phone... My buddies won't let me live that one down.


----------



## dstevens58

DGreno said:


> We had shore lines on our trucks to keep the heater on in cold weather. We got a call when it was raining and ran to the truck. I had my head down and didn't even think about unplugging the truck. The power cord came with us for about 500 yards and then came unhooked with a hell of a noise. I looked in the mirror and saw it laying on the side of the road and decided we would grab it when we got back. Yeah, it wasn't there by then. My partner never let me live that down.



I was in the back when one of our drivers forgot to pull shore power.  She never lived that down.


----------



## lightsandsirens5

dstevens58 said:


> I was in the back when one of our drivers forgot to pull shore power.  She never lived that down.



Really? That happens fairly often here. In fact, we have short little 12 inch pigtail connectors between the shore and the rig so we don't yank the reel out of the ceiling. At least once a month someone pulls out without dc-ing the shore power. :-S


----------



## johnrsemt

Used to leave clipboard in the back of the truck;  at ED, at scene at ECF.

 Took one partner hitting me with it about 10 times before I learned not to do it anymore


----------



## Cawolf86

lightsandsirens5 said:


> Really? That happens fairly often here. In fact, we have short little 12 inch pigtail connectors between the shore and the rig so we don't yank the reel out of the ceiling. At least once a month someone pulls out without dc-ing the shore power. :-S



Ours do this nifty little pop-off thing when the rig is started if it is still connected.


----------



## Sandman-EMT

Picked up a respitory distress pt. and had placed them on a n/c 4lpm, upon arriving at the ER forgot to undo the n/c from the o2 port on the wall of the ambulance. My partner never noticed either, I pulled the stretcher out the back of the truck and damn near hung him! oppss


----------



## Sasha

Sandman-EMT said:


> Picked up a respitory distress pt. and had placed them on a n/c 4lpm, upon arriving at the ER forgot to undo the n/c from the o2 port on the wall of the ambulance. My partner never noticed either, I pulled the stretcher out the back of the truck and damn near hung him! oppss



Ive done that more times than i would care to admit. 

Sent from LuLu using Tapatalk


----------



## sweetpete

Well........when I was a EMT-B (not that it matters), I put a NRB on a pt receiving CPR.  The medic with me kindly said "Perhaps you can get an OPA and start bagging him".

Then it dawned on me.  I guess I just referred to habit. LOL


----------



## Martyn

Sandman-EMT said:


> Picked up a respitory distress pt. and had placed them on a n/c 4lpm, upon arriving at the ER forgot to undo the n/c from the o2 port on the wall of the ambulance. My partner never noticed either, I pulled the stretcher out the back of the truck and damn near hung him! oppss


 

Guilty :sad:


----------



## JJR512

A few days ago, a patient mentioned as part of her history (not related to the current reason we were there) that all ten of her toes had been amputated.

I asked, "From which foot?" -_-


----------



## Handsome Robb

Cawolf86 said:


> Ours do this nifty little pop-off thing when the rig is started if it is still connected.



So do ours. But every now and again they don't work right and you still take it with you....


----------



## jpbaker1988

*The Wrong Door*

This event happened when I was acting not as an EMT but as a military police officer on post. I was working the mid shift when I was dispatched to a call to go to the ER on post for a patient who ran from the hospital after he was taken by his chain of command for a mental evaluation. Apparently,he used an office as toilet paper (total mess) and made suicidal threats to his platoon sergeant. I arrive at the hospital to meet with his chain of command to find that he smelled so horrible that while they were signing him in to the ER, he was left outside the waiting room with another soldier to keep from offending the waiting room occupants from his hygienic dilemma. At that point in time, he ran. While finishing up their story, his chain of command receives a call that the individual has been located...back at his barracks room and has locked himself in. I then depart the hospital and haul *** to the barracks. I arrive at the barracks and meet with the commander of the unit and am told where the individuals room is. "Does anyone else have the key?" " Staff Duty?" "No?" I bang on the door, identify myself, and request that he open the door. No answer. I try a second and third time and am met with complete silence. At this point, I fear that we may have a suicide or a barricaded subject. I request from my patrol supervisor to attempt to kick in the door, which is locked(Yes I checked first). At this point, I have never kicked in a door, nor am I aware if it is possible that the door can be kicked in but at this point, my options are limited since I have no idea whats going on on the other side of the door. Finally, I receive permission to breach the door. I take a couple steps back and kick as hard as my short stocky legs provide. BOOM!!! Door flies open......to show an empty, unoccupied room. My foot is throbbing. The sound of the door getting kicked in was so loud that the occupant of the room next door comes out to see whats going on to which we discover...ITS THE GUY WE'RE LOOKING FOR!!! In his troubled state, he was not aware that the MP's were looking for him and decided that he didn't feel like waiting at the ER and ran back to his room. I come to find out that the commander had never come to that individuals room before, didn't check to see if there was another key, and I kicked in the wrong door, when the guy we were looking for was living right next to it. Boy did I feel like a jackass.


----------



## rmabrey

Sandman-EMT said:


> Picked up a respitory distress pt. and had placed them on a n/c 4lpm, upon arriving at the ER forgot to undo the n/c from the o2 port on the wall of the ambulance. My partner never noticed either, I pulled the stretcher out the back of the truck and damn near hung him! oppss



also guilty



Ripped a line out of a trauma patient about a week ago, not entirely my fault, poor hook placement and trauma sheers in the belt. Partner got a face full of saline but saved the IV.


----------



## 04_edge

Accidentally grabbing a pt's penis.

My partner was being pretty careless taking the leads off the pt.  I decided id try to be a nice guy and pull his gown down as it was just about showing his twig and berries off and his family was in the room.  Unfortunately little george was sticking straight up.  That was an awkward apology.


----------



## IRIDEZX6R

Letting my supervisor park my rig to close to his POV....


----------



## mycrofft

*JPbaker1988, my cohort did that on a base housing front door.*

Right house, we could see smoke through windows, but he missed the edge of the door and plunged his boot throgh the thinner panel and was stuck. He had to hop back with his foot in the door as the Shift chief slipped the live bolt lock with his pocket knife and strolled in, took the scorching beans off the stove, and opened a window.


----------



## Vivian

> and one does not count while doing CPR. it was funny and now i laugh at it...and whenever i run a code with him i tend to count just to see him laugh



Boy, am I glad I read this, I still haven't gotten a code, and I feel time is very much against me.


----------



## shfd739

People keep bringing up how a partner and I used to hide fishing poles and live minnows in one of the outside compartments on the ambulance so we could fish on the slow weekend days. It made the day go by quite nicely.


----------



## cynikalkat

*Lol*

Thanks to all of you for making me laugh. I'm @ work (Not as EMT or anywhere near EMS), trying to study, while being sick as heck, and took a break to read these. LMAO!

I'm sure I will add to this when I finally get a job, Im always doing random stupid stuff.


----------



## sdover

some of these are hilarious!
thanks for sharing!


----------



## imadriver

In a back room, patient was sittin' along side his bed, had his daughter there taking care of him. I was at the doorway / foot of the bed handing the Pulse Ox and Glucometer to my partner. Everything checked out, so we went to move the patient to the stretcher. With the daughter on one side, and me walking up to the other, I asked "Would he like to walk if we help him?", daughter looked at me with a smile saying "Weeell... I'm sure that he would." Just as she said that I noticed that he bilat amputee...

Luckily the family had a good sense of humor.


----------



## Sasha

I once told a patient that we charge an arm and a leg for baggage like the airlines. To a pt who had just had a bka.

Sent from LuLu using Tapatalk


----------



## Fish

Told the blind pt. as we were going outside, watch your eyes it is really bright out here!


I think the sunglasses through me off:sad:


----------



## Adsy

Opening the door the wrong way into the crew room on station. 

Knocking over a display in a shop while with a patient, walking into a bollard and losing control of the stretcher in public. 

Asking a patient if they worked out while doing an abdo assessment.  

Thats students for you...


----------



## foxfire

I was looking for something to carry some stuff . when I came across a box and exclaimed " hey guys, a box! we can use it for a .....(long pause).....as a box! they just looked at me like did she just say that?! 
 my brain did a total reboot in the middle of that comment and the thought came out really mixed up.


----------



## northernnhmedic

I fell out of the back of an ambulance once...

I was working a one of my last shift on my medic unit in NYC before moving back to New Hampshire.  We got called to back up a BLS unit for a patient with chest pain.  As we rolled up, we find them coming out of the house with the patient on a stair chair.  I get into the back of their bus to get things ready.  The FDNY ambulances are set up with a wall mounted stretcher and the aisle between the bench and stretcher is wide enough to fit the chair, so we usually lift the patient right in while theyre still on the chair.  So, anyhow, Im standing just inside the bus, feet not quite planted and have a loose grip on the chair.  Looked at my guy at the bottom of the chair, who happens to be a new 6-month EMT, look him in the eye and say "Im not ready yet", very clear and loud.  He looks at me and says "Oh, youre ready?  Go!", and lifts on the bottom of the chair.  That pulls me out of the bus, head first, and I go 69 with my 70 year old female patient.  The 2 remaining partners help me scramble back in the bus, i do the lift successfully, and I plop myself in the captains chair.  Once were all settled, I look around at everyone and say "Someday, we'll all look back at this and laugh.


----------



## BlueAngel2955

Not my story, thank goodness, but an old supervisors.  Many years ago I worked for a private ambulance service that beat you over the head about driving safety at every available opportunity.  They required that one of the medics "spot" the driver any time the vehicle was backing up.  Good policy, but you could expect anywhere from a 10 second belittling up to an hourlong rant from any of the supervisory staff who caught you backing "unspotted."  

One of the supervisory staff members was well known for being very big on this very issue.  He'd tell you that in his 20 plus years he had NEVER, that is NEVER, thank you, did I mention NEVER, backed without a spotter and had NEVER, EVER, run into anything. 

My partner and I had stopped to get coffee and were leaving the store, and as I was jumping out (my position was not visible from the street) to spot my partner backing up, this particular SSM drove by in his unit, noticed the reverse floods lit, and no spotter, and promptly got on the radio and told my partner to expect a dressing down at the end of the day for the policy violation.  

When I got back in he told me what happened and I just rolled my eyes and said, "Well, he'll shut up once we point out that what he saw wasn't the whole story."  

We got in at the end of that 16 hour shift, and no supervisor, even though he'd gone 10-7 an hour before us.  His car was gone, the station was pretty much empty except for the O/N crew.  Okay, we went home. 

Found out the next morning that IMMEDIATELY following his little tirade on the radio, he and his partner went and picked up a pt at the local hospital going to a rehab facility.  After dropping off their pt without incident, they left.  While he was backing out the ambulance from the tight little spot you had to park in, he IGNORED HIS SPOTTER and backed into someone's Bentley.  As in, one of the 300K dollar British juggernauts.  Apparently, it did a rather large amount of damage.  

He was given some involuntary time off of work for that one, and earned himself the nickname "Bent Lee."


----------



## jediwill

Im a new emt-b and my partner and I got a call to a call that turned out to be a older parent who died of natural causes in a bed on the bottom floor and the daughter who was a caregiver went upstairs and committed suicide in a bathroom...well it was the first strip I had ever run on a DOA...so not only did I put a 4 lead on...I also put on the bp cuff and pulse ox....on BOTH patients.I wasn't thinking Id get a bp or anything I just thought that all the vitals*or lack of* needed to be recorded...no one had ever told me how it was supposed to be done.The funny thing is that the FD guys saw me do the first one and didn't say anything to me but said out of earshot"What tha hell?Let's see if he does the other one the same way" lol...My partner told me later..was embarassing but just part of the learning experiance.


----------



## QCC EMT

That's hysterical!


----------



## MedicPatriot

Everytime we get a call and dispatch advises the patient has nausea one of my usual drivers makes a gesture of drawing up meds in a syringe because I give Zofran out likes its candy and nobody else in my service uses it.

Not that you guys give a sh*t haha


----------



## johnrsemt

Zofran is a great drug.   Give it as often as I can


----------



## cynikalkat

*stupid cabinets*

I am short enough (5'3) that sometimes I can go under things, like high cabinets, in hospitals and not realize just how little space i have. case in point, went to B&I in boston, maneuvered under a set of cabinets that were @ the ceiling and came down a bit, positioned to transfer pt to hospital bed, stood up and whacked the top pf my head on the cabinets. my preceptor, his partner, the patient, his wife, and the nurse all laughed for a solid 5 minutes. I hit it so hard there were tears in my eyes and one heck of a bruise later. It was funny, though lots of short jokes have happened after that.


----------



## SliceOfLife

1. Getting into the wrong ambulance

2. Picking up the NNICU team at MGH in Boston headed for Brockton.  I got everyone loaded in, proceeded to back the ambulance straight into a cement pole.  My face was a red for the 40 min drive...and the return trip.


----------



## ARose

SliceOfLife said:


> 1. Getting into the wrong ambulance
> 
> 2. Picking up the NNICU team at MGH in Boston headed for Brockton.  I got everyone loaded in, proceeded to back the ambulance straight into a cement pole.  My face was a red for the 40 min drive...and the return trip.



I did that today!
Except I was in drive. 
And it was a tree.


----------



## Martyn

How about unloading a PT and taking them into the wrong nursing home (we should have been at the one the other side of town, 5-6 miles away). Luckily (unluckily???) the PT has dementia so we kept quiet, loaded her back up and delivered her to the right one just as the family was arriving. Hopefully with no one else the wiser!!!


----------



## cynikalkat

*the last 2 days alone...*

knocking over a half full urinal today...(everyone laughed, i didnt get it on anyone, myself included)

walking into a pole, also today...(a half-pole,at a BK/gas station)

slipping on ice/snow after making fun of my partner for parking so far from the snow pile (yesterday, wendys parking lot) 



at least i can laugh at myself


----------



## cynikalkat

Martyn said:


> How about unloading a PT and taking them into the wrong nursing home (we should have been at the one the other side of town, 5-6 miles away). Luckily (unluckily???) the PT has dementia so we kept quiet, loaded her back up and delivered her to the right one just as the family was arriving. Hopefully with no one else the wiser!!!



:rofl: pretty sure my company has done that


----------



## LuvGlock

Second day on the job, first time running hot, and I pass up the address on a busy street.  So I put it in reverse, and sit there with the back up alarm beeping and the lights and sirens going, waiting for traffic behind me to go around so I can back up.  Of course, since I had my lights and sirens on, they were just sitting there.  And oncoming traffic was stopped and staring at me, with looks of admiration (or maybe it was confusion) on their faces.  After a full minute, my FTO said, ":censored: it, just park right here."

Earned me a nickname I'm happy to be rid of.  I won't repeat it here, since this is a family forum.


----------



## johnrsemt

Working Private service;  on a response with the fire dept.  got to the scene,  after I turned onto the street I found out it was a dead end street with no way to turn around except backing out.   Engine parked on the main street.  Went into the house;  ended up with a refusal.  
  As we were all walking out to the rigs; fire was dispatched 3 blocks away on another sick person.  Their dispatch asked them to ask us if we could go to (they had marked in service with a refusal; we hadn't told our dispatcher yet).  We agreed to go.
   As we were backing out,  with 2 fire fighters spotting me; I backed into something solid;  I couldn't see it in the mirrors including the inside one, so I was pretty sure it  wasn't a tree.  My partner and I both got out to look,  first thing I see is the LT on the engine covering his face, and his driver laughing so hard he was having problems breathing.    The 2 FF backed me into a fire hydrant.   
   I told them that is not what it means to 'hit the hydrant'.  No damage,  called it in; was sent to next run:  helps my partner was the supervisor.


----------



## DesertMedic66

The one thing I will never live down so far: accidentally tearing my scrotum open 3 inches and having to get 8 stitches at the ER during a fire academy.


----------



## ARose

firefite said:


> The one thing I will never live down so far: accidentally tearing my scrotum open 3 inches and having to get 8 stitches at the ER during a fire academy.



You win.


----------



## DesertMedic66

ARose said:


> You win.



Not really something I wanna win haha. At least I got a pretty good nickname out of it "Splits". Hahaha


----------



## ARose

firefite said:


> Not really something I wanna win haha. At least I got a pretty good nickname out of it "Splits". Hahaha



HAH! I physically cringed when I read your post. And then crossed my legs.


----------



## medic417

firefite said:


> Not really something I wanna win haha. At least I got a pretty good nickname out of it "Splits". Hahaha



You know theres safer ways to get that sex change operation you wanted.













:rofl:


----------



## DesertMedic66

But not cheaper....

I didn't have to pay anything. The Fire Department paid for my stitch job haha


----------



## DesertMedic66

ARose said:


> HAH! I physically cringed when I read your post. And then crossed my legs.



Your last sentence would have saved me much pain if I did that..


----------



## ARose

firefite said:


> Your last sentence would have saved me much pain if I did that..



What about direct pressure?!


----------



## DesertMedic66

ARose said:


> What about direct pressure?!



Haha. The fire medics who were there were just looking at my injury like "uhhh wtf do we do?". They ended up handing me all the stuff and I had to bandage myself up.


----------



## ARose

firefite said:


> Haha. The fire medics who were there were just looking at my injury like "uhhh wtf do we do?". They ended up handing me all the stuff and I had to bandage myself up.



Hey, you gotta be self sufficient in this field. 
But then again, you also shouldn't he trying to cut yourself in half, either. 
And I give you props for showing that to the medics, I would have been all "I ah...got this thing...and ummm....yeah I gotta go..."
And then waddled myself into the ED.


----------



## DesertMedic66

ARose said:


> Hey, you gotta be self sufficient in this field.
> But then again, you also shouldn't he trying to cut yourself in half, either.
> And I give you props for showing that to the medics, I would have been all "I ah...got this thing...and ummm....yeah I gotta go..."
> And then waddled myself into the ED.



ER was over 30 miles away. And the only vehicles up there were fire engines and Captian trucks. 

Very awkward when you are 16 and you hear a fire medic you've known for 4 years say "alright well uhh, go in your bunk room and take your pants off and I'll find the medical staff for today to have a look". 

Why we had 5 fire medics as medical staff is beyond me.


----------



## ARose

firefite said:


> ER was over 30 miles away. And the only vehicles up there were fire engines and Captian trucks.
> 
> Very awkward when you are 16 and you hear a fire medic you've known for 4 years say "alright well uhh, go in your bunk room and take your pants off and I'll find the medical staff for today to have a look".
> 
> Why we had 5 fire medics as medical staff is beyond me.



Oh that just sucks. Oooof...16? 
5 fire medics? Really?


----------



## DesertMedic66

ARose said:


> Oh that just sucks. Oooof...16?
> 5 fire medics? Really?



It was worse at the hospital. It was a slow day at the hospital and I was the only patient. So naturally I had the fire medic from my station, the doctor, 3 RNs, and 2 LVNs all in my room while the doc was stitching. 

Ooh the awkwardness of all that plus having my medic hold me down on the table because I was not easily going to take the numbing shots.


----------



## medic417

ARose said:


> Oh that just sucks. Oooof...16?
> 5 fire medics? Really?



And just think of all the nurses he had hit on in the ER finding out he was guilty of false advertising.:rofl:


----------



## ARose

medic417 said:


> And just think of all the nurses he had hit on in the ER finding out he was guilty of false advertising.:rofl:



At 16 I think most boys are guilty of that.


----------



## DesertMedic66

medic417 said:


> And just think of all the nurses he had hit on in the ER finding out he was guilty of false advertising.:rofl:



Hey hey hey! That was uncalled for haha. Luckily it was a hospital I've never been to before or ever again. Glad I don't work up at bear valley hospital in Big Bear, CA haha


----------



## ARose

firefite said:


> It was worse at the hospital. It was a slow day at the hospital and I was the only patient. So naturally I had the fire medic from my station, the doctor, 3 RNs, and 2 LVNs all in my room while the doc was stitching.
> 
> Ooh the awkwardness of all that plus having my medic hold me down on the table because I was not easily going to take the numbing shots.



Now you have a general idea about how painful labor and delivery is!


----------



## kravturtle

Is it worth asking how exactly you managed to do that to yourself?!


----------



## medic417

ARose said:


> Now you have a general idea about how painful labor and delivery is!



Do you know how to tell if a patient is in labor for the first time?

First timers are trying to be modest and act bashful when you check them.  Second timers or more meet you at the door with everything exposed, they have no shame they just want it out.


----------



## medic417

kravturtle said:


> Is it worth asking how exactly you managed to do that to yourself?!



His mom only told him he would go blind she never warned him about this.


----------



## DesertMedic66

kravturtle said:


> Is it worth asking how exactly you managed to do that to yourself?!



Short story is I was climbing a telephone pole (part of an excersize) and my foot slipped off the rusty L spike and I fell 3 feet only to have a couple more rusty L spikes cut my shin, stomach, and scrotum :wacko:


----------



## ARose

medic417 said:


> Do you know how to tell if a patient is in labor for the first time?
> 
> First timers are trying to be modest and act bashful when you check them.  Second timers or more meet you at the door with everything exposed, they have no shame they just want it out.



That's what I've heard. Don't blame either of 'em personally. First time around is terrifying (can you tell I don't have kids?) second time around there must be a sense of "Why did I do this?!"


----------



## ARose

firefite said:


> Short story is I was climbing a telephone pole (part of an excersize) and my foot slipped off the rusty L spike and I fell 3 feet only to have a couple more rusty L spikes cut my shin, stomach, and scrotum :wacko:


 
Stop making me wince, I'm getting funny looks from people.


----------



## d0nk3yk0n9

firefite said:


> Short story is I was climbing a telephone pole (part of an excersize) and my foot slipped off the rusty L spike and I fell 3 feet only to have a couple more rusty L spikes cut my shin, stomach, and scrotum :wacko:



We had someone at the summer camp I work at once try to climb a flagpole. Technically, he was successful, it was his climbing back down that needed work. He somehow managed to slide all the way back down and impale himself on the cleat in a rather unfortunate place.


----------



## lil'red

We got dispatched out on a call on a FREEZING cold, rainy day and as I reached up to unplug my ambulance, my hand slipped off of hte wet plug and I caught the cord.  The plug came FLYING out and SMACKED me in the eye.  I had to call my area supervisor and let him know that I had just given myself a huge black eye!!!


----------



## dewey

*EMT-I Clinicals*

My first ER-clinical for EMT-I - Asking a pretty cute 28 YOF cc R hemothorax,  lying nekkid in the ER (gown wasn't placed well, and I was holding c-spine), and who was getting a foley inserted - "How's it goin"..  I was just trying to calm her down a bit, but it sounded like I was hitting on her..  I got a couple snickers and odd looks from the Pt., the ER staff, and my preceptor..


----------



## Oculuck

lil'red said:


> We got dispatched out on a call on a FREEZING cold, rainy day and as I reached up to unplug my ambulance, my hand slipped off of hte wet plug and I caught the cord.  The plug came FLYING out and SMACKED me in the eye.  I had to call my area supervisor and let him know that I had just given myself a huge black eye!!!



Better then the FF who went to unplug it, and the wires' were exposed.. He grabbed it and fried the crap out of himself.. 

The article said after a week in the hospital, he still can't feel, or use that hand.


----------



## Riley

I was doing third rides with a fire station. The guy was drunk in an attempt to self-manage his drinking. He was pissed because we couldn't get a line on him (he had a port) and refused to talk to us for half the trip besides telling us he needed to pee. He decided to yell in the ER that he wanted me to help him with the urinal. The security guards had a laugh about that.


----------



## KyleG

Backwards BP cuff.... Don't wanna talk about


----------



## Handsome Robb

Wasn't me but when I patrolled I showed up as the second man in with the gear. Handed the volly who was first on scene the c-collar, turned around for 2 seconds turned back arround and he had put it on inside out :wacko:


----------



## CritterNurse

KyleG said:


> Backwards BP cuff.... Don't wanna talk about



That's why I like the cuffs that have stuff printed on them like:



> This side to patient.
> Warning: If you can read this, the cuff is on backwards.



I laughed the first time I saw that printed on one, but I guess its a fairly common mistake to make.


----------



## johnrsemt

Watched someone put a c-collar on right way out, but upside down.   Brain dead moment;  esp when the patient took it off and put it back on correctly.


----------



## johnrsemt

Wow, I just made assistant chief


----------



## ARose

Biffed my pt in the head w the toughbook last night. 
Hard.


----------



## Oculuck

ARose said:


> Biffed my pt in the head w the toughbook last night.
> Hard.



Okkayyy.. 
We need to hear this story!


----------



## ARose

Oculuck said:


> Okkayyy..
> We need to hear this story!



My partner asked for the computer and I reached past the PTs head to the left (partner was in jump seat, I was teching to the left of pt) and just then we took a hard turn and the laptop whacked 'em in the side of the head. 
Hard.


----------



## Mountain Res-Q

ARose said:


> My partner asked for the computer and I reached past the PTs head to the left (partner was in jump seat, I was teching to the left of pt) and just then we took a hard turn and the laptop whacked 'em in the side of the head.
> Hard.



Despite the occasional strong desire, I have NEVER assaulted a patient...



I assault them... and then they become a patient...  :rofl:


----------



## ARose

Mountain Res-Q said:


> Despite the occasional strong desire, I have NEVER assaulted a patient...
> 
> 
> 
> I assault them... and then they become a patient...  :rofl:



"I thought he had LRQ pain?"

"Yea, well, now he's got a head injury, just put it in the damn report..."


----------



## Oculuck

ARose said:


> "I thought he had LRQ pain?"
> 
> "Yea, well, now he's got a head injury, just put it in the damn report..."



Rofll!!
Did you seriously add that into the report?


----------



## ARose

Oculuck said:


> Rofll!!
> Did you seriously add that into the report?



No, I was being facetious....


----------



## Oculuck

ARose said:


> No, I was being facetious....



Lol.. Kinda hard to tell sarcasm over the internet.

Serious question though; if the pt complained about it, would you have to put it in the report?


----------



## ARose

Oculuck said:


> Lol.. Kinda hard to tell sarcasm over the internet.
> 
> Serious question though; if the pt complained about it, would you have to put it in the report?



Absolutely. 

The pt wasn't thrilled, but they were uninjured and most importantly understanding. 
Now I'm wondering if I should have....

Edited because I didn't proof....


----------



## Oculuck

ARose said:


> Absolutely.
> 
> The pt wasn't thrilled, but they were uninjured and most importantly understanding.
> Now I'm wondering if I should have....
> 
> Edited because I didn't proof....



Yeah, like what if for some reason he complained at the ER... and they call your company?


----------



## ARose

Oculuck said:


> Yeah, like what if for some reason he complained at the ER... and they call your company?



Then I get my butt in hot water. We all make mistakes. One of our sr crew members dumped a pt a while back on uneven ground with the cot fully extended. 
I'm not perfect hon, I don't pretend to be. The whole point of learning from your mistakes is not doing the same stupid thing twice. 
My lesson?
Make sure you have a stable hold on your equipment at all times. 
I looked like a moron the other night, I can laugh at it, my partner can laugh at it, and my pt was safely treated and transferred. 
Aside from hitting his noggin that is.


----------



## Oculuck

ARose said:


> Then I get my butt in hot water. We all make mistakes. One of our sr crew members dumped a pt a while back on uneven ground with the cot fully extended.
> I'm not perfect hon, I don't pretend to be. The whole point of learning from your mistakes is not doing the same stupid thing twice.
> My lesson?
> Make sure you have a stable hold on your equipment at all times.
> I looked like a moron the other night, I can laugh at it, my partner can laugh at it, and my pt was safely treated and transferred.
> Aside from hitting his noggin that is.



Hahaa! What was he being picked up for anyways? Hope if wasn't head trama! :rofl:


----------



## Danno

Was my second day ever in the field, we had just dropped our pt off and were on our way out of the hospital.  My FTO goes I need to go to the bathroom and I needed to as well so I was following him.  I was busy thinking about the call, what i could have done better, etc. I ended up following him INTO the bathroom.  We get halfway in, he turns around goes "what the F*** do you think you're doing?!"

Yeah. his partner just about died laughing


----------



## SoCal911

Lol! ^


----------



## Steveb

Forgetting to check Vitals on a patient who suffered a concussion.


----------



## Steveb

Fish said:


> Told the blind pt. as we were going outside, watch your eyes it is really bright out here!
> 
> 
> I think the sunglasses through me off:sad:


:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:


----------



## jkrewko

my very first day, my first run as an emt-b. i had never used a monitor before and i put the bp cuff on backwards. it inflated right off the guys arm. my partner just burst out laughing. he is now my rescue capt at the fd and still breaks my balls over it. we are also super good friends. still funny


----------



## tnoye1337

jkrewko said:


> my very first day, my first run as an emt-b. i had never used a monitor before and i put the bp cuff on backwards. it inflated right off the guys arm. my partner just burst out laughing. he is now my rescue capt at the fd and still breaks my balls over it. we are also super good friends. still funny



I put bp cuffs on backwards sometimes, but I remember to fix it before I inflate it.


----------



## Angel21228

*Falling on A***

I was walking quickly to the Ambulance to get inside with my ALS who had a 5yo that was Unconscious!  I went to walk around the side of the Ambulance and hit ice, and fell to my A**!!  I didn't think anyone saw it, but my driver did. Lets just say I haven't lived it down yet!!!


----------



## feldy

unloaded the pt on the stretcher from the back of the unit...the catch bar was apparently stuck and didnt catch the hook...stretcher dropped right on to the back bumper (i luckily forgot to put the bumper up).

luckily for me...only my partner saw and the pt was so intoxicated that he started laughing hysterically for a good 5 mins. At least he was already on a backboard.


----------



## SoCal911

(My partner did this not me) So were on a private shift and had switched our radio over to the fire side to eaves drop on what calls our friends were getting. So we go in, get our patient and load em up. After I back my partner up, I hop in the back - lean through the little cab window and tell my partner who just grabbed the mic to put us transporting  "Careful! You're on fire (radio channel)." She freaked the **** out!!! She actually thought she was on fire (the stuff those guys in yellow turnouts play with). After calming down and laughing so hard she cried - she told me what the hell had just happened.


----------



## mct601

Paramedic student... first assignment... of first ER rotation... and first med admin


Despite being a seasoned basic. 







Needle into needleless port.


----------



## legion1202

I was a emt student.. Call came in as a anal bleed (as usual right at dinner time) We made contact blah blah blah.. Guy hadn't taken a poop in 3-5 days and stuck his finger up there to try to loosen one out.. Gross yeah blah blah.... So we ask if he was still bleeding and he said it stooped before we go there it. So we load him on the stretcher and get him to the rig. As a great emt student I go and start getting v/s for the crew. I take the pulse ox and put on his finger and  the whole screw starts laughing and they take it off and use a disposable one. It then hits me why they were laughing... Lets just say I rode with the crew during medic school and I still got made fun of for it.


----------



## EMTswag

took a job 15-20 minutes away for a neuro transfer with the lights all in secondary... i was a rather confused driver the whole way there


----------



## Martyn

feldy said:


> unloaded the pt on the stretcher from the back of the unit...the catch bar was apparently stuck and didnt catch the hook...stretcher dropped right on to the back bumper (i luckily forgot to put the bumper up).
> 
> luckily for me...only my partner saw and the pt was so intoxicated that he started laughing hysterically for a good 5 mins. At least he was already on a backboard.


 
BUMP, BUMP, BUMP....I've done that as well, luckily my patient wasn't ETOH but still found it amusing :blush:


----------



## kindofafireguy

I did the whole "ER" style straddle-the-patient-on-the-cot ride in on a cardiac arrest once.

I'm short. I couldn't deliver good compressions from the side.

Oh well. I still get crap for that one.


----------



## Anthony7994

My first full blown structure fire was a doozy. We had a ladder going up to a hole near the peak of the roof on the side of the house. Chief wanted a fog nozzle on there to vent the smoke. One of the guys from some BFE department handed me the 2 1/2 and told me the combo was on fog. My rookie *** didn't bother to check. I climbed up there, opened up the nozzle, and ended up riding the hose down to the ground. I fell about ten feet, and landed on an AC unit. I couldn't see since water shot my mask up over my eyes, and next thing I know there's an entire crew around me with freaked out looks asking me if I was ok. I told them I was fine...just embarrassed. Let me tell you, that fire gear has a lot of good padding...and the helmet works!


----------



## mm505

Ran a call with a 21 y/o female high on drugs.  We transported her to the ER.  Enroute, I called the hospital on HEAR.  Since I didn't feel like holding down the PTT button, I simply flipped it over to VOX.

Unit 55 is enroute to your facility with a 21 y/o female who, yes, you are pretty, who has taken, no, I don't want to see your t*ts, who took, I told you I don't want to see your t*ts.  Would you please put your shirt back on, oh sh*t!  

The last two words were when I realized I was on VOX and I reached over and switched it back over to normal mode.  The ER never replied, I didn't bother to get back on the air, and when we arrived, the entire ER staff was at the door waiting!

If that wasn't so bad, other crews in the county heard it as well and I'm quite sure there were other ERs who monitored HEAR heard it as well.

I never used VOX after that, no matter how lazy I was.


----------



## kindofafireguy

Hey, at least they heard you turning her down. Could've been worse. A medic in my region once looked at a patient's boyfriend and told him "Man, your girl has a nice rack."

Didn't go so well.


----------



## Handsome Robb

We had a pt from the ski hill all bundled up an backboarded and my partner wanted a 12-lead. So I made the offhand comment that it was like unwrapping a christmas present, just layer after layer. It took me a second to realize but she was a great sport about it and I was new. "Boy, as cute as you are I don't think you'll find the presents you're unwrapping all that interesting...they're tiny!"

needless to say I hear present jokes all the time. I'll never make that mistake again though, that could have gone very wrong.


----------



## SSwain

As a ride along...
My second contact BP cuff backwards. My preceptor just smiled and said "Try that one inside out..."

My 3rd contact was something that I thought nobody saw. Pt was found unconscious behind the wheel of his car. PD was on scene first, we pull up and my driver and medic get out. I was riding in the back, so I egress thru the rear doors. In the process, I tripped on the little gurney hook in the middle of the floor. 
Lucky for me, I had a good grip on the handle of rear door...
To me it felt like a scene from a movie where the hero is haging on and swinging wildly behind a moving truck.
In reality, I was less than graceful on my exit. At least I didn't fall head first onto the street, thanks to the grip I had.

When I said I didn't think anybody saw it, I didn't realize that my preceptor had opened the side hatch to get the bag and Lifepak...and had a view thru the interior of the rig.

I am sure there will be more in the future.


----------



## Heylove

IaEMT said:


> I'll bump ya one on the ripped pants category.  I responded to a call, where as with yours, it was a very heavy person FDGB.  As I squatted to help my two female partners lift this patient, my pants split...more like exploded.  It was almost like the inseam through the crotch was velcro all the way down to the knees on both sides and up the zipper seam in the front and the ...midline... seam in the back.  The only thing holding the lower pants up was the outside seam.
> 
> Embarrasing...right?  Well.....to add to the humiliation....I am a Marvel Comic nerd......and....(are you ready?)......I was wearing my brand new Spiderman boxers.....and it was extremely apparent, from any angle.  So.....now..my team at random times will just call out and say, "Hey Spidey, how's it going?".



OMG, you guys are hilarious!  As a brand-spankin' new EMT student, now I know to *always* wear pretty (and comic-free) undies while working!


----------



## marcus2011

Switching up the arm leads in a 12 lead......lets just say you get fun rhythms


----------



## TheGodfather

marcus2011 said:


> Switching up the arm leads in a 12 lead......lets just say you get fun rhythms



If that's the most embarrassing thing you've done, I'd say you're in pretty good shape! Personally, I've done that a handful of times :blush:...

Luckily, my monitor is pretty good about letting me know! And if for some reason it doesn't, global electronegativity in lead I is a pretty good indicator as well!


----------



## marcus2011

TheGodfather said:


> If that's the most embarrassing thing you've done, I'd say you're in pretty good shape! Personally, I've done that a handful of times :blush:...
> 
> Luckily, my monitor is pretty good about letting me know! And if for some reason it doesn't, global electronegativity in lead I is a pretty good indicator as well!



Well I was with a new medic and I was still an EMT...Lets just say we transported a patient with a STEMI to a Balloon station emergency traffic....called in the STEMI alert and everything. The doctor noticed our mistake.


----------



## TheGodfather

marcus2011 said:


> Well I was with a new medic and I was still an EMT...Lets just say we transported a patient with a STEMI to a Balloon station emergency traffic....called in the STEMI alert and everything. The doctor noticed our mistake.



oh boy! that's a little more embarrassing!

doesn't sound like it was your fault... simple mistake on your part! live and learn.


----------



## MedicPam

Heylove said:


> OMG, you guys are hilarious!  As a brand-spankin' new EMT student, now I know to *always* wear pretty (and comic-free) undies while working!



That was great...but I think I will try to remember to specifically wear funny undies from now on...we're going shopping! 

So anyone who knows me is very well aware that I am the farthest thing from graceful... many years ago while in EMT-B training, during skills day I was tasked with completing full spinal precautions on another student. I did so, and very nicely, I might add...so nicely that when I stood up and STEPPED ACROSS him, I caught the heel of my boot on the strap across his hips, and ended up transferring all my weight right onto his groin!  Having done such a great job, my poor friend couldn't roll over into the fetal position and cry it off :blink:  He will never forgive me...this story always seems to come out when he wants to me why he doesn't have kids - I think 15 years is time to give it a rest though. Hehe. I AM STILL SORRY, RYAN!


----------



## Chris07

Partner was unloading the pt. from the back of the rig when the excess NC 02 tubing got caught around the gurney catch. I thought we were going to pull the pt's face off. Luckily it was quickly caught, but I felt so bad. Was really embarrassing since the pt's family was riding with us! :wacko:


----------



## shiroun

marcus2011 said:


> Switching up the arm leads in a 12 lead......lets just say you get fun rhythms



Interestingly enough, when I was doing my hospital hours for my EMT class, we had a guy come in with the left arm electrode on the area between the scrotal sack and the anus. Is it the perenium in guys?

Doctors gave him a few odd looks for that one.

Also had an indian doctor tell me to get an IV on a guy for something. I told him I can't, I'm not allowed, and *apparently* he thought I was allowed to, or some bull:censored::censored::censored::censored:. He said, in his mangled accent, "Look, nitwit, it's easy." and proceeded to get it right in... to the bracial artery.

Yeah, not too many I have. I don't ride yet.


----------



## Kmuggee

SSwain said:


> As a ride along...
> My second contact BP cuff backwards. My preceptor just smiled and said "Try that one inside out..."
> 
> My 3rd contact was something that I thought nobody saw. Pt was found unconscious behind the wheel of his car. PD was on scene first, we pull up and my driver and medic get out. I was riding in the back, so I egress thru the rear doors. In the process, I tripped on the little gurney hook in the middle of the floor.
> Lucky for me, I had a good grip on the handle of rear door...
> To me it felt like a scene from a movie where the hero is haging on and swinging wildly behind a moving truck.
> In reality, I was less than graceful on my exit. At least I didn't fall head first onto the street, thanks to the grip I had.
> 
> When I said I didn't think anybody saw it, I didn't realize that my preceptor had opened the side hatch to get the bag and Lifepak...and had a view thru the interior of the rig.
> 
> I am sure there will be more in the future.


Hah!

That reminds me of one of the ride-alongs I did a couple months back.
I managed to hit my head pretty violently when attempting to exit the rear of the ambulance. The patient and fireman that were in the back with me just stopped talking and looked at me like what the hell..
If hitting my head wasn't bad enough, I managed to bash my shin into the gurney when I was attempting to help wheel the patient out of the ambulance.

With my constant clumsiness throughout the ride-along shift, I got nicknamed "Princess" by all the EMTs and somehow all the fireman in the area knew the nickname as well. The next few calls, It was nothing but "princess, princess princessss"
That's a way to be remembered, I guess!


----------



## sirengirl

While precepting paramedic school, ran on a patient who was mildly dehydrated due to vomiting but who had hx of CHF; could not determine if lung sounds were from CHF or pneumonia. When starting IV on the patient I had a very long internal debate with myself on if I wanted to hang a bag and how much. Pt states they have not been able to eat or drink or keep anything down and are thirsty. Make a decision to hang a bag but again don't want to hang a lot. Conversation as follows: 

Me, to EMT, while squinting at the 18-ga I just flushed, "Can you spike me a bag?"

EMT, who is also a state-registered paramedic, to me: "Sure, how much?"

Me, still squinting at the IV, debating: "Ehhh.... :unsure: 500."

*silence reigns supreme in ambulance*

Me, looking up at hot paramedic and EMT: ".....What?"

EMT: "500? :huh:"

Hot paramedic: "Seriously?! :rofl:"

Me, realizing what I just said: ".....Shut up. :sad: Gimme a 250 bag..."


Paramedic laughed at me all the way back to the station.


----------



## Always BSI

Last month I got hired by a local ambulance company (first EMT job) I was going thru my Field training and had a 5150 call. 

It was my 4th one idk how I managed to do it but when we dropped of the PT I took the original 5150 hold with me and didn't even notice. I had it in my clipboard. I didn't realize this until about 3 hours later when my FTO and I were about to go home when I heard my name being called on the radio asking If I had the hold. 

We had to drive all the way back to the hospital where I got chewed out by one of the doctors in there for taking it lol... 

I've never felt like such a noob


----------



## VFlutter

One of my first clinicals giving meds I had to open a bottle of maalox and the stupid peel off top would not come off, it just kept ripping. So my bright idea was to *gently* press a hole through the top with my finger. Well gently turned me into going straight through and knuckle deep into the bottle causing a geyser of maalox to explode out of the bottle all over my face and scrubs.....
I am sure you get the picture of what it looked like. It stained splattered white all over my scrub top.


----------



## NomadicMedic

shiroun said:


> Interestingly enough, when I was doing my hospital hours for my EMT class, we had a guy come in with the left arm electrode on the area between the scrotal sack and the anus. Is it the perenium in guys?



Read this. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZsrP8BIaWVAC&pg=PA173&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4


----------



## SSwain

Okay...new bonehead move for me.
Fri night, we get toned out at 0215.
Transport to ED no problems....I get in the rig and pull out of the bay and start on my merry way back to the station. Medic riding shotgun doing the report, the guy who hired me is in the box in back.
I look down to see the dash is totally dark. 
WTF?
I realize I had forgotten to turn the friggin driving lights on. Fumbling around to find the switch while pulling to the side of the road...with my mentor AND boss in the ambo with me....

D'oh!


----------



## Napper820

The best one recently for me was during practical learning in class the other week.  We are assigned teams, and are responding to "calls".  Our "patient" codes in the rig and my partner goes into some form of 'CPR' I've never seen.  I am screaming "30 and 2" while fumbling with the BVM and failing at getting the OPA in as I am close to falling over, while our instructor is driving the rig around campus...  Not a best moment, but really a learning moment.  

Never had it so crazy while out on clinical.  Prepared for anything to happen in class.


----------



## 7887firemedic

Back during medic clinicals i was tasked with giving a small bolus of morphine with a carpuject vial. As i proceded to insert 2 ml of air (as you would with a vial) the top blew off hit the ceiling(PING) and shot off over the curtain into the other pts area. I heard the pt say OMG WTF was that? Oops! Nobody ever saw it that I know of!! hahahaha


----------



## Napper820

7887firemedic said:


> Back during medic clinicals i was tasked with giving a small bolus of morphine with a carpuject vial. As i proceded to insert 2 ml of air (as you would with a vial) the top blew off hit the ceiling(PING) and shot off over the curtain into the other pts area. I heard the pt say OMG WTF was that? Oops! Nobody ever saw it that I know of!! hahahaha



:rofl: I can only imagine.


----------



## johnrsemt

Had a medic in the back of the truck with me that had put the carpuject adaptor on the carpuject with Morphine it,  he did it right:  but when he was trying to get the air bubble out of it my driver hit a bump and the medic shot the entire 10mg of Morphine onto the ceiling of the truck.

   When we got to the hospital I told the driver that while he was cleaning the truck he was not allowed to lick the ceiling clean.   Wish I had a camera for the look on his face. 

  When the medic tried to explain to the nurse why she needed to witness for use of 20mg of Morphine and she wasn't believing him,  the ED doctor started laughing and said that "no one would use that lousy excuse to steal 10mg"  and the Doc signed the paperwork


----------



## legion1202

just had one.

Hook on the truck the keeps the streatcher from falling out when pulling a pt out of the back of the truck didnt work. Pt almost came falling out but we were able to catch the streatcher thank god.. My hands are still shaking....:sad: Wont be pulling pts out that far again =(


----------



## Anjel

My partner just started medic school and is doing her live IV sticks. 

So we had a pt who was a junkie. We pick him up all the time. 

The medics we were with were going to let her start the IV. She was like oh ya we are doing them in school. I look like a heroin addict. 

The pt stopped whatever he was rambling about and just looked at her. And said really!?

Lol it was quite funny.


----------



## usalsfyre

johnrsemt said:


> Had a medic in the back of the truck with me that had put the carpuject adaptor on the carpuject with Morphine it,  he did it right:  but when he was trying to get the air bubble out of it my driver hit a bump and the medic shot the entire 10mg of Morphine onto the ceiling of the truck.
> 
> When we got to the hospital I told the driver that while he was cleaning the truck he was not allowed to lick the ceiling clean.   Wish I had a camera for the look on his face.
> 
> When the medic tried to explain to the nurse why she needed to witness for use of 20mg of Morphine and she wasn't believing him,  the ED doctor started laughing and said that "no one would use that lousy excuse to steal 10mg"  and the Doc signed the paperwork



That's why forcing medics to use ED staff to witness waste is a loser. Have a partner do it.


----------



## medichopeful

7887firemedic said:


> Back during medic clinicals i was tasked with giving a small bolus of morphine with a carpuject vial. As i proceded to insert 2 ml of air (as you would with a vial) the top blew off hit the ceiling(PING) and shot off over the curtain into the other pts area. I heard the pt say OMG WTF was that? Oops! Nobody ever saw it that I know of!! hahahaha



Done that before! Except, it was in front of my nursing department chair so I guess there was someone who saw it...


----------



## Agent Cooper

My first clinical shift in the ER for EMT-B, the very first patient I was assigned to was an angry elderly guy, so I was kind of nervous. While I was trying to get vitals a machine started making this horrible noise. I got freaked out, ran around the bed to look at it, and in the process knocked over the (full) urinal that was hanging from his bed.
Then followed a long walk of shame to the nurse's station.


----------



## Handsome Robb

usalsfyre said:


> That's why forcing medics to use ED staff to witness waste is a loser. Have a partner do it.



We can't even have ER staff witness. It has to be a company employee with access to witness through Pyxis.


----------



## MediMike

We don't even have to have a witness.  Ridiculously lax in my region.  Although I have yet to run into someone abusing the system...

As an intern we had a STEMI, I drew labs on the guy, driver hit a gnarly bump, plunger of the 10cc slammed against the rail in the back of the rig and sprayed the full syringe of blood directly onto my preceptor.  It wasn't a fun post-call discussion.


----------



## Clare

Nothing major, just little things when I was still learning like not closing the um, thingy that you screw closed on the bulb so you can pump up the blood pressure cuff, or connecting the oxygen to the nipple but not turning it on, or trying to start the vehicle when it was not in park etc.


----------



## Rialaigh

Clare said:


> Nothing major, just little things when I was still learning like not closing the um, thingy that you screw closed on the bulb so you can pump up the blood pressure cuff, or connecting the oxygen to the nipple but not turning it on, or trying to start the vehicle when it was not in park etc.



I hated when I  was told to go look to make sure the keys to the firetruck were in it...:glare:

really felt like an idiot after that...


----------



## johnrsemt

We had a fire crew that was in on the 3rd alarm;   they were just used for manpower.    After the fire they walked back to were they left the Engine and it was gone.
   They called the bat chief who came and got them and took them to the shop to get a reserve engine.   This was all just prior to midnight

   it was fun at 530am when dispatch hit them on the radio to go to such and such street,  2 streets over from where they THOUGHT they left their truck to move their truck so that someone could pull out of their driveway to go to work.


----------



## lightsandsirens5

The BC just gave them a reserve engine without trying to figure out what the heck happened to their primary? Fire engines don't just vanish! 

Lol! That's funny!


----------



## johnrsemt

The crew said that they checked all the surrounding streets,  chief was tired and listened to the LT on the engine without checking more,  but was funny


----------



## cmetalbend

*Ah crap.*

Ok here's the story, after the first few years I realized I never once had to mop vomit out of my rig, not once, due to some fast reflexes and good antimemetics. So I always tell my emt's don't let vomit hit the floor, anticipate what's going to happen and be ready with an emesis bag or whatever. Well as luck would have it Me and a medic Partner ran a code after I had eaten a couple really OLD Hot Pockets. An of course the pt was an estimated 350 lbs.(plus). And up 3 flights of stairs, 4 if you include the porch. So anyway, we get the pt to the rig and start bustin azz to do what needs done. We get them to the hospital and my partner says "Man you don't look to good". I'm a type one diabetic FYI. I tell him I'm good, lets go get the rig back together. As we are regaining our composer I'm just getting more sick by the minute. Finally I grab a vomit bag and blow chuncks. Little did I know there was a sizeable hole in the bottom. My partner grabbed another and tried to apply it over the first, apparently with little success. And so As a matter of fact the first vomit to be moped outa my rig was MY OWN.  :blush:


----------



## sid8

sorry to listen that...sounds like very bad day...


----------



## hogwiley

When I was in EMT school doing a ride along, we got a call and I jumped in the back of the ambulance not knowing where we were going or for what. While we were en route the call was cancelled, but I didn't hear that in the back. The crew decided to get something to eat since a fastfood joint was right there. So we pull in to a Taco Bell and I'm thinking this was where the call is. 

The Paramedics get out and start walking into the restaurant and I follow behind them with the jump bag like they had me do the last couple calls. I'm thinking were still on a call. We get inside the restaurant and they take their place in line, and im standing there behind them, big *** jump bag in hand with everyone in line(including the two Paramedics)staring at me when I realize whats happened.


----------



## NHEMTJai

A few weeks ago I was in the bays doing a truck check. My partner came in looking sick. We all told him he looked bad he said he was fine. He went into the bathroom I finished truck check and went to the day room to make coffee and watch news. 

Next thing I know, the other unit comes screaming back in lights and sirens. I am sitting there confused when they come running in the building. My partner passed out on the toilet. He woke up on the floor and called the medic from the other truck. Apparently he passed out on the phone and the medic called 911. 

The pagers went off, but we carry 2 different pagers for different towns we respond in, one partner carries one pager the other has the other one. He had the one that went off and was laying on it in the bathroom. And you never question how long people are in the bathroom... You question how long after they come out you should avoid the bathroom. 

My partner is fine, apparently it was viral and some dehydration. He's all better and back at work. But now everyone I work with makes sure to joke about coming to look for them in the bathroom.


----------



## the_negro_puppy

hogwiley said:


> When I was in EMT school doing a ride along, we got a call and I jumped in the back of the ambulance not knowing where we were going or for what. While we were en route the call was cancelled, but I didn't hear that in the back. The crew decided to get something to eat since a fastfood joint was right there. So we pull in to a Taco Bell and I'm thinking this was where the call is.
> 
> The Paramedics get out and start walking into the restaurant and I follow behind them with the jump bag like they had me do the last couple calls. *I'm thinking were still on a call. We get inside the restaurant and they take their place in line, and im standing there behind them, big *** jump bag* in hand with everyone in line(including the two Paramedics)staring at me when I realize whats happened.


----------



## JustNothing

Not to long ago, we were dispatched on a Bari transfer. the pt was pretty big so I went ahead and called for lift assist. We get the pt on the stretcher, and I am on the head end of the stretcher by myself, while the three guys are on the foot end. 
    I was backing the stretcher into the elevator while the guys pushed it. Could not see each other around it. Well they didn't know when to stop pushing so I was very badly pinched between the wall and the stretcher. Panicking, I started screaming "Pull Out! Pull Out! Pull Out! That HURTS! Pull Out!" 
   All I could hear was my partner, the other crew, the PATIENT, and ALL of the floor nurses and doctors laughing maniacally. Still do not walk down that floor if I don't absolutely have to. I'm pretty sure I have never been so red in all my life.


----------



## EMT2B

I have nothing as embarrassing as all y'all ... Yet.  I'm not yet employed.  I did go on two ride-alongs during my class.  The most embarrassing thing that happened to me was when I was doing my ride-along with a BLS company and we stopped on the highway for a "First on scene" of an overturned big rig.  The driver called back to me that we were at a first on scene.  Naturally, having PPE/BSI drilled into me during class, I grab a pair of gloves and slip them on.  When I get out of the back, I realize I need to hop the center divider.  Now I've got a problem.  I've got gloves on (and no spares in my pockets) and I need to climb over the roughly 3 ft high divider.  I'm not exactly what you call svelte.  I get to the divider, swing one leg up and over, then commence to scootch my big behind over the divider, all while holding my hands up like I'd just scrubbed in for surgery.  Thankfully, my pants held up!  I just felt like a total idiot, especially watching the two younger, fitter EMTs hop over the median like it was a twig.


----------



## Glucatron

Hal9000 said:


> Once went up to a man ejected from his car in to a tree who subsequently fell on to a rock pile.  The first thing I asked was, "Is there any pain?" :glare:
> 
> Of course my partner gave me the "You're being stupid again." look.



I know that look all too well!  

As for a good crazy call I'll go with this one:

At a prior company I volunteered for we were dispatched to a man saying he had CP. This was at a rather notorious hotel that frequently just functioned as a quick getaway and home for drug addicts, transients and chronic alcoholics. So we see PD ushering us in and we follow. Inside is a, I must say, just "beautiful" arrangement of porn and dildos strewn across the floor with a gay porn playing on the tv. Mind you, these dildos were large enough to satisfy Moby **** (no pun intended). Well, we move past this into the bedroom find our pt. So I am standing there, brand new with less than a month of experience, unsure of what to do next and my medic listens to the man's breath sounds, does an assessment and then quickly disappears into the other room and back. 
" Hey, hold this for me," he says. And I, unwittingly, hold out my hand expecting his stethoscope or something. Nope. I look down and see a wonderful gay porn dvd. PD busts out laughing. The evil eye comes out. Pretty funny though, I loved that medic. Just an awesome dude and great at his job. Definitely a prankster, however :glare:.


----------



## Household6

I don't need to go into detail, but lets just say we're still picking feathers out of rig #4, eight months later.


----------



## DesertMedic66

Household6 said:


> I don't need to go into detail, but lets just say we're still picking feathers out of rig #4, eight months later.



Someone cut a down jacket?


----------



## Household6

DesertEMT66 said:


> Someone cut a down jacket?



Yea, we don't need to point fingers or name names..


----------



## Mariemt

I drove to a residential call in an ice storm, as I got out of the rig I slipped face first in not one, not two but 4 piles of dog  :censored::censored::censored::censored:  fresh, not frozen. To make matters worse I did a spin like bambi learning to walk. 
I hoped nobody saw me but heard FD yell "SAFE" before picking me up and carrying me in. Yes, carrying me


----------



## emschick1985

One time responded for an elderly lady that fell. Upon entering the room, found a woman on the bed assuming she is my patient I begin asking questions an she answers me as if she is my patient. My partner sees legs on the floor from another lady on the ground behind the bed! My patient was on the floor and I was talking to this other lady!!! It was way funnier you had to be there


----------



## emschick1985

Went to a self inflicted gunshot to the head. When we got there, didn't see a whole lot of blood. Dude had a hat on, still breathing. Rolled him over an took his hat off to look for entrance wound. Brain matter starts gushing out and all I could do was attempt to put his ball cap back on to hold it in!! My partner was like" omg I know u didn't just do that!"


----------



## emschick1985

New medic running a code, had new emt bagging pt. I told him he was doing good and to make sure he was bagging every 6 minutes. Meaning to say every 6 SECONDS. everyone working the code stopped at the same time and looked at me lol. It was hilarious and we still bring up the 6 minute rule time to time


----------



## Giant81

I backed a tender into a pole last night. ( I'm on the volunteer fire as well as rescue squad)

I was blocking traffic
got called back to station
faced with my nose uphill
Put it in R backed up a bit to give me room
Stop put in drive to go fwd. 
lift off brake, on to throttle
It rolled back before I could get on the throttle enough and hit a pole

Worst part is that it's he third time I've dinged a truck. At least I'm not the only one.


----------



## NomadicMedic

I did a fair amount of commercial voiceover, and a few years ago I lent my voice to a McDonald's commercial for the McRib. When I was interviewing for my last paramedic job, they asked, after seeing my resume, "have you been in any commercials we may of heard?" 

Telling them I was in the McRib commercial was an awful mistake.


----------



## johnrsemt

When I was working for a private service we did a 911 rollover with an engine crew.  As we left the scene 2 firefighters were helping back me out of tight quarters.  I hit something solid as I was backing up.  I got out to check on it, and they had backed me into a fire hydrant.  Just as I saw, the LT on the engine got on the PA and said "That is NOT what it means to hit the Plug"  I almost fell over laughing.


----------



## cl7539

When I first got hired I asked if I should bring pajamas for night shift.


----------



## akflightmedic

Pajamas???!!!   LOL

Everyone knows "You ain't tough unless you work a code in the buff"!


----------



## cl7539

akflightmedic said:


> Pajamas???!!!   LOL
> 
> Everyone knows "You ain't tough unless you work a code in the buff"!



I still haven't lived it down. Every shift I'm asked if I brought them.


----------



## NomadicMedic

cl7539 said:


> I still haven't lived it down. Every shift I'm asked if I brought them.



I'd bring a pair. With feet. As soon as they see you laughing at yourself, it'll all stop.


----------



## Anjel

So it's a ripped pants story...

We were on scene working a V-Fib arrest. I was at the feet setting up for the IO. I bent down and my pants pretty much exploded. From the button to the knee. 

The Fire guy next to me was like "did your pants just rip?....Awesome!".  

I panicked because you could see everything. So I got up and got cling and started wrapping my leg in it and trying to tape the crotch back together. Then put my coat around my waist backwards. 

When we got to the ER staff gave me a pair of scrubs but they were small so I had to put my ripped pants back on over them.

To this day my nickname is Atomic Pants or Atomano. My partner even drew a pic to remember the occasion. 







^^pants with scrubs underneath 






^^partners drawing


----------



## CALEMT

Anjel said:


> I bent down and my pants pretty much exploded. From the button to the knee.



Thats happened to me before, except not that bad. Mine ripped from the crotch to upper thigh, still embarrassing as all hell. Oh and by the way thats a awesome drawing!


----------



## johnrsemt

Mine never rip on the seam.  always just rip the crotch


----------



## COmedic17

I had a partner who sharted himself on a call in the patients living room.


----------



## samiam

COmedic17 said:


> I had a partner who sharted himself on a call in the patients living room.


 This is just plain unfortunate.

I was helping a doc while he was placing a art line and there was a  pre-med student observing, as soon as the blood flashed I hear a thud behind me. Poor girl just tanked right out and got a porcelain sink to the head on the way down. Nice head wound decent amount of blood. I turned around and grabbed her with some gauze and put pressure on it, she came to saw all the blood and was out again. I think she changed career choice after that.


----------



## secondangels

In my EMT-B class when we had just learned trauma assessments, we were taking turns practicing scenarios on each other. My turn comes up and I wasn't really listening to my "dispatched to" information, because I figured it'd be repeated while I did my assessment. I get to the head to toe, I go through the whole thing and my instructor kept saying I wasn't finding anything. By the end I was pretty confused but figured it was a trick scenario or something, I say I'm done with my assessment, and the first thing my classmate/"patient" says is "Gunshot to the stomach!! I got shot!! In my stomach!!"

I forgot to look at the abdomen...

My instructor and classmates didn't let me forget about it. Walking out of the class finals' trauma assessment station, my instructor asks "did you remember to inspect the abdomen??"


----------



## Jondruby

c-spine said:


> hehehe... that's something I would do, minus the running away part. I'd probably pass out; but not run away. I almost failed the OBGYN part of my registry test. I hope I NEVER have to deliver a baby - I'd drop it with my luck. I'd turn a healthy, screaming baby into a PNB in no time.... :S
> 
> It's sweet that she brought baby down to see you though!


 The only time its ok to fake a seizure is if you drop the baby. At least thats what they say.


----------



## rroop32

Not ems related, but in my junior days at my local volunteer fire company, first time I was to hit a hydrant at a fire. Got off the truck with a radio and a light. Ran to the back of the truck threw the hydrant wrench next to the hydrant  and proceeded to wrap the hydrant. To my unknowing knowledge a peice of webbing ( attached to another hoseload) had wrapped around the wrench. Well the truck took off ( and so did the wrench) to lay a supply line.  As i set up to connect it to the hydrant I realised i couldnt find the wrench!  So not being involved with the company for too long, panic set in...I keyed up the radio on county operating channel ( can be heard county wide) to my rig, said and i quote " I cant find the f***ing hydrant wrench" ...Needless to say, 10 years later i still get reminded of it, of course we laugh about it now, but i got my *** chewed out for it by our cheif at the time.


----------



## Jane

In EMT school we were doing a scenario involving a patient who had vomited and now had gurgling respiration. I grabbed the portable suction to clear the airway but was stopped by my classmate because he for some reason thought you can't suction a conscious patient. Annoyed, I went to go sit in the Captain's chair to stay out of the way. Our patient continued to choke on their vomit. Eventually the classmate decided to go ahead and suction airway due to the patient getting worse. Pissed, I yelled at my classmate "I JUST F-ING SAID THAT!". They didn't let me live it down for the rest of the semester.


----------



## CODE X FLATLINE

I'll try my best to keep this one PG-13, well my partner & I were N/B on the Gowanus Expy. in Bklyn. headed back to L.I.C.H., the morning rush hour traffic was at a dead standstill & my coffee was busting out of me like all get out so I said Joanne you gotta pull over like "RIGHT NOW" so she dutifully pulls over & I whip it out & cut loose & all you guys know there's always that point of no return like no matter how hard you try you just cannot stop for money or love & sure enough she slowly pulls the bus away & here I am  in all my splendor in front of gawking New Yorkers who just found comic relief at the expense & embarrassment of yours truly, all I could do was turn around & when I finished ole Joanne was laughing to beat the band as we drove off, just another one of those crazy days at work that we call sanity maintenance, thanks for reading.


----------



## redundantbassist

CODE X FLATLINE said:


> I'll try my best to keep this one PG-13, well my partner & I were N/B on the Gowanus Expy. in Bklyn. headed back to L.I.C.H., the morning rush hour traffic was at a dead standstill & my coffee was busting out of me like all get out so I said Joanne you gotta pull over like "RIGHT NOW" so she dutifully pulls over & I whip it out & cut loose & all you guys know there's always that point of no return like no matter how hard you try you just cannot stop for money or love & sure enough she slowly pulls the bus away & here I am  in all my splendor in front of gawking New Yorkers who just found comic relief at the expense & embarrassment of yours truly, all I could do was turn around & when I finished ole Joanne was laughing to beat the band as we drove off, just another one of those crazy days at work that we call sanity maintenance, thanks for reading.


If i'm interpreting that correctly, that may be the single most unprofessional thing i have ever heard to happen in ems.


----------



## Gurby

CODE X FLATLINE said:


> I'll try my best to keep this one PG-13, well my partner & I were N/B on the Gowanus Expy. in Bklyn. headed back to L.I.C.H., the morning rush hour traffic was at a dead standstill & my coffee was busting out of me like all get out so I said Joanne you gotta pull over like "RIGHT NOW" so she dutifully pulls over & I whip it out & cut loose & all you guys know there's always that point of no return like no matter how hard you try you just cannot stop for money or love & sure enough she slowly pulls the bus away & here I am  in all my splendor in front of gawking New Yorkers who just found comic relief at the expense & embarrassment of yours truly, all I could do was turn around & when I finished ole Joanne was laughing to beat the band as we drove off, just another one of those crazy days at work that we call sanity maintenance, thanks for reading.


----------



## NomadicMedic

Gurby said:


>



I drink tea from one of these.  always good for a laugh.


----------



## Giant81

the heck with tea, drink lemonade


----------



## NomadicMedic

Giant81 said:


> the heck with tea, drink lemonade



But Tea looks like a wicked UTI.


----------



## johnrsemt

Not all services carry urinals:  911 service didn't ;  private service I used to work for did,  but we did lots of LD transports. 
Here we do,  but shortest transports we do is 45 minutes


----------



## Ruamkatanyu

I have a friend who volunteers for the Ruamkatanyu Foundation and he fell asleep in a refrigerated mortuary trailer after the 2004 tsunami now the other volunteers say he has ghosts.


----------



## RobertAlfanoNJEMT

c-spine said:


> I haven't yet found a service, and the only pair of emt pants I could find that aren't 40$ per pair were on ebay (Gall's pants; way too big in the crotch); so the splitting of the pants wouldn't happen with those. The crotch hangs halfway to my knees. -.-;


I got a really good pair from 511 tactical.. They were like $60 I think tho.. They are said to last a very long time so we shall see


----------



## inthefield

A "friend" called in a STEMI based on a computer read of the EKG without actually looking at it carefully. Too bad we realized that the leads were not quite on when we arrived with the cath team ready to go...


----------



## Agent Cooper

Had a catastrophic belt malfunction and my pants fell down, cartoon-style, in front of a patient. And the hospital security camera.


----------



## hapacamp

Accidentally knocked over one of those vacuum bottles used in the ED to collect ascites fluid. Super loud explosion!


----------



## COTY21

MY FIRST DAY SECOND CALL 
WE HAD A "FREQUENT FLYER" 
I WAS UNLOADING THE GURNEY NICE POWER GURNEY AND POWER LOADER
I GET IT OUT START TO GO OVER THE CURB AND TRIP.
RIGHT IN FRONT OF FIRE AND PD
I AM NOW KNOWN AS WRECKINGBALL


----------



## Kevinf

I think I'll just call you capslock.


----------



## COTY21

Ha!


----------



## Exam Vs Bad Touch

Sasha said:


> Ive done that more times than i would care to admit.
> 
> Sent from LuLu using Tapatalk


I think everyone has done that.


----------



## wtferick

hogwiley said:


> When I was in EMT school doing a ride along, we got a call and I jumped in the back of the ambulance not knowing where we were going or for what. While we were en route the call was cancelled, but I didn't hear that in the back. The crew decided to get something to eat since a fastfood joint was right there. So we pull in to a Taco Bell and I'm thinking this was where the call is.
> 
> The Paramedics get out and start walking into the restaurant and I follow behind them with the jump bag like they had me do the last couple calls. I'm thinking were still on a call. We get inside the restaurant and they take their place in line, and im standing there behind them, big *** jump bag in hand with everyone in line(including the two Paramedics)staring at me when I realize whats happened.


This was a good one! Had me laughing haha


----------



## wtferick

Loading a Gen Weakness BLS and as soon as we close the back doors. The patient codes. I opened up the back again, popped my head out, and asked the Paramedics If they would like to ride along ;D


----------



## Striker911

After our ambulance was totaled in an accident we had a loaner from the body company while our ambulance body was transferred to new frame. The loaner was set up different than ours, so more than one of our drivers, me included, would find the floor mounted air horn switch. My fame came from starting rig in the wee hours of the night and then without knowing it standing on the horn button, which of course turned on air horns. Half asleep it seemed like there was an alarm on the truck, so people were scrambling to shut it off. Finally stopped when I got out to help find the alarm button.  Our firehouse is in residential neighborhood and I think the neighbors probably messed their pajamas. For the time we had that rig that switch would get hit at some funny times.


----------



## wtferick

Striker911 said:


> After our ambulance was totaled in an accident we had a loaner from the body company while our ambulance body was transferred to new frame. The loaner was set up different than ours, so more than one of our drivers, me included, would find the floor mounted air horn switch. My fame came from starting rig in the wee hours of the night and then without knowing it standing on the horn button, which of course turned on air horns. Half asleep it seemed like there was an alarm on the truck, so people were scrambling to shut it off. Finally stopped when I got out to help find the alarm button.  Our firehouse is in residential neighborhood and I think the neighbors probably messed their pajamas. For the time we had that rig that switch would get hit at some funny times.


Did the same thing lol except behind an old man with his top down convertible.


----------



## Striker911

Brand new EMT basic and was working with a AEMT partner at county fair. Got a call on the other end of the fair grounds for a person choking. We get on scene with the fair ground rescue quad, no suction that we can find, also find we have a pt. with a stoma and the Ox bag equipped with basic masks and nasal canullas. The pt.s helper had cleared the obstruction just as we arrived. My rookie mistake was addressing the pt. who had flannel shirt, ball cap, short hair and jeans as sir. Was not a male but a female. Whoops, red face, apologies and her laughing at my mistake made for some ribbing. Worst part was doing the rapid trauma assessment as taught in class was asking about feeling in her legs while she sat there in her wheel chair, paraplegic obviously, but to the newbie not as obvious as it should have been. Thankfully our pt. was very understanding and thankful we came to he aid as fast as we did. Local fire department ambulance took pt. to hospital to check stoma and replace.


----------



## Striker911

Did the same thing lol except behind an old man with his top down convertible.


----------



## Jim37F

Striker911 said:


> After our ambulance was totaled in an accident we had a loaner from the body company while our ambulance body was transferred to new frame. The loaner was set up different than ours, so more than one of our drivers, me included, would find the floor mounted air horn switch. My fame came from starting rig in the wee hours of the night and then without knowing it standing on the horn button, which of course turned on air horns. Half asleep it seemed like there was an alarm on the truck, so people were scrambling to shut it off. Finally stopped when I got out to help find the alarm button.  Our firehouse is in residential neighborhood and I think the neighbors probably messed their pajamas. For the time we had that rig that switch would get hit at some funny times.


I still remember the one time when I was still working as an Ambulance Operator for Glendale Fire, all their ambulances have air horn floor pedals. Problem is, depending on the generation, some rigs had them up by the pedals, some up under the driver seat. So if your rig had the pedal in one spot and you kept your foot up away from it normally, as soon as you worked a different rig with the pedal in the opposite location, now where you were used to resting your foot to avoid the air horn is where the air horn pedal was...

Normally not a big deal, just had to be cognizant of it... well one day I was working OT at the headquarters station, and at like 02, 0300 we were returning to quarters after a call, fueling up in the backyard, rig facing the station proper, climbing back into the cab, I accidentally stood on the pedal, for a good second or two.
Battalion Chief at morning shift change made sure to find me and let me know our air horn was working just fine...


----------



## Tigger

We recently got an ambulance with the stupid foot pedal. My partner claims "I'm used to it, we had these at my old job." In one shift he managed to airhorn at least 10 unsuspecting people to include a mutual aid engine company. ffksdlfjsdaklfdsjif


----------



## Jim37F

When I left Glendale for McCormick, I lost the airhorn pedal, as they didnt have those BUT gained eQ2b sirens. Loved the (electronic) Q, missed the air horn,  wish I had both... now somehow, my Engine has the airhorn, but no Q of any type??! Why, why???? (And yes plenty of guys have stood on the airhorn accidentally... in Recruit class during drivers training, many owed the cadre a case of beer, some 2 or 3, one for each time hitting that pedal...


----------

