# Grossest Call?



## spnjsquad (Nov 9, 2013)

I had an elderly male with lower GI bleeding. The paitents bed and parts of his body were covered with poop. Needless to say, I walked into the room, took one whiff, and almost threw up. The stench was pretty bad. What was your grossest call?


----------



## abckidsmom (Nov 10, 2013)

800 pound guy who hadn't been out of his bedroom for an unknown amount of time. Hypoglycemic, and 2 D50s weren't enough to wake him up. We had to get him on a sheet and drag him down the hall of a single wide trailer- only every horizontal surface was covered with 2" of human skin flakes. The air clouded with human skin flakes, and the patient flaked all over everything. 

And we wear navy. 

The cool part of that call was using the homeowners sawzall to take off the porch rail to get him out. That was fun.


----------



## DesertMedic66 (Nov 10, 2013)

450lb male in his 50s who called for chest pain. PT's feet were gangrene, had some kind of fungus growing on them. He could not move his feet at all so we had to wrap them with a blanket and use another blanket to lift them up so we didn't have to touch them.

The whole time we were doing it everyone in the room (PT included) were gagging.


----------



## Household6 (Nov 10, 2013)

Lactating mother with a chest laceration through her lactiferous duct. Two bodily fluids that just should not mix. It just turned my tummy for some reason..


----------



## abckidsmom (Nov 10, 2013)

I have a missionary friend who sometimes calls me for advice on medical issues that present themselves to her in rural Honduras. Once she had a lady show up what had a terrible case of mastitis with an eroding wound on the lateral side of the breast. It was amazing. 

People there have no exposure to antibiotics- she sent the lady to the pharmacy for 50 mg penicillin twice a day and it was healing over the weekend. Crazy.


----------



## Anjel (Nov 10, 2013)

I had a 300lb dialysis patient that we regularly picked up. Never wore pants or underwear.

We went to roll her and all of a sudden 6-7 huge spiders started crawling out of her butt crack. I lost it. Lol


----------



## abckidsmom (Nov 10, 2013)

Eww. Spiders get me.


----------



## Household6 (Nov 10, 2013)

abckidsmom said:


> I have a missionary friend who sometimes calls me for advice on medical issues that present themselves to her in rural Honduras. Once she had a lady show up what had a terrible case of mastitis with an eroding wound on the lateral side of the breast. It was amazing.
> 
> People there have no exposure to antibiotics- she sent the lady to the pharmacy for 50 mg penicillin twice a day and it was healing over the weekend. Crazy.



How did she not die??!!! 

I had mastitis hit me once, it took about 3 hours from "I feel kind of crappy" to 104.9 fever with a bright red boobie.. 

That was the only time in my life I thought about calling an ambulance for myself. But then, you know, you look at the schedule, see who's on call, and decide to drive yourself.


----------



## abckidsmom (Nov 10, 2013)

Household6 said:


> How did she not die??!!!
> 
> I had mastitis hit me once, it took about 3 hours from "I feel kind of crappy" to 104.9 fever with a bright red boobie..
> 
> That was the only time in my life I thought about calling an ambulance for myself. But then, you know, you look at the schedule, see who's on call, and decide to drive yourself.



I've been in a similar situation with nephritis that exploded when my hubby was on the 2 hr commute home from work. 

The people down there are so tough. They just keep on keeping on unless they are dead. They might slow down, but they can't stop, or they've capitulated. I can't believe it sometimes, and it TRULY illustrates that whole "first world problems" joke.


----------



## lightsandsirens5 (Nov 10, 2013)

Chest pain call. Middle age female in a double wide with all the garbage she'd ever produced inside. All the windows were painted black. Very hot, very stuffy, and the stench was truly unbelievable. I imagine hell smells similar. When we moved the recliner to get the cot to the bedroom, the 4-6 inch long centipedes that scattered from off the two week old dead cat carcass got me. Barely made it outside in time.

A close rival was the profoundly unresponsive heat stroke dude, who had been stripped down by his co-workers. Like really stripped down. And who had several episodes of EXPLOSIVE diarrhea in the truck. The first one sprayed it against the back door and splatters hit me, in the airway seat. And I don't know what was wrong with his gut but the smell almost made me vomit all over him as I was intubating.


----------



## Giobobo1 (Nov 15, 2013)

In the ER, a homeless guy w/ chest pain, except he has lice,ticks,and scabies. When the medics came, one of them was out gagging and nearly puking and with good reason, this guy stunk. So it was my task to take this guy's boots off........ a piece of :censored::censored::censored::censored: fell out of both, smelled up the entire ER. Happy i ate light that night.


----------



## unleashedfury (Nov 22, 2013)

a toss up I can name a few.. 

I had a elderly women, who probably hasn't showed or changed her clothes over a period of a few months. Evidentally family lived quite the distance away and finally decided, to check up on her found her unresponsive in bed. called 911 the house looked like a crime scene, blood, urine and feces everywhere. 

the second was a individual who decided to end his life by putting a fire cracker in his mouth. He was successful as we had to pick up portions of his head and brains off the sidewalk. and surrounding areas.


----------



## Tigger (Nov 22, 2013)

I think emptying a colostomy bag in a Mini Cooper a few nights ago might take the cake for my new worst smell.


----------



## teedubbyaw (Nov 22, 2013)

unleashedfury said:


> a toss up I can name a few..
> 
> I had a elderly women, who probably hasn't showed or changed her clothes over a period of a few months. Evidentally family lived quite the distance away and finally decided, to check up on her found her unresponsive in bed. called 911 the house looked like a crime scene, blood, urine and feces everywhere.
> 
> the second was a individual who decided to end his life by putting a fire cracker in his mouth. He was successful as we had to pick up portions of his head and brains off the sidewalk. and surrounding areas.



Wow, were they sure it was a fire cracker?


----------



## Jawdavis (Nov 22, 2013)

it didn't happen to me but my roommate went on a call with an obese man who slipped and fell into his bathtub, covered in feces, she and her emt had to peel him out of the tub


----------



## supersleepymedic (Nov 29, 2013)

once we responded to a 20's female with a corona bottle stuck (I mean suction cupped) in her....well you know.  not a pretty sight.


----------



## DesertMedic66 (Nov 29, 2013)

supersleepymedic said:


> once we responded to a 20's female with a corona bottle stuck (I mean suction cupped) in her....well you know.  not a pretty sight.



I've responded to this many many times. Beer bottles and even a wine bottle stuck in different "area" of the body. Transporting patients in the prone position with their butt up is always awkward (we obviously use a ton of sheets to cover everything up). It's very hard to keep a straight face when doing a radio call in.


----------



## supersleepymedic (Nov 29, 2013)

Man I gotta avoid wherever it is that you work, people with bottles up areas and stuff.  Mine was the front area.  Just another drunk teenybopper that went away sadder and (perhaps not) wiser.  Haha


----------



## DesertMedic66 (Nov 29, 2013)

supersleepymedic said:


> Man I gotta avoid wherever it is that you work, people with bottles up areas and stuff.  Mine was the front area.  Just another drunk teenybopper that went away sadder and (perhaps not) wiser.  Haha



We have a very high LGBT population in our area. When they party they party hard. Their parties are often include LSD. So it turns into a lot of fun.


----------



## supersleepymedic (Nov 29, 2013)

Ah ok gotcha.  Ours is more of a meth problem.  Makes for some nasty calls but I still have to haul the odd drunk teen who thinks alcohol is gods gift to them personally.  I had a near drowning in a toilet bowl full of vomit once.  We couldn't get the smell out of the rig for days!!


----------



## EMT B (Nov 29, 2013)

call for an elderly patient not acting right. we get there and suspect abuse/neglect because you could smell their bedsores from miles away


----------



## TheLocalMedic (Nov 30, 2013)

Decomp.  That is all.


----------



## Akulahawk (Nov 30, 2013)

Decomp surely ranks near the top... however I've never been "blessed" with one that dehissed. 

From my experience, I'd have to say either a welfare check call for a hoarder in Stockton... or a call that involved some Ferrets that weren't being well cared for along with a wonderful odor of liver failure...


----------



## jeepdude911 (Nov 30, 2013)

Had a colostomy bag break once during the transfer from pt.'s bed to the gurney. I will never forget the stench.


----------



## supersleepymedic (Nov 30, 2013)

jeepdude911 said:


> Had a colostomy bag break once during the transfer from pt.'s bed to the gurney. I will never forget the stench.








ok that right there sucks.  I've had a bag disconnect but to break all over the place?  You have my sympathies friend.


----------



## Handsome Robb (Nov 30, 2013)

Had a guy call us to help change his colostomy.

We found three five gallon buckets full of old colostomy bags and contents which he claimed stretched back tm over a month.

I will never forget that smell.


----------



## DrankTheKoolaid (Nov 30, 2013)

Headless baby / preterm field delivery and ill leave it at that


----------



## Bullets (Dec 1, 2013)

Suicide, hanged by the neck in an aluminum shed in August, 90+ degrees. Feet were black and swollen, when the rookie fuzz went to cut him down his skin on his feet exploded


----------



## unleashedfury (Dec 1, 2013)

teedubbyaw said:


> Wow, were they sure it was a fire cracker?



Well M-80/Quarterstick is the belief. Pt. was fighting with GF, and witnesses stated they saw him sitting on the corner porch thought he was lighting a cigarette,, Well that Cigarette packed one helluva bang.


----------



## DrParasite (Dec 1, 2013)

hmmmm... 50 yom druggie who suffered an MI, collapsed, and in the process, popped his colostomy bag... and had been there for 2 days before we got called for the welfare check (yes, he was still alive).


----------



## Anjel (Dec 1, 2013)

Just had a call my last shift. Closest I had ever come to tossing my cookies.

Got called for "unconscious but breathing".

Got there to find a lady, naked, laying on her bedroom floor, on top of a garbage bag, covered head to toe in diarrhea. It was in her hair, her nails, arms, toes, EVERYWHERE! 

I should of known it was bad when the county boys were outside gagging and saying "what's been seen can never be unseen". Lol 

Pt was pretty jaundice, and had all her pills she takes at night, still in her mouth, and all dissolved into a glue like paste.


----------



## dixie_flatline (Dec 1, 2013)

I may have told this story on here before.  

Several years ago.  Patient was located in a motel, not the best area. He calls us because "he can't pee".  Turns out, he decided to have sexy times with a bottle of Aveeno hand lotion (don't ask me how or why).  He got stuck - the neck of the bottle was really quite small.  He had a deficit on one side, I forget why (I think it was congenital), so only had a single functioning hand.  He tried to cut the bottle off with a pair of nail clippers; got most of it but couldn't get the ring of the neck off. 

The best part was that he was stuck with this makeshift tourniquet on his johnson for *THREE DAYS*, hoping it would resolve itself I guess.  By the time we got there, it looked like someone had dropped a frag grenade in his drawers.  It ended up looking like an umbilical cord that was fixing to fall off - black, crusty, and all kinds of wrong.  He ended up with a suprapubic catheter and no more Mr Winky.

It's not really the grossest call, in terms of smells or gore or anything, but it sticks with you.


----------



## MEDIC90 (Dec 2, 2013)

Mine would have to be a call for a 50 y/o/f c/c SOB.  Arrived and could smell amonia from out in the street.  Went inside...all the walls of her house were lined with cat/bird cages, and half the animals had to be dead.  Floors covered in fesces, old food growing mold, there was a dead cat literally on the kitchen table.  

All the remaining living animals had to be euthanized, almost all had multiple infections/injuries which simply could not be managed.  Never did end up getting the woman's full story.


----------



## clowncar (Dec 2, 2013)

Am guessing the metholatum on your top lip does not quite do anything for the stench you are attempting to endure while trying to breathe and help the pt?


----------



## MedicRobNL (Dec 3, 2013)

Back in 2011 we were sailing off the coast of North Carolina in hurricane force winds and we received a distress call from a small fishing boat. We were closer than the American Coast Guard, so we went to help.

I was a Hull Technician with AMFR so I was one of the ones dispatched on the SAR to access damage.

In the midst of this one of the crew members of the fishing vessel was experiencing severe anxiety and sea sickness coupled with a Tibial Shaft Fracture, so we were focusing our attention on him completely calming him down and keeping his mind off the situation. 

Then, because the sea loved us.... We were hit by a rogue wave which caused the Blackwater holding tank to rupture spilling a large portion of its contents onto the deck and leaving me and the PT to be floating and sloshing around in about 2 feet of human feces.

That is that you would call a bad Navy day.

Rob


----------



## MasterIntubator (Dec 3, 2013)

Cooties.... thats it right there


----------



## DrankTheKoolaid (Dec 3, 2013)

MedicRobNL said:


> Back in 2011 we were sailing off the coast of North Carolina in hurricane force winds and we received a distress call from a small fishing boat. We were closer than the American Coast Guard, so we went to help.
> 
> I was a Hull Technician with AMFR so I was one of the ones dispatched on the SAR to access damage.
> 
> ...



I tip my hat to you Sir!


----------



## the_negro_puppy (Dec 3, 2013)

MedicRobNL said:


> Back in 2011 we were sailing off the coast of North Carolina in hurricane force winds and we received a distress call from a small fishing boat. We were closer than the American Coast Guard, so we went to help.
> 
> I was a Hull Technician with AMFR so I was one of the ones dispatched on the SAR to access damage.
> 
> ...


----------



## FltMedicRob (Dec 3, 2013)

MedicRobNL said:


> Back in 2011 we were sailing off the coast of North Carolina in hurricane force winds and we received a distress call from a small fishing boat. We were closer than the American Coast Guard, so we went to help.
> 
> I was a Hull Technician with AMFR so I was one of the ones dispatched on the SAR to access damage.
> 
> ...



You sir, win the internetz


----------



## alexandermpd (Dec 4, 2013)

75 year old male with some.sort of cancer on the face. Half of his face was gone you could see all the jaw bone and teeth it was crazy. Called adult protective service


----------



## johnrsemt (Dec 10, 2013)

Only thing that bothers me much anymore are drunks that are vomiting:

Used to have a partner (or 2) that couldn't handle the sound of suctioning:  all I had to do was turn it on:   which I did a few times during a transport one day,      closest I ever came to being killed, when at the end of the run she found the canister was empty and realized what I did.


----------



## lightsandsirens5 (Dec 11, 2013)

johnrsemt said:


> Only thing that bothers me much anymore are drunks that are vomiting:
> 
> Used to have a partner (or 2) that couldn't handle the sound of suctioning:  all I had to do was turn it on:   which I did a few times during a transport one day,      closest I ever came to being killed, when at the end of the run she found the canister was empty and realized what I did.



Wait...the sound of the motor running is what grossed them out?


----------



## johnrsemt (Dec 11, 2013)

sound of the suction running;   Suctioning a pt made them sick,  and they were at the point of hearing the suction run would do it.


----------



## EMSTeen (Dec 24, 2013)

Wasn't me but I know an FF/Paramedic in Warwick RI that got dispatched to an attic collapse. The guy was green, bloated, covered in blood, and had inhaled fiberglass. Took them 2 hours to extricate him but he had already started to decomp when the sunlight through a window sped it up. Eww.


----------



## DesertMedic66 (Dec 24, 2013)

johnrsemt said:


> sound of the suction running;   Suctioning a pt made them sick,  and they were at the point of hearing the suction run would do it.



This is one of the things that will get me. I'm fine listening to the suction but once it starts to suck up fluid I start to gag. It gets much worse when a RT does a deep suction on stomas


----------



## dalmain (Dec 30, 2013)

I've worked with people that can't stand the suctioning too. 
I've gotten used to bad smells. Bad body odor. Feces, vomit, and others things. Luckily I have a strong stomach. Decomp is probably the one that will get me to gag. 
I'm probably forgetting some. But one I remember was a guy with a gangrene foot. Diabetic that never went for treatment. Wound on the foot that just got worse. His foot was black..basically dead. It stunk of death. There were even insect crawling out of his foot. The whole ER smelled when he arrived.
I've had drunks, bariatrics, drug addicts, homeless, all kinds of folks that have  smelled incredibly bad. So bad that the stench sticks to you through the whole day.


----------



## bbmtnbb (Jan 1, 2014)

clowncar said:


> Am guessing the metholatum on your top lip does not quite do anything for the stench you are attempting to endure while trying to breathe and help the pt?



It just opens up your sinuses to let you smell more. lol


----------



## anthonyccamargo (Jan 9, 2014)

its refreshing haha


----------



## Carlos Danger (Jan 9, 2014)

Can't say I've ever seen anything truly gross in the field. Seen / smelled some decomposing bodies, a couple distal amputations, a mangled arm that got caught in a tractor's PTO.....a pretty badly smashed head once from a tree stand that fell out of the tree onto the poor dude's noggin.....but that's all standard EMS fare.

Probably the worst thing I ever saw was working in the ED....an old, obese woman was brought in with dried feces literally caked all over her body, with plenty of open sores as a bonus. 

Recently I did a case in the OR for a young girl who had plastic surgery a couple weeks ago.....unfortunately several of the wounds became badly infected to the point that she was quite septic and the stench during the debridement was horrific.....

Still not as bad as the old woman in the ED.


----------



## phideux (Jan 14, 2014)

That smell that comes off the obese females with bad hygiene, when you are a leg holder, while the nurse gets the catheter gets me. :sad:


----------



## wife2mikejh (Jan 15, 2014)

I am not EMT certified yet, just a student, but I did work as a tech at a local hospital. Of all the vile things, rotting feet are the worst for me.  I can deal with puke, urine, bile, poop, but rotting feet will make me throw up in a second.  I  had a nurse teach me to put Vicks vapor rub under my nose and it really does help with the smell.  I had one patient who was refusing her foot to be amputated, even though it was practically rotting off, and we had like four scent machines in the room. I walked in and was doing vitals and literally had to run out the room and puke. OMG it was awful!


----------



## AnthonyTheEmt (Jan 31, 2014)

A couple things come to mind

-When I worked BLS, we took an elderly woman for wound debrevement. She had this stage 4 pressure ulcer on her sacrum that went straight down to the bone and stunk to high heaven. 
-Picked up a guy last year who had basically been peeing on himself for the last week or so, and in his bed and had no understanding of why this was a problem. His roommates called because the entire house stunk of ammonia and piss. Maybe the nastiest smell ever. 
-A few months back called for who knows what. But as we are rolling up this house (with the windows up), my partner and I both smelling this nasty smell. This is about half a block away. As we get closer, we both keep asking what is that smell? We get to the house, and it smells like cat piss, and dead body. Someone walks out of the house, and says "she's inside". The FF's and us just walk in, almost gaging and crying because the smell is so bad, pick this near dead woman up in her sheet and carry her outside immediately. That was probably the closest I have ever been to yacking on a call.


----------



## AnthonyTheEmt (Jan 31, 2014)

One other one that came to mind. We got called out for a GSW. Show up to find this 22 year old laying on the ground, with at least a liter of blood around him. Turns out he got in a fight with his gf and decided to blow his head off. If I remember correctly he shot himself from right to left, with brain matter on the ground to his left and a pretty gnarly exit wound. He was also still alive, so we transported him to the nearest trauma center, but at that point, there isn't anything that anyone can do. That was one the saddest calls ever :sad:


----------



## takl23 (Feb 4, 2014)

johnrsemt said:


> sound of the suction running;   Suctioning a pt made them sick,  and they were at the point of hearing the suction run would do it.



This is me. I'm trying to get over it. Nothing else bothers me. I guess we all have our limits.


----------



## planetsteveo (Feb 9, 2014)

Welfare check with PD. 

Mid 50's male, about 200 lbs, that apparently had died in his bathtub around 48 hours earlier. So naturally, he voided himself, on top of decomp, on top of marinating in bath water, on top of a closed up house in 85+ degree heat with no A/C. 

His skin had already started to peel away from the body and was floating on it's own. But it was the smell that really got me, even over the Vick's on my lip.


----------



## Kyki (Feb 15, 2014)

*Breast implant explosion*

Breast implant exploded out of this woman's chest.  It had eroded the skin over a 20 year period and burst through and abscess.  Not sure why she didn't take care of it sooner, clearly that was a long ongoing issue.


----------



## HunterAsesino (Feb 16, 2014)

MVA on the interstate, driver was ejected on the northbound side over the median into the southbound side, was hit by multiple vehicles, and was unrecognizable when we got on scene. We finish covering what's left of the body in a sheet, and as I step back, I hear a "squish" and the trooper behind me goes, "Aw, :censored::censored::censored::censored: man!" Turns out we had missed his liver, which had been eviscerated and was all by itself on the highway in its textbook perfection, at least until I put my boot square in the middle of it.


----------



## titmouse (Feb 17, 2014)

I have had a patient that has had to have relieved himself in clothes multiple times and had it dry up and continue on with his daily events. Needless to say, I deconed everything and nearly bathed in Lysol and of course the transport was a decent distance with traffic  Some of the time is where we pick up and drop off pts. For some reason some places smell like fresh dookie as soon as we walk in through that door. Good thing is that it has become a regular joke and we end up laughing it off.


----------



## Household6 (Feb 21, 2014)

Well, I might have one.. I got called out to postpartum cramping, possible hemorrhaging or a intrauterine infection..

Pt couldn't estimate her bleeding levels, had no idea what color it was.. So i got to go in her bathroom, and unroll her used Kotex and determine color, estimate quantity, check the pads for clots, and excessive bleeding..

I wasn't that bad for me, because I've been postpartum three times, but I can see where it might have been a little gross..


----------



## ChrisV (Mar 3, 2014)

Gross is a matter of perception.  Scoop shoveling the patient from the train tracks to the body bag sucks.  Prolapsed rectums look and sound extremely painful.  A week of decomposition in 90-100 degrees renders the corpse unrecognizable and mostly liquid.  Really, really stinks when they burst....not to mention the maggots and flies.  When they are flame broiled way longer than Burger King standards it can be difficult bagging them up. When you find the family dog on the back of the couch, snacking on remaining brain matter from a young lad who had just blown the top half of his head off......well that's just not something you come across very often.  There is nothing good about gangrene.  If you come across one that's had her head, arms and a leg cut off......well you'll know that sawzall cost her and arm and a leg.  Again, its all a matter of perception.  Gross for me is vomit and puking and anything that goes with it.


----------



## GoldcrossEMTbasic (Mar 12, 2014)

We'll GI bleeds are going to rule out as a foul smelling call, but there is nothing you can do about it. One tip to counteract the smell this may work for some. I know that carmex can help the smell of emesis and feces. GI bleed unsure, I have never been on a call yet involving that one.


----------



## GoldcrossEMTbasic (Mar 12, 2014)

*How to handle bad smells in the rig or on scene.*

I know when I first became a Nursing Assistant, I only lasted a year in the career, because I was underpaid for the job making 6.72 an hour back in 1995 still today underpaid. In that Job you deal with the unknown. Vomiting, Diarrhea, GI bleeds and Abuse from the resident, then the smell of what comes out! That for some we cannot handle. How to handle it as an EMT may help, I know my EMT-instructor told me this one and I think it works. Use Carmex, or Vicks Vapo Rub and put it under your nasal cavity and try to breathe it in, if you run into a dilemma involving body odor or foul smelling feces or emesis. That may save your gag reflexes, because in the rig, you cannot spray any lysol or odor eliminator, because with COPD patients, they cannot handle aerosol sprays. Unless your agency has the spray mist kind of odor eliminator on board. But you don't want to spay that in front of the patient anyway. You might want to do that after the patient is in the ED. then do it during rig restock or cleanup.


----------



## DEurich (Apr 11, 2014)

Anjel said:


> I had a 300lb dialysis patient that we regularly picked up. Never wore pants or underwear.
> 
> We went to roll her and all of a sudden 6-7 huge spiders started crawling out of her butt crack. I lost it. Lol



I would scream and run.


----------

