# Ever grossed out a Bystander/Partner/Fireman



## lafmedic1 (Jun 24, 2009)

Anyone here have a story about grossing out a innocent onlooker on scene.Ill share my two. 
When I was an EMTB I was working a code of an approx 300lb female with a  paramedic partner that I wasnt usually with. A fireman was ventilating And I was doing CPR. As  the paramedic turned to grab an epi I noticed a Cheeto fall out from under the patients breast. Without a thought I crunched it with my glove and said " Hey man she couldnt have been down long cause they are still crunchy" the look I got from the fireman and my partner  as I chewed my gum trying to figure out why they were so shocked was priceless. It took several hours to convince him I didnt bite the cheeto.

The second call involves a patient who put a large commercial device into his rectum for fun. I wont get into all of it but the large baseball bat size tool was found under the patient. As we loaded him up I picked up the "object" and placed it into a biohazard bag with the police watching me. We loaded the patient up and I got in front to drive. Before we left I put on a new set of  blue gloves to eat my french fries which got left in the truck as we were eating. As we get to the end of the hotel driveway the cops see me eating fries and waving to them with a blue gloved hand and dont know that I threw away the gloves that I used to grab to "object". One officer soiled his vest with his lunch  and I only found out the next day that this had happened as I saw him and he asked me how I could be so sick. It took several hours to explain that one away too. 
Anybody else ??


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## TransportJockey (Jun 24, 2009)

Never done it on scene... but me and my classmates have had people get up and leave in the lounge on campus when we're eating and talking about class.


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## lafmedic1 (Jun 24, 2009)

I used to show my buddies the EMS textbook pics of all the traumas, I know now that the nursing home surprises beat those tenfold


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## johnrsemt (Jun 24, 2009)

don't think I have ever done anything on the scene;  but I have helped to clear out restuarants multiple times;
  esp on nights when we would meet up with hospital and fire dept based 911, and private services.   get 6-10 EMS crews together,  clean out any eating establishment of customers, and sometimes even the staff


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## lafmedic1 (Jun 24, 2009)

I love the people that ask whats the worst seen youve ever seen. I usually reply with a vivid description of a trach suctioning or a foley insertion.


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## VentMedic (Jun 24, 2009)

lafmedic1 said:


> I usually reply with a vivid description of a trach suctioning or a foley insertion.


 
That works well grossing out many Paramedics when asking if they know the proper procedure for suctioning a trach.  When they reply "it's in our scope of practice" you know they have never actually suctioned a patient's trach before.  So, with one quick demo, an RN or RRT can usually send them gagging from the room or cause them to have a look like they're going to hit the floor.   Unfortunately, that means the RRT or RN will have to accompany the patient but better find out what the transport team is made of before and not after.


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## PapaBear434 (Jun 24, 2009)

I'll concur with everyone else, that we've freaked out a lot of folks at restaurants.  We make a tradition out of early day shifts meeting at IHOP, no calls permitting.  And of course when you get a bunch of EMT's together, the conversation will turn to the most disgusting of topics.

The best, though, was last week.  We were sitting there, talking about amputations, disembowelments, and various seeping fluids over a short stack with a side of bacon, and didn't realize that a Cub Scout troop sat down right next to us.  

After a few minutes, they get up and walk out in a huff.  The troop leader walks over and tells us "You guys might want to be more conscious of who's around you when you talk about that stuff.  It's pretty sick."

We felt horrible and tried to apologize, but the manager stopped us.  She said that this wasn't the first time they done this.  They apparently stormed out because some teenagers were talking too loudly about a party the night before, over a woman talking to her girlfriend about a Jimmy Buffet concert she went to years ago and she could smell pot, and a guy that was talking about his dog's dry, flaky skin.  So we didn't feel TOO bad.


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## VentMedic (Jun 24, 2009)

As well, when you talk about scenes and patients, you never know if a member of that person's family might be around to recognize the details. This is where some are in violation of state patient privacy statutes (not HIPAA).

It may also give the appearance to others that you are being disrespectful to your patients in a "kiss and tell" way. You see patients when they are vulnerable and there is an expectation of some type of privacy that you won't be telling their neighbors about their body parts.


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## downunderwunda (Jun 24, 2009)

Further to Vents comments, EMS, Police & Fire are trained & have learned coping mechinisms for dealing with trauma, but, as one post stated, 



> The best, though, was last week. We were sitting there, talking about amputations, disembowelments, and various seeping fluids over a short stack with a side of bacon, and didn't realize that a Cub Scout troop sat down right next to us.



The vicarious vision of this can cause undue & unnecesarry stresses on this cub scout, far worse than if they had been there.

Discussions between services are essential debriefs, as is black humour, but this thread has shown some people do not know where to draw the line. I have had this happen with my son through the stupid actions of some who thought it was funny & spent the next week trying to get the mental pictures out of his head. Kids especially have vivid imaginations. 

Grow Up. Save it for the station & consider the fact others are not able to cope with what we do daily.

Instead of thinking it is funny to gross out a bystander, we should be looking at them to ensure they are OK with what has happenned. Not laughing at their inability to cope. I suggest you look up what stress disorders can do to people because that is what these actions can vicariously create.


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## VentMedic (Jun 24, 2009)

Anyone ever read the EMT Oath and Code of Ethics?

http://www.naemt.org/about_us/emtoath.aspx


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## Sasha (Jun 24, 2009)

VentMedic said:


> That works well grossing out many Paramedics when asking if they know the proper procedure for suctioning a trach.  When they reply "it's in our scope of practice" you know they have never actually suctioned a patient's trach before.  So, with one quick demo, an RN or RRT can usually send them gagging from the room or cause them to have a look like they're going to hit the floor.   Unfortunately, that means the RRT or RN will have to accompany the patient but better find out what the transport team is made of before and not after.



Trach patients in general make me gag, on the inside. Trachs are just one of my ick factors.


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## reaper (Jun 24, 2009)

VentMedic said:


> That works well grossing out many Paramedics when asking if they know the proper procedure for suctioning a trach.  When they reply "it's in our scope of practice" you know they have never actually suctioned a patient's trach before.  So, with one quick demo, an RN or RRT can usually send them gagging from the room or cause them to have a look like they're going to hit the floor.   Unfortunately, that means the RRT or RN will have to accompany the patient but better find out what the transport team is made of before and not after.



Yes, showing a newer medic how to properly suction a trach, will usally drop them. I do admit that it used to be the only thing that could make me gag.


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## PapaBear434 (Jun 24, 2009)

downunderwunda said:


> Further to Vents comments, EMS, Police & Fire are trained & have learned coping mechinisms for dealing with trauma, but, as one post stated,
> 
> 
> 
> ...



It's not as if we did it on purpose.  I wasn't even saying anything, just sitting there and laughing.  

Lesson learned to be conscious of our surroundings, if nothing else.


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## mycrofft (Jun 25, 2009)

*Try these innocent stunts...I did, inadvertantly..*

Eat peanut butter out of the jar using your finger instead of a spoon but wearing exam gloves.
Or carry the head from the old style Resusci Annie you are repairing in a tinted but translucent trash bag across the parking lot to your car.

Detective used to try to gross us out at coroner's pickups. Naw...until we saw the Dispose-all in the coroner's walk in cooler with an evidence tag.


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## downunderwunda (Jun 26, 2009)

PapaBear434 said:


> It's not as if we did it on purpose.  I wasn't even saying anything, just sitting there and laughing.
> 
> Lesson learned to be conscious of our surroundings, if nothing else.




All I am saying is regardless of it being an accident, I have berated my colleagues for saying things in fromt of my & other children. I regularly visit schools, scout groups etc so they will not have the fear factor, but stupidity like this is really negligent.

Lets see, lets go sit in a public place & relay really gross stories for fun. There is a good intelligent idea. The fact they 





> After a few minutes, they get up and walk out in a huff. The troop leader walks over and tells us "You guys might want to be more conscious of who's around you when you talk about that stuff. It's pretty sick."



speaks volumes, & when the manager said




> this wasn't the first time they done this. They apparently stormed out because some teenagers were talking too loudly about a party the night before, over a woman talking to her girlfriend about a Jimmy Buffet concert she went to years ago and she could smell pot, and a guy that was talking about his dog's dry, flaky skin. So we didn't feel TOO bad.



This is nothing compared to 



> I'll concur with everyone else, that we've freaked out a lot of folks at restaurants. We make a tradition out of early day shifts meeting at IHOP, no calls permitting. And of course when you get a bunch of EMT's together, the conversation will turn to the most disgusting of topics


.


> The best, though, was last week. We were sitting there, talking about amputations, disembowelments, and various seeping fluids over a short stack with a side of bacon, and didn't realize that a Cub Scout troop sat down right next to us.



By simply being there, not stopping what was said, laughing shows your peers you support their actions. I bet you wern't saying anything not because you were concerned you might gross out other patrons of the restaurant, but because you didn't have a war story to top the 



> amputations, disembowelments, and various seeping fluids



that were already on offer.


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## johnrsemt (Jun 26, 2009)

had a medic in the ER one night that made up an interesting concoction in a stool sample cup and put a handwritten label on it; and then tube it to different parts of the hospital.  Med-surg, L&D, Pharmacy.   they all sent it back except L&D who sent it to the Lab.
  The lab tech brings it back to us and says something about it having a handwritten label, and he didn't know what to test it for.
   The medic took it, opened it;  put a finger in it and tasted it.  Lab tech went white, and was grabbed by me and a nurse so he wouldn't hit the floor.

   It was made from chocolate cake, banana pudding, orange puffs and chocolate milk mixed together.   didn't taste too bad actually.

   Lab tech never did like to come to the ER at night after that


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## TransportJockey (Jun 26, 2009)

johnrsemt said:


> had a medic in the ER one night that made up an interesting concoction in a stool sample cup and put a handwritten label on it; and then tube it to different parts of the hospital.  Med-surg, L&D, Pharmacy.   they all sent it back except L&D who sent it to the Lab.
> The lab tech brings it back to us and says something about it having a handwritten label, and he didn't know what to test it for.
> The medic took it, opened it;  put a finger in it and tasted it.  Lab tech went white, and was grabbed by me and a nurse so he wouldn't hit the floor.
> 
> ...



That's awesome! Count on L&D to send random things to the lab too


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## PapaBear434 (Jun 26, 2009)

downunderwunda said:


> All I am saying is regardless of it being an accident, I have berated my colleagues for saying things in fromt of my & other children. I regularly visit schools, scout groups etc so they will not have the fear factor, but stupidity like this is really negligent.
> 
> Lets see, lets go sit in a public place & relay really gross stories for fun. There is a good intelligent idea. The fact they speaks volumes, & when the manager said this is nothing compared to By simply being there, not stopping what was said, laughing shows your peers you support their actions. I bet you wern't saying anything not because you were concerned you might gross out other patrons of the restaurant, but because you didn't have a war story to top the that were already on offer.



Only on the internet could someone take a humorous story of "whoopsie, shouldn't have done that" and turned it into a freaking lecture.

Yes, I know it was wrong. Thanks for pointing that out Chief.  I agree.  You can get off your soapbox now.  The thread, however, was about the stories.  Not confessions of our sins and subsequent tongue lashings as penance.  

Just sit back, laugh at the stories you find humorous, and ignore the rest.


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## lafmedic1 (Jun 27, 2009)

When you say the tube i guess you mean the old vaccum systems like the banks used to have. Ill bet the sample got some curious looks.


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## mycrofft (Jun 27, 2009)

*Had a guy in my factory send a frog in a vacuum transporter.*

Didn't do well after a few long stretches to build speed ending in 90 degree turns.
Wasn't me, they fired me for something else much later.


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## scottmcleod (Jul 1, 2009)

"Not confessions of our sins and subsequent tongue lashings as penance. "

...tongue lashings aren't ALWAYS penance...

(Sorry, HAD to lighten up the mood.)

The public is incredibly sensitive to the **** we see on a daily basis.

Best to keep it to EMTLife, or discussions at the station.

That being said, If it's already happened, lesson learned, enjoy it for a laugh, and move on, no need to grill them armchair-commando style. (They probably caught enough crap when their captain got the phonecall from the scout leader!) Floor moppin' fer a month, I reckon!


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## VentMedic (Jul 1, 2009)

scottmcleod;156893 
Best to keep it to EMTLife said:
			
		

> EMTLife is also a very public forum and can pop up when someone and anyone does a search.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## scottmcleod (Jul 1, 2009)

VentMedic said:


> EMTLife is also a very public forum and can pop up when someone and anyone does a search.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



This is why I hate the f***ing internet. Nothing ever comes out right.

I was NOT saying to make fun of patients at their expense. I was saying discussing gorey/messed up calls should be kept to the station, if discussed.

It sucks if it comes out in public, but after it happens, and you learn your lesson (and take your reprimand), the only thing you can do is laugh a little on the outside, and regret it inside.

I give up (again, this happened last year on EMTLife as well... something I said came across in the wrong way). I'm going to keep my mouth shut around here, and watch other people say stupid things, and watch other people be Armchair Commandos at their expense.

To be perfectly honest, if everyone else does the same, it would take away most of the high-horses, soap boxes, and associated paraphenalia.

Talking about Paramedicine (especially online) is an awkward situation. Even worse, in the US where there's a lot of EMT-B'S (No offense, I love you guys), who are up to operational status after a short class, young, don't necessarily know how to cope with the stresses of the career, and when they find a forum such as EMTLife, they use it to get stories off of their chest that would normally only come out between medics back at the station where it's safe to talk about it.

... that "lax" attitude then carries to talking at restaurants, parties, and at other places where it might not be so appropriate, and also, the CONTENT of what's talked about.

This forum should either be heavily moderated, or shielded from the public with ZERO tolerance for stepping outside the bounds of what's publicly ethical.

The sheer fact that this forum is searchable scares the sh*t out of me sometimes, considering what is posted here sometimes.

And again, unfortunately, EMTLife goes down to the bottom of my lists of visited websites... (because I myself, have forgotten occasionally that this is a public website, and logging in does and means NOTHING.)

... Woah. Rant much? Hrm. I guess my birthday yesterday didn't go so well, and I've been cooped up in this room for too long today. I'm going to go get some fresh air, but I don't take back any of the above.

If it's not appropriate, the mods should be deleting it immediately, without question. This forum shouldn't be moderated by armchair commandos telling people what's "right" and "wrong". Posts should just dissappear.


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## scottmcleod (Jul 1, 2009)

Oh, and so VentMedic doesn't get any more ammo, I'm going to include "all patient information that could be used to identify them should be changed before discussing, EVEN at the station."


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## VentMedic (Jul 1, 2009)

You stated it very well in your lengthy post that education in the U.S. is very short and professionalism or professional ethics is rarely covered.


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## medic417 (Jul 1, 2009)

VentMedic said:


> Anyone ever read the EMT Oath and Code of Ethics?
> 
> http://www.naemt.org/about_us/emtoath.aspx



Guess none of them have as they all seem to be ignoring it.  Thanks for attempting to help the dignity of my profession.


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## scottmcleod (Jul 1, 2009)

VentMedic said:


> You stated it very well in your lengthy post that education in the U.S. is very short and professionalism or professional ethics is rarely covered.



Sorry, that last quip about ammo wasn't deserved, to you.

It's true. I'm in a program that's "Accelerated", and I've got 8 months of class, 1 month of clinical, and 3 months on the road.

We spent maybe... 2 days (10 hours) on the medical-legal, and of that, it was maybe... a few hours directly spent on ethics?

Too easily forgotten at the expense of getting something off your chest, or not enough time thought about what's to be said, before we quip off a joke.

(Thanks for the wake-up call, btw. I was probably a little closer to the "thin red line" then I'd have liked to admit to myself.)

... It still raises a lot of questions about EMTLife, and how public, it still really is.


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## scottmcleod (Jul 1, 2009)

... and, apparently something I said got me banned from the chat room... LOVELY.


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## PapaBear434 (Jul 1, 2009)

scottmcleod said:


> Talking about Paramedicine (especially online) is an awkward situation. Even worse, in the US where there's a lot of EMT-B'S (No offense, I love you guys), who are up to operational status after a short class, young, don't necessarily know how to cope with the stresses of the career, and when they find a forum such as EMTLife, they use it to get stories off of their chest that would normally only come out between medics back at the station where it's safe to talk about it.
> 
> ... that "lax" attitude then carries to talking at restaurants, parties, and at other places where it might not be so appropriate, and also, the CONTENT of what's talked about.



You know what's funny?  I was the only basic there at the time.  The rest of them were all Medics save one trainee.  

It has nothing to do with experience, education, or age.  Hell, the longer someone has been in, the more war stories they want to share.  It's like that with almost ANY emergency field.  Police, fire, military, EMS...  Whatever the specialized field, people love to share their experiences with each other.

And sometimes, of course, people are morons and do it in places not appropriate because they get carried away.  That was us this day.  We were in there at 0530 in the morning we were the only ones in the restaurant let alone our section.  Kept talking into and past breakfast, and then realized when Mr. Troop Leader complained that we had someone sitting next to us.

I didn't tell this story to glorify the activity.  I didn't tell it as an example of what a proper EMT shouldn't do.  And I certainly didn't do it as some grand moral parable, topped off about how I learned a valuable lesson and was a better person for it.  I told the story because it was a funny story of a personal *#@& up related to the topic of freaking out co-workers and passersby.  

Can we just forget all our soapbox posturing and just get back to the funny stories now?


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## scottmcleod (Jul 1, 2009)

PapaBear434 said:


> ... all our soapbox posturing and just...



Is that where the patient holds one hand out with one finger pointed?

Now where is the checkbox for that on my patient report...


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## PapaBear434 (Jul 1, 2009)

scottmcleod said:


> Is that where the patient holds one hand out with one finger pointed?
> 
> Now where is the checkbox for that on my patient report...



No, it's more when a person exhibits a body position resembling a very large stick up their posterior.


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## scottmcleod (Jul 1, 2009)

PapaBear434 said:


> No, it's more when a person exhibits a body position resembling a very large stick up their posterior.



... so where exactly does that fit on my GCS scale?


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## PapaBear434 (Jul 1, 2009)

scottmcleod said:


> ... so where exactly does that fit on my GCS scale?



Eyes - 4
Verbal - 20
Motor - 6

Get it?  Because they'll never shut up and like to lecture.  Eh?  EH!?


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## scottmcleod (Jul 1, 2009)

PapaBear434 said:


> Eyes - 4
> Verbal - 20
> Motor - 6
> 
> Get it?  Because they'll never shut up and like to lecture.  Eh?  EH!?



Priceless! Not sure if that last line made it funnier, or killed the joke


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## ChargerGirl (Jul 2, 2009)

i had to pull out my scarf from my dogs butt at a four corner stop with people watching and gagging. poor baby ate my scarf and it came out whole. i had gloves dont worry hahah


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## nyfd136 (Jul 2, 2009)

I have to throw this into the mix...we used to go out to a local haunt after teaching. One night the manager came over to us and asked us to talk shop because he was having problems with some unruly kids sitting next to us. Apparently they wouldn't leave and were harrassing the waitstaff. So we just started off with our gross calls and then on to the pictures we used in classes. After about 3-4 minutes the group got up and left. The manager came over and said that we were really in rare form....even grossed
out some of the staff who were used to us.


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