# What call do you absolutely hate?



## harold1981 (Oct 18, 2015)

For me it's the 3 A.M. GI-bleed. I just can't take the smell at that time of the night.


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## akflightmedic (Oct 18, 2015)

The Refusal.

Just a pain in the *** and waste of time and resources to start with. And if documented properly, can be more laborious than a regular report.


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## NomadicMedic (Oct 18, 2015)

The well meaning bystander who calls in a "man down".


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## harold1981 (Oct 18, 2015)

The 7th drunk call of the weekend nightshift, where everyone seems to find the situation so funny that they need to take pictures and record videos for facebook.


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## Gurby (Oct 18, 2015)

There is a facility we often go to for people with severe developmental issues.  Pretty much all of them are GCS 8 at baseline, none of the nurses know anything about any of the patients (who have PMH/med/allergy lists that are multiple pages long.... handwritten), the patients all have pneumonia on a monthly basis because they sit there aspirating saliva all day, 75% have contracted extremities and are difficult to get IV's into.  The only time the patient will show any signs of humanity is when you're trying to start an IV, they'll use more strength than you expect to pull their arm away or maybe flail around a little. 

Then we catch a load of crap from the hospital for not having a good story, not having an IV started, etc.


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## redundantbassist (Oct 18, 2015)

All of them.


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## teedubbyaw (Oct 18, 2015)

redundantbassist said:


> All of them.



Then GTFO of EMS.


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## teedubbyaw (Oct 18, 2015)

I dislike the typical BS like N/V, diarrhea, typical flu or cold, etc., especially from younger people. I've never at a point in my life, even prior to EMS, would have thought to call 911 when I felt like ****. I especially get frustrated when they have a family member that is perfectly capable of bringing them to the hospital call us.


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## AtlasFlyer (Oct 18, 2015)

For me it's the 'mental emotional' calls. I can handle bodily fluids of any kind from any orifice, burns, trauma, injured kids, pg women who may or may not make it to the hospital delivery room.... but I just never know what to say the person who's sitting there (often but not always under the influence of some sort of chemical) telling me how they don't want to live, how everything in their life is awful, etc. It's not that I don't "care", I do and I genuinely want for them to feel better, I just never know what to say. Like anything that I could possibly say for the few minutes I see them between showing up on-scene and delivering them to whatever hospital's psych intake is open could make any difference. I can't question the full truth behind their statements/feelings, as I know nothing about them or their circumstances, they could be delusional and making it all up, they could be telling the stone cold full truth, or any shade of gray inbetween. All I can do is listen, document, and try to maintain calm.


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## Akulahawk (Oct 18, 2015)

The "I'm hurt, I'm hearing voices, I want a box meal, and I won't tell you about any of it until morning..."


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## NomadicMedic (Oct 18, 2015)

Meal tray and Sierra mist, stat.


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## Akulahawk (Oct 18, 2015)

DEmedic said:


> Meal tray and Sierra mist, stat.


Actually that one ended up pretty much like this: "You are medically OK, you won't talk to mental health, we're not a hotel, here's a lunch box and there's the door."


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## DesertMedic66 (Oct 18, 2015)

Pediatric calls. Any and all calls involving pediatric patients.


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## Tigger (Oct 19, 2015)

I am no fan of colostomy bag issues/lack of connectivity. Also, late night transfers from the local hospital to the floor of a real hospital. Just let the patient sleep in the ED till I don't know maybe not 330 in the damn morning. I dislike waking up patients, loading them, making the forty minute drive, and then putting them in a new bed where they will not be seen by anyone but the nurse until morning. I hate it, the patient despises it, and the receiving facilities are not pleased. The sending, well they're all happy they can go back to sleep now that the ED is empty.


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## OnceAnEMT (Oct 19, 2015)

Tigger said:


> I am no fan of colostomy bag issues/lack of connectivity.



Word.

Big bari's, big as in I'm concerned about the bed. Just the jerks though. Some folks are honestly sorry and do whatever they can to help providers, but others could care less; they get treated well no matter what, might as well be lazy about it...


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## Ensihoitaja (Oct 19, 2015)

DEmedic said:


> The well meaning bystander who calls in a "man down".



This, and even more so the slumper calls. It's nearly always a DUI and I really, really hate having to approach vehicles.


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## Flying (Oct 19, 2015)

Any person faking LOC or seizure.


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## Gurby (Oct 19, 2015)

Flying said:


> Any person faking LOC or seizure.



Especially when they wake up right as you walk through the hospital doors complaining of chest pain, SOB, etc


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## epipusher (Oct 19, 2015)

Gunshots: messy and usually too many chiefs and not enough indians. Where was all this help on my combative diabetic?


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## cruiseforever (Oct 19, 2015)

Any call that my partner complains all the way there and all the way back.


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## johnrsemt (Oct 20, 2015)

At this point no calls bother me:  at my previous jobs BS calls that could go to the doctor by car.

Here, averaging 1-2 calls a month I MISS BS calls,  any calls are nice even 0305 fire alarms (we go with fire on everything they do)


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## exodus (Oct 20, 2015)

On 12's, I don't care about any BS calls. But on the 24's while sleeping, I hate BS n/v, cold symptoms, stuffy nose, etc, with capable family members and not other complaints


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## MackTheKnife (Oct 20, 2015)

Back in the day, I used to hate the "I'm bad off sick. I gots Medicaid. You gots to take me to the hospital."  Actually, after awhile, our medical directors gave us permission to refuse. We'd tell them to call private transport and it wasn't covered by Medicaid. It was usually a cold or flu BS.


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## H33 (Oct 27, 2015)

Agreed on refusal. If I am going to write a report your coming to the hospital. - if I can help it.


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## Chewy20 (Oct 28, 2015)

Any call involving a cell phone hero.

Homeless persons. Come to Austin and you will know what I am talking about.


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## Giant81 (Nov 2, 2015)

Right now? nothing.  

I'm been a licensed EMT-Basic for less than 6mo running with an all volunteer crew that gets maybe 150-200 calls a year.

Every time those tones drop it's new and exciting still.


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## ERDoc (Nov 3, 2015)

I hate epistaxis.  There is nothing worse than knowing that the pt is blowing blood all over you as you check the nostril and you are even inhaling some of it.  The next least favorite is a tie between the one who should have gone to their PMD and the one who tried to but was told, "Just go to the ER."


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## 46Young (Nov 4, 2015)

Giant81 said:


> Right now? nothing.
> 
> I'm been a licensed EMT-Basic for less than 6mo running with an all volunteer crew that gets maybe 150-200 calls a year.
> 
> Every time those tones drop it's new and exciting still.



I wish that I could get that feeling back again...


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## 46Young (Nov 4, 2015)

Panic attacks really wear me out. I've never run so many panic attacks before I started working in Northern Virginia. People at work in an office. People calling from their car on the side of the road or highway (get that a lot). College students in class. Panic attacks during an incident with the police. Teenagers getting a panic attack after getting disciplined by their parents, or after getting dumped by a bf/gf. After a car accident. Panic attacks everywhere!!!!!!

People are too soft nowadays; they lack the ability to handle stress.


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## BASICallyEMT (Nov 4, 2015)

Ran on a frequent 5150 flyer recently.... AOS outside a CVS to find a woman on the phone with 911 dispatch. I make contact and she tells me to "be quiet I'm on the phone with 911" I never get upset with patients especially psychs but she almost threw me over the edge..... She only called 911 three more times while in our care. Once while we wheeled her out into the ER waiting room -___-


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## WildlandEMT89 (Nov 4, 2015)

teedubbyaw said:


> I dislike the typical BS like N/V, diarrhea, typical flu or cold, etc., especially from younger people. I've never at a point in my life, even prior to EMS, would have thought to call 911 when I felt like ****. I especially get frustrated when they have a family member that is perfectly capable of bringing them to the hospital call us.


Or when on these calls and the family follows you in their vehicle to the hospital.


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## squirrel15 (Nov 5, 2015)

Working IFT not many calls bother me, but when I get that occasional house call, and when you show up and family realizes an ambulance showed up and ask "how much will this cost?" My answer is usually an honest answer of, "I don't know, I'm not a part of billing nor do I know what your insurance covers" and the family goes, oh well we will take them ourselves and proceed to leave you on the porch while on the phone with dispatch. I'm sorry, but why wait over an hour for us to show up to say, never mind we will take them...


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## 46Young (Nov 7, 2015)

A couple of nights ago I had another call that drives me up the wall - the lonely 65-80 y/o lady calling at 0130 that lives alone and has absolutely nothing wrong with her, just looking for attention. At this time of night I'm looking to turn the call over in the shortest time possible without being negligent. This patient tends to stall in the residence as long as possible - has to do fourteen laps around the place to gather everything, needs to use the bathroom, and as soon as you get her out of the front door, she sends you back in the house for a scavenger hunt for some more things that she needs, and to turn off more lights that she didn't care about ten minutes ago when we first tried to get her out of the house. Meanwhile, she talks constantly, and getting a Hx is damn near impossible. 

Every question you try to ask is met with a two minute story about something 100% irrelevant to what you just asked. Example, do you have any Hx of heart issues - heart attack, irregular heartbeat, heart failure, surgeries, valve problems? Answer: I take a pill for something, and I see my doctor once a month, but I changed because they changed their hours, and I like to go to the senior center on Wednesday mornings, so it doesn't work. You can call my daughter and she can tell you more, but she lives in Pennsylvania and I'd like to go and see the kids but she says she's busy with their sports and the PTA. One's in Volleyball, the other one does track. Let me show you some pictures of them before we leave for the hospital.

We have a couple of frequent fliers that do this to us a few times a month each. I check with the ED, and they never find anything wrong. We try to get a game plan where one person tries to package real quick, and the other right away shuts everything off, gets their keys, and asks what they need before we leave, but these are no ordinary patients - they're professionals, and are expert at keeping us on-scene for 30-45 minutes at the minimum. When all else fails, this patient will play the I want to go/I don't want to go game to add another 20 minutes or more onto an already long call.


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