What is your most ridiculous call?

[JPINFV]

0200: 80-something post fall x2 days c/o hip pain. Pt was at the doctor 10 hours prior. 2 cars in the driveway, 4 competent family members. Preferred hospital that was an extra 30 minutes away.

...and if the patient isn't ambulatory or minimally ambulatory?

As far as the distance, if the patient is stable can you send the call to a private company... assuming your not a private company?

 

[TransportJockey]

...and if the patient isn't ambulatory or minimally ambulatory?

As far as the distance, if the patient is stable can you send the call to a private company... assuming your not a private company?

My private 911 service still wouldn't do that. With max of five trucks in our county and twenty minutes from the closest hospital to back in county and available, they go to the nearest appropriate facility within their insurance system

 

[Brandon275]

I was sent to the bus station one time for a frequent flyer of ours. This night he called because he wanted a ride to the hospital triage area so he could use the hospital's computer to check his email to assure that his state check had been deposited in his account. No lie. He was arrested for 911 abuse shortly after this. Lets say I documented my PCR well for that intended purpose.

 

[Handsome Robb]

...and if the patient isn't ambulatory or minimally ambulatory?

As far as the distance, if the patient is stable can you send the call to a private company... assuming your not a private company?

We have a couple out of area hospitals we can transport to with supervisor approval. With that said, our supervisors rarely approve it unless it's something where the patient really needs to go and states they will refuse unless we take them to that specific hospital. We are too busy to be sending units 45-60 minutes, one way, out of our county to another hospital. Especially when that transport would include driving past at least 3 out of 4 of the hospitals in our county.

I have no shame in telling people I wont even call my supervisor to ask. "Ma'am/sir we have 4 very capable hospitals within our county that can handle this problem, especially considering we have one of the two trauma centers in the entire state in our county. If you really want me to call and ask I will but I can already tell you what the answer is going to be." I may or may not have told someone no the other night citing my EOS as my reason. "No I will not drive past two hospitals to transport you to a hospital in a different county that is 60 minutes away, one way, for the simple fact that my shift ends in 40 minutes." Boy I thought I was going to hear it for that one but my supervisor agreed and told me he would've denied the request anyways.

 

[medic17]

That would be why an EMS should charge

 

[medic17]

Dispatched to house for unknown medical/unknown trauma. UA 26 yo male lying on side in obvious pain. pt states i fell on it....... i.e: foriegn body in rectum... I just have to ask why do they always fall on it?????

That dose not sound good :rofl:

 

[Joe]

2 of my best.
Dispatched at 3ish am for sick person. No surprise there. Aos to find mother and daughter ambulatory in house. Mother states her daughter has had a bruise on her shin since early afternoon. Pt tripped and hit the coffee table with shin previous night. Car in driveway verified working. (Asked her to move it so we could get the gurney in house.) Transported to er waiting room. Mother not happy.

2nd. 630am (end shift at 7) to another sick person. Aos to find 5 sheriffs deputies smiling at us. State they kicked a woman out of an ihop type place. Woman threw a fit and sat on curb outside. She decided to call 911 to complain about 911. Told dispatch she was cold and wanted to go to hospital. Told us chest pain. Told er nurse diff breathing chest pain and headache.

Luckily i dont work that ghetto area anymore. Entitlement way of thinking had me about ready to drive these people to utah

 

[patput]

Over summer we got dispatched to a 37 year old female complaining of difficulty breathing two days ago, stated they felt fine now, but would like to be checked out. That came in at 0324, great thing to get woken up for.

 

[STXmedic]

Dispatch notes read: "2yo got into mace. Is now crying and crapping everywhere"

Good work, dispatch :rofl:

 

[lightsandsirens5]

Series of calls.....

Christmas eve night two years ago my partner and I took one of our frequent customers on her 49th, 50th, and 51st ambulance rides of the year.

First call: "I pinched my finger in the silverware drawer."

Second call: "When I cry, tears don't come out of my left eye"

Third call: "My fingernail is hurting so bad from where I pinched it, I think I will pass out."

Charge nurse was ready to have my head on a silver platter for Christmas dinner.

 

[medic17]

A shoping trip you wouldn't expect

The other day i was at a small grocery shop when i over hear this: "my finger hurts can you give me a elastic bandage". I turn my head and see a 20s male talking to the shop owner a former EMT (Quit about 6 years ago. Not certified anymore. Told me some time ago that he has not kept up with developments.) The owner turned and saw me. He told the pt that i am a medic and he should speak to me. So far a normal off duty thing (in my country there is a duty to act even wen off duty and not in uniform). The pt c/o post MVA rt index and forearm pain x2 days and get this he has already bean checked by a orthopedic doctor and all x-rays clean. I checked for brusing which can sometimes com 24-48 hrs later and found non. since so far i am not working with any organization and i am not a full EMT but a EMR-a i could not take him to a hospital and did not think he needed one anyway. told him an elastic bandage would hurt and he should take a otc pain killer for the next 3 days if the pain was bothering him to function.

P.S.
I am fairly new at this so if anyone has tips/suggestions on this or other ambulatory Injuries please PM me.

 

[9D4]

I went on a ride along not too long ago (first one). I'm still an EMT student, so this is one of about 5 calls total that I've been on, haha.
Call was for a 50 year old women c/o severe abd. pain.
We walk in and she was watching Wheel of Fortune. One of the FF's tried to turn the TV off and she yelled "Wait! I want to see the end of this episode!"
He stood in front of it while trying to ask her questions and she leaned around to look at the TV. He asked her the pain level and she said "definitely 10/10..." She demanded transport, but only after Wheel of Fortune was over..

Next call I went on was a truck driver at a truck stop. He was working on his semi and reached in the engine bay with it still running. All 4 fingers on his left hand were severed at the first knuckle. Firefighter asked the pain question again and trucker says "ahh sh** this ain't nuttin' but a 4."
Firefighter back at station says "I don't want to know what's happened to that man in his life..."
I thought those two calls back to back were pretty funny. Showed to me as a student how things like OPQRST aren't always accurate.

 

[EMTFozzy]

My funniest was when I was doing an ER rotation for medic school.
GSW comes in multiple gunshot wounds with a 9mm or so. That was not the funny part. The funny part was the guy was messing around with a married woman and her hubby came home while they were bumping uglies. So the pt ended up getting dressed running out side and making a getaway on a 10 speed while the hubby drove by a few times and then decided to stop then shoot the guy.

 

[Tigger]

Decided to pick up an overtime shift with a partner who was also getting OT. As to be expected, we got flogged for the duration of the 10, and finally on hour 11 we are cleared to base. No sooner do we get "I'm sorry 22 we really need you for an emergent, you're closest can you do it?" That is a mandatory "yes ma'am we have it" in company parlance. Arrive on scene at a senior's apartment complex (no skilled care) to find a visiting nurse in the driveway furiously waving at us, who informs us that our patient is in severe respiratory distress.

We get to the patient's apartment to find a large woman sitting in a lazy-boy, in no apparent distress, though we ascertain that two weeks ago she was on a vent but has since been discharged, amongst other illnesses. To my surprise, when I ask her why she called 911, she responds "I'm stuck to this motha****ing chair."

It was hot and and humid, and she was wearing her hospital gown "since it airy," and indeed because of it's open back she had become stuck to her leather recliner. Given this my partner and I, in a surprising feat of strength, managed to finally rest the 350 pound woman from the sticky atrocity that was her chair to her feat and then help her to kitchen chair with seat cushion where we got our refusal and were then on our way.

I got off two and half hours of late but boy was it worth it.

 

[Raggy]

When I was on my ride-alon,g an LA county fire medic farted in the back of our rig with a possible stroke patient and it took us so many alcohol wipes to suppress the smell.

 

[JPINFV]

Right hip pain most likely due to sciatica who is always admitted as "chest pain R/O ACS" because his pain 'radiates through his stomach and up to his left chest." Last time he was admitted he AMAed within 24 hours because no one would give him a cigarette.

 

[leoemt]

0200: 80-something post fall x2 days c/o hip pain. Pt was at the doctor 10 hours prior. 2 cars in the driveway, 4 competent family members. Preferred hospital that was an extra 30 minutes away.

I got problems with this. Just because its not an emergency doesn't mean he doesn't deserve an ambulance. Have you ever had hip pain? It can be excruitating to the point that a stretcher is the only comfortable and safe way to transport a patient.

Just because there are cars and able bodied people doesn't mean we should be rolling our eyes when someone wants ambulance transport.

It is the patient's right to be taken to their hospital of choice as long as it is appropriate for their condition.

 

[medic417]

I got problems with this. Just because its not an emergency doesn't mean he doesn't deserve an ambulance. Have you ever had hip pain? It can be excruitating to the point that a stretcher is the only comfortable and safe way to transport a patient.

Just because there are cars and able bodied people doesn't mean we should be rolling our eyes when someone wants ambulance transport.

It is the patient's right to be taken to their hospital of choice as long as it is appropriate for their condition.

I have problems with your attitude. People abuse EMS because they are allowed to abuse it. More services need to learn to say no to non emergent patients that can safely be transported pov.

 

[james88]

I should have been clearer. The fall had occurred days prior, and the family had already driven the pt to their doctors appt. the doctor even advised them to go to the er. Had they followed common sense amd gone earlier the pt could have avoided further distress by having to spend all night in an er and further movement causing pain.

 

[james88]

And medic417- you hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately that is par for the course in my area. Lots of money, don't have to worry about ambulance bills