Bystander Complaints

We got told to move 20ft forward off the gravel into the paved parking lot. So much for parking out of the way for people while posting.
 
Slightly off the original topic, I had a driver in the left lane refuse to yield to our ambulance the other day because he was attempting to make the left turn, and did not want to move right. He continued to wave me around to his right side, even though the three lanes to the right were filled with several vehicles that were abiding by state law by moving to the right and yielding to an emergency vehicle. When I was finally able to pass him he have me the huh hands.
 
HaleEMT said:
Slightly off the original topic, I had a driver in the left lane refuse to yield to our ambulance the other day because he was attempting to make the left turn, and did not want to move right. He continued to wave me around to his right side, even though the three lanes to the right were filled with several vehicles that were abiding by state law by moving to the right and yielding to an emergency vehicle. When I was finally able to pass him he have me the huh hands.
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Had that happen and I just sit behind him blaring horn and sirens. He flipped me off and screamed at me as I drove past and then he looked really unhappy when SO pulled him over right afterwards


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It's funny due to the fact, if they was in the back of our ambulance with a Life threading condition...I'm sure they would want to have people yield so we can get them to the hospital in time.
 
TransportJockey said:
Had that happen and I just sit behind him blaring horn and sirens. He flipped me off and screamed at me as I drove past and then he looked really unhappy when SO pulled him over right afterwards


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I love it when that happens. I'll usually pop the DriveCam or iDrive for them too. Always drives the point home when they try to fight it and then they show the video... :D
 
I had similar happen just yesterday actually (referring to OP) except it was pre-scene...

We were posted outside of a Home Depot and someone with a trailer parks infront and kind of to the left of us without straightening their trailer (effectively blocking us from being able to move forward) and we get a 9-1-1 call. Due to the horrible turning radius on our ambulances it would have taken on us ridiculous amount of points turn just to turn around so I got out and asked the gentleman "Hey, we just got a call would you mind straightening your trailer for us so we can get out?" and he gave me quite an offended look...

he then proceeded to explain to me that I could "f*ing" turn around and use the other exit, which would mean going around the entire building which at this point of the day had a considerable amount of traffic both vehicular and pedestrian... rather than let him finish his rant I just hopped in the truck and had my partner turn the wig wags and woo woos on until he moved...

(call came in as male with unknown injuries walking down the road, half an hour away from us... when we got there, no patient found. i wonder why...)
 
I went on an MVA with entrapment that was fully engulfed. We had fire ems and PD from two towns squeezed on a two lane rd. After the call I talked to one of the dispatchers and he told me he got multiple calls from people asking if the police would open the road for them to get through. He told them he'd get right on it and hung up.
 
A couple years ago we had some tweaker start screaming that we were kidnapping his neighbor as we were trying to load up a patient. He kept running around the ambulance, flapping his arms and asking why nobody was doing anything to save his neighbor from us. It was all pretty funny until he punched a firefighter who was trying to calm him down, then it got hilarious...
 
Woops

I told a guy to get in his car and leave the scene while he's a free man after getting read the riot act from him and his wife over a blocked lane that he had to wait for 20 minutes because of fire hose and safety. He was a police Capt. from another town and called my Supervisor and LIED to him! Told him that I was threatning him and calling him names:angry: I didn't do that until he left the scene;)
 
CPRinProgress said:
I went on an MVA with entrapment that was fully engulfed. We had fire ems and PD from two towns squeezed on a two lane rd. After the call I talked to one of the dispatchers and he told me he got multiple calls from people asking if the police would open the road for them to get through. He told them he'd get right on it and hung up.
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Pretty standard deal around here in the summer. With only one major highway, and beach traffic, you're guaranteed a back up of at least 5 mile with any incident. I normally get about 3-10 calls on the accident and another 20 complaining about the back up. It gets even worse when the backup goes for multiple counties...
 
the other day my partner and I were at lunch at In-n-out and there was a wreck on the street right in front. since our company doesn't run 911 in the area we called 911 to get fire on scene and then proceeded to inform dispatch of the accident and that we were going to cancel lunch to assist until fire showed up. as we're on the radio with dispatch a guy runs over to us and starts yelling at us to "DO YER JERB!!!!" while pointing to the accident scene. I almost died laughing at the way he said it but kept my cool until fire showed up and took over :rofl:
 
Highlander said:
It's funny due to the fact, if they was in the back of our ambulance with a Life threading condition...I'm sure they would want to have people yield so we can get them to the hospital in time.
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Not a "bystander complaint" but related to this- had to restrain myself with every fiber of my being a few shifts ago not to march out into the waiting room and read the family the riot act. Transported a 70ish lung CA patient with acute SOB which by the time we got her in the truck went from sitting up, tripoding and 2-3 word sentences, to agonal with rales and flash PE. Partner took the call and I took us in P1 to the nearest ER, about 2-4 miles, and happen to notice in my rear view that the family had turned the flashers on their Rav 4 on and are speeding down residential roads super close behind me, blowing stop signs, and running red lights- right by a cop, too, who did nothing (law enforcement in my area is, sadly, notoriously useless for helping us and in fact creates more work for EMS by shoving people off on us that they don't want to deal with). While it was an oversight of me not to run back into the house and tell them not to follow me, I feel like it's fairly common knowledge that you are NOT ALLOWED to follow an ambulance. I don't care who I've got in the truck, you just DON'T follow my ambulance as if putting on your 4-ways is going to transform your mid-size SUV into an emergency response vehicle and give you the right to break traffic laws.

Not only that, but the family broke into the back of the ER and came running in before we even got the patient on the bed. Thankfully security was able to corral them and pen them up in the waiting room while they put the pt on BiPap, CPAP, and then intubated her....

The only thing that stopped me from telling those idiots off was that the ER had ice cream bars in the EMS fridge, so I ate that and sulked for a bit until I decided I didn't care.


As for bystander complaints, though, I had a caller who called for her ailing uncle who had a UTI diagnosed that morning (cipro of course not being taken as directed), who was still in discomfort and she wanted us to give him morphine and then leave him home so he could sleep. When informed that we do not give out narcotics to help people sleep through their penis pain (literally he was just saying that his penis hurt), and that all I could do was take him to the hospital and allow the doctor to make the decision, she said that I was stupid and useless and then asked if we took him, would there be a bill?

Needless to say, they signed a refusal and went POV to get their morphine for his penis pain, because we are stupid. :glare:
 
The location of one particular local nursing home is not the most accessible unless you use the parking lot of a local restaurant that connects to two roads. Most of the time it was only used during emergencies and heavy traffic as it could literally save 4-5 minutes of transport time.

However, the manager called and told the supervisor that they did not want us using their parking lot as a cut through even in the event of an emergency as it made them look bad to the public. But the story doesn't end there.

A crew stopped in for lunch and had ordered and the waitress had brought them their drinks when the same manager that had initially complained approached them. He told them they would have to leave as they made them look bad. You are probably thinking at this point he was upset about the ambulance in the parking lot. But here is the thing, they had just gotten off work and was in private vehicles stopping for breakfast but were still in uniform. He said when people saw them there in uniform it gave people the impression they must have a lot of issues with food poisoning so if they wanted to eat there they would have to remove their uniform shirts. Needless to say they promptly left,,

I get its his restaurant and he can refuse service in certain cases but I was a bit astounded by this.
 
I've been berated with the usual I pay you paycheck, you work for me monologue, I usually ask them for a raise and they shut up about it. I work for a private non-profit company lol
 
Either that or they have the ambulance service number memorized along with the local ems frequent flier card lol
 
Gymratt said:
... He said when people saw them there in uniform it gave people the impression they must have a lot of issues with food poisoning.
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dafuq? I'd think exactly the opposite. If EMT/health department people are eating there it's probably clean.
 
I HATE it when patient's families make up false complaints.

Awhile back, I was working on a unit and functioning as the shift supervisor. We ran a call at a frequent flyers house. PD and Fire were all ready there and the patient was annoyed to begin with since they did not want anyone other than the ambulance. We all did a good job remaining calm and professional and transported the patient. Shortly after the call, I get a call from dispatch saying a family member wants to file a formal complaint against the paramedic on the call (myself). I have them put the call through. The person complaining had no idea I was on the call. The caller proceeds to state that the "ambulance driver" on the call told the patient to "get the F*** on the gurney" he also said that I made the patient walk down the street to the ambulance. (We brought the gurney to the patient's bedside.)

He then proceeds to tell me he is calling an attorney and will be seeking criminal charges because his brother who apparently is the chief paramedic of some midwest system or something told him it is illegal for EMS to not carry each and every patient. I proceed to tell him that I am very concerned about this complaint and will be launching an investigation. I told him since law enforcement was on scene, we will just pull their voice recorders they wear and see what the medic said. I told him if the complaint is substantiated that the medic is in big trouble. I told him if the complaint turns out to be false he can face legal liabilities. He then "withdrew" his complaint and said if he knew the cops wore voice recorders that he would not have made the complaint.
 
I had a recent home to hospice (respite care) transport. Got on scene and talked to the daughter and her husband who were caring for her mother for a bit regarding her condition. I checked on the patient and how we would be extricating her. The patient was on the second floor of their home. The patient had no muscle tone whatsoever, unable to support her own weight and would flop about per the daughter. The stairs were partially blocked by a mechanical chair lift which the family asked us NOT to use given her condition, the lift blocked at least 1/3 of the stairwell for the track and at most 1/2 the stairwell where the chair itself sat. The chair lift gave us just enough room to get a stair chair by. The stairwell had short landings with 90 degree turns at both the top and bottom with banisters. The patient was about 5'6" and ~160lbs, but I requested another unit for a lift assist to assuage the family's concerns of safety during transfer and extrication.

Taking all of this into consideration I informed the family that we would be using a stair chair to get the patient down safely. I explained how the situation made other methods impractical (they wanted us to take the whole stretcher up! Absolutely impossible) and that the stair chair would be by far the most secure and safe way to get her downstairs. I had spent about 20 minutes talking to the family at length and answering all questions and explaining what we would be doing and why. Our lift assist arrived and we began extricating the patient. I placed an appropriately sized C-Collar on the patient to maintain airway patentcy and prevent her head from lolling about and potentially hitting something. A memory foam pillow was placed on the stair chair seat, and a blanket on the stair chair back for patient comfort. We wrapped her in a blanket burrito style to keep her limbs and upper body stable and did a four man transfer from bed to stair chair. She was secured with straps across her lap and chest and soft boots placed on her feet and her legs were secured with the leg strap. We rolled the stair chair to the stairwell and took her down with two men and a spotter. The stair chair had tracks and was smoothly rolled down without incident and we needed to lift the chair to clear the lift and banister. The family was present and watching this entire process as they followed us upstairs and down. The stretcher was waiting in the living room and the patient was four man sheet lifted stair chair to stretcher and rolled out to the rig and secured inside where I removed the C-Collar. My lift assisted cleared and we proceeded to the hospice home.

We arrived without incident and the patient was rolled inside and transferred via two EMT and two hospice staff sheet pull to a bed and left in the care of the staff present in room. The patient's daughter arrived as we were rolling our stretcher back out to our rig. She stopped us in front of the hospice staff and proceeded to tearfully admonish me that she thought we were too rough with her mother and that there had to have been a better way to get her downstairs. I could hardly believe my ears but I kept my composure and reminded her that we had spent a good deal of time with her explaining what we would be doing and how and also how we had used extra man-power to get her safely out of bed and downstairs with all the devices used well padded and her mother kept warm and safe and why other methods would be impractical. She still felt there was a better way and I asked her what she thought we could have done differently... and she was unable to answer.

That particular complaint was upsetting to me because I went all out to ensure that the family was well informed and the patient was kept both comfortable and safe during the entire process. Sometimes there is no winning.
 
My biggest issue (currently) with complaints is that regardless of how silly or wrong the complaint is, our supervisors and management always bring the complaint right to us. Whether it be someone who was startled by our siren, someone who felt that we didn't believe they had an obscure condition that they looked up online, someone who was upset that we passed them over the double yellow when they wouldn't yield, or the fire department complaining that they didn't think we were following protocol (yes, these were all real complaints, and the fire dept "medic" was wrong, because he was the one who didn't know the protocol) our management still calls us into the office for each complaint to explain ourselves.

It's ridiculous that I should have to defend myself against frivolous complaints, especially when the complaint itself proves that I was either in the right or the person making the complaint was wrong or misinformed. Now, if there was merit to the complaint, then I'd understand. But seriously? You need to talk to me about the guy who says our sirens are too loud for pedestrians? Give me a break.
 
OMG this forum makes me laugh and rage all at once
I freaking hate people, the stupidity never fully shocks me but sometimes it can catch you off guard
 
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