Death of a frequent caller

[Capital]

Got dispatched last night for an unresponsive at one of our local no-tell motels. Arrived to find one of our most frequent callers very dead. Between the ambulance and being a nurse at the local trauma hospital I've probably had hundreds of contacts with this man over the years. He has called me every name in the book, swung at me, spit at me, pissed in my direction, vomited in the unit dozens of times. I've never seen him sober. He's also serenaded me, told me I was an angel, and proposed to me many times.

No one outside this business will ever understand the weird relationships we make with some truly odd characters. He was a pain in the *** in this world, but I hope he finds peace on the other side. If there is a bar over there, I'm sure you'll find him there with a cheap bottle of vodka

 

[Arctan]

Got dispatched last night for an unresponsive at one of our local no-tell motels. Arrived to find one of our most frequent callers very dead. Between the ambulance and being a nurse at the local trauma hospital I've probably had hundreds of contacts with this man over the years. He has called me every name in the book, swung at me, spit at me, pissed in my direction, vomited in the unit dozens of times. I've never seen him sober. He's also serenaded me, told me I was an angel, and proposed to me many times.

No one outside this business will ever understand the weird relationships we make with some truly odd characters. He was a pain in the *** in this world, but I hope he finds peace on the other side. If there is a bar over there, I'm sure you'll find him there with a cheap bottle of vodka

How do you deal with it?

 

[johnrsemt]

Arctan: to be blunt.
You deal with it the same way that you deal with the death of any other patient:
#1 rule in EMS is: patients die.
#2 rule in EMS is: we can't fix the #1 rule.

Capital: I have had those thoughts before, I have had that happen to me.. It makes some of us sad in ways, but in other ways it kind of makes us happy that we won't have to deal with the Frequent Flyer again, But just remember there will be a new one soon.,

 

[RocketMedic]

We got our fire department a cake with a whale and an address when our local bariatric frequent flyer EMS abuser died of poor decisions and too many people trying to help her scream and poop on things. It was chocolate and delicious.

 

[johnrsemt]

My part time job gets a pie at the grocery store (different type every time) for every cardiac arrest that doesn't survive: "We Tried Pie".

1st time I heard about it, I was like WTH? But it actually helps. Sit around and eat pie and talk about the run

 

[Akulahawk]

This was a bit of a necropost... but that being said, often getting to sit down with people familiar with the particular incident (EMS or hospital) and doing an informal debrief can be a good thing to maintain a healthy level of insanity that is EMS.

Years ago, we had a patient that was a very frequent flier who was nearly ALWAYS in DKA. He eventually passed and when we found that out, those who were familiar with him took a few minutes to talk about him and our memories with him, and we moved on to doing our usual work. I wouldn't say that he deserved to die, but none who knew him were surprised he did.