First call as EMT-B

[ki4mus]

alright, this was my first call after I recived my card in the mail, I got the card at 1600 on a Thursday, and 0130 Friday morning tones drop for a man having chest pain. As I have been doing ride-alongs with my department for about 6 months and been around it all my life I didn't really think much of jumping out of bed and running to the Crew Hall with my little red light going, well we got to the scene, and there was nothing, no lights on, no little old lady sitting on the porch with a bag packed, nothing...not to mention that just the look of the place made the hair on the back of all of our necks stand up...

on the truck was me, a guy that I went to high school with, and "mother" -the chief's wife-. "Mother" made me and the other guy go check it out first. We went around the residence, announcing ourselves, gained access though the front door (open, and not really the front, it was the only one, and was hidden...) we had cleared all but the last 2 rooms, when my partner turned a corner and his face just dropped, he turned white as a sheet.

Our pt. was laying in the floor,(with out any pulses, per. partner) naked as a jay bird, in a pool of blood and crap that covered the floor of the room (about 10ft by 12ft). and my partner just starts yelling, we need......and then he went though a list as long as my arm...(it didn't help that he had just watched The Hills have Eye's) but anyhow, he freaked (I was looking in the next room and yet to see the pt.) and ran out and yelled at "mother" to call law enforcement...

they showed up, cleared the house, and we went back inside to see what was up... by that time lavidity (yeah, I know it's misspelled) had set in. and he was called DOA.

for 3 weeks I didn't run a "normal" call, most of the ones I ran in that period were known drug dealers that waited until they knew no cops were coming before the took there had out from under a rolled up blanket or some such object (normally with a gun or knife in it...)
it's been a around a year sense then, and about the only thing I haven't worked so far is a gun shot, and I pray that it stays that way, but no matter what my first call will always stay in my mind.

(Does a person's first call normmally stay with them even if it is a "routine" call)

 

[ffemt8978]

My first call was on a weekday about 930 in the morning. We were dispatched for a "Man Down" and it was the AC and myself who initially responded. At this time, I had received word from the state & NREMT that I had passed my testing, but hadn't actually received my card in the mail.

We responded, with me driving. As we arrive on scene, we see two guys from the local cable company doing CPR on an elderly gentleman who was laying between his car and a 3 foot snowbank. (Did I forget to mention that this was in South Dakota in January, with a 30 below windchill?)

I remember getting out of the rig, grabbing the O2 and defib, and go to work. Shock the guy once, and while looking for the Combitube, realize that the AC is still in the rig! :sad:

I place the Combitube, and take over compressions for the cable guys after my AC comes up and starts bagging the patient. He later told me that he was updating the responding ambulance that CPR was in progress. The paramedics arrived, start the IV, and push the first round of cardiac drugs. The guy woke up in the back of the ambulance and started talking to the medics. PD went to the house to tell the guy's wife that he was going to the hospital. She stated that he had left about 630 this morning to go to the store (he never made it), and then shut the door on the officer! <_<

The guy died later that night of a second MI.

 

[Epi-do]

I have no clue what my first run was. I do remember one of the first GSWs I had, but I know it wasn't my very first run ever.

We were dipatched for a PI, and arrive to find a small car, escort or something similar, through a fence and into a large, empty parking lot. PD arrived at the same time we did, so we waited for the scene to be cleared after getting additional info from dispatch that shots had been fired in the area.

The driver of the car was an early 20-something male with a single GSW to the head. I had tha tdeer in the headlights look until one of the two other EMET's I was with gave me a shove and told me to go get a backboard. We boarded the guy and got him into the back of our truck. About that time the medic arrived onscene, jumped in with us and we headed for the hospital. I did chest compressions all the way there, but the ER called the kid a few minutes after we got there.

I couldn't sleep the rest of the night, or most of the following morning. I went home, woke up my boyfriend (current husband) and a little bit at a time eventually got the whole story out to him, although it took most of the day. Something about the entire run just really stuck with me and I couldn't shake it. It took me about a week to figure out why. I didn't personally know the guy, but I had heard his name in conversations. I had a couple friends that did know him, and they had mentioned him from time to time.

It's the closest I have ever come to having a run on someone I know.

 

[hitechredneckemt]

Not my first run but there are two that will always stick with me. First one was a 16 month old female that had been shaken. Completely unresponsive, It was a save thanks to having a great medic. The second and most recent was a 4-wheeler versus tree cpr in progress upon arrival unfortunately we did not save that one, not mention he was the son of a very close friend.The entire crew knew him and his family. Both runs have made me wonder if this is the profession i want to stay in but im still here, so i guess ive got something to give.

 

[firecoins]

My first call ever in an ambulance was at 16. It was a Friday night. I always rode on Friday nights. I just had CPR, was riding as "youth corp" member. It was December of 1994. It was an old man who "slipped on ice" in the driveway. His wife told us he slipped and would not stop talking. Officer who also responded checked out the driveway and came back in the house. There was no ice. Guy was having a stroke.

My first call as an EMT was in April of 06. It was a cancellation. My second was for an RN in a monor mva. She made ne real nervous second guessing everything I did.

 

[LilHobbit]

Unexpected and Uneventful First Call

My first call was actually this past Saturday. I was supposed to be coming in just to do paperwork and then head home, but as I was filling everything out and watching mandatory videos, my boss asks me if I want to go out on a call. Being a newbie and eager to get started, of course I said yes!

It ended up just being a transport case. An elderly woman in a nursing home being transported to the ER for possible DVT (which should have been addressed much earlier). Unfortunately she also had head trauma from a fall a few days ago that she doesn't remember and no one at the nursing home bothered to have a doc look at it.

It clued me in very quickly to the sad state of some of the nursing homes in the area where no one really cares.

I ended up being on 2 other calls that day including 2 ALS calls. One was a 10 year old kid who wanted lights and sirens as it was her first Ambulance trip. It was also my first lights and sirens run too!

 

[Emt /b/]

MVA. We got there and cancelled for no need. Pretty exciting.

 

[certguy]

My first call

I'd become an EMT while in the Navy and in all the ambulance runs I did there , I was extra manpower . My first run as pt. man was in the FD . It was a hot day and we had just finished some training ( I still was wearing bunker pants ) when the call came in for a difficulty breathing in an auto - aid area we cover . Our duty LT. and I responded , as well as a rescue unit from the other dept. On our arrival , we found an 86 y/o male CTD ( circling the drain ) Pale , diaphoretic , clutching his chest , and crappy vitals . Just what you want to hear when you're 20 min. out from the nearest facility on windy mountain roads with no ALS backup . I told my partner I had a bad feeling about this one and I wanted a spare pair of hands in the back . He asked the other Capt. for her firefighter . She told us her FF was brand new and had no training , sorry . I looked her in the eye and asked what her newby was doing there then ( something that got me in trouble later but seemed the thing to do at the time ) I told my partner we need to go . Pt. went into resp. arrest 2 blocks from his house and full code about a minute later . To make it worse , the A/C wasn't working in the back . Just before we got to the ER , I got a pulse and resp. back and had to pull the OPA as he'd started to choke on it . As we entered the last intersection before the ER , a car ran the red light and nearly hit us , throwing me into the cabinets and bruising my arm pretty bad . As I picked myself up off the floor , the code team was taking the pt. out and questioning why the airway was beside him and not inserted . ( he coded again ) Hosp. revived him again , but lost him later and I nearly became a pt. myself from heat exhaustion . I could've wrung out my t - shirt . Murphy worked overtime on that call .

 

[rescue_dog]

Mine was a Thursday afternoon fire standby. Pretty much meant that I was playing waterboy for the people having the real fun. The only thing that makes it memorable is that one of the firefighters got his first save. A Ving Rhames look-alike came out the door with his O2 tank, crowbar and a shell-shocked cocker spaniel. I wanted to actually do something, but we figured that the dog wouldn't tolerate a nasal cannula too well.

 

[milhouse]

i really dont remember what my first call was but i do remember what my first PT was. thats because she was DOA had a GI bleed and yeah. it was weird because i hadnt even had a chance to get comfy in the ER durning my clinical time i think i had been there maybe 5 mins or less and an elderly female came in DOA. I will admit it was kinda weird seeing a person dead for the first time (other than family).

anyways i really dont remember what my first calll was but knowing the area that i live in it was probably an elderly chest pain or a fall. thats just what most of the calls are. i never got a MVC or trauma durning my clinical time. which i was disappointed about because i was hoping to get one of those types of calls so i could get some experience as a student with that.

I did handle PT care very well according to all the medics that i was with.

 

[EMT815]

I had my first call as an emt tonight, woman fell possible fx to the hip, nothing major. My first call while I was doing my observations was much more interesting 12 day old with difficulty breathing medics ended up doing everything but it sure got that adrenaline pumping

 

[crash_cart]

Mine was a few months back. 60 year old Hispanic male, complaining of chest pain. Vitals were roughly-200/100, 26 resp, 97% Pulseox, cool and diaphorous skin. His pain dissipated and his skin dried up again. Turns out it was a textbook case of angina. The family had gotten into an argument and that's when the angina took over. After relaxing him and getting him oxygen, he was good to go. It wasn't a "memorable" call per se, but the first time that pager went off is something I'll never forget.

 

[Topher38]

As a fire fighter it was a car accident
As EMS ride along it was a abdominal pain.
Real easy call, walked in, family standing there, old fella in a great mood was sitting in a chair with his nasal canula on. They gave us some info about him and we left, assessed the quadrants on the way to the hospital, the guy was in a great mood the entire time. Pretty good call for my first EMS call ever. I would rather have had that then a multi-truama car accident or something so yea it was a good call for a newbie.

 

[ILemt]

First calls

First call as a student:
I remember as if it happened two minutes ago instead of two years...

Two car MVA with entrappments and death in the compartments.
Needless to say but not only was the on scene work a blast but the transport was a toughie to work.
I loved every minute of it.

First call as a certed EMT: Multiple GSW...shotgun (remember every bit)
long story short we basically did open chest CPR as the entire front ribcage and left arm were ripped away by the gunblasts. My medic later stated that he'd never started lines inside someones chest before. First learned that blood had a smell.

First call with own pt: Childbirth: (no I didnt deliver) an OB team jumped into the rig as we pulled in, we (ems) jumped out, and the kid came into the world two minutes later.

I LOVE trauma. I love ems, I love helping people. But for better or worse not a single call I have ever had has affected me. No, not bothered me, AFFECTED ME. I dont even think of my calls once I leave work. Never felt good about a call, just knew I'd done my job, Never had a single nightmare, and Ive done GSWs CPR on family members, 3rd degree burns on Peds. Maybe there is something wrong with me. Meh.. I hope tones drop for a car wreck tonite...its icy. ( no i am not someone who wants folks to get hurt, I just want to get paid for doing my job, instead of sitting on my butt)

 

[Topher38]

First call as a student:
I remember as if it happened two minutes ago instead of two years...

Two car MVA with entrappments and death in the compartments.
Needless to say but not only was the on scene work a blast but the transport was a toughie to work.
I loved every minute of it.

First call as a certed EMT: Multiple GSW...shotgun (remember every bit)
long story short we basically did open chest CPR as the entire front ribcage and left arm were ripped away by the gunblasts. My medic later stated that he'd never started lines inside someones chest before. First learned that blood had a smell.

First call with own pt: Childbirth: (no I didnt deliver) an OB team jumped into the rig as we pulled in, we (ems) jumped out, and the kid came into the world two minutes later.

I LOVE trauma. I love ems, I love helping people. But for better or worse not a single call I have ever had has affected me. No, not bothered me, AFFECTED ME. I dont even think of my calls once I leave work. Never felt good about a call, just knew I'd done my job, Never had a single nightmare, and Ive done GSWs CPR on family members, 3rd degree burns on Peds. Maybe there is something wrong with me. Meh.. I hope tones drop for a car wreck tonite...its icy. ( no i am not someone who wants folks to get hurt, I just want to get paid for doing my job, instead of sitting on my butt)

Wow man you had a handful for first calls. GEEZE! All my first calls where simple as you can see above my first call was very laid back, which is kind of what I was hoping for.

Thats one call I would not like to go to. Full thickness burns on a ped. Not for me. Ill do what needs to be done, but it would definetly not go over well for me afterwards. Thats a great way to handle it though. I hope I can handle everything like that.

 

[rsdemt]

I have had several calls, like this one. I sometimes wonder if it is the right thing to do also. But I just rember the people I have he;[ed, and saved. That makes it all worth it.

 

[CFRBryan347768]

My First Call As A CFR

well we had responded to a call for chest pain and while in the hospital we recieved a second chest pain call, grabbed the medic and went, we arrive on scene medic and emt's are talking and im standing there clueless because im just a cfr, but i know something was going to go wrong. we pull up at the hospital i go to jump out and i hear "bryan start bagging" my jaw drops and i immediately grab the bvm b4 the emt could cause i knew i wouldnt get a second chance at doing something important!! so im bagging and the medic is doing a bunch of stuff and my emt partner is just standing there....and we got him back....yay!!! well on the way into the er we lost him and b4 the medic could even think about doing compressions i was all over it and we got him back once more....any way the guy ended up dying but for all the youth corp and other CFR's prove to your crew you know your stuff and are confident and theyll let ya do just abt anything!

 

[Ops Paramedic]

Sorry, no can do, way to long ago!!

Good poll though!!

 

[Jeremy89]

....it was weird because i hadnt even had a chance to get comfy in the ER durning my clinical time i think i had been there maybe 5 mins or less and an elderly female came in DOA. I will admit it was kinda weird seeing a person dead for the first time (other than family).

Same with me. Of the 6 guys in my class, I was the only one to get a resp. arrest that turned into a code. I did compressions for awhile until we finally called it 45 minutes later...

I've yet to get on a rig because no one will hire me without experience so maybe that's the only thing I'll ever see... I dunno

Jeremy

 

[medicp94dao]

I wasnt even on duty for my first call. I was training a newbie at my other job when a car hit a pot hole started to fish tail and hit a house right in front of us. Talk about pucker factor. I didnt even believe my eyes. There were five patients. All were okay (drunk) but no injuries. Thank god no-one was home. All were taken to the ED and treated. The driver was arrested. talk about a weird Wednesday.