Grossest Call?

[spnjsquad]

I had an elderly male with lower GI bleeding. The paitents bed and parts of his body were covered with poop. Needless to say, I walked into the room, took one whiff, and almost threw up. The stench was pretty bad. What was your grossest call?

 

[abckidsmom]

800 pound guy who hadn't been out of his bedroom for an unknown amount of time. Hypoglycemic, and 2 D50s weren't enough to wake him up. We had to get him on a sheet and drag him down the hall of a single wide trailer- only every horizontal surface was covered with 2" of human skin flakes. The air clouded with human skin flakes, and the patient flaked all over everything.

And we wear navy.

The cool part of that call was using the homeowners sawzall to take off the porch rail to get him out. That was fun.

 

[DesertMedic66]

450lb male in his 50s who called for chest pain. PT's feet were gangrene, had some kind of fungus growing on them. He could not move his feet at all so we had to wrap them with a blanket and use another blanket to lift them up so we didn't have to touch them.

The whole time we were doing it everyone in the room (PT included) were gagging.

 

[Household6]

Lactating mother with a chest laceration through her lactiferous duct. Two bodily fluids that just should not mix. It just turned my tummy for some reason..

 

[abckidsmom]

I have a missionary friend who sometimes calls me for advice on medical issues that present themselves to her in rural Honduras. Once she had a lady show up what had a terrible case of mastitis with an eroding wound on the lateral side of the breast. It was amazing.

People there have no exposure to antibiotics- she sent the lady to the pharmacy for 50 mg penicillin twice a day and it was healing over the weekend. Crazy.

 

[Anjel]

I had a 300lb dialysis patient that we regularly picked up. Never wore pants or underwear.

We went to roll her and all of a sudden 6-7 huge spiders started crawling out of her butt crack. I lost it. Lol

 

[abckidsmom]

Eww. Spiders get me.

 

[Household6]

I have a missionary friend who sometimes calls me for advice on medical issues that present themselves to her in rural Honduras. Once she had a lady show up what had a terrible case of mastitis with an eroding wound on the lateral side of the breast. It was amazing.

People there have no exposure to antibiotics- she sent the lady to the pharmacy for 50 mg penicillin twice a day and it was healing over the weekend. Crazy.

How did she not die??!!!

I had mastitis hit me once, it took about 3 hours from "I feel kind of crappy" to 104.9 fever with a bright red boobie..

That was the only time in my life I thought about calling an ambulance for myself. But then, you know, you look at the schedule, see who's on call, and decide to drive yourself.

 

[abckidsmom]

How did she not die??!!!

I had mastitis hit me once, it took about 3 hours from "I feel kind of crappy" to 104.9 fever with a bright red boobie..

That was the only time in my life I thought about calling an ambulance for myself. But then, you know, you look at the schedule, see who's on call, and decide to drive yourself.

I've been in a similar situation with nephritis that exploded when my hubby was on the 2 hr commute home from work.

The people down there are so tough. They just keep on keeping on unless they are dead. They might slow down, but they can't stop, or they've capitulated. I can't believe it sometimes, and it TRULY illustrates that whole "first world problems" joke.

 

[lightsandsirens5]

Chest pain call. Middle age female in a double wide with all the garbage she'd ever produced inside. All the windows were painted black. Very hot, very stuffy, and the stench was truly unbelievable. I imagine hell smells similar. When we moved the recliner to get the cot to the bedroom, the 4-6 inch long centipedes that scattered from off the two week old dead cat carcass got me. Barely made it outside in time.

A close rival was the profoundly unresponsive heat stroke dude, who had been stripped down by his co-workers. Like really stripped down. And who had several episodes of EXPLOSIVE diarrhea in the truck. The first one sprayed it against the back door and splatters hit me, in the airway seat. And I don't know what was wrong with his gut but the smell almost made me vomit all over him as I was intubating.

 

[Giobobo1]

In the ER, a homeless guy w/ chest pain, except he has lice,ticks,and scabies. When the medics came, one of them was out gagging and nearly puking and with good reason, this guy stunk. So it was my task to take this guy's boots off........ a piece of :censored::censored::censored::censored: fell out of both, smelled up the entire ER. Happy i ate light that night.

 

[unleashedfury]

a toss up I can name a few..

I had a elderly women, who probably hasn't showed or changed her clothes over a period of a few months. Evidentally family lived quite the distance away and finally decided, to check up on her found her unresponsive in bed. called 911 the house looked like a crime scene, blood, urine and feces everywhere.

the second was a individual who decided to end his life by putting a fire cracker in his mouth. He was successful as we had to pick up portions of his head and brains off the sidewalk. and surrounding areas.

 

[Tigger]

I think emptying a colostomy bag in a Mini Cooper a few nights ago might take the cake for my new worst smell.

 

[teedubbyaw]

a toss up I can name a few..

I had a elderly women, who probably hasn't showed or changed her clothes over a period of a few months. Evidentally family lived quite the distance away and finally decided, to check up on her found her unresponsive in bed. called 911 the house looked like a crime scene, blood, urine and feces everywhere.

the second was a individual who decided to end his life by putting a fire cracker in his mouth. He was successful as we had to pick up portions of his head and brains off the sidewalk. and surrounding areas.

Wow, were they sure it was a fire cracker?

 

[Jawdavis]

it didn't happen to me but my roommate went on a call with an obese man who slipped and fell into his bathtub, covered in feces, she and her emt had to peel him out of the tub

 

[supersleepymedic]

once we responded to a 20's female with a corona bottle stuck (I mean suction cupped) in her....well you know. not a pretty sight.

 

[DesertMedic66]

once we responded to a 20's female with a corona bottle stuck (I mean suction cupped) in her....well you know. not a pretty sight.

I've responded to this many many times. Beer bottles and even a wine bottle stuck in different "area" of the body. Transporting patients in the prone position with their butt up is always awkward (we obviously use a ton of sheets to cover everything up). It's very hard to keep a straight face when doing a radio call in.

 

[supersleepymedic]

Man I gotta avoid wherever it is that you work, people with bottles up areas and stuff. Mine was the front area. Just another drunk teenybopper that went away sadder and (perhaps not) wiser. Haha

 

[DesertMedic66]

Man I gotta avoid wherever it is that you work, people with bottles up areas and stuff. Mine was the front area. Just another drunk teenybopper that went away sadder and (perhaps not) wiser. Haha

We have a very high LGBT population in our area. When they party they party hard. Their parties are often include LSD. So it turns into a lot of fun.

 

[supersleepymedic]

Ah ok gotcha. Ours is more of a meth problem. Makes for some nasty calls but I still have to haul the odd drunk teen who thinks alcohol is gods gift to them personally. I had a near drowning in a toilet bowl full of vomit once. We couldn't get the smell out of the rig for days!!