DT4EMS
Kip Teitsort, Founder
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For those that have never heard this one....... I am re-visiting it 
In EMS…….think before you speak.
Any EMS provider that has been on the street for any length of time has had the “Oh boy…did I just say that?” moment. Mine came on a warm south Florida summer night. I guess I had to learn the hard way.
My partner and me were dispatched to some government housing in a pretty rough part of town. As usual, pretty customary during that time, the call was the ever-popular “Unknown Medical”.
Upon our arrival we found the patient was on the second floor. The only way to get up was narrow, sharp turning stairs. We decided to leave the stretcher at the bottom and evaluate what we had. Once we made it to the patient, we found her surrounded by family and numerous bystanders from the neighborhood.
Our patient, a little old lady, frail to say the least, was sitting on a hard wooden chair, with her legs covered by a blanket. I noticed some shoes sticking out from beneath the blanket. She was alert and oriented and began to describe her complaints. She complained of being ill for several days. She had a fever but was keeping it controlled with Tylenol. She had been eating, just not as much as usual. She stated she had a sore throat and had a non-productive cough. She also complained that she “ached” all over.
All of her vital signs appeared within normal limits and she appeared in no obvious distress. I now asked the question; “Would you like us to take you to the hospital?” In her ever so sweet voice she replied “Yes, I would”. Me being the super-smart urban medic I (thought) I was, I thought “surely she can walk to the ambulance and without hesitation I spoke……….
“Ma’am, do you think you could walk to the ambulance?” I said. Before I could inhale after finishing the question, a rather large man began to get loud. He stated “ This mutha-fu**a gonna ask her if she can walk down to the God**^N Ambu-lance!” The crowd grumbled. (You never really forget a statement like that)
So again………my wit allowed me to speak quickly…….. I said, “Sir, it appears as though she has the Flu, she should be able to walk to our ambulance.” I thought I had responded well. I used good tone, with no attitude, I was respectful.
The man, replied “Man how she gonna walk to da ambu-lance when she ain’t got no legs?”
You can imagine my surprise when I lifted the bottom of the blanket off of the shoes to reveal an empty space between her bilateral amputations and the shoes. I looked at my partner and we both nodded. I humbly said “Ma’am we’ll carry you down if that’s all right?” The kind little old lady agreed with a nod of her head and away we went.
It was that day I learned two invaluable lessons in EMS. I learned to really think before I spoke and I learned I needed to be more humble.
In EMS…….think before you speak.
Any EMS provider that has been on the street for any length of time has had the “Oh boy…did I just say that?” moment. Mine came on a warm south Florida summer night. I guess I had to learn the hard way.
My partner and me were dispatched to some government housing in a pretty rough part of town. As usual, pretty customary during that time, the call was the ever-popular “Unknown Medical”.
Upon our arrival we found the patient was on the second floor. The only way to get up was narrow, sharp turning stairs. We decided to leave the stretcher at the bottom and evaluate what we had. Once we made it to the patient, we found her surrounded by family and numerous bystanders from the neighborhood.
Our patient, a little old lady, frail to say the least, was sitting on a hard wooden chair, with her legs covered by a blanket. I noticed some shoes sticking out from beneath the blanket. She was alert and oriented and began to describe her complaints. She complained of being ill for several days. She had a fever but was keeping it controlled with Tylenol. She had been eating, just not as much as usual. She stated she had a sore throat and had a non-productive cough. She also complained that she “ached” all over.
All of her vital signs appeared within normal limits and she appeared in no obvious distress. I now asked the question; “Would you like us to take you to the hospital?” In her ever so sweet voice she replied “Yes, I would”. Me being the super-smart urban medic I (thought) I was, I thought “surely she can walk to the ambulance and without hesitation I spoke……….
“Ma’am, do you think you could walk to the ambulance?” I said. Before I could inhale after finishing the question, a rather large man began to get loud. He stated “ This mutha-fu**a gonna ask her if she can walk down to the God**^N Ambu-lance!” The crowd grumbled. (You never really forget a statement like that)
So again………my wit allowed me to speak quickly…….. I said, “Sir, it appears as though she has the Flu, she should be able to walk to our ambulance.” I thought I had responded well. I used good tone, with no attitude, I was respectful.
The man, replied “Man how she gonna walk to da ambu-lance when she ain’t got no legs?”
You can imagine my surprise when I lifted the bottom of the blanket off of the shoes to reveal an empty space between her bilateral amputations and the shoes. I looked at my partner and we both nodded. I humbly said “Ma’am we’ll carry you down if that’s all right?” The kind little old lady agreed with a nod of her head and away we went.
It was that day I learned two invaluable lessons in EMS. I learned to really think before I spoke and I learned I needed to be more humble.
