My first call

lcbjr3000

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My partner and myself were dispatched to a snow mobile accident. We arrived to find the patient sitting in the back seat of a vehicle holding her right leg up. She refused to be moved from there into our ambulance. We escort the vehicle to the hospital to extricate her there. We then discover she has an open tib fib fracture. We get her out and get her into a room at the er. My partner tells me to hold her leg while the doc stops the bleeding and he gets an iv started. About 5 minutes of me holding her leg the dr puts some pressure on it to control the bleeding. I feel crepitus in her leg. I instantly get nauseas dripping with sweat and light headed. I tried to breath through it but i knew that i pass out while holding her leg its bad news for her. I call my partner and as soon as he saw my face he knew instantly i was going down. He got a hold of the leg and i was helped to another room to recover. I was told by the staff there that this is normal for the first time seeing and feeling an injury like this. I was wondering if anyone else has similar stories to share so i dont feel like such a loser lol.
 

davis513

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Well it hasn't happened to me yet (knock on wood) but I can tell you that when my EMT-B class was doing out clinical in the Emergency Department of the local Trauma Center a friend and fellow student, who has been a Police Officer for 22 years had the same thing happen to him.

We were observing an Orthopedic Surgeon reducing two fractures to the left arm suffered by a six year boy who had fallen from the "monkey bars" at a playground.

He was fine the rest of the night which included several other serious traumas.

davis513
 

Timmy

Forum Ride Along
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Burns patients tend to have that effect lol... You'll never forget the smell of your first burns trauma.
 

AndiBugg

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I know that this is pretty unrelated, but when I was doing my clinicals as a CNA I went to do my first colostomy bag, we had to check off on it and sence it was a big class and there was only 1 pt. with one on, we had to get in big groups, so with the closeness and the smell, I got pretty sick. But my teacher taught me a trick, if you smile when you feel like your going to throw up, it cancels out the gag reflex.
 

mfrjason

Forum Lieutenant
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My first call was a nerve rocker. I was sitting at the station and watching tv when my first call came out,and it was one I was not expecting,it was for a 30ish yr old female going into labor with her second child,so it was like oh my god,adrenaline was pumping big time since it was my first call ever since joining the service. I pulled the rig out and called county dispatch to advise them that I was 10-8 and waiting for my partner,also to get a repeat on the address of the call. I was starting to wonder where my partner was so I tried calling her direct then dispatch answered up and I asked them for a second tone out and to advise them that I would be en-route and to have my partner meet me on scene. As I pulled up to the scene I recognized the patient as someone I went to high school,along with her daughter, so it was alil more nerve rocking. My partner finally showed up and I briefed her on what I had and what I had done prior to her arrival,my partner called from the back and told me that we could go but we had to pick up the patient's boyfriend first,he was waiting for us by the time we got to where we had to pick him up,then we had to go wait at the local truckstop for the patient's mom and dad so she could hand over her daughter to them. We finally got going to the hospital finally after turning the lil girl over to her grandparents. We ran lights and sirens a majority of the way there since the contractions were so close together. We found out later that day that she had another lil girl and was she was born shortly after we got her to the hospital.
 

firecoins

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while in EMT class, 3 days after going over car accidents, I came across a serious car accident before 911 had been called. It was a head on collision to be exact with 2 sertiously injured 16 year olds. I was 18 at the time, a senior high school still. I told adults old enough to be my parents what to do. Even an RN did what I told her.

The scary part was some bystander yelled fire. The patients had internal injuries and was afraid to move them. I could not see the engine from my stand point. I almost panicked. I kept my cool and realized there was no fire. I have no idea why someone yelled that.
 

mfrjason

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Sometimes in the heat of the action,people will do crazy things just cuz they are over excited.
 

firecoins

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Yeah probably. It was amazing how "scared/exited" I was. I use excited not because I enjoyed it but it was adrenaline pumping. For instance I was taking care of the passenger while the RN took care of the more seriously injured driver. I could not open the passanger door. I thought it was broken. But I never checked the passanger door to see if it was locked. It ended up being broken but I had just assumed it was.

This car accident had been the first time I was in charge of an emergency scene. I had be a volunteer who took ambulance calls prior to the car accident but I just did what I was told. This was my first time operating without an ambulance either. The bystanders and RN did what I told them.

Cops stayed out of the picture when they showed up. They closed the road off and kept unnecessay bystanders at a safe distance and called the FD on their own. No one told them about the "fire" from the bystander.

The chief of the FD asked me if we wanted the Jaws for the passenger side but I informed him the medics on scene planned to remove the passanger from the driver's side. I have no idea why the Chief came to me other than I was no longer holding C-Spine. Ambulance crew took over after I did so for 15 minutes.
 
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mfrjason

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Its something called adrenaline and for newbies,its a normal thing. I use to get "the rush" everytime the tones went off but the longer you are on the service you dont get the rush as much.
 

firecoins

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That was 1996. I don't get them to that extent now. Experience.
 

mfrjason

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Yep,after a while the rush just doesnt come like it did whenever the tones went off. When I was one it seemed like the adrenaline replaced my blood just cuz of the feel,like you are flawless,that the feel of the adrenaline is gonna keep feeding you until the call is over.
 

Hedar

Forum Crew Member
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My first call?

Jen 2000, first code and first time in ambulance, for a stroke (CVA),
(in italian we call it "Ictus") a fine granny over 100 Kg. . . How to forget ^_^

In my first day we had 6 code in 4 hour . . .

@Timmy: Yes, can't forget smell of burn people... Like smell of drunk people vomit :ph34r:
 

firecoins

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Burns patients tend to have that effect lol... You'll never forget the smell of your first burns trauma.

I never had one of those. I imagine I would faint on that one.

I once had a 6 year old boy with ar fracture. His arm looked like an S. I didn't faint but I was glad that another EMT stablaized it.

I have dealt successfully with other disgusting incidents.
 

yowzer

Forum Lieutenant
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Open colostomy bags are about the only thing that make me twinge. I don't know why, but feces going out that route smells so much worse than the normal way. I pity people with fully functional noses, considering what it does to mine.

Stage IV decubitus ulcers are pretty nasty too...

Fractures and bone-deep lacerations, now... they're cool!

Oh, and one time I made the mistake of taking off a homeless dude's socks. Never again!
 

firecoins

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Stage IV decubitus ulcers are pretty nasty too...
Had one of those.<_<


Oh, and one time I made the mistake of taking off a homeless dude's socks. Never again!
disgusting! ughh! I have seen their feet. The smell will make me faint.:excl:
 

Ridryder911

EMS Guru
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The only things that make me truly "gag" are the decomps, when they burst as you pick them up. ( I worked as a field forensic investigator for the M.E.)
Other than that, not much gets to me any more. I worked as a burn nurse/HBO for a couple of years, and the smell from the burns are not as bad as the pseudonymous & e.Coli that starts growing in the wounds, it has a sweet horrible smell.

Trauma after a while is pretty boring, after a while it is more.."that is interesting" .. than wow! Back when they used to "crack the chest" it was a little more exciting, now it is pretty routine.

R/r 911
 

firecoins

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The only things that make me truly "gag" are the decomps, when they burst as you pick them up. ( I worked as a field forensic investigator for the M.E.)
How did you get the M.E.'s job? Yeah that would be worse.
 

mfrjason

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That would be worse,I most likely wouldnt be able to stand the smell of rotting flesh or even burning flesh. I remember this one call that the service had before I came on board,it was for a body removal,and come to find out the body had been there for over a month so the crew had to have the fire department go in with bunker gear and masks to bag the body up,then had all the windows down in the unit to vent the smell out.
 

Mercy4Angels

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Its something called adrenaline and for newbies,its a normal thing. I use to get "the rush" everytime the tones went off but the longer you are on the service you dont get the rush as much.

well thats no fun. i still get in a hissy when the tones go off.:rolleyes:
 

Ridryder911

EMS Guru
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How did you get the M.E.'s job? Yeah that would be worse.

At the time the State M.E. did not have regional Field Investigators, so they offered a few of us medics to go through a Forensic Invest. Course, and would put us on call for M.E. cases. We had to go through a detailed course, and each body determine if there was cause for further investigation and an autopsy as well as obtain cardiac core blood & vicious humor from the eyes.

We were paid a whopping $50 for each call, and after a while became a pain.. they later started a full time M.E. field rep.. they prefer ones with LEO and EMS background.

Yeah, decomps of various time.. can be bad (especially summer time)

R/r 911
 
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