Ridiculous people = Ridiculous calls

[JJR512]

...My job was to take him to an impatient psychiatric hospital.

Why was the psychiatric hospital impatient? :huh::lol:

 

[lightsandsirens5]

Hehe, this call had made me think of mycroft when it happened.

We took a 18 year old male out of the jail, IFT. His story was "Fallen off his bunk" he had a tiny lac on his forehead. When we picked him up he was more concerned that his stuff got stolen. One of the CO's mentioned it was late enough, if he stayed there long enough they'd give him breakfast.

Suddenly he developed dizzyness, nausea, vomitting, chest pains, vertigo, s.o.b. Anything I asked him, he had. It was almost funny. I felt bad for him :[

Ever read the first chapter of Three Men in a Boat?

 

[Veneficus]

I guess I can add to the excitement. Picked up a patient about a month ago from a local nursing home. Diabetic was unresponsive, nurse checked blood sugar prior to calling us and it was at 19. She then administered a full amp of D50, now here's the kicker... IM. That's right, she couldn't get it all into one shoulder so she split it up, one injection in each shoulder and one into each thigh. That was her first and last day on the job and I'm assuming she no longer has a license. The medic I was riding with went nuts and asked if she was (several 4 letter words) stupid. Last I heard patient had several surgeries to remove some of the dead areas, didn't hear if they ended up having to amputate any limbs or not.

I think this wins for all time best (worst) nursing home story ever. It is beyond ignorance.

My favorite questions to ask patients are "Do you feel safe at home?" "Is anyone hurting you?"

I guess anyone from a nursing home we could forgo the formality and put "yes" to both.

 

[WiFi_Cowgirl]

Who are we to dictate who is worthy and not worthy of our services? We should transport anyone that calls, regaurdless of if they can pay or can't, or whether their problem is important in our eyes. It's their emergency, it may not be one in ours, but it is to them. People shouldn't be made to feel bad for calling 911. That goes against all that we stand for. What kind of EMT or Medic are you, to refuse someone their right to care and transport? We better stop advertising, call 911 in an emergency, if you're not going to render aid to their emergency, not just what you view as emergent or not.

 

[JPINFV]

So if I was trying to get someplace near a hospital and was running late, I should have the option of calling 911 and getting an ambu-taxi to transport me? Afterall, being late is an emergency to me and who's to say that I shouldn't get my "right" to ambu-taxi service? People should be made to feel bad if their injury is obviously not emergent or urgent and they have access to transportation. Not every medical situation needs an ambulance or emergency care.

Furthermore, it should never come down to someone's view of whether a patient is emergent or not. It should come down to a provider's assessment.

 

[PapaBear434]

Who are we to dictate who is worthy and not worthy of our services? We should transport anyone that calls, regaurdless of if they can pay or can't, or whether their problem is important in our eyes. It's their emergency, it may not be one in ours, but it is to them. People shouldn't be made to feel bad for calling 911. That goes against all that we stand for. What kind of EMT or Medic are you, to refuse someone their right to care and transport? We better stop advertising, call 911 in an emergency, if you're not going to render aid to their emergency, not just what you view as emergent or not.

While I don't disagree with your principal, I don't think it's too much to ask for people to use a micron of sense when calling. Getting your foot stuck in your boot (actually happened to me last week) is not really a reason to call.

 

[bled12345]

I'm gonna have to swim upstream with cowgirl on this one. The kinds of attitudes and tones of resentment breeding in this topic are dangerous waters. Who cares if you have to transport these people to the hospital or not, you're paid by the hour, and you can download them if they're stable. If you can't deal with stupid then this isn't the job for you.

Also, when you start falling down towards this mindset, it makes it alot easier to make quick judgements, which can lead to awful mistakes, and get you burned real bad. Maybe that person complaining of a "leg cramp" has a DVT that gets thrown 5 minutes after you cancel? I know that a good assessment rules out alot of this stuff, but things don't always present the same way, and some serious medical conditions can have the most atypical presentations. Even doctors with YEARS AND YEARS of more training, and a well ingrained support network of peers, and other physicians to consult with misdiagnose/mistreat patients all the time. I don't think anyone should ever have a high level of arrogance in health care. I think a decent level of fear and paranoia are healthy things in medicine, we are after all literally dealing with people's quality of life, well being, and even their very existence. We aren't paid to diagnose, we're paid to assess, treat, and transport to the hospital.

Whats even scarier in this thread is the high level of EMT-B's that are passing judgement with confidence in their field diagnoses, I know there are some experienced EMT-Basics here, but in the health care world even full fledged paramedics are no where even close to legally being able to make decisions for people, be it forthright or through subtle convincing.

Now don't get me wrong, some of these stories are funny as hell, but I just wanted to chime in my 2 cents.

 

[EMTWintz]

We had a 80yo female call for weakness and unable to get up from chair. When we rolled on scene our PD chief was there with her. We get in, ask her all the pert. questions, ALS shows up and she is just livid. She demanded that the para's fry her and egg and she would be fine. I have known this woman all my life and no matter how nice you are to her she still remains a B. So I told para this and he piped up Ma'am we are not your personal chef, we are the paramedics, now are you going to the hospital or not" Oh this just made her madder. we get her on cot and she starts whining about not having her head covered, so what do the para's do? They took the sheet and pulled it up over her head and I thought to myself wouldn't that be nice.Well anyway nice police man gets a hat and puts it on her, that set her off again. Not the right hat. I have since found out that this woman had a habit of calling PD to change light bulbs and all kinds of other trivial matters. She in NH now. Not our problem anymore

 

[Sapphyre]

She in NH now. Not our problem anymore

Hope she stays there. We have 1 frequent flyer (and I mean frequent, once a week is a VERY slow week, and has us wondering if we should do a welfare check) who went into a home, and came right back out, didn't like it, they didn't cater to him enough....

 

[rhan101277]

My best nursing home call ever was a guy I saved twice from cardiac arrest in one day. So advanced are my healing skills no sooner did I walk in his room while responding to “full arrest” he sat up looked at me and said “I’m fine I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

Later that same day we get another call at the facility for a “patient in cardiac arrest” we hastily walk in the door to find the same nurse pointing us to a familiar room. Upon our entering the patient wakes up with a colorful “what do you want now!”

I ask the nurse if she knows what cardiac or full arrest means. She replies: when the patient is not talking to you because he can’t wake up.

Both times med control consulted, patient not transported.

apparently the patient didn't want to interact with her.

Where do these nurses go to school? Was this a CNA, LPN, RN?

 

[medic417]

So if I was trying to get someplace near a hospital and was running late, I should have the option of calling 911 and getting an ambu-taxi to transport me? Afterall, being late is an emergency to me and who's to say that I shouldn't get my "right" to ambu-taxi service? People should be made to feel bad if their injury is obviously not emergent or urgent and they have access to transportation. Not every medical situation needs an ambulance or emergency care.

Furthermore, it should never come down to someone's view of whether a patient is emergent or not. It should come down to a provider's assessment.

EMS needs to step up and educate people when to call for an ambulance. Some of that education is going to have to come with us just saying NO when they do not need an ambulance.

If you want to drive all callers become a bus driver. If you want to be a medical professional, do an assessment then treat, transport, or deny transport based on that assessment.

 

[Wee-EMT]

I guess I can add to the excitement. Picked up a patient about a month ago from a local nursing home. Diabetic was unresponsive, nurse checked blood sugar prior to calling us and it was at 19. She then administered a full amp of D50, now here's the kicker... IM. That's right, she couldn't get it all into one shoulder so she split it up, one injection in each shoulder and one into each thigh. That was her first and last day on the job and I'm assuming she no longer has a license. The medic I was riding with went nuts and asked if she was (several 4 letter words) stupid. Last I heard patient had several surgeries to remove some of the dead areas, didn't hear if they ended up having to amputate any limbs or not.

WOW!!! Poor patient!!

I guess she missed the day about D50 and necrosis!

 

[Second]

man that sucks, we just learned about D50 in class they showed us a pic of a guy that got 3 yes 3 amps of D50 in the left fore arm, medic pushed one and nothing pushed another and still no rise got to the EC and the nurse pushed the 3rd before they realized what was going on saw the pic where they felayd the guys arm open. told my preceptor about this and he gave me some good advice, push a little and pull back to see if blood comes back so if the vien blows you've got a good idea of how much didnt go in. I think its a good idea anyways

intup/responce?

 

[Veneficus]

Where do these nurses go to school? Was this a CNA, LPN, RN?

RN,

I have no idea where they go to school, or what they teach them (or don't teach them) there.

 

[fortsmithman]

Here in the NWT there is a town that has their EMS under the fire dept. When 1 joins the recruit s asked fire or EMS they have a choice the EMS does only EMS and fire does fire. There have been a few who opted for both but later decided on one or the other. Sometimes fire based EMS works and most times it doesn't. BTW wasn't the first paramedics started by the fire dept.

 

[jochi1543]

I guess I can add to the excitement. Picked up a patient about a month ago from a local nursing home. Diabetic was unresponsive, nurse checked blood sugar prior to calling us and it was at 19. She then administered a full amp of D50, now here's the kicker... IM. That's right, she couldn't get it all into one shoulder so she split it up, one injection in each shoulder and one into each thigh. That was her first and last day on the job and I'm assuming she no longer has a license. The medic I was riding with went nuts and asked if she was (several 4 letter words) stupid. Last I heard patient had several surgeries to remove some of the dead areas, didn't hear if they ended up having to amputate any limbs or not.

Holy cow!:wacko:

 

[jochi1543]

I'm gonna have to swim upstream with cowgirl on this one. The kinds of attitudes and tones of resentment breeding in this topic are dangerous waters. Who cares if you have to transport these people to the hospital or not, you're paid by the hour, and you can download them if they're stable. If you can't deal with stupid then this isn't the job for you.

I totally agree with the "getting paid by the hour" approach to life in many other fields - in fact, when I had a temp job as a mover and was asked to move things back and forth multiple times, that was my motto. However, I think the issue here is that when you are out picking up someone who's got their foot stuck in the boot, there could be a person having an MI or serious trauma somewhere else who now have to wait 10-20 minutes longer for an ambulance, resulting in critical damage.

 

[artman17847]

^^^^

I think alot of these "BS" calls could be resolved with a better dispatching system.

 

[Sasha]

EMS needs to step up and educate people when to call for an ambulance. Some of that education is going to have to come with us just saying NO when they do not need an ambulance.

Good lord, I agree with you!

The apocalpyse... The apocalypse is a'comin!

 

[BossyCow]

We do have to educate our patients but that should be happening on scene. People call us because they are scared that their problem is life threatening. When our primary concern is to avoid being sued and implementing protocols instead of treating patients, our care suffers. We will bring in that infant who's mother accidently cut her fingernails too short (actual call for me) and the broken/sprained wrist even though they could probably be seen in their doctor's office instead of the ER. Why? Because of the what if's and our own uncertainty.

Better understanding of body systems not only helps us find those hidden problems underlying the cc but also will give us the confidence to say "You should probably get that treated but you really don't need an ambulance" Someone can be sick and be non-emergent.