Stupidest on the job injury to you or your coworker.

[BossyCow]

We had a vollie face plant on the floor of the bay while exiting the ambulance. In the follow up...'how did this happen and how will you lower the chances of it happening again' portion of the accident report... found out the vollie had a skirt on too tight to allow for her to climb the steps. Chief told her that she needed to dress appropriately from then on. He is still today known as the chief who didn't like women to wear dresses... sigh.....

 

[bstone]

While we were in the ER that day, a paramedic stuck herself in the lip because she was trying to recap a used needle while holding the cap between her teeth.

That is utterly horrifying- in the stupid way. A medic? Oy.

 

[Oregon]

We had a vollie face plant on the floor of the bay while exiting the ambulance. In the follow up...'how did this happen and how will you lower the chances of it happening again' portion of the accident report... found out the vollie had a skirt on too tight to allow for her to climb the steps. Chief told her that she needed to dress appropriately from then on. He is still today known as the chief who didn't like women to wear dresses... sigh.....

Wow. I am really trying to figure out when a skirt would ever be the right thing to wear...tight, loose, long,short:wacko:

 

[Airwaygoddess]

Ha! ha! ha! Oh Dear!

Well there is the story about the loaded bedpan gone very wrong........

Gives a whole new meaning to the statement..... CODE BROWN!!! " You knew it was going to be one of those days when the alarm clock woke you up and starting laughing at you!

 

[BossyCow]

Wow. I am really trying to figure out when a skirt would ever be the right thing to wear...tight, loose, long,short:wacko:

Okay, is this where I re-post about the gal wearing a white cotton peasant skirt to the scene of a blown out colostomy port? There were assorted body fluids everywhere and to top it off, she had to help me 4 wheel drive the stretcher over a muddy, pothole ridden driveway. Or how about the time when a vollie showed up to a call for a hip fx wearing a tight pencil skirt and 3 inch heels.... sigh.....

 

[mycrofft]

Maybe a sidebar but...artificial nails and mascara in the field.

A syndrome. Wear the nails=>don't wear gloves=> work with lines/ropes=>tear off artif nails and sometimes the real nails underneath. Also, mascara holds onto dirt allegens etc and eventually they get into the eyes...especially once you put on your airpak or gas mask.

 

[Jon]

Wow. I am really trying to figure out when a skirt would ever be the right thing to wear...tight, loose, long,short:wacko:

I'm out near Amish Country... one squad in the area occasionally has a "Plain People" EMS crew... Mennonite (mostly women) with a firefighter driving.

They wear "traditional" clothing. sometimes with turnout coats overtop.

 

[Oregon]

I'm out near Amish Country... one squad in the area occasionally has a "Plain People" EMS crew... Mennonite (mostly women) with a firefighter driving.

They wear "traditional" clothing. sometimes with turnout coats overtop.

Now, that makes sense to me. ThanksB)
We have a lot of Mennonite ladies at my community college campus, along with some Old Believers, and their choice of skirts/dresses would offer protection from what tends to come our way as EMS folk.
I respond from home with my group, and I always keep a pair of pants and boots in my car for those "emergencies."
I've had to shimmy into "proper" gear in front of deputies/reporting parties/reporters with cameras more than once.

On the topic of the thread, I've not had any really spectacular injuries, but during SAR certification I managed to shove a stick so deep into my palm I had to spend 10 minutes getting it to stop bleeding. I must have looked real professional with my arm in the air clutching a roll of gauze and blood running down. That was after I set fire to my shirt (just a little bit.) I had to do the fire and shelter portion over again, after my hand healed (and I got the char marks off my shirt. Underarmor is not nearly as flammable as you might think, thank goodness.)

 

[Emtint08]

silly

I'm gonna have to agree with you here mycrofft. Kinda looking forward to hearing some other ways people get hurt haha...

Dont know if this counts, but would hitting your partner AND yourself in the head with a zoll/lifepak count as funny? I thought it was. After I cried. We were in a hurry and we were packing the unit, and I was moving faster than I should have. Fortunatley he had a sense of humor, I bought him some starbucks, and he let it go. Never let that happen again.

 

[mycrofft]

emtin08, better than defibbing you both with a conductive cot!

I haven't seen that yet, but I saw a chorus line of firefighters and EMT's jump from a wet gutter when a heart team nurse yelled CLEAR one night.
A fire emt was defibbed at a health fair one time. They charged up the LifePak 5 then went to lunch and failed to discharge it. After lunch he was the simulated victim...:excl:

 

[housert]

One of EMT-I's was going to start and IV on a pt. and went to pull the cap off with his teeth. Forgot he had a bloody glove on and got a mouth full. To top it off he said, "Man, I was just able to give blood again!" Turns out a few months prior he put a used glucose testing needle on the bench instead of in the sharps container and then braced himself for a turn and stuck his hand right on the needle.

 

[mycrofft]

Wow.

We use glucometer stylettes which reside in thier individual plastic shields to prevent that. Nevertheless, a coupe times an incautious nurse woutl let a pt stick himself and somehow get a stick themselves..how'd that happen?h34r:

A coworker used a "single sample needle" (obsolete, a vacutainer needle with no rubber boot on the inside cork-punching needle so it forms an open channel from pt to outside world), and the pressure behind the TK when she went to replace the vacutainer tube with another was so great it aerosoled blood onto her face and upper torso. Pt was being tested for HIV and syphillis, already gonorreah positive.

 

[Sasha]

We use glucometer stylettes which reside in thier individual plastic shields to prevent that. Nevertheless, a coupe times an incautious nurse woutl let a pt stick himself and somehow get a stick themselves..how'd that happen?h34r:

Our lancettes have a red bottom with a hole and a white top which is the button you push. I saw a medic think the red part with the whole was the button and jab herself in the finger with it... Im still trying to figure out what she thought the hole in the top was for... and where she thought the needle was coming out of the hole-less bottom....hmmm.

 

[So. IL Medic]

I haven't seen that yet, but I saw a chorus line of firefighters and EMT's jump from a wet gutter when a heart team nurse yelled CLEAR one night.
A fire emt was defibbed at a health fair one time. They charged up the LifePak 5 then went to lunch and failed to discharge it. After lunch he was the simulated victim...:excl:

Ever see a medic decide that an old lifepack would be the perfect thing to make instant grilled cheese sandwiches....

 

[Emtint08]

lol

Ever see a medic decide that an old lifepack would be the perfect thing to make instant grilled cheese sandwiches....

I would pay to see that!!! Gotta eat sometime no?

 

[mycrofft]

One word for you:

..Jiffypop.

 

[So. IL Medic]

..Jiffypop.

OOOooooooo

 

[MAC4NH]

Two days ago I was attempting a BP on a patient in PD custody who supposedly had a seizure. I wasn't sure about the seizure but it appeared he had incontinence so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. While taking the BP, the patient took a classic incarceritis swoon and went down from the bench. I was guiding him down safely when the %#$#%&$ propelled himself to the floor while I was still holding his arm. He threw me about 4 feet and I caught myself before hitting the cell wall. He then proceeded to have a very atypical "seizure" followed by no post-ictal period. I'm thinking that he's faking... but he had incontinence... After we got him on the stretcher and to the hospital, my partner tells me that his pants were wet because PD dragged him through a puddle when they arrested him. By the end of shift my left shoulder and pect muscles hurt. By the time I got home I couldn't flex my left shoulder (which was useful because that was the exact movement I needed the next morning when learning to intubate in medic school). Had my arm hurt right away I might have charged him with battery. It all worked out in the end. The patient wound up spending the night in jail when he could have just gone home had he not tried to be cute. My arm was fine the next morning and I was able to get my first 5 manikin intubations done.

 

[gillysaurus]

In my service, we have the Type III ambulances which are usually pretty accommodating to the taller folks who I work with. That is, until they get put in the rig with the parallel metal bars on the top (great for on the road stability for us smaller folks! ). My partner, a wonderful woman who stands 6'2" cannot avoid hitting her head so hard all the time on those bars. Every time I turn around I hear a *thunk* followed by a "SON OF A B----!!!"

We even wrapped the bar closest to the side where we provide patient care with Kurlex and IV tape and all that managed to produce was a slightly more muffled *thunk* followed by a "SON OF A B----!!!!"

Oh the 4th of July, when I was still in Basic class, I was on a ride along and we were dispatched to a stabbing. We got the code 4 into the scene and got the patient out just fine (11 stab wounds in the abdomen and arm, the tip of his nose was bitten off, too!) and to the hospital. It was only when we were in the EMS lounge an hour later when one of the officers on scene walked in and told us the assailant had been under the front porch of the house the entire time we were on scene, with his stabbin' knife and all. Being stabbed on the 4th of July by a crazy dude who the cops said you were safe from? That would have been THE stupidest on the job injury!

 

[mycrofft]

Well, one day I was off the rescue truck minding my own business, see...

I was climbing/jumping down the steep steps into/out of a P-2 crash truck:
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/mark_simiele/2005/aug/file0011.jpg

(http://capecodfd.com/Pics Appar/Pic OT T3.jpg
Note how narrow the bottom of the steps is. The door is a bifold, two panels hinged in the middle and at one end. My wedding ring caught on the edge of the middle panel edge, my feet were together on the lowest narrowest step, the door was starting to close and my weight was falling forward. I might have lost that finger had the ring not popped off the metal edge and let me fall to the concrete floor.

pS: Ah! There's my old rescue truck, sort of. Same model only a little newer

http://capecodfd.com/Pics ARFF/Pic OT R11 old.jpg