The things you've broken/crashed

[MMiz]

Over the years I've made quite a few judgment errors in EMS...

• I backed the rig into a huge cement pillar/wall. You should have seen th room I had to turn around, but somehow I hit the most obscure pillar. That dented the truck.
• Knocked a patient's flower pot off the porch and crushed it with the stretcher.
• Dropped my pager far too many times... but it refuses to die.

What have you broken/crashed?

 

[Epi-do]

I've dropped several radios, but none have broken. The only thing I can think of that I have done any damage to was the dog that I hit, and while it didn't hurt the bus, it was fatal for the dog. I figure if I drop my cell phone a few more times, it will eventually stop working.

 

[Alexakat]

Hmmmm... I recently dropped my cell phone in the toilet at the station. I know...really gross!

I wear it in a little case on my belt & while in the stall one early, early morning, after a long call, the weight of the phone pulled it off the belt & smack into the toilet. Ewwww. Toilet phone...needless to mention, it was fried beyond repair.

My new phone gets hooked to my pants (not just the belt) & I take it off before I even enter the stall, just to be 100% sure.

I haven't had any mishaps with patient belongings yet...& no crashing any vehicles...

 

[daemonicusxx]

are we talking inentionally or unintentionally broken.

-Broke a nexthell once. they make great soccer balls at the grocery store. i told them that i was attempting to put it in my thigh pocket as we were pulling the stretcher out, phone slipped and the wheels dropped on it, they believed me.
-Broke the gas cap off the ambulance, mechanic had attached it with a chain that wouldnt allow it to twist back on, so i kicked it hoping the chain would break but the cap broke instead. i told them that i didnt know my own strength.
-got rear-ended the other day. not too bad though.

those are the recent ones, i cant remember too far back.

 

[TraumaJunkie]

I broke the shelf with my shoulder when i was teching a patient. My partner was driving like a bat out of hell glare: i have no clue why because we were going in to the hospital on a 2) and slammed on the brakes; sending me flying from the bench into the shelves by the opening to the cab of the ambulance. I ended up landing in the step well with the AED, O2 bag, jump kit, and the suction unit on top of me. That was a funny one to explain to the supervisor:lol:.

 

[Tincanfireman]

My trusty little Moto cell phone dropped out of it's holster while I was climbing into my truck during a response. 5 oz. of cell phone did not do well against a 44,000 lb airport crash vehicle. New phone, new holster

 

[Emtgirl21]

I was trying to back the ambulance out of the wash bay and around the supervisor expedition on ice......I hit the supervisors expeditions. I have also dropped my cellphone in the toliet but it still works. I've been through three pagers and my one i have now was drowned and needs to be replaced but i'm scared to tell them i injuried another pager. Oh and I broke my butt falling down iced over stairs!

 

[jester_1269]

Well, the other week they put me in an unfamiliar ambulance, and sent me to an unfamiliar hospital for a transport. The truck was bigger than I was used to and I had to enter the ER bay at an awkward angle (thanks to another truck parked a bit weird). So I accidentally clipped the wall. To make a long story short, the "bang" turned into a "scrape" and the "scrape" turned into a "clang clang clang" as pieces of the truck started falling off. <_< I was not happy.

 

[BossyCow]

I remember having to back an unfamiliar rig into a similar place at 6am after an all night thrash. The department engineer told me, "You'll be fine. Just promise me, if you hit something, hit it Slowly!

 

[gnh2276]

I cant recall any thing that I have done to the equipment but have injured myself more then a few times which is why EMS is so great for me!!

 

[fm_emt]

Hmmm...

I smashed a clipboard in the gurney a while back. It's still all dented up.

Haven't crashed any of the rigs yet, but I do back them into shrubs all the time. We practically have to drive INTO A BUSH in order to get our rigs lined up in their parking spots properly. haha.

And I was mad at something so I kicked an empty can in the dispatch office. It went flying across the room and whacked the thermostat. The AC was stuck on "Polar" all day.

 

[gnh2276]

I had some one push the streacher off the back of the bus before I released the lever that drops the legs and it was my wife on the streacher.

 

[Anomalous]

...The only thing I can think of that I have done any damage to was the dog that I hit, and while it didn't hurt the bus, it was fatal for the dog...

It wasn't with an ambulance, but I managed to hit 7 deer at once.

Score: Locomotive- 7, Deer- 0

 

[babygirl2882]

I have an awesome picture of a broom that I broke not once but TWICE!! lol first we gaft taped it and then we splinted it with a piece of wood....haha....
I have also broken countless things especially when I was put in a machine tech class last year (only one bit but i snapped countless projects on the lathe)

 

[RescueShirts.com]

It was 17 years ago... but I remember it perfectly.

I was an EMT-Basic at the time, paramedic + nurse + cardiac patient were in the back.

I was coming off the freeway, one of those ramps that take to you a road underneath the overpass. I "should" have turned left directly into the left hand lane, instead I did one of those "turn left and merge into the middle lane at the same time" procedures.

My rig got sideswiped by another car.

Not much damage, and I was totally at fault.

HOWEVER, the guy who sideswiped me had no insurance, expired license, had been drinking, and had warrants out for his arrest. The cops basically grabbed him and sent us on our way.

I totally lucked out on that one!

 

[firecoins]

It was 17 years ago... but I remember it perfectly.

I was an EMT-Basic at the time, paramedic + nurse + cardiac patient were in the back.

I was coming off the freeway, one of those ramps that take to you a road underneath the overpass. I "should" have turned left directly into the left hand lane, instead I did one of those "turn left and merge into the middle lane at the same time" procedures.

My rig got sideswiped by another car.

Not much damage, and I was totally at fault.

HOWEVER, the guy who sideswiped me had no insurance, expired license, had been drinking, and had warrants out for his arrest. The cops basically grabbed him and sent us on our way.

I totally lucked out on that one!

did you get credit for the collar?

 

[vic2u]

On my 1st day on our ambulance service, i had my pager for about 2 hours before i droped it in the toilet.it gets better, my cell phone fell between the bug shield and hood of rig and rode 20 miles to the hospital and 20 miles back to shed, fell off as my driver was backing up and ran over it. I have too hit our building(2 weeks after the fire dept had repainted it). needless to say that was 4 years ago and they just now let me drive again..oh the joys of our job.

 

[94accord]

Broke a copier once when a co worker threw a smoke bomb in the office for Halloween and I threw an O2 key back at him... missed him, hit the door, and landed on the glass of the open copier... that was a tough one to explain. Reminded me of those old commercials where they called the shot off of 10-15 different things... then "nothing but net" LOL

Destroyed a portable suction because the company refused to get the right parts for it and instructed me to jerry rig it, so I did. They wondered why it started to smoke when they plugged it in.... i had re-soldered the terminals inside and changed the polarity . last time they asked me to jerry rig my equipment.

 

[Tincanfireman]

Destroyed a portable suction because the company refused to get the right parts for it and instructed me to jerry rig it, so I did. They wondered why it started to smoke when they plugged it in.... i had re-soldered the terminals inside and changed the polarity . last time they asked me to jerry rig my equipment.

Nothing against you, but that could have been the best thing to happen to it. Could you imagine yourself on the stand, facing the attorney for the patient that died of an obstructed airway after aspirating his dinner? "Uh, no, I'm not trained in fixing that piece of equipment, but they told me to jerry-rig it, so I did. It was only after I used it for 10 seconds that it started smoking and quit working." If a supervisor tells you to do something like that, I'd think it would be a good time to find a different, known-good replacement...

 

[airmedic_8]

I had my paramedic certification for about two weeks when my partner and I were responding to a cardiac arrest in a rural area of Georgetown County, South Carolina. It was approximately ten o’clock at night and very dark. While traveling on a country two-lane highway, my partner said, “Marcus look at that herd of deer!” I glanced towards my left and probably saw 30 to 40 deer in a field. As I turned my head forward, my partner screamed, Marcus watch out!” At that point, it was too late to react. I struck a deer traveling at about 70mph. The front end of the ambulance was demolished and the deer wasn’t in much better shape. We advised our dispatch that we were involved in an accident and were out of service. South Carolina state troopers stated that is was an unavoidable accident and I wasn’t at fault. That made me feel somewhat better knowing it wasn’t my fault nonetheless, it was an embarrassing moment in my career.