FutureRescue
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What was the scariest moment you have ever faced on the job? And if you feeling like it, what was the moment that made you realize EMS was the best choice for you?
The Ultimate Moment
- Thread starter FutureRescue
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I don't know about scariest, but the moment that made me realize? I suppose if I had to pick one would be in class. It wasn't actually being in the field that did it, but getting prepared to be. My entire family is made up of EMTs (all w/in the past 6 years) so I had my foot in the door sort of. The local instructor let me take class even though I was only 17. I planned on being an EMT just to have something that would get me a better job than the usual waitress / retail in college. I was med school-bound. By midterms, I had decided to change my major to paramedic science.
fast65
Doogie Howser FP-C
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Well the moment that got me diving into the paramedic field was during my first ride-a-long as an EMT-B, we ran a code and after seeing how everybody worked together to get a line in, to get the tube, to push meds, etc. I was hooked.
Tommerag
What day is it?
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Scariest moment for me was xmas day 2007 and we got called to a code 3 rollover out on the interstate in a blizzard the car was in the median me and our EMT-I were doing patient care and some one yelled at us to get out of the median because a car had last control and was spinning towards us and then about 25-30ft it hit a dry spot on the road and went off into the ditch on the other side of the interstate.
My cousin is an assistant chief on the dept with me and my uncle was on it for over 20 years and my dad was a deputy sheriff so i was used to them having to leave all of sudden during family functions which always perked my curiosity wondering what was going on and what they were doing. After i went on my first couple calls i was in love with it just being able to help people when they need it the most.
My cousin is an assistant chief on the dept with me and my uncle was on it for over 20 years and my dad was a deputy sheriff so i was used to them having to leave all of sudden during family functions which always perked my curiosity wondering what was going on and what they were doing. After i went on my first couple calls i was in love with it just being able to help people when they need it the most.
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Scariest moment and "light bulb" moment are different for me.
Scariest moment was when we got called to a diabetic emergency in a dental clinic at 3 in the morning. Apparently the dentist who owned the clinic was a diabetic and had gone to check the clinic at 0300 after the burglar alarm had gone off. This was in response to a string of break ins that had occurred at his clinic where his narcotics had been stolen. Long story short, he was carrying a pistol and prepared to deal with anyone who was in the clinic. We show up at the request of his wife, who only gives us the half of the story about him being up there with low blood sugar, and go in to find him sitting down with a gun in hand asking "Who the f*** are you and why the hell are you here?" luckily the agency I was with at the time had a policy of always sending a PD escort, who was right behind us. We calmed him down, disarmed him, got his BG up and went on our way. It didn't really hit me until about 20 minutes later how close we really were to getting shot at.
I have been oa lot of good calls where myself and the crew really did a great job, but it was nothing another well trained crew could not have done. The one call so far in my career that i really feel stands out as a call where it was specifically me who made a difference was a few months back in the desert. We were called to intercept a BLS ambulance "with a baby." so I figured new born with low APGAR scores or some such thing...we never really got a lot of details working in Saudi. When we landed I found a full blown isolette in the back of the ambulance with a 36 week coarct baby, intubated with lines, hypoxic, sats in the 40's. Apparently the baby was being transported from Dammam to Riyadh (3 hours) and the ambulance had a crash, destroying the isolette's ventilator and disabling the pumps. The crew with the baby was a physician who had no idea how over his head he was, a nurse with a head injury (vomitting in the corner) and a RT with a broken arm. The baby was being BVM with 100% oxygen (very bad for ductal dependent heart defects) and hypoxic. Immediately my partner removed the oxygen and we were bagging in room air, I looked at the pumps and realized the PGE, sedation, and TPN were all not running, and had not been running for two hours. A bolus of PGE, a bit of sedation, removal of oxygen, and the baby looked great, sats in the upper 80's (great for a coarct.) all this while the doctor was yelling at me that I was killing the baby and he would not be responsible for the care I provided. Factor in that we were not going to be able to load the isolette in the helicopter, and I had to convince the ground crew to take me with them in the ambulance, and my partner and I were feeling pretty good when we arrived at the hospital.
I was really proud of this call because it required all the skills I have acquired over my short 7 years in EMS. it required me to be calm, make good decisions, and use what I have learned at the previous places I had worked. It also required me to make decisions and carry out patient care when I was the only one who knew what was going on, and with a physician yelling at me that I was about to kill a patient. It is one of the few calls where I know that i am one of the few paramedics around who could have ensured a positive patient outcome for that patient.
Sorry for being so long winded, I don't normally pat myself on the back...but since you asked...
Scariest moment was when we got called to a diabetic emergency in a dental clinic at 3 in the morning. Apparently the dentist who owned the clinic was a diabetic and had gone to check the clinic at 0300 after the burglar alarm had gone off. This was in response to a string of break ins that had occurred at his clinic where his narcotics had been stolen. Long story short, he was carrying a pistol and prepared to deal with anyone who was in the clinic. We show up at the request of his wife, who only gives us the half of the story about him being up there with low blood sugar, and go in to find him sitting down with a gun in hand asking "Who the f*** are you and why the hell are you here?" luckily the agency I was with at the time had a policy of always sending a PD escort, who was right behind us. We calmed him down, disarmed him, got his BG up and went on our way. It didn't really hit me until about 20 minutes later how close we really were to getting shot at.
I have been oa lot of good calls where myself and the crew really did a great job, but it was nothing another well trained crew could not have done. The one call so far in my career that i really feel stands out as a call where it was specifically me who made a difference was a few months back in the desert. We were called to intercept a BLS ambulance "with a baby." so I figured new born with low APGAR scores or some such thing...we never really got a lot of details working in Saudi. When we landed I found a full blown isolette in the back of the ambulance with a 36 week coarct baby, intubated with lines, hypoxic, sats in the 40's. Apparently the baby was being transported from Dammam to Riyadh (3 hours) and the ambulance had a crash, destroying the isolette's ventilator and disabling the pumps. The crew with the baby was a physician who had no idea how over his head he was, a nurse with a head injury (vomitting in the corner) and a RT with a broken arm. The baby was being BVM with 100% oxygen (very bad for ductal dependent heart defects) and hypoxic. Immediately my partner removed the oxygen and we were bagging in room air, I looked at the pumps and realized the PGE, sedation, and TPN were all not running, and had not been running for two hours. A bolus of PGE, a bit of sedation, removal of oxygen, and the baby looked great, sats in the upper 80's (great for a coarct.) all this while the doctor was yelling at me that I was killing the baby and he would not be responsible for the care I provided. Factor in that we were not going to be able to load the isolette in the helicopter, and I had to convince the ground crew to take me with them in the ambulance, and my partner and I were feeling pretty good when we arrived at the hospital.
I was really proud of this call because it required all the skills I have acquired over my short 7 years in EMS. it required me to be calm, make good decisions, and use what I have learned at the previous places I had worked. It also required me to make decisions and carry out patient care when I was the only one who knew what was going on, and with a physician yelling at me that I was about to kill a patient. It is one of the few calls where I know that i am one of the few paramedics around who could have ensured a positive patient outcome for that patient.
Sorry for being so long winded, I don't normally pat myself on the back...but since you asked...
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FutureRescue
Forum Probie
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All I can say is wow to these stories. You all deserve major pats on the back. Great stories.
abckidsmom
Dances with Patients
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Scariest moment:
I was just walking with my kids and saw a car fall on a man who was under it working. I spent 2 minutes, all alone with his wife screaming and not helping at all, fumbling with the stupid jack and not getting the frame of the car off of his head and chest. He was thrashing his legs and arms, growing more still, and I couldn't figure a way to get the car off of him.
Another neighbor man came and the two of us lifted the car off the man and his wife pulled him out by his ankles.
I was so scared I was going to have to watch this young healthy guy go from doing his thing to dead.
I was just walking with my kids and saw a car fall on a man who was under it working. I spent 2 minutes, all alone with his wife screaming and not helping at all, fumbling with the stupid jack and not getting the frame of the car off of his head and chest. He was thrashing his legs and arms, growing more still, and I couldn't figure a way to get the car off of him.
Another neighbor man came and the two of us lifted the car off the man and his wife pulled him out by his ankles.
I was so scared I was going to have to watch this young healthy guy go from doing his thing to dead.
Cohn
Forum Lieutenant
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I had a call where a individual fell from 15 feet onto his face and was posturing, was incredibly incoherent and could not follow commands. He was combative to me and the flight nurse, flight medic, ground medic and EMT-B. But in the beginning of the call it was only me and a older gentlemen who was only a first responder. we had to fight him to back board him and I was basically by my self with a man who WAS dying
I was brand new to EMS and stuck with a First Responder who was a good driver at minimum! It was my first trauma and the moment that opened my eyes to what horrible things that people get them selves into.
I was brand new to EMS and stuck with a First Responder who was a good driver at minimum! It was my first trauma and the moment that opened my eyes to what horrible things that people get them selves into.
jjesusfreak01
Forum Deputy Chief
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And the next day they were like, "meh, what's the big deal".
abckidsmom
Dances with Patients
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Right. There was a newspaper writeup in our small town rag, and he was all, "It was a total miracle. God was with me." Uh-huh. I'm a Christian. God was with ME, buddy.