things you will never live down

marcus2011 said:
Switching up the arm leads in a 12 lead......lets just say you get fun rhythms
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Interestingly enough, when I was doing my hospital hours for my EMT class, we had a guy come in with the left arm electrode on the area between the scrotal sack and the anus. Is it the perenium in guys?

Doctors gave him a few odd looks for that one.

Also had an indian doctor tell me to get an IV on a guy for something. I told him I can't, I'm not allowed, and *apparently* he thought I was allowed to, or some bull:censored::censored::censored::censored:. He said, in his mangled accent, "Look, nitwit, it's easy." and proceeded to get it right in... to the bracial artery.

Yeah, not too many I have. I don't ride yet.
 
SSwain said:
As a ride along...
My second contact BP cuff backwards. My preceptor just smiled and said "Try that one inside out..."

My 3rd contact was something that I thought nobody saw. Pt was found unconscious behind the wheel of his car. PD was on scene first, we pull up and my driver and medic get out. I was riding in the back, so I egress thru the rear doors. In the process, I tripped on the little gurney hook in the middle of the floor.
Lucky for me, I had a good grip on the handle of rear door...
To me it felt like a scene from a movie where the hero is haging on and swinging wildly behind a moving truck.
In reality, I was less than graceful on my exit. At least I didn't fall head first onto the street, thanks to the grip I had.

When I said I didn't think anybody saw it, I didn't realize that my preceptor had opened the side hatch to get the bag and Lifepak...and had a view thru the interior of the rig.

I am sure there will be more in the future.
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Hah!

That reminds me of one of the ride-alongs I did a couple months back.
I managed to hit my head pretty violently when attempting to exit the rear of the ambulance. The patient and fireman that were in the back with me just stopped talking and looked at me like what the hell..
If hitting my head wasn't bad enough, I managed to bash my shin into the gurney when I was attempting to help wheel the patient out of the ambulance.

With my constant clumsiness throughout the ride-along shift, I got nicknamed "Princess" by all the EMTs and somehow all the fireman in the area knew the nickname as well. The next few calls, It was nothing but "princess, princess princessss"
That's a way to be remembered, I guess!
 
While precepting paramedic school, ran on a patient who was mildly dehydrated due to vomiting but who had hx of CHF; could not determine if lung sounds were from CHF or pneumonia. When starting IV on the patient I had a very long internal debate with myself on if I wanted to hang a bag and how much. Pt states they have not been able to eat or drink or keep anything down and are thirsty. Make a decision to hang a bag but again don't want to hang a lot. Conversation as follows:

Me, to EMT, while squinting at the 18-ga I just flushed, "Can you spike me a bag?"

EMT, who is also a state-registered paramedic, to me: "Sure, how much?"

Me, still squinting at the IV, debating: "Ehhh.... :unsure: 500."

*silence reigns supreme in ambulance*

Me, looking up at hot paramedic and EMT: ".....What?"

EMT: "500? :huh:"

Hot paramedic: "Seriously?! :rofl:"

Me, realizing what I just said: ".....Shut up. :sad: Gimme a 250 bag..."


Paramedic laughed at me all the way back to the station.
 
Last month I got hired by a local ambulance company (first EMT job) I was going thru my Field training and had a 5150 call.

It was my 4th one idk how I managed to do it but when we dropped of the PT I took the original 5150 hold with me and didn't even notice. I had it in my clipboard. I didn't realize this until about 3 hours later when my FTO and I were about to go home when I heard my name being called on the radio asking If I had the hold.

We had to drive all the way back to the hospital where I got chewed out by one of the doctors in there for taking it lol...

I've never felt like such a noob :P
 
One of my first clinicals giving meds I had to open a bottle of maalox and the stupid peel off top would not come off, it just kept ripping. So my bright idea was to *gently* press a hole through the top with my finger. Well gently turned me into going straight through and knuckle deep into the bottle causing a geyser of maalox to explode out of the bottle all over my face and scrubs.....
I am sure you get the picture of what it looked like. It stained splattered white all over my scrub top.
 
Okay...new bonehead move for me.
Fri night, we get toned out at 0215.
Transport to ED no problems....I get in the rig and pull out of the bay and start on my merry way back to the station. Medic riding shotgun doing the report, the guy who hired me is in the box in back.
I look down to see the dash is totally dark.
WTF?
I realize I had forgotten to turn the friggin driving lights on. Fumbling around to find the switch while pulling to the side of the road...with my mentor AND boss in the ambo with me....

D'oh!
 
The best one recently for me was during practical learning in class the other week. We are assigned teams, and are responding to "calls". Our "patient" codes in the rig and my partner goes into some form of 'CPR' I've never seen. I am screaming "30 and 2" while fumbling with the BVM and failing at getting the OPA in as I am close to falling over, while our instructor is driving the rig around campus... Not a best moment, but really a learning moment.

Never had it so crazy while out on clinical. Prepared for anything to happen in class.
 
Back during medic clinicals i was tasked with giving a small bolus of morphine with a carpuject vial. As i proceded to insert 2 ml of air (as you would with a vial) the top blew off hit the ceiling(PING) and shot off over the curtain into the other pts area. I heard the pt say OMG WTF was that? Oops! Nobody ever saw it that I know of!! :Dhahahaha
 
7887firemedic said:
Back during medic clinicals i was tasked with giving a small bolus of morphine with a carpuject vial. As i proceded to insert 2 ml of air (as you would with a vial) the top blew off hit the ceiling(PING) and shot off over the curtain into the other pts area. I heard the pt say OMG WTF was that? Oops! Nobody ever saw it that I know of!! :Dhahahaha
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:rofl: I can only imagine.
 
Had a medic in the back of the truck with me that had put the carpuject adaptor on the carpuject with Morphine it, he did it right: but when he was trying to get the air bubble out of it my driver hit a bump and the medic shot the entire 10mg of Morphine onto the ceiling of the truck.

When we got to the hospital I told the driver that while he was cleaning the truck he was not allowed to lick the ceiling clean. Wish I had a camera for the look on his face.

When the medic tried to explain to the nurse why she needed to witness for use of 20mg of Morphine and she wasn't believing him, the ED doctor started laughing and said that "no one would use that lousy excuse to steal 10mg" and the Doc signed the paperwork
 
just had one.

Hook on the truck the keeps the streatcher from falling out when pulling a pt out of the back of the truck didnt work. Pt almost came falling out but we were able to catch the streatcher thank god.. My hands are still shaking....:sad: Wont be pulling pts out that far again =(
 
My partner just started medic school and is doing her live IV sticks.

So we had a pt who was a junkie. We pick him up all the time.

The medics we were with were going to let her start the IV. She was like oh ya we are doing them in school. I look like a heroin addict.

The pt stopped whatever he was rambling about and just looked at her. And said really!?

Lol it was quite funny.
 
johnrsemt said:
Had a medic in the back of the truck with me that had put the carpuject adaptor on the carpuject with Morphine it, he did it right: but when he was trying to get the air bubble out of it my driver hit a bump and the medic shot the entire 10mg of Morphine onto the ceiling of the truck.

When we got to the hospital I told the driver that while he was cleaning the truck he was not allowed to lick the ceiling clean. Wish I had a camera for the look on his face.

When the medic tried to explain to the nurse why she needed to witness for use of 20mg of Morphine and she wasn't believing him, the ED doctor started laughing and said that "no one would use that lousy excuse to steal 10mg" and the Doc signed the paperwork
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That's why forcing medics to use ED staff to witness waste is a loser. Have a partner do it.
 
7887firemedic said:
Back during medic clinicals i was tasked with giving a small bolus of morphine with a carpuject vial. As i proceded to insert 2 ml of air (as you would with a vial) the top blew off hit the ceiling(PING) and shot off over the curtain into the other pts area. I heard the pt say OMG WTF was that? Oops! Nobody ever saw it that I know of!! :Dhahahaha
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Done that before! Except, it was in front of my nursing department chair so I guess there was someone who saw it...
 
My first clinical shift in the ER for EMT-B, the very first patient I was assigned to was an angry elderly guy, so I was kind of nervous. While I was trying to get vitals a machine started making this horrible noise. I got freaked out, ran around the bed to look at it, and in the process knocked over the (full) urinal that was hanging from his bed.
Then followed a long walk of shame to the nurse's station. :rolleyes:
 
usalsfyre said:
That's why forcing medics to use ED staff to witness waste is a loser. Have a partner do it.
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We can't even have ER staff witness. It has to be a company employee with access to witness through Pyxis.
 
We don't even have to have a witness. Ridiculously lax in my region. Although I have yet to run into someone abusing the system...

As an intern we had a STEMI, I drew labs on the guy, driver hit a gnarly bump, plunger of the 10cc slammed against the rail in the back of the rig and sprayed the full syringe of blood directly onto my preceptor. It wasn't a fun post-call discussion.
 
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Nothing major, just little things when I was still learning like not closing the um, thingy that you screw closed on the bulb so you can pump up the blood pressure cuff, or connecting the oxygen to the nipple but not turning it on, or trying to start the vehicle when it was not in park etc.
 
Clare said:
Nothing major, just little things when I was still learning like not closing the um, thingy that you screw closed on the bulb so you can pump up the blood pressure cuff, or connecting the oxygen to the nipple but not turning it on, or trying to start the vehicle when it was not in park etc.
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I hated when I was told to go look to make sure the keys to the firetruck were in it...:glare:

really felt like an idiot after that...
 
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