CALEMT
The Other Guy/ Paramaybe?
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Ok, I get the whole proby thing but this is just ****ing stupid.
What is the worst rookie mistake you've seen
- Thread starter MWN1998
- Start date
Ok, I get the whole proby thing but this is just ****ing stupid.
EmergencyMedicalSike
Forum Crew Member
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About a year and a half ago while I was doing my clinical ride alongside for emt class. Was in the back with an emt and a LaCoFD medic and I had the privilege of spiking the bag for the medic when he had to get an IV going. We went over a very well timed and convenient pothole in the road and I almost “spiked” the bag where the fluids shouldn’t be coming out of.
VentMonkey
Family Guy
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EmergencyMedicalSike
Forum Crew Member
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Can’t get fluids going if there’s no fluids in the bag
Attachments
VentMonkey
Family Guy
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Whatever you say, skip. They spike bags on almost every patient, and in short I’d trust none of their assessments, but hey have fun learning how not to practice EMS...
CALEMT
The Other Guy/ Paramaybe?
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LACoFD is pretty much the Oprah Winfrey of IV's.
MSDeltaFlt
RRT/NRP
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The Mississippi Delta has a thing called the Delta Rain. Driving down the road at night during the summer sounds like it's raining but it's not. It's bugs hitting your windshield. Went on a call at night during the summer and I left the doors open to the unit. Bugs were all in it. My Intermediate chewed my butt out bad. So I tried to fix the problem with him and the patient in the back by spraying bug spray in there before we left. I have never seen that man that pissed before or since. He had that look in his eye like the actors in cheesy scifi films just before their heads explode.
rujero
Emergency Services RN, NREMT
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Oh my god I died at this. This is a thing?!
Lalaleche
Forum Ride Along
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We roll up on a TC, a couple walking wounded and one critical still in the driver seat with ALOC + head trauma. Fast forward a couple minutes and Cap shows up and asks my partner to go get the backboard for our critical pt, all while I'm holding c-spine.
Partner comes back with the folding stretcher...Partner goes back, and she comes back with the spine board that's half the size.
Cap at this point was at a loss for words and instead asked other EMTs on the scene to get a backboard.
Needless to say, we had a long talk after this call.
Partner comes back with the folding stretcher...Partner goes back, and she comes back with the spine board that's half the size.
Cap at this point was at a loss for words and instead asked other EMTs on the scene to get a backboard.
Needless to say, we had a long talk after this call.
CanadianBagel
Forum Crew Member
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I REALLY shouldn’t admit this, but I tripped over a pt’s ekg wires in the emergency room.
Don’t ask me how, but it happened.
No one there was hard on me though; I was hard enough on myself. As I’ve gotten older I’ve just learned not to beat myself up over the stupid little mistakes. Rookies are bound to do some dumb things!
Also, I tried to attach ekg wires to a pt when I thought they snapped on like a button, when they were really clip on. I took literally what had to be all of five minutes pushing these little clips on my pt trying to get them to attach to the pads. The pt actually took the wire from my hand and put it on themself FIRST TRY. I never have felt so stupid in my life.
Don’t ask me how, but it happened.
No one there was hard on me though; I was hard enough on myself. As I’ve gotten older I’ve just learned not to beat myself up over the stupid little mistakes. Rookies are bound to do some dumb things!
Also, I tried to attach ekg wires to a pt when I thought they snapped on like a button, when they were really clip on. I took literally what had to be all of five minutes pushing these little clips on my pt trying to get them to attach to the pads. The pt actually took the wire from my hand and put it on themself FIRST TRY. I never have felt so stupid in my life.
Early on in my first gig, I woke up at 3:30 am for a call. I sit in the driver’s seat waiting for my crew when my captain kicks me out of the seat. No problem, but he is an awful driver and I’m now facing backwards in the back and I’ve been known to get carsick going far distances. The drive time to this call is 40-45 minutes on top of a mountain with switchback roads. Yay. We get there and I survive, all for my captain to make me in charge of the pt. Still no problem. When I went to do the 4 lead, I accidentally placed RA/LA on her shoulders and RL/LL on her wrists. Just wasn’t thinking and I caught my mistake pretty quickly, but I got my *** chewed for not reading the label and wasting the lifepak paper on a bad 4 lead. We hand off the pt to the transporting ambulance and I put everything away. Captain wants to hang around to talk, so I get in the driver’s seat again and waited... and waited... finally he comes over and says he is getting a ride with the other crew. Whatever. To this day, he still brings up my 4 lead screw up almost every time I see him.
NomadicMedic
I know a guy who knows a guy.
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Yarp. Everyone does it every now and again. Also wasting paper in the LP? Uhh...
CALEMT
The Other Guy/ Paramaybe?
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I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have to make a conscious effort to put the limb leads on right.
medichopeful
Flight RN/Paramedic
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I still routinely do it fairly often as much as it pains me to admit it. I almost always catch it immediately, but every now and then...
Was a middle of the night call, was moving the cannula from the stretcher to the ambulance O2 supply, kept turning up the regulator but noticed it not working. Then remembered I had to hit the oxygen button on the module; not realizing I had the regulator all the way open. Patient got a nice blast of air in the nose...
DrParasite
The fire extinguisher is not just for show
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As I am reading this so many questions come to mind
I've actually applied the limb leads to a patient who has skin color stockings on, in a dimly lit SNF..... couldn't figure out why we kept having issues getting a clear reading. Won't be making that mistake again
ok, your captain wants to drive, some people want to do that. So I am guessing you are in the passenger seat (since you were waiting for your crew to arrive, i'm thinking it was just the two of you in a QRV right?)
your facing backwards? so you're in an engine, not a QRV..... who's riding officer / sitting in the front passenger seat?
why? why isn't her officer of the truck (IE, the person in the right front seat) assigning you a task? if he bounced you out of the drivers seat, and you were the senior person on the crew, why didn't you end up in the front passenger seat?
ehh **** happens. you won't be the first person to do this at 3:30am, and you definitely won't be the last
seriously? wasting paper? you have a budget of at least $100,000 a year, 12 inches of monitor paper is not even a drop in the bucket. sounds like your captain was being a royal douche
So you're not the ambulance, you are just the first responder? I'm guessing volunteer (not that there is anything wrong with that, just trying to get the entire story). What other crew? you send two fire units to the scene of a "routine" medical? it's 3:30 in the morning, he doesn't want to go back to sleep? who wants to hang out at 3:30am? And then to tell you he's getting a ride back to the station with the other crew? So if you get another call you can't take it? sounds like a major douche.
If he keeps doing that, than it sounds like a major douche who has a major case of little pecker syndrome.
I've actually applied the limb leads to a patient who has skin color stockings on, in a dimly lit SNF..... couldn't figure out why we kept having issues getting a clear reading. Won't be making that mistake again
Emily Starton
Forum Lieutenant
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i cant think of any lol
I had a new intermediate riding with me, we get a trauma call, she was so proud of getting her first 16ga IV while I was spiking the bag for her and getting vitals. She hooked the line up and it wouldn't flow real good, I look, and she put the IV in backwards. Luckily she got her 2nd Large bore IV first shot too. Flowed much better too.