What is your most ridiculous call?

[JPINFV]

Any reconsult resulting from the primary team futzing with our pain management orders.

"Please wean this patient off IV morphine."
::looks at chart::
::sees only IV med order being the wound care one::
::SMH::

 

[AlphaOmega]

Frequent flyers... gotta love em

Hey now, dont knock it...those miles really add up! Lol

 

[CALEMT]

Oh yeah also have to mention those 0300 lift assists are always a pleasure <_<

 

[abckidsmom]

Or the 0100 4 months of post cabg midline sternum soreness.

"But I took the Tylenol at 6 pm! It's not working!"

 

[JPINFV]

Or the 0100 4 months of post cabg midline sternum soreness.

"But I took the Tylenol at 6 pm! It's not working!"

Rx: Ibuprofen cream 10%, apply to affected area 1-2 times a day. Dispense 120 grams. 1 unit, refill 4 times.

 

[phideux]

It the scrotal enlargement was an acute situation, it definitely needed to be evaluated ASAP. We use bedscales or lifts with scales in facilities to determine the weight change. We can also estimate by measurements. Of course if this was a herniation, the overall body weight would not change but the size would. This could also be an emergency situation depending upon the blood supply. More than likely the patient was diabetic so the pain may not be the same as for a healthy 18 year. This post also sounds like socioeconomic and racial profiling.

I am seeing some of these posts as having a reasonable medical situation which should be seen or at least some direction given for better resources and a chance to educate.

I didn't mention any race, and I don't give a rats hairy *** about socioeconomics.

It was not an acute situation, it comes about from a lifelong history of the whole family not taking care of themselves, all of them being way above morbidly obese, and all of them being medically non-compliant. Him and the whole family are frequent flyers, and due to the size of every one of them, whenever they call, whether it is a 911 call or a transport call, the transport company has to respond with a bariatric unit because none of the county units can transport any of them. The smallest one in the family is 400lbs+. Also whenever they call it takes the transport unit and the county units out of service for what is usually several hours. The trips to the ER usually result in a couple hours of tests/labs, some prescriptions that won't be taken, some orders that won't be followed, then we get to take everyone out of service again to get them home again.

This is supposed to be a ridiculous call thread, I thought it was ridiculous, not a thread about race or socioeconomics, which I never mentioned.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Everybody take a deep breath ...

 

[DesertMedic66]

Everybody take a deep breath ...

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/07/world/americas/brazil-soccer-dismemberment

 

[NomadicMedic]

I didn't think I needed to spell it out. Let's get back on topic. Last warning or the mods will own this thread.

 

[Mariemt]

Small cut on finger needing no more than a band aid less than a block from hospital

 

[DesertMedic66]

A couple of years ago I had a call for "full arrest with CPR in progress". We arrive at the house and find no one inside. We start looking around the house and find an intoxicated woman standing in the back yard. She told us that her friend was dead and that she started doing CPR because she was a nurse. She then went on to say that her friend got up and ran off.

We start searching the gates community. About 15 minutes later we find a guy stumbling on the street.

Turns out they were both drinking and having fun. The guy decided to take a nap and woke up with his friend doing CPR on him so he took off running.

 

[comppro]

Call went out around 1500 for difficulty breathing at one of the local apartment complexes. Responded to find a pt. with about 5 packs of cigarettes lying on the table and pt. was doing her best to smoke all of them before leaving with us. When asked what seemed to be the problem she calmly responded she had been having a little bit of difficulty breathing for months and decided it was a good time to get checked out.

She didn't seem to understand why we wouldn't give her any O2 while she was smoking.:wacko:

Also she tried multiple times to light up in the back of the rig and got mad when my partner wouldn't let her.

 

[phideux]

Call went out around 1500 for difficulty breathing at one of the local apartment complexes. Responded to find a pt. with about 5 packs of cigarettes lying on the table and pt. was doing her best to smoke all of them before leaving with us. When asked what seemed to be the problem she calmly responded she had been having a little bit of difficulty breathing for months and decided it was a good time to get checked out.

She didn't seem to understand why we wouldn't give her any O2 while she was smoking.:wacko:

Also she tried multiple times to light up in the back of the rig and got mad when my partner wouldn't let her.

Just love those calls where you walk in the front door and can feel the lung cancer start to develop, and you have to follow the 100yds of O2 tubing through the smoke to find the patient.

 

[EMT2B]

Just love those calls where you walk in the front door and can feel the lung cancer start to develop, and you have to follow the 100yds of O2 tubing through the smoke to find the patient.

Sadly enough, I had an aunt and a cousin (mother and daughter) who both fit that bill. Cousin passed away first from lung and kidney cancer. Aunt passed away a few years later from emphysema, lung cancer, and complications due to a broken hip (sustained by tripping over her O2 tubing). *sigh* One of many reasons I never started smoking.

 

[Handsome Robb]

We got tones out for a "fall with entrapment" a while back. Arrived on Scene to find an urban outdoorsman trapped inside the back of a trash truck.

Per the driver he usually sleeps in a certain dumpster and when the driver checked it he wasn't there so he went about his business and dumped the rest of the dumpsters assuming the man was out wandering around. As he was driving away he heard yelling and banging on the side of the truck, got out climbed up and found him in there.

He couldn't open the back because there was too much trash so fire had to get a collapsible ladder to get him out.

Luckily it was 0300 and the dumpsters were near a bunch of homes so the driver didn't run the compactor blade. Could have been a very bad night rather than a rather amusing one.

We made an "occupied" sign out of a pizza box for him, drove him to his stash spot a little down the road to get his other pair of shoes since the first pair were somewhere in the trash truck, he signed the AMA and went on his merry way.

 

[EMT2B]

We got tones out for a "fall with entrapment" a while back. Arrived on Scene to find an urban outdoorsman trapped inside the back of a trash truck.
...
We made an "occupied" sign out of a pizza box for him, drove him to his stash spot a little down the road to get his other pair of shoes since the first pair were somewhere in the trash truck, he signed the AMA and went on his merry way.

"Urban Outdoorsman" such a great term!! And I love the "occupied" sign idea as well!! :lol:

 

[AtlasFlyer]

My very first call-out while doing my ride-alongs last spring while in EMT-B class:

Get a call for "trouble breathing". Show up to a house, lady answers door, is standing, talking, not in distress. Says she took her vitamins and "they got stuck in her throat and she called because she wanted to make sure her airway wasn't blocked". Yes, the woman who calmly answered the door, talking, breathing, wanted to make sure her airway wasn't blocked.

The paramedics I was riding with were very kind, had her drink a glass of water, I took her vitals, and one of the medics explained how the esophagus works and that if she can breathe and talk that her airway wasn't blocked.

She thanked us nicely for our time and we left. No transport.

I give the medics a lot of credit for how nice they were to her, and even taking the time to explain to her how the mechanics of swallowing work...

We all face-palmed when we got back in the ambulance to go back to the station.

 

[Highlander]

A headache.... I can understand somewhat if it's incredibly painful or continuing for days, however he said it wasn't that bad and I guessed he just wanted a free ride to the hospital.

 

[EMT B]

Got a call to the nursing home for a chest pain. arrive on scene to find patient unresponsive with a bp 70 by palp cause the dr administered 3 SL nitro w/o a bp

 

[Scruit]

I don't get all the "free ride" to the hospital stuff. I get insurance through my job and I still have to pay a $250 copay on an ER visit. If my deductible isn't paid up for the year then that trip to ER can cost me anywhere from $2500 for self-drive or about $3500 for the big red taxi. :blink:

On topic: My brother is a paramedic in the UK and he gets his frequent fliers too. The annoying ones are those that call with chest pain or short of breath, get driven to the hospital of their choice then simply exit the ambulance upon arrival saying they feel better. My brother told me he figured out this one frequent customer lived near the hospital and just didn't want to pay for a taxi after getting drunk so the next time he did this they drove him to a different hospital. Didn't see him again.