"What's the worst thing you've ever seen?" and your responses

74restore

74restore

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Tried searching and didn't find anything similar.

"What's the worst thing you've ever seen?"
The point of this thread is not to ask this question, but rather to hear your responses to it.

I don't particularly like being asked this question. It makes me feel uncomfortable. It brings to mind bad calls, past patients, things that I've tried to put behind me for a reason.

What are some of the creative ways you answer this question? Serious? Witty? Jokingly?

Or do you simply tell them the story?
 
It all depends who asks me. Ill either give a honest response or a joking response. I personally don't have a call that I have trouble talking about.

When I start teaching skills for the EMT classes at my college I get asked that question many many times.
 
Completely depends who asked, and more importantly, what kind of response they're hoping to hear. Nobody asking what they think is a flippant question wants to hear an honest answer, which is fine. I have plenty of funny stories for the vast majority of the time people this question.
 
I turn to the "large lady in a hospital gown stuck to a lazy boy on a humid day" story pretty much always. It's moderately amusing and totally PG.
 
Tigger said:
I turn to the "large lady in a hospital gown stuck to a lazy boy on a humid day" story pretty much always. It's moderately amusing and totally PG.
Click to expand...

If they want a serious answer my go to response is a 3 car TC with a couple of DOAs when we arrived. I haven't had anyone ask any questions about the call after I say that lol
 
Most people are expecting a really gory story

They dont know how to react when they get stories of self neglect and mistreatment, which are usually the worst
 
This is definitely one of the "know your audience" kinds of questions.

No one really wants the true bad story, so usually the one about attempting a rectal temperature on the dirty 600 lb woman who completely fills a hospital gurney suffices. This usually includes a throwaway joke about spelunking and needing a headlamp.
 
For a typical layperson, if it makes you feel uncomfortable like you said, throw the HIPAA word around.
I don't talk about my calls. Even in non detail. I just tell them I can't.
 
As someone already mentioned it depends on who asks and my mood. I usually go with... foley cath on a 450+lb woman with a yeast infection.... what has been seen can never be unseen.

or I am honest and go with the 10 day old I had to run a code on by myself or running the code of one of my high school friends who committed suicide.
 
There have been some bad calls, but I don't tell laypeople about them. Honestly, it's not something they need to know. I usually just say something like, "what may be gross to you doesn't bother me...and vice versa." Then they always ask, "have you seen people with their heads all smashed in?"

A simple "yup" usually suffices.

Save the gross war stories for people who understand a little gallows humor is okay in this job. Don't inflict your most horrific scenes on laypeople, no matter how interested they may seem.
 
74restore said:
Tried searching and didn't find anything similar.

"What's the worst thing you've ever seen?"
The point of this thread is not to ask this question, but rather to hear your responses to it.

I don't particularly like being asked this question. It makes me feel uncomfortable. It brings to mind bad calls, past patients, things that I've tried to put behind me for a reason.

What are some of the creative ways you answer this question? Serious? Witty? Jokingly?

Or do you simply tell them the story?
Click to expand...

Old man trapped in a failing, dying body, without even a picture of the family that assumed guardianship and orders noncaring nursing staff to call and recall EMS in an attempt to 'save Grandpa' from death itself, for which the rewards are constant pain and suffering, and a total lack of communication due to a stroke. Sad fate.
 
I like how Peter Canning tells it in Rescue 486 says "Oh man the body was spread-eagled across the road, intestines ripped out, gore everywhere. And oh the smell! It stunk!!! It was a skunk, and wow it stunk."
 
The worst stories aren't the gory ones... But I quickly realized at the beginning of my career that nobody wants to hears about the really unbelievably sad stuff that we see. I just pass off the question with "Oh, we see some pretty nasty stuff," and leave it at that.

I had a group of people a couple of years ago that really pushed and pushed for stories, so I told them one of the worst ones I had. Afterwards it was just crickets... It just made them sad, and totally killed the conversation. Nobody wants to hear the real stories.
 
My replay is always a 80 year old male/female opposite of the person asking the question, in a G-string. Always gets a chuckle or look of horror on their face and is easy to steer the conversation away from more questions at that point
 
A patient who just turned 100 with end stage multiorgan failure and dementia who kept asking us to let her die but had a son, the DPOA, who lived off her social security checks and wanted everything done. She ended up intubated, on pressors, bilat chest tubes, Central and arterial lines, feeding tube, continuous dialysis, etc. She suffered like that for a week while the ethics committee got involved. Many of the Physicians even refused to provide care. She finally went into PEA and passed in a veryyyyy slow code.
 
Three words: Soy. Chai. Latte.
 
My worst call was an MVA with entrapment. The car went up in flames and he got 4th degree burns on 20% of his body. I could see his skull. That was pretty bad.
 
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