Worst Call you've ever gotten ?

[VentMedic]

But doesn't that make it the worst call for them? The thread asks about the personal worse calls


Mine was the two burned to death kids because, well they were kids

But the most intesne trauma call i got was yersteday, skull fx. Femur fx. Exposed humerus fx. cephallic mass exposure,


Not the worse call, but the most intense

I've seen many traumas, burns and have done several end of life withdrawals on all ages, including infants, and those I may remember but not to ever say they were the worst.

I remember calls like an active elderly lady who fractures her hip and is crying quietly all the way to the hospital. Those I remember because I know what lies ahead for her. I may also be around when they tell her she will never go home again and her pets have been put in the county shelter to be euthanized since they are too old to be adopted. Those are my memorable patient care days. Her tears I may remember for a long time. Unfortunately there have been many elderly people that fit this description that I have met throughout the years.

The calls that I know will change the life of someone, who is still alive, forever and the healing process the whole family will go through are the ones I remember the most. Sometimes I remember them because they might have a good outcome but many will not. Those that have died will leave their families to grieve but the patient's pain will be no more.

 

[Ped101]

Hipovolemic shock?? Where did you get the hippo!?

a mere typo there sasha

Hypovolemic shock

 

[Ped101]

And yes, Vent, precisely that was my point, our worse calls may not be the bloody trauma patient that is squirting arterial blood everywhere


but as you said, the elderly lady type of calls are the worse, because they get to you on a personal level

 

[PapaBear434]

My very first call after being released. It was an 8 month old in cardiac arrest. The kid was a day older than my own 8 month old.

I was ok with it, as I didn't put myself in that place. It wouldn't do me or the patients later in the day any good for my brain to be elsewhere. But intellectually, it was pretty rough.

 

[chadwick]

Worst call

We were called out for a man who had fallen in the shower, not responding. We sent two units per protocol for unresponsive patients. We got on scene and found a 22 year old guy that I had went to school with from kindergarten to high school graduation. To quote Ron White, "We'd met". He was in the bath tub, cold, in asystole but he was in cold, running water so we worked it under the "your not dead until you are warm and dead" EMS rule. I was leaning over to start mouth to mouth when someone came in and threw the ambu bag and hit me with it. I have never been tempted to do mouth to mouth ever. I usually switch out doing compressions to keep from getting tired but I kept going until we got about a mile from the hospital because I couldn't catch my breath and was seeing stars. We worked it for approx. 35 minutes in the ambulace. We moved him over to the ER bed and I just went out the ambulance entrance sat down and sobbed. I cried like a baby. I know its not my emergency but there was no professional distance left. He was pronounced dead, the family made the decision to donate his organs. I think everyone has that one call or a few calls that are just so bad that you remember them.

 

[DawnParr]

Since i am starting school in a month i have not been on a call, or any of that... however when i was in high school an ex of mine and i were going on a date and turned onto this road that had two other cars stopped and a man just laying in the road. So we stopped and the man was still breathing when we got there. He had been hit by a car which left the scene and two other people plus us just found him there. The Dominos that was right there didn't even know it happened, no squealing tires, no screaming, no nothing. well he was dead by the time we talked to the cops and they wrote our statements... not to mention the first dead person i have ever seen. I don't think i will ever forget that.

 

[Seaglass]

I may also be around when they tell her she will never go home again and her pets have been put in the county shelter to be euthanized since they are too old to be adopted.

My area is very, very lucky to have a no-kill shelter that will make room somehow for all sorts of desperate cases. I keep their number around.

Abuse and neglect calls are the worst for me, especially since child/elder protective services are way too overwhelmed to do much of anything. I've seen one disabled patient in the late stages of starvation because he couldn't feed himself and the family didn't care. The details still give me bad dreams.

 

[medic417]

I hate even more when you realize you've had no sleep for 48 hours and even worse you haven't been able to stop, wash, and put on clean underwear.:blink:

Yup still the worst.

 

[62_derick]

This doesn't really pertain to a story on the emt side only because I am fresh new emt. but however it was a sad story for me.

I was with my vol. fire company and we got called out for a ems assist with our ambulance company on a cardiac arrest. We had a full crew on our squad truck but no EMT's, we were all certified in cpr/aed. We got on scene and found the patient unconscious on the bed. The pulse was checked and one was supposedly found. We moved her to the floor and I started CPR. The emts arrived and they ended up terminating the cpr. The emts said she had profuse lividity and she didnt have a chance.

Needless to say it was my first time doing cpr on a real patient other then the plastic kind, so it was a little rough to deal with. Probably rougher then being on the few class 5 MVA's.

Thanks for listening.

 

[HotelCo]

This doesn't really pertain to a story on the emt side only because I am fresh new emt. but however it was a sad story for me.

I was with my vol. fire company and we got called out for a ems assist with our ambulance company on a cardiac arrest. We had a full crew on our squad truck but no EMT's, we were all certified in cpr/aed. We got on scene and found the patient unconscious on the bed. The pulse was checked and one was supposedly found. We moved her to the floor and I started CPR. The emts arrived and they ended up terminating the cpr. The emts said she had profuse lividity and she didnt have a chance.

Needless to say it was my first time doing cpr on a real patient other then the plastic kind, so it was a little rough to deal with. Probably rougher then being on the few class 5 MVA's.

Thanks for listening.

If a pulse was "supposedly found" why did you start CPR?

 

[62_derick]

My luietenit checked her pulse said she had one so we put her to the floor and applied the aed and then there was no pulse! That was the pertanit information that I didn't add! Sorry about that!

 

[DV_EMT]

worst call....


a few nights ago... it was my fiancee...

I wasn't "responding" to the call as it just happened in my presence... i took vitals, had 911 on the phone, and spent the night in the ER. Not fun and very scary

 

[mycrofft]

I think I've brought mine all up already.

My "worst calls" are sort of like the Academy Awards, they come in categories:

Worst goofup.
Worst trauma.
Most heartbreaking.
Scariest/most dangerous.
Most horrendous but required treatment.
Nastiest.
Just plain "most sad".

:sad:

 

[usafmedic45]

If you can recall your worse call, you haven't been doing long enough.

I respectfully disagree, as I still argue that the accident that killed three of my friends will stick with me until the day I die especially given that I was supposed to be in the truck with them if I had not stayed late to cover for a coworker whose babysitter cancelled on her at the last minute. It's the day I use to divide my life into two periods: before that day and after.

The one they recall may not actually have been the worst. Rather it may be the one they remember because of the location, patient resembling a family member, type of car, smell or some other sensory triggering mechanism that puts it into vivid memory storage.

Could not agree more VentMedic. To give a very odd example, the smell of freshly cut grass triggers some very unpleasant memories for me.

 

[atropine]

The worst calls are when you can't get medical, or medicare to pay.

 

[JeffDHMC]

Rolling domestic, mom got out of the car with 4 yoa daughter, BF went around the block and came back for her. She tossed the baby clear and he ran mom down, went around the block again and got the little girl. Called mom on scene, baby was agonal so she went with us, called after about 30 min in the ED. Never did catch he guy.

 

[JeffDHMC]

If you can recall your worse call, you haven't been doing long enough.

R/r 911

Wow, a topic I can disagree with Rid on and be fully confident that I am right. 17 years of high volume love and I can promise that I remember.

 

[BuddingEMT]

We got called to a residence where a man had put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. There wasn't much left of his head. The person who found him like that? His 9 year old son.

I feel so bad for that kid. I have a feeling he'll remember that moment for the rest of his life.

 

[Scout]

If you can recall your worse call, you haven't been doing long enough.

R/r 911

Disagree, well to an extent. Your worse call will be very subjective, I doubt many people here will put the most vial or gruesome call in as their worse but one that has struck them on a personal level.


For me it was one of my earlier call 105yo lady pushed over by some local kids running. # pelvis but it was the realization after that she most likely wouldn't be getting out of hospital and her pet dog would have to be put down and all that ensues. She went from fully mobile to a sack of nothing in a bed.


That would rate more for me than suicides, MVC, or many of the other calls.

I'm sure a #pelvis is not my worst call but is one I keep going back to.

 

[el Murpharino]

the smell of freshly cut grass triggers some very unpleasant memories for me.

Phosgene?


Worst call...The telemarketer who called me during dinner the other night. I was starving and he interrupted a perfectly cooked steak. Next time he gets the 'Arnold' soundboard...