Worst Call you've ever gotten ?

[medichopeful]

Originally Posted by traumamama

MY WORST CALL RECENTLY. THE DAY BEFORE FATHERS DAY LAST YEAR. ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS AND FELLOW EMT WAS OUT OF TOWN FOR THE DAY. HER 93 YEAR OLD FATHER, WHO WAS ALSO A CLOSE FRIEND, SHOT HIMSELF IN THE HEAD. THE LAST THING HE HAD ASKED FOR WHEN SHE LEFT WAS MY CELL PHONE NUMBER. SHE TOLD HIM JUST TO CALL 911 IF HE GOT SICK. HE NEVER MADE THE CALL. I HAD TO CALL HER AND TELL HER THE AWFUL NEWS. HE WAS STILL ALIVE? IF YOU CAN CALL IT THAT BUT HAD A DNR. I HAVE BEEN ON A MILLION BAD CALLS BOTH AS AN EMT AND A CORONER-THAT ONE HAD THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON ME

What's with all the capitals?

[paccookie]

Originally Posted by Ridryder911

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

R/r 911

I didn't really agree with this until about a week ago when I realized that most of my calls were starting to run together. I've had my paramedic license since May and I've definitely had my share of "bad" calls, even a couple of high profile calls. I'm not sure which one was the worst or how to compare them. Some were medical, some were trauma. It's tough to pinpoint which one was the absolute worst call. There have been several that I will never forget. The 7 month old that a tv fell on her head (she didn't make it). The 20 year old near drowning victim (he did make it). The community official who shot himself in the head but still had a pulse and agonal respirations (he didn't make it), the pedestrian hit by a car that had a head injury, right femoral neck fx, left midshaft femur fx, left open tib/fib fx and a pelvic ring fx (he made it), the diabetic with a blood glucose of "high" that also had a rapidly declining BP and LOC (he made it), the CHF'er with massive amounts of pulmonary edema (he didn't make it, family made him a DNR at the hospital). I could go on, as I'm sure everyone here could. I've had an interesting past few months.

[mycrofft]

I let myself get into the middle of a micturition contest between my commander and the parent unit's commander.

Our medical unit had just gone through the Alpena Medical Combat Readiness course and our medical ORE (medical operational readiness exercise, actually an evaluation) so we didn't need another exercise. The parent unit commander wanted us there to both play as medics, and to be medics.
I did that before, and it contributed to a death. I argued and my commander argued, so we deployed 1200 people including myself and two med techs to act as medical personnel. To avoid being utilized as "Real world" as well, lending confusion to our role, we were to carry no medical equipment.

Turns out no medical personnel were on the ADVON (site survey) team. Otherwise it would have been discovered that the base had not had a hospital since the Seventies and all they had was a clinic. No EMS capability to speak of, and no transport or field capability. Also, we had been written out of the scnarios, so we were basically "spooks", not even there.

Unknowing of that, and being , well, the way I am, I smuggled a couple cubic feet of supplies including our LMR's (walkie-talkies) and their support equip.

The following ensued:
1. One emember of the parent unit had a MI, was taken to the local receiving hospital where he was told he would have to be driven home (no flying), whereupon without consulting us he was loaded onto a Hercules and flown home.
2. About a dozen members came down with influenza, requiring essentially taking turns on the clinic's exam tables getting IV's (for what, ??, never got treatment records) and tylenol before being sent back to their quarters.
3. The batteries ol the radios turned out to be worthless due to bad battery discipline (shallow recharges) on the part of the weekday techs.
4. We had the exercise commanding officer nearly pass out from positional asphyxia during MOPP4 (full chem suit and mask) doubled over in a desk kneehole.
5. We medics walked around as exempt obsevers and tried to prevent as much mayhem as we could, including a brand new airman who took cover in the exercise and was becoming hypothermic because he didn't have a coat on but stayed hidden behind a hangar.

We used half of the supplies and donated the rest to the clinic.

I vowed never to let myself get into a position again where the commander, looking at me and shaking his head, could again say "What the hell good are you guys here anyway?". (Paid off too. That's another story)/

[Tyler Bruns]

Not a call but my ED rotation.

Being a EMT-B student (Almost done!) I dont have any real experience other than my ED time so far. I get to the hospital 30mins early just to be on the safe side. Seconds after walking up to the nurses station a on staff tech tells me to follow him, they have a full arrest on the way in and they need me to do chest compressions. They bring in the PT who had gone down at home prior to EMS arrival. The on staff tech starts compressions then we switched out. I cracked ribs for the first time, got a systolic of 132 out of the PT. It was a pretty intense way to start out my EMS career.

Just wanted to share my story. I do my ride along this week. We'll see how that goes.

[mycrofft]

..Welcome..

[texasemt19842002]

The worst call i can remember was when i was 17 and on the volunteer fire department. We get paged out for a house fire at 2200 and its 30 degrees out. As i pull up to the station the dispatcher said that a girl was missing and possibly inside. The chief told me jump in one of the grass truck he grabbed the tanker as we pull out people jump in the trucks. we arrive at the fire. Its fully engulfed no way inside. This was about 5 to 10 min after the pager went off. at 0100 the fire is out and were looking for the girl i was manning the line when the steam cleared, there she was. I can still see her today and that was eight years ago. I've now been in ems for 7 yrs.

[atropine]

the worst calls are when you have to do 12-leads on old fat ladies.

[firecoins]

the worst call I ever had was someone with the cold. It was an ambualtory patient who had several family members home with driver's licenses and several vehicles in the driveway.

[firetender]

Originally Posted by atropine

the worst calls are when you have to do 12-leads on old fat ladies.

Hi! This is Rip Van Winkle!

When did paramedics start doing 12 leads on emergency calls?

[atropine]

Originally Posted by firetender

Hi! This is Rip Van Winkle!

When did paramedics start doing 12 leads on emergency calls?

Look tommy bahama who said it had to be an emergency?, I just put those in my worst call category thats all.