Getting used to blood,bones,and bodies.

[EMTStudentwa]

As my name states I'm just an EMT student now. I've seen an intibation,I've helped bag a resp arrest, seen a few other things but nothing too gruesome. I'm curious if anyone has had trouble with seeing open fracs avulsions and other deformities for the first time. Any particular experiences?

 

[EMT11KDL]

I am going to be honest and blunt with you. I know Paramedics and EMT who have quit there jobs after certain calls. With that being said, everyones experience is going to be different. Personally I had seen some nasty injuries before I got into EMS, so I already knew I had the "Stomach" for it.

I have been in EMS for 2 Years now. There is times when I still get on scene and see the patient with some type of Major Trauma and I have to step back, clear my head, and get back to work. Hope that answered your question.

 

[xshellyx]

I had about nine clinical shifts in the ED when I was in emt school. I had dealt with bloody compound fractures, ear drainages, sutures, you name it. Nothing really seemed to phase me or make me lightheaded until this one shift. A lady came in with a badly dislocated ankle, which was swollen to the size of a softball. I thought, no big deal, and helped in transferring her from the gurney to the bed, and all the fun stuff emt students are asked to do. Then the orthopedic surgeon walked in the room, and the ED Tech who was helping me told me to stay in and watch when he reset the bones. Thats when all my troubles started. The way he was moving her leg, it was like it wasn't even a limb, but like a piece of steel that needed to be bent back in place. The sounds and the force he was using, just all at once made me feel faint. And for the first time, (and only, so far) I felt like I was going to pass out. All the nurses looked at me, and were like, you need to sit down. It was so embarrassing because it was a simple procedure, there were no open wounds or anything, which people normally will fall faint to. We laughed it off later, but still to this day I hope that I will become used to it and not have to feel that way again.

 

[fast65]

I had about nine clinical shifts in the ED when I was in emt school. I had dealt with bloody compound fractures, ear drainages, sutures, you name it. Nothing really seemed to phase me or make me lightheaded until this one shift. A lady came in with a badly dislocated ankle, which was swollen to the size of a softball. I thought, no big deal, and helped in transferring her from the gurney to the bed, and all the fun stuff emt students are asked to do. Then the orthopedic surgeon walked in the room, and the ED Tech who was helping me told me to stay in and watch when he reset the bones. Thats when all my troubles started. The way he was moving her leg, it was like it wasn't even a limb, but like a piece of steel that needed to be bent back in place. The sounds and the force he was using, just all at once made me feel faint. And for the first time, (and only, so far) I felt like I was going to pass out. All the nurses looked at me, and were like, you need to sit down. It was so embarrassing because it was a simple procedure, there were no open wounds or anything, which people normally will fall faint to. We laughed it off later, but still to this day I hope that I will become used to it and not have to feel that way again.

Don't be too embarrassed by it, keep in mind that people are all different, some can't stand bloody, open wounds, while others can't stand bones being reset; each person has a different set of things that they can and can't tolerate. Hell, I had an instructor that couldn't stand the sound of suctioning, it made her sick, so just don't worry too much about those types of things.

 

[EMSLaw]

Then the orthopedic surgeon walked in the room, and the ED Tech who was helping me told me to stay in and watch when he reset the bones. Thats when all my troubles started. The way he was moving her leg, it was like it wasn't even a limb, but like a piece of steel that needed to be bent back in place. The sounds and the force he was using, just all at once made me feel faint.

I believe this has been posted elsewhere on this forum, but...

There you go.

 

[EMTStudentwa]

Shelly, I get what you mean. I remember seeing medical shows where they would getinto surgery and get their hands and tools into the patient and go to town. It goes back to the idea that its not usual to see certain things happen to the body.

 

[xshellyx]

Don't be too embarrassed by it, keep in mind that people are all different, some can't stand bloody, open wounds, while others can't stand bones being reset; each person has a different set of things that they can and can't tolerate. Hell, I had an instructor that couldn't stand the sound of suctioning, it made her sick, so just don't worry too much about those types of things.

Yeah, I guess as long as I don't plan on being an orthopedic surgeon, I should be fine. We don't do alot of bone resetting in the field

and EMSLAW ahahaha, that cartoon sums it up just about right.

 

[EMSrush]

I used to freak out over even the tiniest boo-boos...

I'm not sure what has happened to me since, but not much makes me sick anymore, other than certain smells, but even that you can get used to with the help of Vick's if needed.

A short story for you... I had to irrigate and dress an avulsion in the field one night. A police officer was shining a light for me so that I could see what I was doing. The light started to move a bit, which I found a tad irritating. I assumed I was being toyed with, so I ignored it and continued with what I was doing. After 2 or 3 more movements of the light, I turned around to say something to the officer, and noticed that he was vomiting. At least he did his best to maintain the light for me. :lol: And I'm glad I looked before saying anything.

To be honest, I find that stuff sort of fascinating... :blush: (not the vomiting, the wound) but not everyone does. I used to run with a medic that could handle everything except vomit. Just the sight of it would send him heaving. It's a good thing he wasn't on that avulsion call with me. Hope this helps...

 

[Pittsburgh77]

Honestly, it's just something you deal with.

I'm the type who gets grossed out easily by the SAW movies and other horror movies [but I love them] however, on calls my professionalism kicks into high gear. I just put on my poker face, and do what needs to be done.

 

[Bulldog Medic Student]

With me its odors. As long as I can breathe and not gag I can look at and treat anything. Once saw a body with no head.

 

[FrostbiteMedic]

As far as bloody, bony traumas go I can deal with them all day long. It was stated earlier that some people can do this job for years and then have a call which makes them quit. The worst patient that I ever worked was when I was doing my clinicals at a local ER back in the day (2003) and it was a really busy night. All the nurses and docs were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, and they did not have time to slow down much, so, using they used their available resource (me) to sit with a rape patient until SO got their to transport her.....to the regional childrens hospital....she was 4 yo and had been raped by the 13 y/o son of the baby sitter. I am tearing up thinking about this and it has been 7 years since that day. How do you look at a patient like that and remain emotionally detached??? Again, I can deal with blood, guts, and gore. I just have a hard time dealing with something that I know there aint a F****ng think I can do about it. For all the knowledge that I have, all the training I received, there was nothing I could do for this little girl except give her a teddy bear and try to keep from breaking down into tears while I watched over her. Everytime she would shift her weight around she was wincing. I can only imagine the pain that she felt......

Sorry for the rant guys.....I just had to lay it out on the table there.

 

[adamjh3]

Honestly, it's just something you deal with.

I'm the type who gets grossed out easily by the SAW movies and other horror movies [but I love them] however, on calls my professionalism kicks into high gear. I just put on my poker face, and do what needs to be done.

Some dude with his face caved in after a TC, no big deal.

SAW, big deal. Can't handle that. I think it's the fact that it's people being needlessly and gruesomely violent to other people for the sake of entertainment that gets me.

 

[firetender]

she was 4 yo and had been raped by the 13 y/o son of the baby sitter. I am tearing up thinking about this and it has been 7 years since that day. How do you look at a patient like that and remain emotionally detached??? For all the knowledge that I have, all the training I received, there was nothing I could do for this little girl except give her a teddy bear and try to keep from breaking down into tears while I watched over her.

Sorry for the rant guys.....I just had to lay it out on the table there.

Please, never apologize for being human!

Seven years is a long time to hold on to something as heavy as this, if that's what you did. If anybody here is disturbed by the telling, all I have to say is there's a call with your name on it as well.

In my experience, the first stage of stuff like this is admitting to yourself that it's real. Sometimes you have to say it a few times until you yourself "get it." Until that happens you feel a little crazy. It's a good thing you brought it here and modeled not holding back. Maybe that'll make it easier for others to do the same with their traumas.

Hopefully there's one or more human beings you can work this through with, in person. That means just allowing yourself to express stuff you haven't. It's that simple. Something could be stuck inside and without loosening it up you won't know how heavy it is until you run into the next tough one and the added weight crumbles you.

Burnout is all about accumulation without release. Please forgive my presumption that you haven't been working through this. I interpreted your apology for this as a "rant" as an indicator.

This stuff is real and deserves attention; Thank you.

Something you may not have considered; I'll lay money that the 13 year old had the very same thing done to him at one or more times. A hideous act like that -- literally ripping the innocense out of a child -- is not something a 13 year old thinks up by himself; that is learned behavior.

Part of the job is sometimes playing witness to evil. Part of the job is to have Zero tools to fall back on. Part of the job is to experience helplessness.

See, but what people often don't get is that a larger community once shared in carrying weights like this. Now, such exposure is limited to professionals, like you.

Thank you!