Hmm.....the call I'll never forget. There are actually several.
The first I'd have to say was the grossest....however it was definately the neatest. We responded to a single vehicle MVC involving a motorcycle. The guy had was wearing a skull cap (you know, the black helmets that just cover the top of the head) and was riding his harley with a group of friends. He came up to this curve on a hill and was going much too fast. When he hit the guardrail, it wasn't just one. He faceplanted about 6 or 7 posts, each post taking a piece of face/skull with it. In the end, he wound up having ears, nose, face, jaw, and brains seperated from his body and strewn about the roadway for a good 100 feet. His bike landed about 100 feet away from where he lay in the grass just past the guardrail. The neatest part of the whole scene was the blood spatter. Everytime he hit a post, there was a definate blood spatter showing it. We ended up needing the Haz Mat team to clean up.
The second call was not gross or neat. It was just disturbing. I used to work as an EMTB for a private ambulance company. We transported patients from one hospital to another, usually to one who better suited the needs of the patient. Well, one night we were called to transfer a mother who had just had twins. What had happened was the family called 911 when the mothers water broke, and the ambulance crew that arrived took her to the wrong hospital. Instead of taking her to a hospital that was pregnancy/baby/OBGYN/etc. ready, they took her to the closest hospital. Incidently, that particular hospital couldn't handle the patients. When the mother birthed both babies, they died in the ER. I had to transport the mother and her two babies from one hospital to the other. Seeing those babies was probable the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. They were a total of 2 hours 'old', fully formed, still having reflexatory muscle spasms that caused their chests to rise and fall, they still had reflexatory muscle spasms that caused them to grab your finger if you placed it in there hand, but they were dead. And to top it off, the mother was so shellshocked that she hadn't quite comprehend what had happened....she said nothing the whole trip. That was harder than keeping my mind busy by trying to calm her down.
And the third, which is not sad or gross but odd. We responded to a single vehicle MVC w/ Rescue involving a convertible. The additional was that they had rolled the vehicle over several times and had now wrapped it around a tree. Well, when we got there, that's definately what had happened. The front of the car touched the back, type wrapped around a tree. The top was down and the only thing above their heads was the B post. Anyone in that car would have been either dead or close to it. at least that's what we thought. Amazingly, however, both occupants of the vehicle had crawled out and were sitting on the side of the road. The worst injury was a cut above the drivers eye from when his head hit the steering wheel.
Everyone has those calls where the whole call is "One You'll Never Forget". But there are also lots of time when it's a single incident in a call that you remember....
One call I remember is a very very large woman. She was around 500 lbs. We had have firemen cut a whole in her house to get her out. Then we couldn't use the stretcher, we just put her on a peice of plywood and slid her into the back. The fireman had to bring our stretcher up to the hospital behind us.
blood... Running down the center line of the road. Looked around, didn't see the faces of the vehicle owners in the crowd. My heart dropped, as I approached one vehicle to find my aunt, heavily trapped, seat belt snapped, and pinned between the dash and seats. She was unresponsive; I was able to get into the passenger door. Fish out of the water breathing... Had to move on to other people to see who was worse. Approached other vehicle, found my neighbor trapped and impaled by the vehicle; compound fractures of both legs femur and tib/fib; and both arms, Blood running out the door. Another emt took over. Walked to the other side, found a woman whom I knew very well; very respected business owner... Just made my dinner the night before. She hadn't been belted in, and was smashed against the dash. The only way to describe the site to understanding, would be instead of bones under the skin would be jello head to toe. Neck broken, skull crushed. All, or most of the blood, draining from the car. I was at a loss; everyone was being worked on. I went to request a couple helicopters and have rescue expedite... and turned back to survey the scene again... Someone was talking to be but I was just not there, maybe in shock I guess. But I snapped out of it, and pulled a case of port-o-power from our loaner ambulance and began to break away parts of the car for the only patient I knew we had a chance of saving. The driver w/ all the fractures did survive; extricated, applied MAST suit... One life brought out of all the other tragedy...
