Worst Call you've ever gotten ?

[usafmedic45]

Phosgene?

No....I'd really just rather not talk about it. Suffice to say it's one of those incidental smells that had nothing to do with what had happened and simply with where it happened, if that makes any sense.

 

[el Murpharino]

No....I'd really just rather not talk about it. Suffice to say it's one of those incidental smells that had nothing to do with what had happened and simply with where it happened, if that makes any sense.

It makes sense to me

Kind of like certain perfumes make me think of an ex-girlfriend...but I digress

 

[Sasha]

Had the crappiest call ever tonight.

I transported a patient that I had gotten to know very well at my former service. She was not in good shape, but she was the sweetest, independant, most thoughtful and most positive women I have ever met. We took her to dialysis twice a week and I had visited her a few times even after I left that company.

Today we transported her on a vent from one hospital to another.

A beautiful and lively woman now sedated and looking like death. It really sucked. I wanted to cry for her.

 

[HokieEMT]

My worst was a cardiac arrest where he didnt make it, but then it was trumped a couple weeks later.

My friend's mom had gotten metastasized breast cancer again and we all knew she wasn't doing too well. We were sitting watching TV one day when his dad who is on the career side calls and tells my friend his mom has to go to the hospital so we got out of service on a detail. We go to his house and his mom had been having abdominal pains and was vomiting that morning. I didn't really see my friends face until we got in the unit and I could tell it was tearing him up inside,but he was putting on a straight face. We took in and all. She never returned home. She passed away a couple weeks later. That

That was my worse call because I knew how bad my friend was feeling. Thats a call I will remember till the day i die. It wasn't bloody, gruesome, medically interesting, just straight up sad.

 

[MrBrown]

suicides or attempts

 

[kittaypie]

suicides or attempts

those get to me more than any other call.

 

[Akulahawk]

No....I'd really just rather not talk about it. Suffice to say it's one of those incidental smells that had nothing to do with what had happened and simply with where it happened, if that makes any sense.

That makes perfect sense to me. It's a sensory-linked memory.

Had the crappiest call ever tonight.

I transported a patient that I had gotten to know very well at my former service. She was not in good shape, but she was the sweetest, independant, most thoughtful and most positive women I have ever met. We took her to dialysis twice a week and I had visited her a few times even after I left that company.

Today we transported her on a vent from one hospital to another.

A beautiful and lively woman now sedated and looking like death. It really sucked. I wanted to cry for her.

I know how that goes...

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

ANYTHING involving children who are innocent victims of the situation.

My Worst / More Memorible Ones:

Drugging/Sexual Assault of a 11 year old and the 3 hours I spent with her on transfer to a pediatric hospital... she didn't remember a thing and seemed so innocent... truely SAD...

The several child Drowning/Body Recoveries I have been on... my first SAR call was a helicopter recovery of a 12 y/o drowning victim that was submerged for 4 weeks in class 5 water before she was recovered... and that wasn't my last child recovery...

And the one that really got to me... Only time I have ever broke down (largely as a result of fatigue and the cirrcumstances that put me so close to a rescue, but made a recovery unavoidable)... 3 day high sierra search for a father of 2 little girls... We had a picture of him and his family at the ICP (where I spent the final 12 hours of the call), an image that is still burned into my head...

 

[usafmedic45]

she didn't remember a thing

I would consider that something of a blessing in an otherwise all around horrible case.

my first SAR call was a helicopter recovery of a 12 y/o drowning victim that was submerged for 4 weeks in class 5 water before she was recovered

One of my first pediatric body recoveries as a diver involved getting the snapping turtles off the body before we could do anything else. Suffice to say I have nightmares about those critters and have a healthy respect for the damage they can do.

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

I would consider that something of a blessing in an otherwise all around horrible case.

True. Whether or not she ever remembered... <sigh>

One of my first pediatric body recoveries as a diver involved getting the snapping turtles off the body before we could do anything else. Suffice to say I have nightmares about those critters and have a healthy respect for the damage they can do.

That same recovery... lets just say that the only reason she was located was because the water level dropped... and a bear beat us to the remains... again <deeper sigh>

 

[dmc2007]

ANYTHING involving children who are innocent victims of the situation.

Worst for me was watching our patient get arrested in front of her three year old son for attacking his father with a knife.

That and my first motorcycle down-youll never catch me on one of those things.

 

[Smash]

That and my first motorcycle down-youll never catch me on one of those things.

Me neither. Patrol cars can't go that fast.

 

[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:sad:

 

[Tincanfireman]

My agency responded to a reported drowning of a 2 year old. I was at the ER when the child was brought in, but not on the responding crew. Unfortunately, the child was pronounced within ten minutes of arrival, mostly due to a >20 minute submergence. Since I was there, I offered to help the nursing staff who were cleaning the child up prior to the parents being brought back. I was cleaning up her face with a washrag and looked up for a second. When I looked down again, all I saw was the face of my (then) 3 year old granddaughter, instead of the deceased child's face. I closed my eyes quickly, took a deep breath and swore to myself that if it was still her face I was seeing when I opened my eyes, I would walk out of the ER and EMS forever. Opening my eyes, I again saw the features of the deceased child, not my sweet granddaughter. One particular young lady got the hug of her life when I got home that night, I can assure you...

 

[nomofica]

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:sad:

WHY ARE YOU YELLING?!
Really, a fully-capitalized paragraph isn't necessary is mostly annoying.


My worst would have to be last month at the Big Valley Jamboree incident in Camrose, Alberta. Lifting speakers, lights and other stage rigging equipment up and seeing the crushed, mangled body of a single mother of two. It was the worst I've seen in terms of gore, and it was the worst in terms of being on a personal level; I had met her earlier that day and she was was the nicest, most thoughtful lady I had ever met. That was pretty hard.

 

[RescueYou]

8 horrible minutes

I wasn't quite an EMT yet when this happened. I tested the next morning and passed so I was close to being cert. when this happened.
It was me, a Paramedic, and the driver (EMT-B.) It's around 2:30am on a Friday night. Dispatch sent us to an apartment building, top floor (6th floor), no elevator (ugh...) for a woman with shortness of breath. We get there, go up the stairs, only to find a 12yr old at the door who lead us to her grandmother who was lying supine on the living room floor. Arrest. NOT what we had planned for. So the poor driver ran down the strairs to get the AED while me and the Paramedic stayed upstairs (we'd brought the O2 bag...) We're working her when the 12yr old comes in from the other room and says "My sister is having a baby in the bedroom" just as calm as she could be. Well, with me not being certified to do anything except get vitals (local protocol), the paramedic stopped CPR on the grandmother and we ran into the next room. Sure enough, the young woman was in labor. Not just in labor though. She was crowning. 1 push later, we had a baby there. Well, bye bye grandma. She couldn't be brought back. Not enough hands or time. But the baby wasn't crying and so we had an issue there and just left grandma (*note, grandmother to the new baby, mother to the 12 yr old and new mom*). Also note that the driver EMT is still getting the AED bag. Well, after some cpr, the baby finally cried and we just got lucky the amniotic fluid wasn't too bad in his mouth because we had nothing to use to suction. The new mother was mentally disabled, but held up for us. I held onto the baby as we simply ran to the hospital and yelled to the EMT driver to stay with the deceased grandmother and 12 year old. After arriving at the hospital (which was RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET...talk about irony), we got the mother situated and were about to walk back over to the rig. The doctor then came out and told us that they had lost the baby. Turns out that the baby had been born without his kidneys and couldn't have made it. We went back into the hospital to see how the woman was doing after hearing that. All she could say was "I lost my mama and my baby in the same day...." over and over again. That was hard to hear and watch her say.

That call still makes the top 10 list of the worst calls ever taken around here. I just can't believe I witnessed it and couldn't do a single thing.

What makes this call so intense is that from the time dispatch gave us the address to the time we first ran into the hospital, the time duration was EIGHT F***** MINUTES. Now THAT is high stress.

 

[Gold777]

It sucks that these sort of things have to happen, but it isn't normal to have tragedy after tragedy happen either, and that is petty much our job.

But my worst one was actually last night, we got a call of person not breathing, when we got there we found out the person was a 3 month year old little girl. The grandparents fell asleep with it, and well u can guess what the result was. It wasn't my first, but at the same time you never get use to it.
STAY SAFE!!!!

 

[firetender]

Worst?

Worst comes and goes according to my mood or present situation. People always ask me what was my "worst" experience. I'll flick through my library of horror, and pick the one I figure will freak out the listener most!

Here's what I've learned: Horror comes in all shapes and sizes, textures, weights and, yes, even Non-forms.

There isn't any such thing as the worst, there can only be personal favorites at the time. If you really look at it, each of us has a potential "worser" that can happen in any moment. If anything, that's the lesson of this thread and its litany of nightmares. I read lots that could be my worst!

But it really doesn't stop there because the horrors are part of a greater Wonder! One summer, I kayaked a few sunsets a week in Santa Barbara. One evening I found myself in the middle of a sunset, bobbing in the swells, an occasional dolphin swimming by, and literally exclaiming to myself, "It can't get better than this!"

And it did! I swear to the Great Whatever, the next ten sunsets I was in the middle of in a row got better and better!

It is my position that the degrees of horror that you're able to accept -- not fight, not succumb to, not deny or avoid -- will determine the amount of beauty you are able to experience.

This is actually a gift of the profession that has guided my life since.

 

[ZVNEMT]

Worst comes and goes according to my mood or present situation. People always ask me what was my "worst" experience. I'll flick through my library of horror, and pick the one I figure will freak out the listener most!

Here's what I've learned: Horror comes in all shapes and sizes, textures, weights and, yes, even Non-forms.

There isn't any such thing as the worst, there can only be personal favorites at the time. If you really look at it, each of us has a potential "worser" that can happen in any moment. If anything, that's the lesson of this thread and its litany of nightmares. I read lots that could be my worst!

But it really doesn't stop there because the horrors are part of a greater Wonder! One summer, I kayaked a few sunsets a week in Santa Barbara. One evening I found myself in the middle of a sunset, bobbing in the swells, an occasional dolphin swimming by, and literally exclaiming to myself, "It can't get better than this!"

And it did! I swear to the Great Whatever, the next ten sunsets I was in the middle of in a row got better and better!

It is my position that the degrees of horror that you're able to accept -- not fight, not succumb to, not deny or avoid -- will determine the amount of beauty you are able to experience.

This is actually a gift of the profession that has guided my life since.

I get what you mean, i work in the Detroit area, seen some stuff, but nothing really bad, but before i became an EMT, I just took alot of things for granted. Used to go up north for deer season every year, sit and wait for a deer, bored out of my mind. and just last year i went out, sat in my blind, and just felt so good to be away from Detroit and all the city B.S.. Got out of my blind and say near a tree instead to further immerse myself in nature, watched the sun rise, making the freshly fallen snow seem to glitter. the experience seemed so intense to me that i forgot to flick off the safety when a buck finally passed my way.:blush:

I don't really like talking about my worst call with people who weren't there... it was just a big clusterf***.. but i'll talk about it here. We're all sitting in the station watching a movie, most of us not even in uniform, meanwhile a city bus driver is pounding on the office door for help w/ a woman having a Sz on the bus. we get paged "somebody go out and check on this bus thing..." all 7 of us make a mass exodus to the bus. EMT#1 and i board the bus, find a large, but young woman lying in the middle of the floor. not breathing, call out to EMT#2 that she's not breathing, need O2. EMT#2 comes back with a nasal cannula. EMT#1 can't get a radial pulse or carotid pulse. at this time EMTs#3 & #4 show up with the canvas stretcher and help us move her on to it. We move her into the ambulance, hook her up to the pulse oximeter. it shows her around SpO2 60%ish w/ an inconsistent pulse reading as it bounces between 20-90. we are unsure if she has a pulse or not. perhaps due to her excess fat we just can't find the carotid pulse. EMT#1 checks for a pulse again, EMT#5 starts the ambulance, and then just leaves to stand in front of the building. EMT#4 jumps in the driver seat and tells us that we're going. EMT#6(is a completely incompetent whacker) is sitting at the head of the Pt, where i need to be to BVM her. EMT#6 then moves into the stepwell to watch, he is useless, i literally kick him out of the side door, and lock him out. EMT#7 didn't do anything but tell us what to do after we've begun doing it. Sepervisor#1 is yelling at EMT#5 because 3 of our 7 EMTs just left in that ambulance. en route, EMT#1 has started CPR, I'm on the BVM. EMT#4 got confused and missed the exit, reroutes to the next hospital, no distance difference really, but the code was called to Hosp#1. (all 7 EMTs and 1 supervisor totally forgot about the AED, which is locked up and the key is on the drivers key) We roll up to Hosp#2. the nurse who meets us wants to know if this is real. we look at eachother very confused, I inform the nurse that 'no... it's not real, we're pretending to perform CPR on a Pt who is pretending to be dead because we thought it would be funny.YES, fatass, this is real!". nurse sends us to resus room. they take over from there. time to fill out the paperwork. go through the Pt's purse to find an ID. i find it, along with a picture of 2 young children and a stack of GED prep books. the PT turns out to be a 27 y/o w/ 2 kids, working on a GED to try to get ahead in life. as i come to this conclusion they call it.

 

[atropine]

The ones when the patient doesnt pay.