Ever have a piece of equipment break on you (when you needed

[spenac]

Last Dec brand new ambulance, first call. Got 15 miles into the old 90 mile transport and broke down. Only thing I could figure was the holy water the city had the priest sprinkle it with broke it.

[WestSideBorderPatrol]

So it was definitely defiantly working? Did you try and shut it off but it kept working anyway? Sorry could not resist. Never had a defiant light before.

Dang, my bad. But in my defense, "definitely" is a tricky word to spell. lol

[akroeze]

"definitely" is a tricky word to spell. lol

For sure

[timboyle]

When Ford rigs were gasoline powered, we had a 10 year old Braun that stalled at least twice when leaving the station. Just rev it up a few times and she'd get right back on the road.

The 80's air horn was nice thou.

[Richard B the EMT]

Back to the corner post mounted spotlights...

I think they went out of favor, as, the handles always seemed to become disconnected from the lights, so you couldn't control the light's direction, and the control handles would fully separate from the devices, leaving a sharp tube, potentially, to get impaled on.

[WANTYNU]

I had a life pack show a Brady rhythm, when the person was NSR at 80 (even after cleaning the electrodes and skin).

An O2 regulator thumb screw snap in my hand, (and of course the previous shift moved the spare) during a conscious intubation on a decompensating APE. (talk about fun times).

Stretcher lock (the one in the bus) handle literately blow off the locking bar (rivet failed). (shot at least 15 feet past the back of the bus).

Knife fall apart in my hand (handle rivets came undone, the whole thing fell apart).

O2 wrench snapped.

Radio knob fell off.

Flash light bulb on a new flashlight.

Anybody else? Any good stories?

So I am taking a moment in this busy holiday season to add to my list, First why is it that management decided to put into service new equipment before the busiest part of the year, four years ago it was the Scranton ACR’s (ePCR) on no better than midnight January 1st (New Year’s Eve) to figure out new paperwork, just the busiest night of the whole year…

So this year are new stretchers, now I think they’re great, it’s about time we went to the One (and a half) man stretchers (we keep the new half crew in the spare tire cabinet), BUT it would be nice if they tested the release or adjusted them properly before deploying them in the field. Ours stuck, (of course on a call) and we had to lift the patient into the Ambulance, transport them on the cot, then again lift them out the bus to transfer them to a hospital stretcher… Found out later a tension adjustment screw was too long so the release locked…

Or how about the new easy reset circuit breakers, you hit one good bump and one in the bunch pops. Then you get to play circuit breaker bingo, pull the circuit cover and it’s like looking into the inside of a star Trek computer, a thousand blinking lights, cryptic labels, and little tiny popup breakers… you end up hitting everything until the stuff that stopped working (HOPEFULLY) resets.

Call me crazy, but I think equipment meant to work in an EMERGENCY, should be tested before it is deployed, so it actually WORKS when you need it to. (I know it completely blows the surprise factor, but hey, I like to know what my equipment will do in an emergency, before I am responding to one…)

As Always

Be Safe,

WANTYNU

[kitkat]

Yes, last week, in of course sticky wet snow at 0200, and what happens, try to clean the wiper blades and the driver side flies off, so I figure I will take the passenger side one and put it on the driver side, at least be able to see to drive to the hospital, and now realize that the arm of the wiper is actually broken,(while fighting with the blade and getting totally soaked!!) well, too bad, I made it work, and made it safely to the hospital, everyone entacted!! Then proceeded to get another ambulance as mantienace hours were closed.

[Richard B the EMT]

WANTYNU says

Call me crazy, but I think equipment meant to work in an EMERGENCY, should be tested before it is deployed, so it actually WORKS when you need it to. (I know it completely blows the surprise factor, but hey, I like to know what my equipment will do in an emergency, before I am responding to one…)

Sorry, against Reilley's Rules of EMS, Murphy's Laws, and the Laws Of Nature!

[WANTYNU]

This my Point yes uncle Murphy can and will show his ugly head, but there are so many other places he can play, emergency equipment shouldn’t be one of them.

Equipment is engineered, designed and built to do a job, if it fails it was used wrong, or built wrong.

Or was never meant for the job in the first place, you would substitute sewing scissors for trauma shears and expect the same results or for them to last as long?

I think half the problem is we as a community are so used to getting someone else’s hand me downs, or second best, that we except it as the standard and say nothing.

Just IMHO…

As Always

Be Safe

WANTYNU

[Medic One]

LP12 broke during defib attempt. It turned out that the wires for defib were bad. Passed daily test but during the day the connector was damaged. We now have the base retrofit protection case.