Funniest incident...

[chappy]

What was the funniest thing that ever happened to you on a call? Not necessarily with the patients, but just weird stuff - funny accidents, equipment failures, etc.

For me, the one that stands out is this...

I was riding with the burnt-out Senior-Paramedic who was stressing over his divorce. He was bitter and I suspect he was supplementing his energy with street-corner pharmaceuticals. Anyway, we caught a car accident with entrapment. Our relationship with fire was, at best, bad. So, we did most of our own extrication's. This would be no exception. In addition to all the medical supplies, we carried a various hand tools, hurst power unit, o-cutter, spreader, ram, airbags and a 20lb dry chem extinguisher. In the late 80's the power modules for the strobes took up the better part of one compartment on the truck. So, packing everything in the truck was an interesting puzzle.

We did the extrication, packaged our patient and loaded her up. Got almost all the gear back in the truck (it was late at night) and was about to pull off when the police officer asked, "What do I do with this?" He still had the extinguisher. We couldn't figure out how to get it into the compartment it was supposed to go into, so, we set it at the foot of the stretcher. Do you see where this is going? When we got to the ER, I had to move the extinguisher to get the stretcher out. Did I mention the PD pulled and lost the pin to the extinguisher?

The patient was on 100% O₂, so it didn't bother her, but my partner cussed for about a week. I don't think I ever got all the yellow power out of that truck.

Looking back, it's funny but it wasn't funny then.

[Chief1C]

Purchased a machine for an ambulance, to be installed in an ambulance. NIBP, optional EKG, pulse ox, temp, heart rate, etc.. Just an extra hand, per se. First time it was used, while moving, this error pops up that it cannot operate while vehicle is in motion.

[medicgirl05]

A couple of months ago I arrived at work and went to check my truck....in the back doors was a huge tree limb that had been slammed inside by the crew on a call late the previous night. Apparently they had no idea it was there and they transported like that. Can you imagine? An ambulance driving down the highway with about 10 foot of tree sticking up out of the backdoors? Thank goodness nobody got hurt by this protrusion and we could laguh about it!

[chappy]

Purchased a machine for an ambulance, to be installed in an ambulance. NIBP, optional EKG, pulse ox, temp, heart rate, etc.. Just an extra hand, per se. First time it was used, while moving, this error pops up that it cannot operate while vehicle is in motion.

Hmmm, I see thousands of dollars swirling down the toilet.

[Richard B the EMT]

Purchased a machine for an ambulance, to be installed in an ambulance. NIBP, optional EKG, pulse ox, temp, heart rate, etc.. Just an extra hand, per se. First time it was used, while moving, this error pops up that it cannot operate while vehicle is in motion.

Yours is not the first I have heard or seen reporting stuff like this. Different products purchased for what they advertise, like safety goggles, but then the packaging says, in big block letters, not to be used as safety goggles.

While none of us like appearing as a fool, I think they see us coming.

[Medic2588]

I've been very good lately but this makes it hard to resist... I have several in my books on Amazon (keyword EMS2)...

Having said that, while responding to a car vs bus, with car on fire, I passed a second unrelated car fire. That fire burned through the brake lines and suddenly I have an unmanned, fully involved car chasing me down the hill. My partner and I tried to bail on the truck to use it as a roadblock to stop the flaming car from careening into a crowd of onlookers who refused to move, but the wonderful fleet maintenance had ensured that in order to open the passenger side door, I had to roll the window down half-way before the locking mechanism would disengage. In his frantic attempt to escape, my partner took the keys with him, so I was left panic-stricken and trying to kick out the windows. Wish I could say this had a dramatic/heroic ending, but the car hit a bump in the road and veered harmlessly off the street and I had to figure out where to get a change of underwear. We still needed to respond to the original call and found that it was only a minor fender-bender with 'smoke' coming from the airbag deployment.

Currently top of my list of fun moments.

[chappy]

I've been very good lately but this makes it hard to resist... I have several in my books on Amazon (keyword EMS2)...

Having said that, while responding to a car vs bus, with car on fire, I passed a second unrelated car fire. That fire burned through the brake lines and suddenly I have an unmanned, fully involved car chasing me down the hill. My partner and I tried to bail on the truck to use it as a roadblock to stop the flaming car from careening into a crowd of onlookers who refused to move, but the wonderful fleet maintenance had ensured that in order to open the passenger side door, I had to roll the window down half-way before the locking mechanism would disengage. In his frantic attempt to escape, my partner took the keys with him, so I was left panic-stricken and trying to kick out the windows. Wish I could say this had a dramatic/heroic ending, but the car hit a bump in the road and veered harmlessly off the street and I had to figure out where to get a change of underwear. We still needed to respond to the original call and found that it was only a minor fender-bender with 'smoke' coming from the airbag deployment.

Currently top of my list of fun moments.

To funny ... Maybe we need a new thread called: Fresh Underwear Moments...

[Bernhard]

Not necessarily with the patients, but just weird stuff - funny accidents, equipment failures, etc.

Enough funny things in my logbook, but this was the most recent, happened last week. My team finds it funny since then so I give it away here as well. And, I never liked the line "Paramedics save lives, EMTs save paramedics", but now I must admit, that finally it seems to happen, at least once.

Time was 03:40 a.m., patient with multiple coronary problems (written medical history of past doctors and hospitals lists 8 critical diagnoses with potential of leading to immedeate death) sits in his chair, so far conscious and still stable. Called because "short of breath" which was a clear indicator his doctor gave him to call EMS. So far, so good, we were there, all basics done, transport soon to begin - I just wanted to interpret the 12 lead ECG. But: the strip is completely strange, I don't get a single clue, staring at the strip for several time. Something seems to be really weird here...

Finally, my friendly partner (a "Rettungssanitäter", 540hr, something like EMT-B or -I) just points to the strip and says calmly: "I would turn it around".

I realized that I just tried hard to interpret an upside down ECG strip. After turning, the ECG was still strange (this may serve as my excuse), but at least I could read the letters on it.

Well, it didn't make a change, a real careful transport to a specialised center followed without problems.

BTW: this was the patient who told me on our arriving, that we may not find a blood pressure on him. Strange thing was, he was right (and it was mentioned in his medical history as well)!