the coolest thing that ever happened on a call!

[medic429]

One that sticks in my mind happened while I was a Basic during a routine transfer.

Picked up a patient from the hospital for discharge back to his nursing home. Found patient sitting on edge of bed. He had a stoma. Said the usual "hello sir, how are...blah, blah, blah". He had had a larygectomy years ago. Well, I kept bending down and putting my ear near his mouth so I could hear him better. After a few minutes, he gently tapped my shoulder and said to me "It's better if you look at my face when I'm talking, and anyone who's in my position. You may be able to read my lips if you miss something I'm trying to say." Lesson learned--thank you sir. This guy was great...even suctioned himself and everything. Just one of those patient's you remember.

Finding out that this is also true in the opposite for people who are HOH. Instead of bending down and talking to the hearing aid like so many people do, a lot, though not all, of these people can read your lips if you look directly at them and talk slowly.

[FFEMT50960]

I made a run to a child with a possible broken arm, my partner who at the time was a new EMT was giving report to the ER staff and told them that the patients right arm was hurting, at which time the patients looked up and said " no it is my left arm, not my right" she then turned to me and told me I need to teach my partner her right from her left. LMAO To this day when i run into my old partner I ask her if she can remember which is her left and right.

[Just Plain Ruff]

ok, a couple of stories

1. had a 63 year old lady in the upstairs bedroom c/o chest pain. Ran a 12 lead no problems noted. Trusted gut instinct and transported. She coded in the driveway, got the emt back with me, started cpr, shock shock shock, came back. Then coded again in the ER. Flew to KC MO cardiac center. Coded in helicopter.

Called her house 6 days later and asked to speak to mr. so and so. It was a woman's voice so I asked how Mary was doin and she said "I'm fine, I got out of the hospital yesterday" I asked her how she felt and she said, "the only pain I have is where you guys broke my sternum" She then proceeded to thank us profusely, she sent a card and a cake on the anniversary of her coding.

2. Cardiac arrest 2nd to foreign body obstruction. The foreign body could not be visualized by laryngoscopy due to patients huge neck. I tried to tube him and met major resistence about 2 centimeters past the vocal cords. I needle cricked the patient, ventillated a few times and felt a lot less resistence on the ventillations, went back in via laryngoscope and there was a huge piece of steak at the vocal cords. REmoved that piece and got him tubed. We coded him to the ER but it was too late. I've never seen a foreign body dislodged this way ever again. Even stomach thrusts wouldn't work.

3. Had a friend roll on a car wreck, woman pinned by sunroof beam. Head crushed. He put her on the monitor and said, she's got a heartrate but no pulse(peripheral pulse) the heart rate was 180 a minute and he realized she was nearly full term. A physician arrived on scene and jumped in to the car with my friend. They proceeded to deliver a healthy but distressed 8 pound baby boy via emergency cesarean section. The child is about 21 now.

I have many others but those are the ones I can remember.

[MedicCallie]

It's not so much a cool thing I did on a call, but just the calls itself were cool.

I had an elderly male (about 83 years old) die of natural causes. I arrived on scene and basically was just there to comfort the family, because we got the pt's family doctor to sign the death certificate. The family was all gathered there.

Fast forward 4 months later, I get dispatched to a pregnant woman currently in labor. She was parked in a gas station, so I was able to get her in my cot and in the back of my rig... and delivered the baby right there at Speedway She said I looked familar to her, and then it hit her. That was her grandfather that passed away, and I arrived on that scene. I was there when her grandfather left this earth, and I was there when her child was brought into this world. Pretty cool!

Also... I got the sign the birth certificate on that baby too

[Just Plain Ruff]

medic callie WOW What a story

One more call -- pedestrian struck - near complete amputation of his right leg above mid-shaft femur -only thing holding the leg together was the femoral artery. Additional damage to the person was you could see into his pelvic cavity, rectum, intestines. bladder and all the inner workings.

He survived

[ismoky]

Coolest thing that has happened to me recently was after a call for a 6 year old girl in respiratory distress. We've always carried a couple stuffed animals on the rig for just such occasions. A little 02 and a new animal to play with and give a name to and she calmed down and was doing excellent on arrival at hospital. Cool part came about 3 weeks later when we received an entire box of stuffed animals with a note from the little girl. She enjoyed the toy so much she wanted to make sure there were plenty available for other little girls and boys we transported. So sweet there wasn't a dry eye in the meeting when the note was read.

[bull69]

alright, this ones of me working in the ER.

one night, working been slow, and im grumpy as hell, since i got a double double clinical the next day (EMT clinical at the same ER lol) standing at nurses station when registration comes in and says they need help, someones bleeding. me of course , grab some bulkies and run out to a lady ballin holding a bloody towel on her hand, I ask what happened and she, half laughs half cries, "The donkey bit my thumb off" I try not to laugh and bring her back, an put a dressing on it, since the hand doc happend to be their seein another pt. i reassure her, and go get him. sure enuff, thumb amputated below the knuckle. doc asks where the rest is, and again, she half laughs, half cries and states that the donkey ate it. he begins barkin orders at me tellin me all he needs, instead of the nurse, so i go grab all of it asn come back. i clean it the help him sew the stump up. after he's done, he tells her that he can do a coupe of surgeries and elongate the thumb so she can use it again. he then tells me what to do to it for care and leaves. i reassure her again, and while cleaning and bandaging the thumb, talk to her and make her at ease, and by the time she leaves, shes laughing and smiling, and gives me a bit hug. fast forward two weeks. walk in the ER and find a big basket of Reese's products (somehow she found out my favorite) with a 1/5 of crown royal hidden at the bottom (favorite drink) , and a note saying how much she appreciated me, and how i had made her week. she went on to tell me what gret bedside manner i had, and how i would make a great doc someday when i went to med school.

[AZCEP]

92 year old female fall

We arrive on scene ane are met by daughter and son-in-law, who explain the situation a bit. Shrugging it off we enter the house and find this young lady lying on the kitchen floor, head up against the base of the fridge, with and obvious anterior dislocated hip/femur.

We ask the standard issue history questions, and discover, quite possibly the healthiest 90+ year old person on the planet. No meds/History/prior surgeries/NOTHING.

My partner grabs the gear from the unit, while I'm explaining what I plan to do. Standard stuff, oxygen/IV/little "happy juice"

This patient looks at me, and starts to give me a hard time, all the while laughing at my reactions. I was having a tough time deciding if she was serious or not. :? So, IV established, 5 mg of morphine in, and she starts to feel better. We carefully roll her onto the LSB with the MAST in place. Wrap her up, inflate enough to immobilize, and use 5 mg more of Morphine for the carry to the gurney/ambulance.

So now we are about 25 minutes in, the patient is feeling a bit nauseous from the morphine, and we are finally on our way to the ER 40 minutes away. 12.5 mg of Benadryl for the nausea, 3 mg more morphine and we transport without incident.

Turn over patient care to the ER, who is questioning why in God's name we used the MAST, and 13 mg of morphine. At this point, the patient wakes up enough for the entire staff to hear her tell us, "You boys are the best." I tried to thank her for the compliment, and she replied "Don't you let these nurses give you a hard time, they weren't there to help you."

We thanked her again, and hoped we could have some more patients like her.

[traumaqueen2962]

[/font:cde3d6db07] Ya'll have some great stories!

I work for a company that does emergency and non emergent runs. Well we rec'd call to 80ish female fallin uncon. Arrive on seen and a kid about ten or so is holding the door yelling for us to hurry up ( he was obviously deaf you could tell by the way he spoke) Inside we find in a tiny lil bathroom a woman who appears to have been sitting on the toilet and passed out alling foward. Her son heard the fall, but couldnt get in because she was up against he door. He continued to attempt to gain access and finally got in. Im thinking, ok vasovagal syncope... maybe... well she is totally out of it large hematoma the temporal area of the skull. Respirations are about 8. pulse was rapid. long story short was we managed to get her out of the bathroom secured to a back board and too the hosp. she was awake but her gcs was about 9. About two weeks after that while grocery shopping, this man approachs me and tells me that he would like to thank me. I was very confused as I didnt recognize him. He began to tell me what her post recovery had been and i finally remembered who he was. remarkably this woman had suffered a 5 cm bleed, had a drain put i and had made a almost full recovery. It is times like that, that make me remember how much I love my job.

[Timmy]

Well it wasn’t so much to do with treating a patient. I was doing first aid for the crowd at crusty demonds, I decided to take a walk through the pits at interval and Levi Sherwood asks me for a bandaid for his blister!!! Levi Sherwood!! Only the greatest FMX youngest rider eva!! Anyways we got talking and next thing I know he's introducing me to some of the other FMX guys. Only the greatest moment of my life!!