Personal question

[Holocene]

Perhaps this question may be out of line in a forum like this, but then again maybe someone wont mind sharing their experience?

As an EMT or paramedic, what types of things have you seen that you would be considered pretty graphic, or make a typical person very uneasy?

Again, I apologize if this is a poor subject, but I was just wondering.

[JakeEMTP]

I have only been involved in EMS for a short time, approx. 1 year. I can say that, and I think most would agree with me, the first time I went to a GI bleed call. It is without a doubt one of the many scents ( and I use the term loosely ) that you will never forget. The smell of burning flesh is another.

I remember one of the very first calls I went on was a MVC, car vs. semi. 3 personal injuries, 1 DOA. The medic I was partnered with instructed me and I quote, " Go check the people in the car. If you need to take 2 steps between breathes and compressions, don't worry about it". I think that sight will always be with me.

[Timmy]

No not at all. I think it’s a good question.

Well not that I have much experience in EMS but I have treated a few "gross" injury’s.

At a B&S Ball which is a massive sort of piss up party, we had a lady jump into the bon fire. That was a bit ewww, her whole body was burnt.

Had a young girl with a fractured C4. The vertebra was bulging out the side of her neck. Not so much a gruesome injury but shocking to see.

Compound fractures with arterial involvement are always fun.

Being thrown up on is alway a down side.

Had a bloke fall off his dirt bike, right neck of femur fracture, leg had been completely rotated. Sort of like a cork-screw fracture.

Rodeo riders that have had there figures ripped off from being stuck in the saddle handle thing.

Oh and patients with really, really bad pressure wounds or extremely bad infections!

Sorry I don’t have more gross things.

[Timmy]

" Go check the people in the car. If you need to take 2 steps between breathes and compressions, don't worry about it". I think that sight will always be with me.

That’s horrible. Decaps would defiantly be the worst.

[ptfd121]

Last year a car rolled over on the freeway and an unrestrained passenger came out the sunroof, while the car was sliding on it's roof over his head. That was really nasty.

[Ridryder 911]

Aww... the usual "What is .... tell me ?.. Question

After nearly 30 years in EMS (ground/air) and 16 of those also working in ER and Level I Trauma, ICU, 2 years at a large Burn Center. even worked part time as a Field Investigator for the State M.E..etc.. there are multiple gross things, one can say I saw.

After many years of being exposed of "gross things" ; I have learned that it is all in the interpretation of what "gross" is ? It is all in the individual and personal interpertation. Yes, I have seen everything from live maggots eating on live people, retrieved floaters, decomps, literally picked up parts of people, worked disasters of nature and man-made both. Yes, some would make one queasy and the smell or fluids getting on you, or your clothes to smell would make you see your last meal again.

I believe the most graphic and rememberable things are the screams of the mother as you tell them their child has been killed, the emptiness and hollow look as you are informing that their spouse they have loved and been attached to for 60+ years, has died in their sleep, or the look of informing a young women she has stage IV breast cancer...incidences like those are the most graphic and make me "uneasy" and memorable.

The gross dissections, GSW's, decap's, etc.. I will occasionally recall, but the true "uneasy" are the ones that I described, those are the things I have nightmares about and can recall. I guess it comes with experience and exposure. Yes, one can become calloused or at least attempt to use that as a shield for our own personal psyche, and protection. Many become "displaced" so they can handle such calls. So to all the new EMS members be careful not to ever be too "immune".

Sorry for the rant...

R/r 911

[stretcher monkey]

I believe the most graphic and rememberable things are the screams of the mother as you tell them their child has been killed, the emptiness and hollow look as you are informing that their spouse they have loved and been attached to for 60+ years, has died in their sleep, or the look of informing a young women she has stage IV breast cancer...incidences like those are the most graphic and make me "uneasy" and memorable.

This is very true. Blood is blood, bone is bone, done and forgotten. Telling a 14 year old girl she has just lost both her parents stays with you for ever.

[paramedicmike]

Two come to mind:

1. We went out to the residence of a frequent flier. Only this time we were there for the wife and not the husband. As we were getting her settled on the stretcher I asked if Mr. XXXXXX would be ok by himself for a bit. She paused, looked at me as her tears welled up, and screamed, "He died last week!" They'd been married almost 60 years.

2. Trouble breathing on a lung CA patient. The wife grabs me on the way out of the residence and wants to know how bad it is. I told her that she knows he's sick but he should be ok for the ride to the ER. Don't you know the bugger up and codes on me half way there? And that I didn't get him back? It was not fun informing the wife at the hospital. If looks could kill I'd be long dead. Now I will not tell anyone that their loved one, my patient, will be ok for whatever the question may be.

And dude, if you're looking for gory stories, there are tons of other places to look. Have you read the site rules? Have you searched the forums? I'm sure you could find what you're looking for in other places here.

-be safe.

[Cookie]

Being first on scene for my brother in law who was burned over 58 percent of his body. Never forget the sight or smell.

[ptfd121]

I guess the blood and guts are the typical EMS gore that everyone sees. After reading the other posts it broadened my view of what I will remember as the most terrible thing I have seen.

The 18 year old girl with a nasty case of Meningitis. I had never seen anyone with Meningitis who was this bad and still talking. She had been sick for a couple of days with the typical symptons, and by know was so bad that her airway had begine filling with blood and tissue. She was dead already, she just didn't know it. Her parents were at the hospital with her and I will always remember her crying to her mother telling her she did not want to die. Then she grabs my nurse (flight nurse) and asked her to keep her from dying. How do you look at a young kid you know is going to be dead in a few minutes, and there aint a damned thing you can do about it, and tell her the truth? We had to sedate and intubate her, so the last words to her mother were a crying plea of "mom, don't let me die".

Then as we are going out the door, the poor parents are there, looking at you as their kids savior.They are really crying now, even dad( which just breaks my heart when dad starts crying) because the E.R. doc has just told them their daughter probably will not live to see the end of a 15 minute helicopter flight. The parents give you the old "take good care of her, we know she's in good hands, you guys are the best around". She never made it to the recieving hospital.

I don't care how cold hearted you are, that is something that will stick with you forever. There was a long debriefing after that one. But it still stands out in my mind as the most graphic thing I have seen or experienced.