beat this story

[Richard B the EMT]

Remember that this is from 1975 to 1977, when I was young(er) and stupid(er) than I am now, also, it was a private ambulance service not in the 9-1-1 system.

Brooklyn, NY, Holmes Ambulance Service (defunct), I'm "teching" and Dave's driving our converted van ambulance. Harold the dispatcher calls us, Dave grabs the "mic", and we are told there's a Cardiac Arrest at a non hospital care center.

In the middle of Queens!

Lucky for us, we're right by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Dave acknowledges the call, throws the "mic" into the hook, and throws the van into gear. Bad as that POS van was, we burned rubber leaving the parking spot, and join the Sunday Afternoon traffic flow.

I won't say we were travelling too quickly for the road, but John F Kennedy International Airport's tower reported an unidentified RADAR contact following the BQE, the Long Island Expressway, and then the Grand Central Parkway, loosing the contact near the 180th Street exit.

I will say we were probably doing the "century" for most of the trip (read that as 100 MPH, I did say I was younger and stupider then).

I left the alleged safety of the seat belt ('taint no safety at those speeds!) while on the way, to put the CPR board, Bag Valve Mask, O2 tank and regulator on top of the stretcher, and resumed my seat and belt.

A trip that, without lights and siren, or exceeding the speed limit, should have been a half hour, was completed in 10 minutes.

On arrival, we had the stretcher out almost before the wheels stopped turning, shanghighed an elevator that food services had under key control, and almost took the door off the hinges as we exploded into the room, to find...

An 80 something year old woman, who confirmed that she was the patient we were supposed to pick up, but advised us she was supposed to be going in for testing, to be started early Monday morning!

Timecheck: about 2-30 PM Sunday!

We went looking for the charge nurse, who answered the question of "Why did you call it in as an Arrest?" replied "We wanted you to get here quickly."

For an ambulatory patient going in over 12 hours prior to prescheduled cardiac testing?

Dave didn't give me a chance. He verbally raked her over the coals, picked up the phone to call Harold the dispatcher, and after explaining the conditions, handed the phone to the charge nurse, who got reamed a second time by Harold.

We transported the lady to the hospital, without lights, without sirens, and kept out of sight of the military jets looking for the UFO in the skies over Brooklyn and Queens!

You know you cannot make this stuff up!

[Deckmo]

Responded one day code 3 to a person that was a visitor in a Level II trauma center on the 8th floor bathroom. Was a poss. hip. packaged and wheeled her down to the ER.

[Riblett]

We get called to a local nursing home (which happens to be a block from our station) for IV starts. The dispatchers actually say on the page, "EMS 1, IV start, at ......, code one."

Bear in mind that this is a 'skilled nursing' facility with RNs and LPNs on staff 24 hours a day and they call EMS for an IV start. Sometimes I think that they just call us before even trying because the nurse is busy or on break, not because the patient is a hard stick. I have been there when there were no signs of prior attempts.

In that rural county if we are tied up the next ambulance has a minimal response time of 10-15 minutes even going code three. 'Sorry your husband died of that MI ma'm, but we were busy doing the nurses jobs.' Hmmmm....quit wasting resources and call your contracted ambulance service for a routine trip to the ER so that the IV team can do it. Or call your convalescent-only contracted agency that has intermediates and paramedics to do it rather than taking a 911 truck out of service.

[MeekoBB]

Not just any convenience store, it's THE convenience store. And it's on our way back from the hospital too

Word.

Get dispatched for difficulty breathing to a SNF right next door to the ER....Dispatch clears you to use L/S. Walk in to find the pt supine in bed and a CNA trying to shove day old macaroni and cheese down the patients throat....Here's a thought! How about stopping force feeding and sit the guy up! WOW!!! What a difference!!!!

[weasel 108]

Lets see,, disptached to a residence for a "patient assist". Once inside we find out the patient wanted us to wipe her rear after she took a "dump" Several weeks later, we are again dispatched to same residence for a "patient assist" again we get inside and patient tells us she dialed 911 because she needs her blanket and sheet pulled up to her neck so she can go to bed.

[Richard B the EMT]

Unrelated item: Just did a survey of convenience stores, both connected and not connected with gas stations. Wawa was on the survey.

We now return to the discussion, already in progress.

[fiznat]

Dispatched priority 1 for the lifeline alert. O/A find 80ish y/o female complaining of "I can't find my remote."

TV remote found under pt's pillow. Cleared scene "no medical, community assist only."

[Trauma612]

Transported three amputated fingers (pipe bomb explosion) P-1, to the Mass General after they were recovered by state police bomb squad 30 min after the call....good times!

[brentoli]

Dispatched priority 1 for the lifeline alert. O/A find 80ish y/o female complaining of "I can't find my remote."

TV remote found under pt's pillow. Cleared scene "no medical, community assist only."

You could have ended it there, we would have known what you were getting at.

[s_greene]

Another story from NYC. My partner and I had just been cleared from a fire and, we were in our last 15 min of the tour, which means we will only be assigned high priority jobs, when sure enough, we're assigned a high priority job, an Unknown condition in Northern Brooklyn. The call text is useless and as we roll up we see a man, a car and an engine company. We approach the pt and ask what's wrong, he says his keys are locked in the car and he's a diabetic. I run through diabetic/ams questions but the dude's absolutely fine. I continue my questioning, he called 911 because he locked his keys in his car, when the PD dispatcher asks him some sort of medical questions, the man decides to share his medical hx with the dispatcher. We marked the job, and drove away even though I would have loved to assist in opening the car with one of my O2 tanks.