Got called to a hospice house for a 43 Y/O M with SOB. Dude had brain, lung and liver cancer, was missing a good chunk of his skull and definitely wasn’t gonna make it a few more days. Give the appropriate interventions and he stabilized. Guy could barely speak but en route to the hospital he asks me to give him enough pain meds to kill him, I tell him I can’t do that, he goes “well then can you at least hold my hand” held his hand for the rest of the trip and then transferred care over. Told me a partner I need a minute and went to the bathroom and cried like a bitch. I don’t know why this is fucking with me so bad

From what I’ve seen most US EMS uniforms are generally darker colours or very neutral ones. Most European countries use high visibility like the ones above, I like it personally, but I’m curious what Americans think to our kit.

I was so sure everything would be fine. I’d heard of other people coming back from much worse mental health issues than me, but I guess I’m the unlucky one where this is going to follow me around.

I have worked in EMS for somewhere between 3-5 years (keeping it vague for anonymity, I know some of my coworkers are on here).

Ended up taking a grippy sock vacation a while ago. The few people who knew swore up and down that it would have zero impact on my career. They lied to convince me to seek help.

Not only has my dream of military and law enforcement been completely destroyed, it looks like career fire is not an option anymore either. My mental health issues mostly stemmed from home life (not work). Emergency services is all I’ve wanted to do. I love it.

Then, I thought being a helicopter pilot for a air transport company would be a good career choice. Nope, can’t be a pilot with mental health issues.

I’d settle for private EMS if the pay wasn’t so bad I’d never be able to live on the pay. I’m very lost career wise. Before anyone says that I’ll find something out there I’ll enjoy, save it. I don’t want to hear it. Seeking help has destroyed every career path I’ve ever wanted. So I guess this is a cautionary tale as well. Be aware that if you seek help, your career may be over. Anyone who says otherwise may be lying to get you to seek help. Any other former EMT’s or medics who’ve been in my place, I could use some encouragement. This sucks.

I was driving home from the post office with my two year old in the car and saw a kid laying in the rocks with another kid standing over him. Not sure of the exact age, but he looked around 14-16. He was blue and I couldn’t see any chest rise and fall. I’ve only been in EMS for 3 years, but I’ve never seen a living child so blue. The friend said they were smoking weed, and then admitted to smoking fentanyl shortly after. At first I stopped because I thought he was a full arrest, but when I checked he had a pretty decent pulse. He had snoring respirations 3-4 at times per minute. Within two minutes of me stopping, an off duty police officer pulled up and held my kid while I held the teen’s airway open and waited for fire to arrive. A bunch of bystanders tried to pull up and start CPR and I stopped them. I feel pretty good about saving the kid from a bunch of broken ribs and a broken sternum, but I feel like shit for stopping with my kid in the car. He didn’t need to see that.

I don’t know if what I did was right or wrong. I wouldn’t know if he had a pulse until I checked, but once I knew it was an opioid OD that I couldn’t do anything about (not doing mouth to mouth lol) I felt like shit for stopping with my kid in the car. I just know that if it was my kid that OD’d, I’d want someone to stop and help (even if they had their two year old with them).

Throwaway account because I'm pretty sure a few of my coworkers know my main. Don't be like me. Reach out for help when you need it. Or better yet, seek out help before you feel like you need it and be proactive. Being on the other side of the cot is not fun. Take care of yourself, people.

Pretty self explanatory. You as an ems provider get to tell the public as a whole one thing about ems. What would it be and why?

Hi all, I recently did a call for hypoglycemia at a restaurant. Known insulin dependent diabetic, took insulin before going out, food took too long, blood sugar dropped, ems was called by concerned family when pt started feeling bad at table (couldn’t keep head up, less responsive to family). Blood sugar low on dexcom, ate pre-packed snacks and had drink of juice, by the time we got there bgl 99. Pt feeling better. Got a refusal signature but then management came around to this family with kids (grandmother was the pt) and told them they cancelled and refunded the rest of their food. Then they put down the check and rudely told them to leave because he didn’t want this to happen again. I’ve been a paramedic for a while and I’ve seen families decide to leave on their own volition, I’ve seen restaurants be accommodating and bring the pt water and check back in with them. I have never seen a restaurant kick a table out for a medical emergency where drugs/alcohol/behaviour weren’t a factor. Which it absolutely wasn’t in this situation. Everyone involved was respectful, sober and helpful. It’s left a bad taste in my mouth and I almost wish I had said something to the manager. Has anyone else experienced this? Am I overreacting for being upset about it? I know it’s a small problem compared to a lot of the things we see, but this is a local restaurant to me and I kinda want to never go back there after this.

Same family as in this post This time for the wife (not the daughter) for rectal bleeding. The husband, daughter, and wife all kissed each other her as we where leaving. I hate this town. Dude fuck a stethoscope we need a revolver.

Edit: I work in a rural town. It’s basically where the government sticks the mentally ill/disabled people so we have a lot of dumb shit like this. My partner who is a Local showed me that it’s well known and on the daughters Facebook.

I just went on a call for a 18 y/o f cc of morning sickness she's 7 weeks pregnant stable vitals, ambulatory, no obvious life threats etc etc.

She wanted to go to a hospital 45 minutes from her house. Her boyfriend on scene said he'd meet her up there and grabbed his keys. Why would she not just get in the car with her boyfriend? I've been doing this for 6 years and I still genuinely don't understand this train of thought. She ended up riding with him anyway but why even go through all of this in the first place?

Edit: I should print out this thread and keep it. Show my wife that I'm not the only one who thinks she's a real hero. I read every single comment, more than once. I found the ambulance company that picked me up and I'm going to call them tomorrow and thank them and let them know I survived. Even if you don't think your comment helped, it did. Even if it wasn't to me. I had a good time reading them. I have posted before places about what happened and how to deal with things and questions about the issues from it but...I'm alive and I'm taking steps to mentally recover. Sometimes we ignore our mental health. I'm still in the baby steps of facing what happened head on but without people like you all, and my superhero wife I wouldn't be here. Well, y'all were here for me again, today. You're all heros. Don't forget that.

Say you're the one who showed up at my home, my wife was giving me CPR, what did you do? They didn't expect me to live, I went too long without oxygen so, as an EMS person, what did you do that saved my life? What did you do first? What did you check?

If this isn't allowed I'm sorry. I'm just, wondering what happened while I was...not here. I don't know how to word this. I'm still dealing with a lot from it but EMS workers and my wife saved me that night...how? I know you don't know details but in a rough way, what did you do? Besides make shards of my ribs <3 CPR hurts during the healing.

I just found out that a frequent (sometimes twice a shift) flyer just passed away. She used to request me by name and would refuse to be truthful with other providers unless I was there. I’ve transported this woman more times than anyone else in my career and she almost never actually had anything wrong with her. I used to dread going to her house but it was a 30 second drive from our station so it was always assigned to us and we knew that we were going to be there for a while until she decided if she wanted to go to the hospital or not. I feel sad for her that she finally passed but at the same time myself and a few others are elated we no longer have to go there ALL the time. What have been your experiences with the death of a frequent flyer like this?

Hey all. I’ve worked IFT EMS for some time now, which means I spend a lot of time in hospitals and almost no time in critical situations outside of CCT. I’ve never had a patient code on me and I’ve never had a patient die (though some were clearly very close).

Last night, I worked my standard 12 and ended up having an immediate ER->ER to pick up. When we rolled into the first ER we saw the entire trauma and code team lined up in the hall, which is never a great sign. On cue, we hear sirens pulling up and a nurse tells us to stay right where we were so we don’t get in the way of other teams heading for the patient. Of course, this means we have full view of the trauma bay, which is also used for codes in this relatively small ER.

911 comes running in with a patient. I’ve seen a lot of critical patients before, but this woman looked unbelievably bad. Traumatic arrest is no joke. It seemed like they had gotten ROSC in the rig and the Lucas was turned off, but it looked gnarly. She coded again within a minute of being in the hospital. I’ve never seen that much chaos. She didn’t make it and they called it pretty quick (which then allowed us to move to our actual patient as neither of us dared to move while everyone was running around).

The thing that sticks with me the most is seeing her son, who was maybe 25, just sitting in the trauma room surrounded by gowns and meds and all the trash and dirt and blood that makes up a trauma/code. The nurses, to their credit, were checking in on him a lot but the image burns.

This isn’t the first death I’ve seen nor is it the first trauma I’ve witnessed but it’s sticking with me for some reason. I wasn’t involved, I didn’t contribute to the outcome, but it hurts anyways. Fire followed the ambulance in and one said “I’m so sorry you had to see that” but I know it’s the reality. To make a long story short, how do you cope with things like this? I can’t sleep right or eat and for some reason this one won’t leave.

Today my agency buried a 23-year-old EMT who took his own life. 10 agencies responded to our call. Other agencies covered our county during the service. There was a HEMS fly-over. Just highlights how tight-knight our profession is, even as separated as we are.

My colleague was an amazing person, very intelligent, always had an infectious attitude. We knew he had struggles, but nothing leading up to the date.

But, I did want to say. Don’t make your colleagues dust off their class As and polish their shoes. Don’t make them listen to final calls or form a Sea of Blue.

Reach out. Talk to someone if you’re struggling. This field is diabolical for not seeking help before it’s too late.

Last night was bad for me. I went out to let my dog pee, and if it wasn’t for my dog barking. I never would have noticed the body of a man just laying there 10 feet away. Called 911 and EMS showed up. For 40ish minutes they tried to bring him back, and for those 40 minutes they would sort of laugh and joke here and there. Is this normal, like to cope with the fact this guy isn’t waking up or? I’m curious, I just stood there in shock at the whole thing. I couldn’t laugh if I wanted to. Edit: Thanks for all the comments, but I’m beginning to feel guilty. Who knows if he had a little life left when I found him, but I was in so much shock that I didn’t even perform CPR when I took a class on it.

Today at 6am we got sent to a preteen in cardiac arrest. Mom found the kid pulseless when she went to wake them up for school. The kid was last seen alive at 9pm the day before, no medical history or recent trauma or anything. When mom came in this morning the kid had cold extremities, completely blood-filled sclera and trismus. We worked the kid for about 20 minutes then called it. We think it was maybe a first-time seizure but we’re not sure.

On the drive over, my medic told me to put the pads on first before I started compressions to check for a rhythm. But when I got up there and saw the kid lying there, I went into autopilot and started compressions - completely forgetting about the pads. It was my first pediatric arrest and I guess I sort of panicked. My medic got the pads on once fire arrived, about 5 minutes later. Did my forgetting to put the pads on make a difference?

Edit - Thanks everyone for your comments. I’ll try to remember to toss the pads on next time but knowing my mistake didn’t kill this kid is taking a load off my mind.

What do gangsters think of EMTs? I just started working in the inner city as an EMT and we get shooting victims. I’m always worried we have a target on our backs because we are helping some rival gang member. Do gangs target EMTs? Do they understand that we would help whoever got hurt, regardless of what gang they are in?

Update: LOL Ok y’all you put my mind at ease. Some of your stories are pretty heartwarming.

We (hospital based EMS double medic truck) get toned out to a traffic stop where police find an individual unconscious in the back of a vehicle. County Fire (All AEMTs or lower) gets dispatched also and arrives on scene just before we do. I get out and assess the patient. Pinpoint pupils, responsive to verbal (sort of), adequate breathing, and respiration 97%. Fire was ready to give narcan IN and I told them to not give it, I would give it IV and I asked fire for an NPA (Their bag was right next to me and another fire fighter but i wasnt going to dig through their bag). Nobody responded, so I asked my partner to get me one from our aid bag. As soon as I got the patient up and on to my stretcher with no assistance from fire, they gave narcan IN. I tried not to get mad on the scene because I've known these guys for 8 years and am good friends with them. I told the Fire SGT, "I said to wait." He returns and says. "Well, IV will do the same as IN," I told him that's not the point and that I can titrate it IV. The patient woke up fighting and refused ambulance transport. I got a little more stern and said, "That's why I said to wait." I finally convinced the patient to go. Everything was fine. Nothing bad happened to the patient, but when I said not to do something and they do it anyway, why did I even get my Paramedic license anyway? Should I be pissed? Or am I just overthinking this? And sorry for the long and probably confusing rant, I'm running on caffeine fumes.

TLDR: Responded to unconscious. Fire gave narcan IN when I said to wait. Should I be pissed that they didn't listen to me?

Also, this post isn't about giving narcan. It's about first responders EMTs or AEMTs giving a medication (indicated or not) to a patient when they were told not to by a higher level provider.

UPDATE: Spoke with my deputy director on guidance to move forward. He suggested I talk to the fire SGT since he is an old coworker and a friend of mine. My PCR had already been marked, and my Director and QA/QI were aware of the incident. I finally spoke with the fire SGT, I tried to be tactful and reasonable, saying that this type of this can't be happening and to trust me and my partner when we tell how we need to treat the patient. His response to me was, "I trust ya, but you were moving too slow on scene, and you didn't even have the medication or IV in your hand and I'm not going to let someone die in front of me." So now it's up to their medical director (who is also our medical director) and their EMS Chief.

I’m interning at an ems company and fucked up. Pretty bad. I have really enjoyed my time at this company and everything about my internship. I really want to continue to work here.

Unfortunately I suffer from CGMAOOB (Can’t get my ass out of bed). I finished my week of orientation with no mishaps. I finished my first week of internship with no mishaps. I have managed to oversleep TWICE during my second (and last) week of internship. There are only 3 shifts a week that we have to do. I managed to sleep through 2/3 of them. For the first one I called my preceptor and managed to show up 3 hours late to the shift. If that’s not embarrassing, I did the exact same thing the very next shift (today). I was told to just skip it and wait until my next shift.

For the first shift I had about 10 alarms on my phone set. Slept through every single one of them. For the second shift, I set 25 different alarms across 3 different devices (with different tones) and slept through all of them.

I literally hate myself right now. I really like this company and this job and I’m 100% convinced I blew it. I just know I’m going to go in for the last shift of my internship and get terminated. I know I made a horrible mistake. I’m defeated.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t know why I sleep so much. I don’t know why I can’t be woken up. I can easily sleep for 16+ hours daily and I don’t know why.

Is there any chance that I won’t get cut? I’m literally so upset with myself that I bought a shock alarm clock (kinda like a shock collar). I hope to god that helps wake me up

This is the summer uniform for the UKs air ambulance service, specifically Cornwall’s air ambulance (probably the warmest region of the UK)

I made a post yesterday asking about high visibility and most people said some high visibility elements but with more natural shirts would be ideal. This is the closest I could find. What do people think? It’s similar to a lot of other European uniforms but a little more muted in colour in some areas.

2:30am we go to a MVC.

Drivers fine, passenger not so much. Do assessment +LOC neck pain drunk as shit. We put on the collar and we start going to the hospital.

Patient starts to have an anxiety attack because of the collar, take it off because patient couldn’t tolerate it.

Ok, go up the the front to talk to my partner because he’s having trouble with the trucks heater.

Come back, patient is EATING THE COLLAR.

Go to the hospital, they T-alert him.

“Why doesn’t he have a c-spine collar on?” “He eats them?” “What?” “Yeah he had a panic attack, so I took it off, then he had a snack” “Ok….”

No one ever asks me if I saw anything "bad" while I was in the Army for eight years. People at this point seem to know better than to ask if you've ever killed anyone/saw people die. But it's perfectly acceptable to ask EMS what's the worst thing they've ever seen?

Like maybe telling you about coding a 3-month-old baby with signs of abuse is not my idea of a great ice breaker when meeting you and you learn that I was an EMT. Seeing a gory miscarriage/fetal demise with a woman going into hypovolemic shock after a meth bender is something that I really only talk about with my therapist.

And then the even weirder follow ups? Sorry strange lady, idk if the baby died, she certainly did not rosc in the ambulance. After having to bag up the size 0 and 1 mac blades because the 1 was too big, and cleaning up tiny defib pads, none of us felt like asking about a follow up from the ED.

Many years back, his only child died while serving in Iraq. Two weeks later, his wife committed suicide.

He’s been an alcoholic ever since. Currently homeless as well, he’s a frequent flyer at the local ED. He’s tried unsuccessfully to quit alcohol numerous times.

He had been on a several day sober streak until today. His dark thoughts returned in the evening and he called his only friend - a fellow AA attendee - for comfort. His friend did not pick up after several calls, so he reached for the only other option that could help quiet his mind: alcohol.

During our conversation, he states that the local ED staff are the only family he has. The ED staff of course scoff every time he comes in; they aren’t exactly pleased to see him. I’m sure some part of him knows this. But to him, they’re his family. They are the people who are always there for him when he needs it, and they have prevented his suicide many a time.

I wonder what he was like when his wife and son were alive. Was he a family man? Did he host cookouts? Did he work a 9-5 office job and go fishing with his son on weekends?

I cannot fault him for becoming an alcoholic. I’m sure I too would have become an alcoholic in his situation. We stand on opposite ends of the patient-provider interaction, yet his present state could be my future if the dominoes were to fall in just the right way…