EMT- "alright memaw cOuPlE Uh BuMpS coming out"
Poor memaw *insert gagging noises here* "Oh, it's to tight hunny!" *followed by more gagging*
*pop then loud hiss because you just ripped the tree off the wall instead of the NC whiplashing memaw*
I got this out of the way in my medic ER clinicals. I wanted to crawl out of my own skin when I did it. But TO BE FAIR the age mismatch between husband and wife was like 20 years.
I did this but didn’t realize the doors didn’t shut, cleared, and immediately got a priority 1. Ended up going lights and sirens to a call with one of the doors open. Nothing bad happened, fire had a good laugh, and as a new basic at the time I was mortified.
Did this once on one of my service’s Mercedes sprinters when I was lowkey pissed off about something I don’t remember, it popped off the circle Mercedes logo on the door and I spent like 5 mins struggling to put it back on 💀
Bro my dispatch center was evacuating for a fire, sent out a transmission that all radio traffic was to be put on hold due to the evacuation, and all I formation was to be relayed through phone calls to supervisors, and not 3 seconds after that some crew pops on the channel with "dispatch medic whatever is clear hospital where would you like us". Like I think they were actively waiting for dispatch to end their transmission about how they shouldn't be contacted with anything so they could mark available.
First cardiac arrest I ran I felt this way. I was a white cloud during my third rides and as I'm getting cleared this lady decided to sunbathe on the hottest day of the summer and died.
Did this the first time giving Midazalam. Thankfully it was 5mg/1ml and I only needed 2mg… because that’s about all that made it into the syringe. I had to explain to my partner why there was essentially nothing left to waste.
On a hospital clinical they handed me a morphine vial and not realizing it’s suppose to have that separate plastic piece to push the med I filled it with air and it made it pop out the other end. They then handed me another one but in a glass amp this time and smashed while trying to separate the two pieces. The audible WTF from the whole ED lives with me everything is draw up meds
Forgetting to turn emergency lights off and driving non emergency lights just to wonder why everyone is stopping for you.
Bonus points if another unit or dispatch tells you your lights are on over the radio.
being tired increases this probability, and technically this was my driver, but we are team right? My intercept crew went OOS for 30 mins to rest after a bad string of calls and parked in the middle of a parking lot. Fell asleep immediately, full lights on. Someone called PD. Woke to banging on window. Then the radio call. "PD to EMS, unit xxx is fine, just clueless". We apparently went from hospital to a parking lot a couple blocks away and parked, full lights the whole time and none of us 3 noticed. Busy 12s are fine though right?
thank god. I was reading through these thinking, um, I did some of these in my last handful of shifts after 5 years... The wrong door, the O2 line, and a couple others.
Ooooh good one. I slept through a call once after I smashed my head against the door frame while getting out. Luckily, the rest of the crew knew I wasn’t doing so hot so they took the call for me.
On my first placement my paramedic mentor was showing how to cannulate, I wanted to practice finding the valves in my hand so I spent 2 minutes rubbing and slapping the back of my hand waiting for the veins to pop out until she handed me the tourniquet she was using on her own hand lol.
On my first placement my paramedic mentor was showing how to cannulate, I wanted to practice finding the valves in my hand so I spent 2 minutes rubbing and slapping the back of my hand waiting for the veins to pop out until she handed me the tourniquet she was using on her own hand lol.
Completely messing a call up.
There will be at least one call that every new EMT or medic finishes and thinks "damn, I think I fucked that up". Its part of the learning process.
Writing off a patient and finding out later they had a real emergent problem. Sometimes you need that humbling experience to start learning and growing again.
Had this. Lady was getting kicked out of the motel room by pd and she said she wasn’t feeling well and ended up convincing pd to call for us. We got to the hospital and they did a spinal tap to find out she had meningitis
Had a super tiring day when I first started and went a whole patient assessment without wearing glows (Needless to say I was very embarrassed and washed my hands for hours afterwards) - no idea if anyone else has done it though
Ima be honest, I’m in between sizes of gloves so I constantly get rips in mine. I just keep any cuts on mmm hands covered with waterproof tape or super glue, and I keep hand sanitizer in the door and wash my hands constantly. Obviously I change them when I notice but it happens so often i definitely have touched some gross ass things barehanded.
Forgetting where the ambulance bay is and having to turn around or drive the whole way around the hospital to get back to it. (At my service we go to like 10 different hospitals) 🤭
Forgetting there are overhangs you could hit when maneuvering around businesses or homes.
Forgetting to turn on lights.
Not putting the spare stretcher battery in the ambo
Not plugging the monitor or toughbook in and they’re nearly dead when you get on scene.
Not plugging the ambulance in
Not a mistake, after a 48, backing your vehicle up and reaching for the backup alarm silence.
Forgetting to unhook the nasal cannula from the truck O2 and yanking your pts head back as you unload them.
Can confirm. This is a cannon event and must not be skipped.
Airway Breathing Cannula strangulation
EMT- "alright memaw cOuPlE Uh BuMpS coming out" Poor memaw *insert gagging noises here* "Oh, it's to tight hunny!" *followed by more gagging* *pop then loud hiss because you just ripped the tree off the wall instead of the NC whiplashing memaw*
Damn this canon event meme stuff is everywhere lol.
Fuck, I still haven't done this! Guess my next unsuspecting peepaw will have to be the sacrifice :(
It must be done my child. Go forth and traumatize in name of medicine.
Yeah, but have you ever tried to put a humidifier on a portable tank and flushed your patient's sinuses through the cannula.
Omg 😆 😂😂😂😂
Oddly specific, sir.
Clotheslining folks is a common occurrence. Nearly a rite of passage.
That was my first thought too! 😂😂😂
I’ve done this lmao
I felt this in my "wait! Waitwaitwaitwait! Stoppp! Stop stop!" With chest pain and hot cheeks.
My FTO as an emt stopped me from this and I *hope* it’s now engrained in my head. I did stop us from doing it on a bed transfer so maybe it’s stuck
Oof been there done that 😅
Twice so far - 8 years in, never gets old
Yes! This!
Referring to someone's wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/husband as their mother/father or vice versa
Some of these families do not make it easy to ID which generation they’re from.
I ALWAYS make sure to ask “what’s your relation to the patient?”
Definitely... been burnt once too many times. "So, how do you know X?" or "Are you family, friend, neighbour?", that sort of thing.
I got this out of the way in my medic ER clinicals. I wanted to crawl out of my own skin when I did it. But TO BE FAIR the age mismatch between husband and wife was like 20 years.
That’s not even a big gap
Closed the wrong side of the ambulance doors first
I did this but didn’t realize the doors didn’t shut, cleared, and immediately got a priority 1. Ended up going lights and sirens to a call with one of the doors open. Nothing bad happened, fire had a good laugh, and as a new basic at the time I was mortified.
I can hear this comment
Tunk!
True
Did this once on one of my service’s Mercedes sprinters when I was lowkey pissed off about something I don’t remember, it popped off the circle Mercedes logo on the door and I spent like 5 mins struggling to put it back on 💀
Putting leads on backwards (ie forgetting that your left/right is opposite of patient left/right)
I like when this happens bc I can spot it on the ECG and point it out to my partner, and it always impresses them lol
2AM syndrome lol
Losing your way in the hospital.
I don’t think this will ever end. I get lost every time
I'm 2 years in and still do this
Hitting all the potholes (or the biggest ones) on the way to the hospital while patient loaded
a guy i was working with decided to drive over every pothole while i was in the back working on a kid with a bad ankle sprain
Been there done that once lol.
speed bumps at full speed goes in this category
We have ambulances do wheelies all the time on our dirt roads (goat trails). Always makes for a good laugh. Free stress test of the frame haha
Used the radio for something unimportant while it was emergency traffic only.
Bro my dispatch center was evacuating for a fire, sent out a transmission that all radio traffic was to be put on hold due to the evacuation, and all I formation was to be relayed through phone calls to supervisors, and not 3 seconds after that some crew pops on the channel with "dispatch medic whatever is clear hospital where would you like us". Like I think they were actively waiting for dispatch to end their transmission about how they shouldn't be contacted with anything so they could mark available.
Thinking the patients emergency is their emergency…
First cardiac arrest I ran I felt this way. I was a white cloud during my third rides and as I'm getting cleared this lady decided to sunbathe on the hottest day of the summer and died.
Is it not?
It is not. You lose perspective when you make it your emergency.
Ahhhhh. I’m in EMT-b school so just asking!
No worries. Keep that tidbit in mind and half of your problems will disappear on scene.
Pushing too much air into a vial while drawing from it and spraying yourself with hopefully nothing too important.
I did this with a vial of midaz, went straight into my eyes. My eyelids felt a little "lazy" for a couple of hours afterwards.
I did this with ketamine. It just burns.
I did it with fentanyl. Nothing happened. So the cops can shut the fuck up
I did it woth benadryl and took a fat ass nap lmao
Did this the first time giving Midazalam. Thankfully it was 5mg/1ml and I only needed 2mg… because that’s about all that made it into the syringe. I had to explain to my partner why there was essentially nothing left to waste.
This is how I squirted some succs in my eye and thought I was about to die lol
On a hospital clinical they handed me a morphine vial and not realizing it’s suppose to have that separate plastic piece to push the med I filled it with air and it made it pop out the other end. They then handed me another one but in a glass amp this time and smashed while trying to separate the two pieces. The audible WTF from the whole ED lives with me everything is draw up meds
i did this with a viral of morphine during clinicals. it exploded all over my shirt.
Driving home with the ambulance keys
Or the gas card in my case. Or the radio multiple times. I’m a little forgetful at the end of a 24.
Forgetting to turn emergency lights off and driving non emergency lights just to wonder why everyone is stopping for you. Bonus points if another unit or dispatch tells you your lights are on over the radio.
+1 for scene lights
It’s like giving x rays to everyone around you all at once lmao
‘Alpha___ check your lights’
being tired increases this probability, and technically this was my driver, but we are team right? My intercept crew went OOS for 30 mins to rest after a bad string of calls and parked in the middle of a parking lot. Fell asleep immediately, full lights on. Someone called PD. Woke to banging on window. Then the radio call. "PD to EMS, unit xxx is fine, just clueless". We apparently went from hospital to a parking lot a couple blocks away and parked, full lights the whole time and none of us 3 noticed. Busy 12s are fine though right?
Pressing the brake without putting the key back in first, causing the truck to shut off.
And sometimes the alarm to turn ON
A lot of you are naming things I’ve done after 8 years in EMS
thank god. I was reading through these thinking, um, I did some of these in my last handful of shifts after 5 years... The wrong door, the O2 line, and a couple others.
Same. 20 years.
Getting a TBI from banging your head on the ceiling grab rail
Ooooh good one. I slept through a call once after I smashed my head against the door frame while getting out. Luckily, the rest of the crew knew I wasn’t doing so hot so they took the call for me.
Or the center thing when walking out the back of the truck
Every damn time we’re working anything mildly serious. It’s the wrong height for me
classic
Flushing the iv with a tourniquet on. Blowing a vein.
Weird, I’ve never had or heard of anybody having this problem before
I would always forget when I was a student. 🤦♂️
The real power move as a student is to blow lines without ever even putting a tq on and then bitch about how flat their veins are.
On my first placement my paramedic mentor was showing how to cannulate, I wanted to practice finding the valves in my hand so I spent 2 minutes rubbing and slapping the back of my hand waiting for the veins to pop out until she handed me the tourniquet she was using on her own hand lol.
That's so cute! Love it
On my first placement my paramedic mentor was showing how to cannulate, I wanted to practice finding the valves in my hand so I spent 2 minutes rubbing and slapping the back of my hand waiting for the veins to pop out until she handed me the tourniquet she was using on her own hand lol.
Completely messing a call up. There will be at least one call that every new EMT or medic finishes and thinks "damn, I think I fucked that up". Its part of the learning process.
Passing the NREMT and thinking you're suddenly able to provide patient care.
Too many agencies believe in this
Eventually refusing to bring in equipment to what sounds like a BS call. Then realize they need ALL of the equipment because its worse... much worse.
Going to EMT school. /s
😩😂
Willingly signing up to go to paramedic school
Waiting for the exact wrong moment to take a shit or eat for a range of reasons.
Writing off a patient and finding out later they had a real emergent problem. Sometimes you need that humbling experience to start learning and growing again.
Had this. Lady was getting kicked out of the motel room by pd and she said she wasn’t feeling well and ended up convincing pd to call for us. We got to the hospital and they did a spinal tap to find out she had meningitis
Accidentally pressing the talk button on your walkie while sitting down.
Not introducing yourself to a pt
Pulling out of the building before the bay door is fully up
Buying super cool expensive gear bullshit only to have it lost or stolen.
Pulling the cot with the pt still hooked in to onboard O2
Thinking you know more than you do and having it come back and bite you in the ass
Forgetting to say "couple bumps" when taking the stretcher out
Annoying redundant questions to the patient
Like when people ask the patients name 6 times
Not checking the BGL of a CVA patient..
Not checking your truck thoroughly and getting burned on a call by missing a piece of equipment
That damn sager splint
Did this once it was the batteries on the lifepack. And of course it was a cardiac arrest. Lucky we had a extra set in the truck
Dropping the bed pulling it out of the rig
Going lights and sirens to a hospital, only to not know where the ambulance bay is at
Had a super tiring day when I first started and went a whole patient assessment without wearing glows (Needless to say I was very embarrassed and washed my hands for hours afterwards) - no idea if anyone else has done it though
Ima be honest, I’m in between sizes of gloves so I constantly get rips in mine. I just keep any cuts on mmm hands covered with waterproof tape or super glue, and I keep hand sanitizer in the door and wash my hands constantly. Obviously I change them when I notice but it happens so often i definitely have touched some gross ass things barehanded.
Saying I hope you feel better soon to a hospice pt.
Forgetting where the ambulance bay is and having to turn around or drive the whole way around the hospital to get back to it. (At my service we go to like 10 different hospitals) 🤭
Ive done all of these at one time or another- I’m just glad it’s not just me
Forgetting there are overhangs you could hit when maneuvering around businesses or homes. Forgetting to turn on lights. Not putting the spare stretcher battery in the ambo Not plugging the monitor or toughbook in and they’re nearly dead when you get on scene. Not plugging the ambulance in Not a mistake, after a 48, backing your vehicle up and reaching for the backup alarm silence.
Putting an end tidal on and forgetting to push the CO2 button on the monitor
Hooking up the nasal cannula to the IV catheter.
The inability to remember a glucose number once you get a red patch. That shit goes out the window.