Interesting Flight stories

I am amazed that no one has a story.

OK, not a flight, but a peds critical care transport, travelling at speed in the back of an ambulance through London. Came through red lights with our 'blues and twos' (lights and sirens) running and got t-boned by a driver. Ambulance almost tipped onto its side. Dr and nurse thrown across the working area, suffering shoulder and back injuries - ended up being treated in the emergency dept. The intubated patient remained strapped to the stretcher, ett stayed in... managed to avoid being hit by any of the equipment (or staff) that became airborne!!!! Lesson learned: tie down all equipment and keep your seat belt on!!!!

Wow that must have been scary. Seat belt matters always. So glad your team is ok. Good job at tying down your patient though. At least they stayed put. Really glad your ok

Hope others share there experiences. I am sure paramedics, EMT whether ground or air must have experienced something in there careers. From strange patients.......to unsual rescues.

On another post a transport team told a story of taking a patient that coded at a nursing home and they where on there way to the hospital from nursing home to have patient declared dead and when the transport went over the rail road tracks the patient came back to life................yikes that is very halloweenish

Its the only time I would not want to be tied down but would be wanting to run away...............that was posted in the ghost story section of the boards .by someone else.....so I Imagine transport teams experience unusual events...............

Hope you guys share your stories.

Not to hijack this thread, but I think this is an excellent example of why Red-lights/siren should rarely (probably never) be used for critical care interfacility transports...at least during the transport phase when a patient is on board.

There is no evidence to show that this type of transport is of any clinical benefit to the patient, but there are multiple studies which show that while this type of transport is of no clinical benefit, it is extremely dangerous for the patient, crew, and general public.

I expect there will be no shortage of dissenting replies, but when it comes to disagreement on this issue, I've heard everything from emotion to speculation and anecdotes...but never any valid evidence....to support the dangerous practice of red-balling with a patient on board.

THANKS! However, Just really just wanted transport people to share there experiences. To share and then have people criticize you is kind of really uncomfortable. There is a time and a place for everything. Maybe you can start a post about your concerns and in the mean time just allow people to share and not have to feel indicted och.

Point made point taken into consideration I am sure.

Hope of all the people out there some one has a story.

This was orginally posted by some else a while back and hoped we both got to hear some stories.

Understood, well said. Sorry about that. If there is a gentler way to say it, I would try.

This is something I have great passion about, and my position is one I take a lot of grief for. In spite of the damage we've inflicted through this practice, our colleagues seem little interested in the facts and in behavior-change.

As far as stories...there seems to be something unique and special about every flight I go on, and I find that the adrenaline nature of flight nursing creates the environment where seasoned colleagues find little entertainment in the 'audio version' of our flights.

I think the stories I am quickest to tell are the ones that start out with, "You'll never believe what they asked us to do last night..." i.e. a low-acuity general medical patient has been in-house for three days and waiting for a bed at another hospital. That bed comes available at 9pm on the third day and we are called four hours later to wake up the patient to make the transfer on the coldest darkest windiest? night of the year when it would've been fine to let them get some rest and complete the transport in daylight when the temp was at least a few degrees warmer than Zero.

We also enjoy sending the new employees to the maintenance shed to get a bucket of 'rotor wash' or 50 ft of 'flight line.'

Gosh I have a funny picture I wanted to post and do not know how to do it. Any one know how to do it. It goes with this segment of interesting flight stories

Here is a story I was told by some one else


Okay, I'll admit it. We got called for a 35 y/o female, altered level of consciousness. We find her slumped against a dresser, barely breathing, pretty out of it. My partner suggests that I lie her flat so that we can control her airway. He turns around to get the O2 kit open and I start to slide her forward. I get her supine, but immediately she begins to make this awful, gagging sound. Upon assessment, we discover that when I slid her away from the dresser, the tan coloured strap of the purse she was wearing around one shoulder and her neck had gotten caught on the dresser handle and was strangling her. I pulled the drawer open to relieve the pressure and whacked her in the head with it. My partner, with a deadpan expression says "patient unresponsive to painful stimulus..." She was released from hospital the next day, none the worse for wear, and now, when we're doing scenarios in training, when we get to assessing the neck, my partner says "I'm checking the neck for purse straps," eliciting confused looks from everyone who wasn't present that night.

No one is posting so my boyfriend shared these with me

ON THE FUNNY OR SARCASTIC SIDE OF TRICKS OF THE TRADE
All bleeding stops....eventually.

If the child is quiet, be scared.

If the pt. vomits, try to hold the head to the side of the rig with the least difficult cleanable equipment.

There will be problems.

If the patient looks sick, then the patient is sick.

If you absolutely must vomit, than it is probably best to turn your head away from the patient.

It is generally bad to use the words "holy $hit" on scene, in reference to the patients condition.

When responding to a call always remember that your ambulance was built by the lowest bidder

If its stupid, but it works, then it ain't stupid

Always honor a threat

Always know when to get out of dodge

Always know HOW to get out of dodge

Don't go INTO Dodge without the Marshall.

If the pt is going to vomit (especially projectile) be sure to aim towards any bystanders that would NOT clear the scene. (This also works for OIC's)

Always answer a newbie's questions. (you once asked them, too.)



EMT's are taught - "the man with the gun, is the man in charge" (i.e.: the police) WRONG !!!!! Real life (when the fire dept. is on scene) "The man with the NOZZLE (charged hose line) is the man in charge !!" Trust me , it's true. I've been there. that charged hose will send you farther down the block & hurt more before the cop begins to think about shooting you.

If you respond to an MVA after midnight and you don't find a drunk, keep looking - you've missed a patient.

PVC's can be eliminated by sending a strip to the hospital.

The ultimate QA program in EMS is an autopsy.

Pain never killed anyone

"Compassion Kills", don't dive into incidents.

What do you call a medical student who finishes last in their class? Doctor.

Just because someone's EMT or Paramedic original license date is before yours does not mean they know what they are doing.

Most of your patients are healthier than you are.

Being in emergency services means you get to celebrate your holidays with all your friends, while on-duty.

Being an EMT means you get to expose yourself to rare, exotic and exciting new diseases.

Common sense isn't VERY COMMON

EMS goes against the process of natural selection.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean your supervisor's not around the corner.

You can't cure stupid.

Dead is dead, leave it at that.

The pain will go away when it stops hurting.

You should always stop CPR after the second ouch!, from the PT.

If your patient is violent you can always use O2 therapy (an O2 bottle across the head usually calms them down).

You've never been as sick as just before you stop breathing.

If someone is pointing a gun at you, 2 things
1. you should have waited for PD,
2. you wish you just hadn't made that wise ass comment.

When in doubt let your partner handle it

If the patient only moans when you listen to lung sounds .... They aren't as sick as they want to be.

EMS providers know how to say "got shoes" in 7 different languages.

Never go past the first dead cop.


IF you ever go to a call and find the cops laughing on the front lawn...worry!