Brutal Honesty
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“I went on a police ride-along once, and we responded to a collision on the highway at about 2:00 AM. For the previous two hours, I had stayed either inside or just near the car for serious calls. This time, I recognized my friend’s boyfriend who was a paramedic already on the scene, so I approached. I didn’t want to distract him or anyone else who was working, so I just stood and watched him work on one of the victims. I don’t know whether the man was driver, passenger, or passerby, but his eyes were wide open and darting around, and he was red with blood from his neck to his knees. My friend’s boyfriend calmly picked up what looked like a pile of wet laundry (it was the man’s insides), place it in his lap, and softly said to him, ‘You’re not going to live.’ All the breath left my body when I heard him say that. Somehow, it was clear that he meant it as something tender and human-to-human in the last moments of this man’s life, but it chills me, and that’s all I think about when we’re talking.”
Suspicious Ceiling Leak
“Story is from one of the paramedics in the area. He received a call from the superintendent of an apartment complex. Apparently, there was a rotten smell coming from one of the units and no one had seen the tenant for quite some time. He had been there so long he had liquified and his remains were dripping through the floor and into the apartment below.”
Be Careful With Over-The-Counter-Meds
“I had a lady with TEN- toxic epidermal necrolysis syndrome- a rare, aggressive substance reaction where your skin starts to separate and slip off your body.
Anyway.
I was helping the nurse wrap her up- picked up her arm and the skin ripped at the bicep and slipped off like a wet sock.
Horrified.
The top of her tongue and the bottom of her feet also slid off later.
Bonus? It was a reaction to Tylenol.”
You, Sir, Are An Optimist
“EMT here – Husband and wife were riding a Harley on the freeway at 70 mph. Hot day. Husband was wearing leather chaps, leather jacket, and full helmet. The wife was riding on the back in jeans, a small half-shell helmet, and a bikini top. Wife fainted, fell off the motorcycle and rolled. Multiple broken bones, internal injuries. Road rash over most of her body. But there is one thing that sticks with me the most!