Firefighting & Rescue Social / Professional Network
Definition of BS
We have a frequent flyer in our zone, who thinks that we have to respond to her at 10 times before she earns enough points to get a trip to the hospital. She has exceptional logic. She thinks that her Nasal Cannula cancels out the fact that she contiues to smoke. If in the event that she does have difficulty in breathing, she self-treats with cheap Vodka.
She called our crew out at 0300, because she was out of Oxygen. All of her vital signs and cliniclal signs were within normal limits. She had no complaint, other than being out of Oxygen. She stated that she didn't want to go to the hospital. She stated that she didn't feel she needed a breathing treatment. She only wanted us to leave her an O2 bottle. I explained (politely) that we could not leave equipment for her.
She said that she understood, and wanted to just breathe our O2 for a few minutes. I explained that breathing a few minutes of O2 wouldn't fix her problem. I explained that she needed to contact the company that delivers her supplies, and order some more O2.
She became irate, and scremed that she didn't know how to contact the company. I told her that I could think of two ways, that were easily available to her. First, she could open the phonebook, that was under her Vodka bottle. Second, she could resd the sticker on the side of the O2 bottle. Both of which will have the company name and number there for her.
After explaining that We could not allow her to breathe our O2 while she smoked a cigarette, but she could go to the ER and ask a DR why that was not a good idea. She called us a few names, that I can't repeat in polite company. She then refused all of our services and threw us out of her house.
Needless to say, she was not happy to have to sign a refusal.
She called our crew out at 0300, because she was out of Oxygen. All of her vital signs and cliniclal signs were within normal limits. She had no complaint, other than being out of Oxygen. She stated that she didn't want to go to the hospital. She stated that she didn't feel she needed a breathing treatment. She only wanted us to leave her an O2 bottle. I explained (politely) that we could not leave equipment for her.
She said that she understood, and wanted to just breathe our O2 for a few minutes. I explained that breathing a few minutes of O2 wouldn't fix her problem. I explained that she needed to contact the company that delivers her supplies, and order some more O2.
She became irate, and scremed that she didn't know how to contact the company. I told her that I could think of two ways, that were easily available to her. First, she could open the phonebook, that was under her Vodka bottle. Second, she could resd the sticker on the side of the O2 bottle. Both of which will have the company name and number there for her.
After explaining that We could not allow her to breathe our O2 while she smoked a cigarette, but she could go to the ER and ask a DR why that was not a good idea. She called us a few names, that I can't repeat in polite company. She then refused all of our services and threw us out of her house.
Needless to say, she was not happy to have to sign a refusal.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rick on -
Been ther done that I think every EMS company has its own frequent flyers. We had one for a few years that would call 911 for chest pain and all she realy wanted was transport to the hospital for her dialysis session. She would always call us between 2 or 3 in the morning. Until one crew told her to start calling before 12 so they can get some sleep. Besides it wasn't an emergency all she wanted was transport to the hospital for dialysis in the morning. Thats just one of about 5 frequent flyers our company has. I think your right the pt probably thinks they are collecting flyer miles for a free trip to the hospital.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda 11-33 on -
That is absolutely hilarious!?!?!?
Here's one for you...
So there's this elderly lady in our service area that has a problem with falling. Constantly she is calling 911 for a lift assist. So the first time I responded to this lady's house, it was about 9pm and freezing cold outside. The lady lives by herself and had ALL the doors locked. So my medic and I call for police assistance. The paramedic is able to make contact with the pt thru window on the front porch that is unable to be opened. My medic found an unlocked window on the first floor and proceeded to crawl through it, to get to the patient. He had to unload EVERYTHING that was on her kitchen counter and that took us about 10 minutes to get everythign out of the way. The paramedic opens the front door for me and it only opens about 1 foot. The massive amount of junk in this lady's house is crazy. In the living room alone, there is stuff piled about 3-4 feet high everywhere around you. There is a beaten path for walking that she had fallen on. The patient was screaming at the medic that she didn't want me coming into her house. When the medic asked why, she said she didn't want that nasty lady that told her to clean her house back to help her. (I wasn't that lady that told her this.) She let me in, we got her off the floor and she signed a refusal for us.
Second time I was dispatched to the same lady's house was about 11:30pm, still freezing cold and snow up to our ankles. This time our executive director of our service decided that she was going to come out to this lady's house to get her daughter's phone number so the ambulance service could contact her and tell her that her mother needs to be put in a care facility ASAP. This time EVERY door and window on the main floor was locked. This time the medic (different guy) decides he's gonna climb up on the roof to find an open window on the second floor. He gets the window open, throws his extra layers of clothing down to me, the police officer, and the service director (who has hardly any experience on an ambulance) and crawls through the window with no idea what he will land on knowing this lady's history of "clutter". He makes his way downstairs and opens the door for us, again only opening about 1 foot. We get inside, the medic and I pick the lady up off the floor and she tells us she doesn't want to go to the hospital. The medic does a neuro assessment and from that believes that the patient suffered a stroke. When the service director asked her what her daughter's phone number was, she stated " Its' 7-8-Line - 2-4-Door"... NO JOKE!!! I go to get the stretcher and the patient gets up and falls from a standing position for no explainable reason. I had to kick the garbage that was in front of the door into the horror of a kitchen so we could get the door open so we could get her to our stretcher. The lady went real lethargic while I (paramedic student) was attempting to start a line. We get her to the hospital and she starts screaming about having to go to the bathroom. By this point, she was so obviously drunk that the hospital couldn't do a proper assessment.
I have NO idea what happened to the patient but this just goes to show how much BS we put up with in the field!
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Permalink Reply by Russell D. Henry on -
I can't beleive that you know this stuff, and still want to go to medic school. Good luck by the way.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda 11-33 on
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well its been forever since i've signed on but thankfully i finished my paramedic training and i honestly have no idea what happened to the patient... must have either moved or died because we no longer get called to pick her up off the floor anymore... lol
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Permalink Reply by Lt. Caleb French on -
Yeah I would venture to say that is the perfect definition of BS. We all have frequent fliers, but i think that is the best frequent flier story that I have ever heard.
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Permalink Reply by LT. EMS on -
well, i got one better we have a frequent flyer that isa diabetic and she has 3 kids with her.well the kid get up and watch her over the nigth so she ok. well we have found her pass out on the floor mamy time at 0230 in the morring or at 0300 or 0130 well the nigth. well on a good week we would get her 4 to 5 times. it get to the piont were the medic didnt put there ligths on out front.they start a iv give her some sugar iv pure sugar and it would get her up. it wasbad that we knew the kids name bye there frist names. and she said that she dosent drink yea what are the vodka do there .it was getting bad a one point then it stop and we havent bend back we think she ove out of our town. then i found out that she live in another town and she did the same damm thing
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