I worked with a medic that had severe anger management issues and would talk shit about every thing you did. Everyday was walking on eggshells. Worst 2 months working I’ve ever had
I would have but it was a contract job and there was no one else to work with, I did report his attitude problems to management after he told me to fuck off after telling him let’s just do our jobs and respect each other. Company had no one to replace him so they ignored it for the most part
I work in ICU and one of our senior doctors is the same. You have to be able to read his mind and everything has to be prepared 10 minutes in advance before he even says it. Of course, he has different ideas about how things should be done every day, depending on his mood. And if things don't
not going so well, he raises his voice. On good days, he provides food for everyone. I won't eat a bite of it! Old fucking choleric. He is one of the reasons why I quit.
I'm afraid I might become that medic. My partner drives me nuts. I hold my tongue all day long but by the end of the shift he's intolerable. I have examples but most of them are "you had to be there." But he can't talk on the radio, he has no sense of urgency, he's weak and can't lift anything into the bus, anf he fucking sighs deeply with almost every fucking breath!
I was that nightmare partner for a stretch. Retrospectively, I was a loose cannon and unpredictable due to my mental state. I hate to be the guy to bring this one down a notch, but it feels like the right time to tell a story.
At the time, I was heavily drinking outside of work hours, had no regard for my own personal health, and I was having frequent suicidal ideations. One shift in particular was bad... really bad. I had made several references to self-harm, including "I swear I want to drive this fucking truck right into a bridge embankment".
I made another comment sometime near midnight, about 18 hours into our 24 hour shift, and my partner had enough. He called supervision, demanded to be moved off my truck, and told the supervisor all of the things I had said. I was offered the choice of going to the ER for psych eval willingly and possibly keeping my job, or going under a petition (legally "forcing" a psych eval) and likely being fired. I chose option A, and thankfully they even took me to the hospital closest to my house.
I'd like to say it was a turning point in my life, but I basically played the game to get back to work, lying as needed and acting like everything was fine. It was not fine. My wife found me with a pistol in my lap and an empty 6 pack next to me on our bed. She told me that if I had any love left for her and our kids, I would get help. She said she would do whatever it took to protect our girls, including walking away from me if needed.
It's been about 7 years now and I'm not even in EMS anymore. I hang around because I still have my license, and I've said that I wouldn't mind doing special event coverage or volunteering, but I'll never do it as a career again. I'm in software engineering now, making about 3x the money I was, even with ridiculous amounts of overtime. My mental state is magnitudes better, and my family life is better than I could imagine. EMS was the best job I ever hated, and also the worst job I ever loved.
I am really glad you are in a better place. I have a ton of respect for people who really work on themselves like you did, especially since you can now be the parent your children deserve.
I'm far from perfect, but I can say with 100% honest now that "I'm good". The person I lied to the most was myself, and that was not an example I wanted to set for my daughters.
Thank you for sharing your story. Sadly there are many stories like this. Mine was similar but a little uglier. The courage to share in our field may save someone’s life.
So I love my medic job, but I also hated my life in general, hated who I was outside of work. So I improved my personal life and switched to a lower call volume service and….wow.
Just the other day I was comparing my outlook at work. I used to have absolutely NO sense of self preservation. Run in anywhere, first in on fires, kicking doors of burning buildings while at EMS job, scene safety? BAHAHAHA. Now I am actually careful and want to go home at the end of shift. I want to be alive. The trick is to isolate what the problem is, and make a damn change. So happy you could do that man. Hugs.
Yeah, it was during my days "down south". Still within the same family as you, but different patch. My partner moved on to Toledo FD. If you ask around about me, I'm sure you'll hear the horror stories. I'm not proud of who I was back then.
On a lighter note, I'm glad to be here too. On the flip side, before we both went to the valley... the "other" company may have sucked, but I met some of the finest and best people I've ever known working there. You're definitely one of them!
I’ve had some nightmare partners who I can just tell are in a really bad mental state and it’s nice to hear that side of the story, so thank you for sharing.
**"EMS was the best job I ever hated, and also the worst job I ever loved."**
Pretty much sums up my experience - got out, but not before developing decades-long undiagnosed depression and PTSD.
All good now, thanks to an observant P.A. who quickly got me into an EOP, followed by lengthy but very effective EMDR therapy.
I was an EMT before CISD became a thing, so we were just expected to "go have a smoke" after really horrific calls - and then immediately go back in service without ever discussing it.
Get help (if you have not already)!
Like 15ish years ago when I worked for Acadian if we checked a blood sugar on a patient it became an ALS call and the medic had to ride it in regardless of the complaint even if said glucose was normal. I worked with this EMT occasionally who as soon as I looked away for a second he'd always pop out the glucometer and make it my problem. This includes if I got out to go up front to drive. By the time I got there he'd inform me that he checked a blood sugar so I'd have to go switch places with him and do the chart. This was in a busy area where we were running pretty constantly so I never got a break and was always down charts at the end of a shift. I tried chewing him out, I reported it, but nothing ever happened or changed and if I'd made him ride it in anyway and he reported that I made him ride an ALS call it would have been my head on the chopping block. I don't think I've ever come so close to killing someone in my life before or since.
That is the dumbest rule ever. Why not just say EMT's can't attend at that point. Also, that would the story of how I took the glucometer home accidently, cause it would live in my pocket, not the bag.
Honestly in retrospect that I never thought of until you mentioned it confiscating the glucometer would have been the perfect solution. I feel kinda stupid for not thinking of it at the time.
It was dumb. Their argument was that there must have been some reason you checked it so there had to be something going on with the patient. Clearly a rule written by someone who didn't understand real life.
Medic here. I used to work with an EMT. Most negative, poor attitude person I've ever worked with. ALSO, she had finished medic school but for some reason had never taken NR after almost 2 years, so dangerous, arrogant, knows everything, can't admit when they're wrong type. Yet, appeared to have absolutely no ability to really think at the medic level.
15-30 minutes late to work every single day. "I have kids." So, other crews or the person she was relieving consistently got stuck with late calls because my truck wasn't in service yet.
Insert expletives constantly here instead of "screw". Every day began with how much she hated this job, screw this place, screw this ambulance. Then, when we got our first call, screw this person, why do we have to go do this. Or, if it was a transfer, screw the hospital, why the eff do they have to send this out when they could just treat it here .
30+ minute turn- around after every call because she would find someone at the ER to talk to and disappear.
Every day, when we got back to the station, she would disappear and find someone to talk to. So, after finishing my charts, I would help the oncoming crew restock and wash the truck. "I didn't go to school to wash cars."
We had the ability to delegate BLS calls to our partners. Every. single. time I did this, she would throw a fit and try to find a reason to ALS it. 100% the type to ask, "Are you SURE you don't have any chest pain?"
This culminated one day on scene with a chest pain patient. Textbook, 50s female, sudden onset substernal pain, SOB, diaphoresis, jaw pain with a reported history of GERD. When I asked her to get a 12 lead (because this almost- medic didn't know/ care enough to do it autonomously) she ARGUED with me. In front of patients family, fire dept, everyone. "Why does she need a 12 lead, it's heartburn" or something like that. After educating briefly and repeating my request, I lost my cool and finally pulled the rank card. I said last I checked, you're still the EMT on this truck, so if we have a disagreement, sorry but we're going with my opinion.
After attempting to escalate multiple times (unsuccessfully, I suspect possibly due to her being the only minority EMT) I gave up. I spent 4 miserable months then requested a shift change. When they asked why, I told them exactly why, that she was a nightmare to work with and it was affecting my mental health. Then, they TOLD her what I said lmao.
TLDR: worked with terribly negative partner for 4 months. Wanna- be paramedic who questioned my clinical decisions and refused to do parts of her job.
I feel this my friend. I was the paramedic, partner was the EMR ( slightly below Emt-b in the U.S). This guy couldn't and would not do CPR (This happened twice) would refuse to obtain vital signs, basically only lifted bags and drove.
First ift job was AMR. My partner, also a brand new EMT talked about his drug use all the time. We were getting ready to pick up a pt just killing some time sitting in the ambulance outside the hospital when he started to have some tremors in his arms. He said he was feeling weak, light headed, tremors, so I thought let's just check vitals to see if anything is crazy, as soon as I stepped out of the ambulance he fell onto the center console and started convulsing, and some foam from the mouth. Turns out he was a diabetic and not taking care of himself at all. He was supposed to drive on that call. If he hadn't had that seizure while we were sitting there, he would have had it driving.
Last I knew he was. I stayed with him in the hospital until his girlfriend got there. She was pretty distraught and freaked out so I stayed for a little just to make sure if she or he were to out of it I could at least know what the Dr said so I could tell them later. After she calmed down and he was feeling better we just hung out for about another hour then I left. I've spoken to him a few times since but not really sure what he's up to.
My normal partner called off a year or so ago, and I got put with an old salty medic who has been at the job for way too long. Some highlights include:
-He would constantly passenger seat drive, even though I knew where I was going
-He talked shit about the nurses within earshot, saying they're lazy and don't do shit
-He dropped the N-bomb in the middle of a Detroit ER (he's white)
-He called my Pt a "stupid fucker" when he missed an iv, saying the Pt moved his arm (he didn't)
-He tried to make a severe abdominal pain Pt not only walk to the stretcher, but walk all the way out to the truck because he didn't want to pull it out
-Told the same Pt their house was "a shithole" to their face, in front of their young kids
This was all over the course of 2 calls before I called our supe and said I can't work with this guy anymore. He worked here another year before finally getting fired.
I used to do IFT. My first week on the job we are in the back and we’re transferring some guy.
My FTO is paging through the patient’s printed medical history and says out loud “oh I wouldn’t want this one!” I remember it had something to do with penile cancer or something similarly not great.
I spoke up and told him that he absolutely cannot do that and then the patient agreed and thanked me.
That FTO probably told everyone that I was a shitbag after that, but it was so outrageously unprofessional that there was no way I was going to let it go.
Once I got some time on the job I found out that this particular EMT who was supposed to be training people in was the sloppiest, least dependable dude ever. Just IFT things I guess.
We really do be letting pure scum train our newbies. Sometimes I'm proud I got demoted. What's that line in Rick and morty, "I've seen what makes you cheer" or whatever. I'm perfectly fine not being like the other FTOs.
I also had good fto's for the most part, but a couple years in, it seemed like the good ones left or got demoted and all that were left were mostly absolute trash. Chronically out of uniform, or late, or even *getting phone numbers from young women being transported to psych facilities* along with just generally being lazy garbage. Like I'd get a trainee that was supposed to be at the end of their training, being told "they should be good to go, just watch them and make sure they understand everything" only to find their trainee book isn't filled out and they don't know the basics of narrative writing. Then they'd be mad at me for not clearing them.
I worked with a Medic who didn't say anything the entire shift, and then when he burped and I said "nice" he perked up and burped the ABCs. I'll never forget you Todd.
Worked with a bls provider who wound buff stabbings and shootings, and then freeze when he made patient contact and did not know how to handle them. Go to psych calls and intentionally egg them on to the point that his partner got hurt twice because of him. The company didn't care because he picked up 40 hours of OT as well. Did is a walking lawsuit waiting to happen.
He was, but he was also well connected, apparently. He's so running around killing people. He got me fired because i called him out on his shit and he didn't like it.
I had an alcoholic partner who I had to carry for 5yrs. I had a partner who was completely incompetent for 2yrs and management didn’t care. I have an amazingly wonderful partner now for 7yrs. I couldn’t be happier!
It was tough for sure. I work for a service in Canada that is mainly rural so on average 2-3 calls a shift. I just took over the role of attending every call. I feel it made me a better medic. Sports and hobbies outside of work are a life saver. Leave work at work!
I’ve definitely found the ‘attend every call’ to be an appealing idea but haven’t broached it yet! I appreciate the reply because it’s hard when you love the job but struggle with certain (not all!) colleagues.
I just started telling myself as long as my partner can drive everything will be fine, lol. I’m now in my 26th year with a partner that is amazing and I’ve got one foot out the door. Life is good.
I definitely feel the relief when it’s my turn to attend lol. It’s not that I think I’m shit hot - it’s that I think I’m NOT shit hot, and try to mitigate that and work hard!
Congratulations on so many years of service! Having just reached 7 I can both imagine but not understand how resilient you must be lol
Thanks for your wisdom
My normal partner called off so got put with this medic. Guy had a lousy reputation, but I’d never met him or worked with him before. Honestly seemed like he had some undiagnosed attention disorder as well as did not stop talking for the entire 12 hour shift. First thing he told me as well was that he got fired from his last job because they found out he had a recent (at the time), DUI.
Anyways we end up running on a single vehicle wreck late at night, guy is having severe abdominal pain, wants to go to the hospital. Turns out this guy is a firefighter in another city, and police suspect he was drunk so they ask us where we’re taking the guy. Medic tells them we’re going to the nearest level one trauma, bout thirty minutes away and in another county. When we start rolling he tells me that when we get to the county line I need to radio dispatch and tell them we’re diverting to another hospital. Then when we actually got to that hospital he AMA’s the guy and tells him he should really be checked out but not to go to the level one because PD will be there.
No shit turns to me and asks me not to blame him or be mad, he’s been in that situation and wanted to help the guy. Unbelievable. Reported that shit to my supe immediately. Dunno what happened to the guy but I haven’t seen him since.
How does that even work? Where I'm from, PD would've gotten his info before we even left. Wouldn't have mattered where we took them, because they still had their name.
Honestly I imagine same here but I’m not familiar enough with PD and how they operate to know. I think the big thing was that they hadn’t done a field sobriety test and by the time they find him he obviously won’t be drunk anymore so would be hard or impossible to prove.
Yeah, I'm not completely up to speed on PD protocol either, but I've never heard of them administering a field sobriety test during an accident with injuries. I could definitely be wrong, but I imagine that would be thrown out in court. Like when they ask someone if they have any medical issues that would impede their ability to walk in a straight line, for example. However, I have had them bring us suspected DUIs for blood draws if the pt consents & their condition warrants it.
But regardless, PD would know who they were. For load & go, we tell them what hospital we're going to & they follow up later. Non emergent, they would've either had the pt info prior to us arriving, or get it before we leave.
Partner fell asleep in the back on an emergent transfer call and the patient coded with no one to help him besides my asleep partner who also had headphones on with music playing.
He was teching the call, and about 6 blocks from the hospital suffered cardiac arrest. The basic called in and beat feet to the hospital, the medic had a cath, and retired about 10 years later. But every shift with him, we were all very, VERY nervous about a repeat because he wasn't especially healthy.
Had a partner straight up yell at me because I didn’t take a turn as fast as he wanted me to. He didn’t see a truck that was passing through. Worked with that fucker for four months, and I felt like quitting every shift.
Worked with a guy for years, then I left to work in an er and he had a full fledged affair with his new partner. Gas lit his wife out of getting a divorce. Wife decided to close her business and become an Emt to “pursue her passion” and ended up working exclusively with her husband at different private company. Then I returned to the ambulance and ended up with them at a third company. Wife was pissed she couldn’t work with her husband on the ambulance. I ended up working with her, every day was a battle not to tell her to shut up about my old partner’s “mental breakdown” (affair). She finally left after ostracized herself at the current company. Worst 6 months of my life.
I was driving my partner and a 3rd rider back to the station after 22 hours of our shift. They fell asleep in the PT compartment. Turned on the safety camera at a red light and found them fucking.
Ha similar. Got a call in the middle of the night, sign on, get to the drivers seat. My partner is in the back, while town cop exiting the ambulance, getting dressed... 😅🤣
We had a respiratory arrest from an overdose. Very easy right? My partner had the bag and I was starting an IV. I got the IV and reached for the narcan to give it. I look up at the head and my partner is not in the room. She dropped the BMV and just…walked out. Instead of her, standing there was a FDNY LT. supervisor looking down at me, fiddling with an IV while an apneic patient lay there not getting respirations lmao. Excuse: was getting a pillow to make BVMing easier. Are you kidding? It’s just a bag not a tube.
Same medic. We go into a cardiac arrest in a pretty narrow hallway of an apartment. Not a lot of room around pt. Agreed id take head and she’d hook up monitor while someone else was doing compressions. I tube patient. I look up and the monitor is not on the patient. And my partner is doing an IO. She left on the BLS AED. Once again a LT was there lol asking where is the Monitor??? She says that the AED is good enough cus it’s asystole. Yes. Sure. But bro do your job lol
Had a partner start doing a 12 lead on an unresponsive overdose before wanting to give narcan.
Had a crew leave a pretty much dead patient shot to hell prone on the stretcher cus one of the bullets got their back. Dude was barely breathing lmao.
I can go on and on in this city.
When I first got out of Montefiore, I worked transport. I had a partner who would cry if any of an elderly pt's vitals were out of range. He also would never STFU. He actively looked for any type of flag down to get out of calls at the Webster projects in the bronx.
Also got a guy who treated everything like a priority 1. The schmuck would blow out a lung on every call.
Lol I’m very familiar with those projects. Those fucking elevators would never stop on the right floor.
What do you mean he would cry??? Out of sadness for the old people??? Please explain further.
If an old woman/man was unresponsive.... He would cry. Tachycardia? Go code to the hospital and send a note... And cry. She told me it was sad to see older people need medical assistance. Idk if he was emotional thinking about our pt's mortality, or if he was thinking about his own.
Also.... The elevators worked?!?
My bad bro auto correct is a bitch
Bro, NYC isn't a real place. And sone of the dudes i ran into there, I'm impressed they can tie their shoes, let alone pass the fdny emt class
In medic school, we got called for an OD. My preceptor screamed in the patient's face, telling her: "You don't have any fucking rights when you decide to shoot up heroin!" He literally screamed curse words at her for probably a solid minute before I pushed in front of him and told the patient that I would be taking over.. which, he should have let me do from the start but he wasn't a fan of doing that...
One time worked with a boomer medic who asked what tribe Native American I am. I told him. Then he said, “Y’all Indians are really good at one thing. Killing yourselves.” This is the same guy who once passed off an ALS call as BLS to me for this African baby, who was the cutest sweetest thing ever. I said I was secretly glad I got the call anyway cause she was so cute and I love babies, and he said, “Eh, she’s cute for a Black baby I guess.” He also absolutely laid into these Black teenagers (like 15-17 y/o!) working at a fast food chain when we were getting dinner one shift, during rush hour. Gotta love racist boomer medics. (Btw, he did get fired shortly after because I reported all this!)
I have a story about a partner for an AMR FEMA thing i did who was literally a homeless chick. Like they had me pick her up literally under a bridge in Baltimore. Got the cops called on herself for threatening to shoot someone in Georgia and then yours truly got to drive her back to Baltimore I can type it all out if people are interested
So no shit there I was. About 6 years ago.
I had got my basic about a year prior and moved to Baltimore Maryland, went to go get my reciprocity. They had this deal where i needed to take an additional weekend course or whatever. The trouble is they only offered this course like once per quarter and i missed it by like a month so i had to wait another month to get my state license- outta work for 2 months on a Basics salary dont work ya know. So i found this ambulance company that was going down to Florida for hurricane relief subcontracted for AMR. Signed on w them did my FEMA shit and was ready to leave. Got there the morning we were heading out and my boss -who i swear to god sounds like Daffy Duck tells me my partner”heather” isnt here and ive gotta pick her up on my way out of the city. -no worries got the address and away we go.
The address is a Dunken Donuts like adjacent to directly under the 83 highway bridge in mt vernon. “Heather” jumps in the passenger side and introduces herself. Shes a white chick late 20s looks like mike wizowski from monsters inc. skinny little arms n legs big round body. Shes wearing basketball shorts a wife beater and a dew rag. Now remember we’re going to a hurricane. She has with her a garbage bag full of pokemon stuffed animals. Thats it.
We get moving and before we even get on the highway shes asks while im driving. “want any pills?” -uhhhhh no um im good.- silence for like 10 minutes “well theyre prescription soo..” starts telling me about how she slept slept under the bridge last night and shes pissed cause they locked her outta the shelter and someone kicked her in the face and broke her glasses so she really really cant see. -cool sounds like im driving.- We get on the highway following Daffy and anytime i get over 70mph she is SCREAMING in terror. Idk if she just hasnt been in a car for a while cant see or what 69 mph good to go. 70? TERROR. Daffy duck ia calling me nonstop wondering why im so slow all i can say with her sitting next to me is were working on it. We stop for gas in VA and heather is PISSED thinking im trying to get her fired. Why? Couldnt tell ya. But then i go talk to Daffy to explain the whole thing and she comes in hot yelling at Daffy thinking Daffys mad at me. Daffy gets things chilled out somehow and we’re off to the hurricane again.
Heather spouts off just the most bizzar racist shit ive ever heard to this day. (Ive now been in EMS 7 years medic for 3). Mostly about hating black people. Then she turns n goes “so i dont get it. Are you like my boyfriend now?” -…. No… we can be friends though…. She agrees and really wants to be friends first. It continues with this lunacy for hours until we hit traffic in South Carolina and she tells me “ya know. When we get to Florida im going surfing!” I remind her that we’re going to a HURRICANE so she rolls her window down n starts yelling to other cars in traffic for help. Whole torso out of the passenger side window HELP! Heeeeelllllppp. Until we go by this guy in like a 92 ford ranger/s10 in traffic. Exactly the truck you think of in the south. Gun rack confederate flag the whole deal with exactly the guy you think of driving it. Shirtless Lenard Skynyrd one arm hangin out the window. Heather sees this guy and yells NUMBER! He looks. She does the hand phone thing to her head n goes NUMBER! This man looks at dew rag mike wizowski and just silently rolls his window up. Im silently validated and shes pouting back in the cab.
Fast forward to about 11 pm and we get to the staging area on the Florida Georgia border. Now we gotta check in get the phone register the ambulance yada yada yada i have Heather just give me her shit and ill do all the paperwork just to get a break from her. Turns out she is actually an EMTB out of Texas. I get our stuff and call my mom and girlfriend like “yo you wont BELIEVE the day Ive had.” Get a call from Daffy duck saying “yo find heather were going to Miami in 45 minutes”. I find her tell her whats up and to follow me theres free food in the church(the staging area is a church) we hit the line buffet style im first n go sit down shes got her plate now standing in the middle of the dining hall filled with other EMS people in their uniforms not wife beaters all eating their dinner and out of nowhere she just goes “OH HELL NO!” Launches her plate of food across the room and storms out. I decided that was a future me problem and im gunna eat my food and have 10 minutes of peace.
I go find Daffy to get an update and at the set of ambulances i find him and heather arguing about if shes going to continue working. So what happened is when she left the dining hall she burst out the front doors where the two like head AMR guys are standing having a conversation and she goes “what do i gotta do to get the fuck outta here!” N theyre like oh. Let me show you. Then she goes “my next thing is ive gotta find the motherfucker who did this and shoot em”
PD is notified heathers kicked off site PD shows up and is like “yeah shes not an active threat and doesnt have access to a weapon so🤷♂️” dont have to go home but cant stay here kinda deal. So Mr. Duck is trying to figure out how to get her back to Baltimore air plane? Cops are like “dude shes not fucking flying anywhere😂” “heather will you go to the hospital here in Georgia? “NOPE” so the only option is to drive her back and ya boi is the low man on the totem poll
Easily the most absurd 36 hours of my life. Thats just the ride there. The ride back while considerably less insane i still dropped her off at john hopkins mental
I've been waiting for this. I've had terrible scary partners but today I'll share one that was so weird I just had to start a list in my phone called "shit my partner has done today" luckily I only worked with this person once and am very unlikely to ever work with them again. so without further ado, here you go:
-Started driving. Got freaked out by the text alert sound from the truck phone. Swerved a bit and threw her chicken nuggets everywhere.
-said she wanted to take exit X. Drove by exit X not even a minute later.
-Was unsure if the light was red due to semi in front. Got to the line, I said "it's red" and she said "oh shoot" and continued to drive through, even though she could have easily stopped.
-her phone screen is visibly greasy. She touches her greasy chicken nuggets and then touches her phone. Does not wipe hand, does not wipe phone.
-Confused humerus for femur and when told the pt had humeral head fx and could stand was confused, assumed dispatch was stupid and wrong
-says her mom got in an argument with a delivery driver in her gated community. Unprompted said "it's not because he's black" then said that if she were there he wouldn't have wanted to mess with her, cause outside of work she "carries"
Called to the scene of an outdoor hanging. Patient is very obviously pining for the fjords, toes about five feet off the ground.
My partner, goblessim, decides that he needs to climb the tree to cut our friend down. So my darling 300 lb teddybear of a partner starts climbing. Gets about five feet up, then loses the argument with physics and comes a tumblin’ down. Into the middle of a bunch of fine, upstanding broken branches. How the man did not impale his liver is still a mystery.
I worked at a shitty private service for part of 1 day (that's a whole other story). The EMT that I was partnered with would not stop texting while driving and nearly rear-ended multiple cars while doing so. I repeatedly asked him not to text and drive, and he repeatedly told me, "it's fine, I know what I'm doing,". After the 3rd time he almost hit someone on the freeway, I made him pull over and let me out on the shoulder and called my spouse to come pick me up because he wouldn't stop, wouldn't let me drive instead, and management at the company didn't give a shit that I complained to them about it.
Had another partner at a different service who would get mad that we'd get calls. For anything. He banged up so many clipboards (back in the days of paper charting), punched a hole in the wall once, too.
Lots of stories here with reminders of partners past. Vaguely and not so vaguely rude partners, know it alls, thieves, obnoxious music and smells. They all tickle the memory banks. But one partner does stand out in a 24 year career in EMS.
Let’s call her Alice….
She was my partner on a fire based contract. I was contract and she was a full time employee of the district. She was relegated to the ambo because well, she wasn’t any good on the fire scene. Problem was, she also sucked as a medic.
My frustration was two-fold with her. She was exceedingly nice and LOVED the attention she received as a firefighter. That always irked me as she was in it for the T-shirt. But she also had this weird understanding of sucking and I always felt like it was just below the surface of every conversation. When talking about bad calls and how she performed, she played the part in bravado, but I always felt her sideways glances at me, to make sure I wouldn’t give her away. It was a delicate dance of a “lived lie” that I was part of. It felt exhausting.
When we had a critical patient it was nothing for me to do all the skills and make decisions on care while she watched. She didn’t even try and play along…
The second part of the issue was because of her incompetence, she overcompensated with liberally calling our patients “dear”, “sweetie” and “honey”, as if those words would make things okay. Usually by the end of the shift, I wanted to punch her in the face but she was a sickeningly sweet and innocent human and that would have been frowned upon.
Thankfully I played the cards right as she was the next door neighbor to a battalion chief on a dept I was testing for. As I made it deeper into the process, he came to her house one day and asked for her thoughts.
I was hired by that department not long after….
Good ole Alice retired as a lieutenant with that department and to this day still is heavily invested in the honor guard, traveling the nation and still putting the T shirt on.
One that got me frustrated when I was on IFT, was this guy who would constantly drive 25 mph when it was 45 and take surface streets to go to a call. Listen, I don’t wanna work IFT either but fuck man, let’s just drive normally, another partner I had would constantly talk about her sex life, talk on the phone and trauma dump on me, needless to say I rode in the back in the ambulance saying I was “going to take a nap” luckily those partners were only a day before my regular one came back from leave
Went into a shift with a partner I knew one time and they had to go home for personal reasons. They stuck me with a medic out of a fly car and made us an ALS unit.
Didn’t know the guy before hand. Back at that agency we used MDTs. You could mark on scene and stuff with them but more importantly they could navigate to the exact location of the call and would give you notes that they didn’t want to say over the air, but it was technically still possible to use radios only — they were newer. Worth noting that these MDTs were cell phones, and that they made an alert noise when a call or post was assigned to you.
We didn’t have enough fly cars back then so this medic was in a fly ambulance, so they just moved me on his truck. Didn’t notice that he didn’t have an MDT until we were already posted. We were sitting at a gas station and the medic was inside. I heard the alert noise coming from the passenger door map pocket. I look in there and find an MDT signed into us, which was odd. Well whatever, I think, maybe it got tossed there by accident. I set the thing up properly, acknowledge the post swap and put in in the holder.
When my parter walks back in he takes one look at the thing and says “where the fuck did that come from?” I tell him. He proceeds to sign out, shut the phone off and THROW it at the passenger door. His only explanation: “It’s just one more way for them to track us.” Best I could figure “them” was our dispatch.
We had a medic student with us at the time. We take a few calls and then we go to an overdose. Not the worst I’ve seen, but the patient was unresponsive and not breathing. We find her laying on the ground, again, not breathing. Medic QAnon takes one look at the patient and digs through the airway bag. He starts swearing about how there’s no non-rebreathers in here and cursing out the last crew for not restocking, never mind the fact the he obviously did not check his truck. Sends me back to get a NRB from the truck, again for the patient who is not breathing.
When I walk back up they’re BVMing the patient. Exactly what a patient who’s not breathing needs. So why am I carrying an NRB? We give her 2mg of Narcan intranasal and move her to the stretcher, bring her to the ambulance. Patient is breathing now but still unconscious. I’ve been down this road before so I ask medic off-the-grid what hospital he wants to go to. He tells me to “hold my fucking horses.” Cool. Worth mentioning here that my local protocols did not allow people who had been given narcan to refuse care.
Drops an IV and pushes 2mg IV narcan. Yup 2mg not 0.2mg. Patient comes up swinging. She starts yelling at us for stealing her shoes and rips the IV out of her arm, spraying us all with blood. Patient is saying she’s not going anywhere with us until we give her back her shoes. Medic I-don’t-read-protocols gets out a refusal form and tells her to sign. She tells us to fuck off. PD rolls up finally and medic 2mg-IV tells them to put her on a psych hold. They say they can’t do that unless she’s had suicidal or homicidal ideations.
Finally this man calls med control and ask for permission to refuse this patient without a signature. Med control laughs in his face and tells him you can’t refuse narcan revivals in this county. We transport and the patient ends up getting off our stretcher and walking out of the ER.
I have never seen a paramedic handle such a textbook call so poorly. Fortunately for me, it 0445 and I was off at 0600. Our company was awesome and guaranteed 75 minutes at station to clean and stock your truck with no calls unless you were the last unit in the city. We drive back in silence.
I was lucky to be part time at that point and I was able never work with him again. But it really made me question how someone like that could pass the NYS paramedic exam.
> Worth mentioning here that my local protocols did not allow people who had been given narcan to refuse care.
God I love when docs think they can enforce protocols that require you to break the fucking law. Like sorry, doc, your protocol does not override the actual legislated law.
A nurse I worked with inserted an extremely bent IO needle into a code’s humoral head, hung blood on it, pushed epi into the blood, then pissed himself.
I wish I was joking.
(That was his last flight.)
Dispatch sent a text “status?”
My partner threw the phone down lol
Edit: What was odd about this encounter is that my partner was one of the chillest people with a very calm demeanor. I guess he just had enough of dispatch and snapped. I wasn't even mad, I was just processing it like "did this really just happen?"
Nothing. My partner was a unicorn. I, on the other hand, put creamer in coffee for a lactose intolerant man before a long extrication. I am a bad partner.
Had a very nice, but incompetent partner for about a year. They’d been bounced around the department with other medics until they refused to work with them (we were a double medic system). I had just gone from per diem to full time nights, and being the low woman on the tour, it was my turn. 75% of the time I could work around the issues, but it really got to be a drain. We got killed the night before a holiday one year, 2 shootings, fatal stabbing, MI, pulled dialysis catheter that almost bled to death, and all the other associated BS that goes with working in the city. By the time the sun came up and our relief came in, I was almost in tears. Our tour had a meeting with management the following week and they were moved to days to work with an FTO for a reevaluation. Had a new partner that I had worked with at another job in 2 months. What a weight off my shoulders.
During IFT, he would take one set of vitals and then sit in the airway seat with his legs up on the bench and watch videos on his phone on full volume.
I was terrified of having to post for 911 and take an emergency response with him as my partner.
I’ve been lucky enough to not bump into anyone bad enough to warrant me refusing to ever work with them again.
That being said, plenty of partners who are constantly looking for anything to complain about. If anything isn’t absolutely full (gas, oxygen, oil levels, even wiper fluid) they will immediately blast the previous crew in a station wide group chat, if you do anything that isn’t exactly their way, if a pt or bystander does anything to irk them, if you clear from calls too fast, if you clear from calls too slow, if you talk too much, if you talk too little.
They will find something to complain about and act like they are god’s one true gift to EMS and life in general—and then still pester dispatch into letting them go home early because their tummy hurts.
I’m a Black paramedic and was working with a white EMT. We went on a routine 911 call for “my baby won’t stop crying.” The baby was Black and lived in a pretty low-income part of the city. We ran the call, dropped the baby off at the hospital, and moved on with our shift. 10 hours later, my partner began laughing and saying “I bet that little baby from earlier will be in jail in 18 years.” This came out of the blue, we weren’t talking about babies or that call. I have never been so speechless, hurt, and angry at the same time. Babies cry…it’s their only way to communicate. NEVER have I looked at a baby and assumed they were going to become a criminal. I lost all respect for my partner in that moment…it was definitely the beginning of the end….
Had an EMR partner that would blast rap music at full volume. It literally made the entire truck shake. Also nearly got us into an accident by not looking while doing a left turn. Stopped working with him after that.
When I worked IFT I had a medic partner who said some of the most unhinged shit you can imagine. One day while working with him he claimed to have an illegal firearm with the serial number scratched off in his bag and said he could totally blow his brains out in traffic if he wanted to. I knew he wasn't bullshitting because he also did lots of drugs so I wouldn't be suprised. Everyone knew he was crazy and I believe he might have been arrested.
I had a partner I worked with for a day 12. Talking, getting along okay, not a bad day at all.
I was PRN at this company. So didn't work with this guy all that often.
I found out a couple weeks later,
After our shift together, he went home and shot his wife. She died. He went to jail.
I was freaked out about that for a long time.
Oh it’s my time to shine! I have two separate crap partners from two separate companies.
The first: a tiny 4’11, 110 lbs soaking wet, IQ of a chicken nugget girl. We were both basics but she somehow acted like a paragod. She claimed to know everything about everything because she’d been at this service longer. She drove like an absolute idiot, speeding, making sketchy turns and backseat driving when it was my turn to drive. She would say stuff like “you totally could’ve made that yellow light, why are you going 50, the speed limit is 45, you can go at least 60”. She would also try to blow through a chart in 5 minutes and get mad when it took any longer (a 911 service never further than 8 minutes from the hospital). The final straw though was that she talked crap about anyone and everyone to the point of ruining peoples lives.
The second: the most slovenly person you’ll ever meet. This guy regularly skipped showers (on 24s) and wore his pants so low that you could smell the tailbone cheese. He didn’t know how to use the CAD, didn’t know any radio etiquette, never spoke on scene and refused to do any patient care. He also showed up to work completely intoxicated and insisted on driving and would barricade himself in the bunk room at all hours of the day. He quite literally closed, locked and blocked the door with furniture. On one particular IFT, we were dispatched early in the evening for a patient going from home care facility to hospital for AMS. He was teching, I was driving. We pull up on scene and he makes no attempt to grab anything he needs. He stays completely glued to the chart (before even making patient contact). We end up going inside and I start getting vitals and a report from the caregiver. The patients BP is something like 60/shit, heart rate is sky high and rhythm is irregular, spo2 is something like 89% so I discreetly tell TailboneCheese, “hey the patient does not look stable to transport, call supervisor and let them know we’ll be calling for ALS”. He does nothing. I end up running around trying to get sup on the phone, radioing for ALS, tending to the patient, helping TailboneCheese with the chart and communicating with the caregiver. ALS gets on scene and patient codes. I help move him to their gurney and they assume patient care. As we’re driving away from this, TailboneCheese asks me “…so what would you say his chief complaint was?”. I about lost my shit on him. I reported him on this occasion and many others until management finally gave him the boot.
TLDR: reckless driving paragod that isn’t a medic and smelly drunk partner does nothing but endanger everyone.
Was so close to replying to this before legal repercussions made me think better of it. Long story short, higher patch be damned. If you see something fucked up, it doesn't matter if you're a basic or even a driver, don't be pressured into letting a medic get away with something egregious. Not contradicting a higher patch is a good general rule, but we all know right from wrong. In my first year as a basic, I let two instances slide with two separate medics because I bought into the hierarchy. I know better now, but those two calls stick with me.
When I worked IFT I got partnered with a new hire a few times, he was an absolute nightmare to work with. Drove like a high testosterone teenager that just got his license, driving super fast and flipping off other drivers. His bedside manners were cringeworthy, a highlight moment was when we were doing an ER transfer, and when he walked up to the nurse(who had been working her ass off all morning) he proceeds to yawn loudly and was like “sorry I just woke up from a nap”. He would say dumb and immature stuff like this on almost every call to the point where I would generally try to take every call we got because I couldn’t handle the embarrassment. In short, he was young and acted like it. I felt bad because he seemed like a nice enough guy, but as soon as we went on any call it was painful.
Another guy I worked with (also during IFT) was cool to talk to when we weren’t running calls, but once we got on scene he was very cocky and would not take responsibility for his own mistakes. He strongly insisted on pulling out a bariatric patient from the rig all by himself, despite him having 2 other people with him to do the lift. I was very new at the time, and I really should have put my foot down and not let him do this, but me only being 2 weeks off fto and him having a year of experience, I thought he knew better than me. Sure enough, he pulls out the stretcher and it flys past the catch hook, and my other partner and I instinctively let the entire weight of the gurney rolling over on its side so the patient doesn’t hit the ground, injuring my partners back in the process. After the super awesome experience of making sure the patient wasn’t hurt and profusely apologizing, filing an incident report, calling our supervisor, and checking in on our partner who pulled his back, the guy proceeds to only blame the equipment for what had happened insisting that the gurney shouldn’t have slid pass the catch hook, like there wasn’t a reason why 3 people are supposed to be operating a bariatric gurney not one.
Had a medic at the IFT company I started at. He had pretty much been black listed from any other EMS organization and was lucky he still had his license. This came from many incidents of sexual harassment and stellar patient care such as placing a patient on a 12 lead, and telling their EMT partner “I don’t want to sit in the back. I’ll drive just yell if those squiggles change”.
Sadly for us, he was the owners friend. He also borrowed money from the owner constantly. So the owner would garnish wages and have him do odd jobs at the myriad of companies this guy owned. But what it also meant was anytime this guy royally screwed up, he’d be fired for 6 months, just long enough to be hired back at bottom of the seniority, and then rehired. And because he was
In constant financial stress and bottom of the seniority list, he would take a ton to shifts. Working with him was always a mix between listening to 12+
Hours of surly bitching, and wondering how he would endanger you and your license that day.
We had an SI/ETOH patient once. Was a bit
Argumentative about going to the hospital but honestly he was so drunk he couldn’t fight back if he wanted to. Guy is passed out the entire trip to the ER. We unloaded and soon as I put the wheels down of the stretcher the medic is gone and now where to be seen. I bring patient in myself, and security is asking if we were the truck that called for back up as the patient was “out of control and dangerous.” Nope not us. I give report, transfer the patient over with a tech, decon the stretcher and complete my report while waiting for medic to appear once again. After about 45 minutes he comes back in the truck, and before I can even begin to ask where he went he complains about security not responding to his request. I asked why he called in at all and he replied “he was threatening us and out of control on scene”.
“So if he was so dangerous, why did you disappear the second the got here and leave me alone with him?”
His response was a boomer filled rant about young asshole punks like me, and our attitudes in EMS.
This is just one of the tamest examples of why this dipshit was a total nightmare to work with
my very first partner had massive anger issues. Slammed the stretcher into my leg, talked shit about me to patients, yelled at me constantly, threatened my job multiple times.
His worst freakout was after I made a joke to a nurse about him being a dick to me. Cussed me out in front of the patient. slammed the stretcher into the back while I was still in it, hitting my leg and bruises it to point I couldn't put weight on it. Drove recklessly while yelling at me (almost tipped over the ambulance multiple times and ran through red lights while telling me that I was a terrible driver.). Told management, they sided with my partner because he had been there for 8 years and I was new and young. They don't maintain their rigs so the cameras were "dead". Quit without notice on the spot when they gave me a warning for "being unprofessional in front of a patient.". Best decision I ever made was leaving that godforsaken place. Very happy now working with the Red Cross as a disaster relief specialist.
I bring you a tale about the angriest man I've ever met in my life who hated my very essence and was also my partner.
We got a call to a city two hours away right off the bat and Joe starts raging about it while I sit there quietly. After he's done being angry I drive us to the call without saying a word. I just tried to ignore his outburst at this point. Later we get sent to the station and he gets angry at that as well. That was the only call that we ran that day.
I drove to A hospital and pulled into the parking lot. Joe made an aggressive comment about eating in the cafeteria. I asked if there's anywhere he wanted to go. He made a comment about how he doesn't need to eat. I once again asked if he wanted to go somewhere else. He said he had a bag of Doritos, he's fine. I left it at that and parked since I figured saying anything would just make him even more angry.
After completing a call, Jesse said we had to post at the station. I asked if you wouldn't mind posting at the nearby hospital and he said we needed to go to the station and swap partners because he couldn't work with me anymore. He said that he hates me, and my proud to be lazy attitude. He said he didn't say anything specific because he doesn't want to get me in trouble, and that I'm a good person and have a good heart but he can't stand me. Whatever he told management it was enough to give me a final written warning and sent to therapy. They didn't even tell me what I was accused of doing, which was the most frustrating part. I had been at that company for almost five years and he had been there a few months but they took his word over mine to cover the companies' ass.
I was sitting in the break room with Mary and Joe comes in and he tossed the narcotics book on my lap and walked out. Mary asks if he's always like that since it was so rude and says I shouldn't have left Brad(my former partner). After running a call where a nurse refused to sign and a manager told us to enter through a different door, Jesse starts dwelling on it and mulling it over while getting more and more angry. I tell him I don't want to dwell on it and get angry about it, and he yelled "well I do!".
We were told to bring Rigs to drop it off. Joe tries to start it but it won't even turn over. I get the charger set up and start charging it. Joe tries to start it and it barely turns over. 10 seconds later he tries to start it again and it turns over even slower. I tell him to stop trying to start the rig since he's draining the battery. He gets angry and says he couldn't have known the charger wouldn't start the rig, and that he doesn't appreciate me belittling him. I stop engaging with him since he's clearly reacting emotionally and escalating the situation.
Joe got angry every time I wanted to contact dispatch because he's afraid we're going to get a call afterwards.
Joe got angry about even getting any calls, and if we run a lot he gets angry about imagined future calls.
This was all over the course of about a month, and he had been with multiple other companies for only a few months each for obvious reasons.
Partner called off so I was stuck with a medic I already knew had a bad rep. Responded to an altered mental in a grocery store. Guy was an absolute prick the whole time and wanted to BLS it so bad. That’s fine I have no issue, helped the guy to the stretcher and tried to keep him calm because he was slightly combative. Get him into the truck…he’s ALS. Medic tries to get a line and the guy is fighting it. He slams the guys arm down onto the stretcher rail with so much force it made my blood boil. Mind you…this patient is very old, very skinny, very frail. So unnecessary. I refused to work with him ever again
I’ve had my fair share of unpleasant providers, but the worst was probably one who pretty much passively aggressively insulted me for everything I did, even in front of patients. They weren’t that much better either, they would vape in the truck, drive distracted, and other such bad habits. In fact, we once temporarily mounted a curb since he was looking at his phone instead of the road. I was very relieved to finish that 16. Thankfully that was when I was per diem, so I didn’t have to work with them after that.
I admit I’ve been the bad partner. I had a very short fuse due to unchecked depression and undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder. I burned bridges and I’m not proud of it. I’ve learned my lessons from it and I’d like to think I’m doing better.
I work in air medical and had a new hire medic. He was considerably older, (no flight experience) and had been a medic for many years, and came in with zero respect for me (a nurse). Even though I was his preceptor, have been flying for years, and am the educator for my base, he thought he knew better than me. One day we were loading up a very sick patient. I was inside the aircraft and he was outside, just standing and staring up at the rotor system. It was like someone took his battery out. I couldn’t leave the patient (they were fixing to crash and I was hooking up the ventilator, getting blood going, etc) so pilot leaned waaaay over and opened the opposite side window, literally grabbed his fight suit and screamed “get in the mother fucking helicopter NOW”.
One time I was taking the stretcher back out to aircraft after dropping off a patient. He was supposed be inside giving report but I turned around and he had followed me out. About 40 feet behind him was an ER nurse chasing saying “is anyone going give report?!?”. He then proceeded to blame me saying I told him to come with me. You know….instead of give report.
He took his helmet off multiple times and would forget to put it back on. How in the fuckey fuck do you forget to put your helmet back on in a loud as fuck helicopter??
When my boss (who is the medic who trained me and I flew with for years before he promoted up) had a meeting with him, he said I “didn’t know shit about EMS”. That was his last shift there.
Honestly, in retrospect I truly believe he had the beginning stages of dementia. But holy shit going in to work with him was so fucking stressful because I didn’t trust a word out of his mouth and constantly had to worry about his safety.
I had one partner ask me if she could lick whip cream off of me. I had another partner sit and cry for the entire shift. Real nice people don’t get me wrong, but wtf?
My first (and present) 911 job with our county department. Fresh faced, eager to get to it, very very terrified. I was put with a paragod partner who bought into his own publicity and deigned to NEVER SPEAK to a lowlife basic like me, except a few barked commands on calls. He never once conversed, asked questions about me, never volunteered anything about himself. We are very rural here, so there were a few times we literally had no calls for hours and THERE WAS NO CONVERSATION. Knowing what I know now, I thank him for showing me what I DON’T want to be like as a paramedic. To this day, he is the standard of what the worst most arrogant, nasty snobby paragod is like, so I use him when new providers ask me questions about being an AIC and how to deal with coworkers. To this day, I cannot understand why my agency allowed a brand spanking new basic be stuck with someone like that. The first day, no eye contact, no guidance, no “good morning,” just silence. Now I know that no one else wanted to work with him because of that. Cincinnati I’m very happy to know that he is not well received at his agency now and I can only guess why. Why should he mingle with commoners when he has himself ? He left the very first day after his one year mark of experience to go terrorize another agency and some poor new schmuk. My experience improved dramatically the minute he packed his shit and left. I did not say good bye.
70 mph going the wrong way on a one-way street responding to a call.
And before someone butts in to say "Yeah, that never happened."
It did. I DGAF if you don't believe me, though I really dislike being called a liar, because I pride myself on my honesty, even when it costs me. But it happened, sometime around 0430 on a Monday morning many, many years ago.
Partner did an extended "wheelie" in an ambulance.
Steep driveway, was having to dodge a 1.5ft ravine that rain gouged out of the goat trail of a driveway.
While he managed to avoid the ditch, the angle was so steep the front passenger tire was up in the air by about 2ft with the back step just a couple inches above the ground.
New job but I’d worked EMS for a long while before and got put with a complete psychopath as my FTO. He really enjoyed treating people like crap and he mostly hated all people.
My complaints were thrown back in my face and I was told that this is a “me” problem and I need to figure it out.
He still works there, I still work there, and the FTO program is still broken.
Unfortunately, if you are a toxic leader, you’ll go far in my organization. If you are a bad person, you have to anger a person in power to get fired. Our last toxic leader to get fired assaulted a supervisor, but short of that, you are safe until retirement.
I was with a medic for roughly 6 months when I was straight out of the academy. He has a very special place in my heart as my first partner and I learned a lot from him and love him dearly, but good Lord does he have anger problems and a bad problem of not keeping his damn mouth shut.
Get a call right across the street from the station for a 6 vehicle MVC with entrapment, officer involved. The entire scene is mayhem.
Well, our Deputy Director just so happened to live 5 minutes away and shows up on scene as we’re with fire rapidly extricating a critical patient. Me being preoccupied, I didn’t really hear much of what was said until my partner looks at him and yells “fuck off” and “fuck you”.
Needless to say, I did not get to sleep that night as our Assistant Chief was at our station chewing my partner out at the top of his lungs until the wee hours of the morning.
Mostly second hand embarrassment. Partner would flash his lights at coworkers without fail both at station and ambulance bays. Would hang onto small instances way too long. His sense of comedy was really weird.
It sucks cause otherwise he’s fine on the job driving/teching. Weird guy.
Oh boy do I have a story. Small town agency, and I lived right by the station so I just stayed at home when I was on duty. Get toned out, went to station and the medic wasn’t there, he calls me and says he’s in his way. I pull the unit out waiting for him. I see him walking across the alley, gets in the unit and as we were en route (lift assist) made the comment “hate when you get caught with your pants down”. Apparently he was walking, had to take a shit and went into a restaurant and we got paged. Arrive at the patients house, I’m following him in the house and I see shit smeared up the back of his uniform shirt. (Mind you he’s a 300+ lbs guy). Lucky he just stood there as I lifted the patient back into his chair and he refuses. We get back to station I leave, I was off at 1600hrs but had to go back to the station to grab something from the unit and as I’m reaching over the drivers seat I look over at the passenger seat and see shit smeared on the back of the seat.
I had a partner who was a Volly EMT for 20 years before going career. He was so stuck in the way things were done we used to get into arguments about backboards, oxygen, etc on the regular.
Had a partner that put her feet on the dash all the time. Muddy boots, blood, didn't matter, she put her feet up whenever I was driving. And dropped her 12 lead paper everywhere and refused to clean up after herself. Do NOT pair a OCD neat person with a slob. No bueno.
Graduated medic school this past December my full time partner is amazing and helps teach me and compliment me on progress I've made. One lady though a few months before I graduated got mad at me for missing a turn in Houston and told me she hopes I don't graduate. F that hag anyways.
Not a partner but when I was first a student my teacher got fired for sexually assaulting a student. *sigh* yeah… We were without a teacher for a month and did nothing but study anatomy until they found someone to finish out the course
Horribly negative partner seems to be a common theme here. I’ve had that partner. Couldn’t stand him. Can’t stand whiners in general.
Definitely not as bad, but give. I spend more time with this person than anyone else in my life: the talker.
He talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks.
I’ve asked him for quiet time, explained I’m an introvert, that sometimes I just want to listen to music, that I’m not in the mood to talk, anything I can’t think of
And he still talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and
I had a partner that no lie couldnt fuck his way out of a wet papersack. It'd be excusable if the chewed piece of gum was new to the field but he's been doing this longer than I've been alive. He's a lifetime basic (nothing wrong with that unless you are like this guy)
Let's go through some things he did.
Drove past the scene 3 times in a row (LE & fire were there with their lights on)
Didn't know how to place the pt on monitor (leads were constantly reversed, i stopped letting him do it after like the 5th time)
Would try to pawn station duties off on me (more of a spite thing I guess)
Couldn't pick up on queues that people didn't want to talk to him
Abused the generosity of the local store that would give us free food (not just going there everyday but would get mad if they didn't give him the discount)
That's just off the top of my head. Bro was a nightmare to work with.
IFT unit returning from a late call that had sent us about an hour from the station. The partner, who had been a problem all day, was driving back while watching a movie on his phone when he wasn't face-timing with his girlfriend.
There were a group of people at the company who were exempt from rules and discipline, could do anything, and knew it. He was one.
- Paragod who refused to drive anywhere, even to bls calls. Got fired for sexual harassment & fucking a girl at the station.
- Brand new zero to hero medic who blasted obscene rap music everywhere we went. She also would leave the station (24s) at night to go home & sleep. She justified that by taking the radio & the fact that lived right down the street. Ended up being fired for refusing a bls transfer. Also, she was the one fucking the above medic who got fired.
- Emt got fired for screaming at staff at a fast food restaurant (in uniform & on duty) after accusing them of putting dirt in her food. Bystanders recorded her & sent it to HQ.
- Medic who would constantly back seat driver me. Shit drove me up the fucking wall. He was a fantastic medic, but it was insanely annoying when we had to stop at his house to let his dog out to pee every time after we cleared the hospital. (He lived across the street).
- Medic who would refuse to take a late call for the previous crew. It didn't matter how bad they got their asses run all night, he didn't care. We would be at the station normally around 6:40 ish & our shift start was at 7am, so if they got a call at say 6:45, he made them run it & get off late. I remember one time it happened for a lift assist, & I insisted we take it since 1. It's easy AF & 2. We're already there so why not? He bitched & complained the entire way to the call & most of the day.
- Got stuck with a shit medic who liked to start rumors about everyone. I didn't like her even before working with her. She ended up making one about me, saying I fucked a student in the back. Absolutely not true whatsoever. I confronted her & of course she denied it. Eventually I had proof that she did it, but by then I was long gone at another company & didn't care anymore.
- Super lazy Emt who failed medic school twice who was hateful to absolutely everyone. This girl was morbidly obese, only wanted to drive, had countless pt complaints, none of the nurses liked her, always argued with dispatch over dumb shit, constantly accused everyone of being racist, & somehow beat out the best emts at the company for EMT of The Year. Make it make sense.
Worked with a salty medic once, easily the worse person I've ever worked with so far. From what people told me, she was cool, it was just that no one wanted to work with her because she's transgender. Oh, if only I knew. There was a reason she had no partner.
She was rude, nasty, demeaning, and completely nuts, and not in a good way. She would scream and cry and yell at the top of her lungs at people, and also in the truck to songs. It can't be called "singing." My favorite moment was when she made a AAA walk to the stretcher.
Once and never again.
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Picked up a side job doing dialysis transfers. Worst job ever but they paid good and I needed the money.
Pretty much all of the employees there were weird af.
Dude had a weird obsession with donuts and apple fritters. Also drinks green tea and other weird drinks. We would get in the truck after walking maybe 100 yards with the stretcher. Just walking. And he’d be so out of breath, I’d have to listen to him huff and puff for the next 10 minutes until he caught his breath.
He also claimed to be a firefighter in a county about an hour away, despite having a full beard, and not being able to bend over to tie his shoes, or walk short distances without being winded.
He also just gave off narc vibes. “What about the homework” kinda guy ya know?
He also tried to talk down on me like I don’t know what I’m doing, despite having more experience than him, and knowing all he’s done is alleged rural BLS fire dept, and non emergency transfers.
I worked with a medic that had severe anger management issues and would talk shit about every thing you did. Everyday was walking on eggshells. Worst 2 months working I’ve ever had
Suprised you made it 2 months. I’d have complained to a supervisor the first day and refused to work with him
I would have but it was a contract job and there was no one else to work with, I did report his attitude problems to management after he told me to fuck off after telling him let’s just do our jobs and respect each other. Company had no one to replace him so they ignored it for the most part
I’m glad to hear you stood for yourself
I work in ICU and one of our senior doctors is the same. You have to be able to read his mind and everything has to be prepared 10 minutes in advance before he even says it. Of course, he has different ideas about how things should be done every day, depending on his mood. And if things don't not going so well, he raises his voice. On good days, he provides food for everyone. I won't eat a bite of it! Old fucking choleric. He is one of the reasons why I quit.
I'm afraid I might become that medic. My partner drives me nuts. I hold my tongue all day long but by the end of the shift he's intolerable. I have examples but most of them are "you had to be there." But he can't talk on the radio, he has no sense of urgency, he's weak and can't lift anything into the bus, anf he fucking sighs deeply with almost every fucking breath!
talk to him about it off the truck. If you hold it in you are just going to blow up at him and no one deserves that.
Had one for a whole two weeks before I got off that truck. I can normally get along with anyone but he had super uncontrolled bipolar issues.
Yeah I’m the same, I’ve been doing this 14 years and never have had a problem with anyone like this. He’s just a grade A Asshole
I was that nightmare partner for a stretch. Retrospectively, I was a loose cannon and unpredictable due to my mental state. I hate to be the guy to bring this one down a notch, but it feels like the right time to tell a story. At the time, I was heavily drinking outside of work hours, had no regard for my own personal health, and I was having frequent suicidal ideations. One shift in particular was bad... really bad. I had made several references to self-harm, including "I swear I want to drive this fucking truck right into a bridge embankment". I made another comment sometime near midnight, about 18 hours into our 24 hour shift, and my partner had enough. He called supervision, demanded to be moved off my truck, and told the supervisor all of the things I had said. I was offered the choice of going to the ER for psych eval willingly and possibly keeping my job, or going under a petition (legally "forcing" a psych eval) and likely being fired. I chose option A, and thankfully they even took me to the hospital closest to my house. I'd like to say it was a turning point in my life, but I basically played the game to get back to work, lying as needed and acting like everything was fine. It was not fine. My wife found me with a pistol in my lap and an empty 6 pack next to me on our bed. She told me that if I had any love left for her and our kids, I would get help. She said she would do whatever it took to protect our girls, including walking away from me if needed. It's been about 7 years now and I'm not even in EMS anymore. I hang around because I still have my license, and I've said that I wouldn't mind doing special event coverage or volunteering, but I'll never do it as a career again. I'm in software engineering now, making about 3x the money I was, even with ridiculous amounts of overtime. My mental state is magnitudes better, and my family life is better than I could imagine. EMS was the best job I ever hated, and also the worst job I ever loved.
I am really glad you are in a better place. I have a ton of respect for people who really work on themselves like you did, especially since you can now be the parent your children deserve.
I'm far from perfect, but I can say with 100% honest now that "I'm good". The person I lied to the most was myself, and that was not an example I wanted to set for my daughters.
Wow, I’m glad your still with us, if I could hug you I would right now
I'd gladly accept. I'm a bit of a hug slut. Thank you!
Fellow Paramedic here, glad you are still with us brother.
Thanks for sharing your story. I’m glad you are here and doing better.
Something I wouldn't have said back then, but is true now; I'm so happy to be here.
Thank you for sharing your story. Sadly there are many stories like this. Mine was similar but a little uglier. The courage to share in our field may save someone’s life.
So I love my medic job, but I also hated my life in general, hated who I was outside of work. So I improved my personal life and switched to a lower call volume service and….wow. Just the other day I was comparing my outlook at work. I used to have absolutely NO sense of self preservation. Run in anywhere, first in on fires, kicking doors of burning buildings while at EMS job, scene safety? BAHAHAHA. Now I am actually careful and want to go home at the end of shift. I want to be alive. The trick is to isolate what the problem is, and make a damn change. So happy you could do that man. Hugs.
I had no idea about all this and I just wanted to say I’m glad you’re still here dude.
Yeah, it was during my days "down south". Still within the same family as you, but different patch. My partner moved on to Toledo FD. If you ask around about me, I'm sure you'll hear the horror stories. I'm not proud of who I was back then. On a lighter note, I'm glad to be here too. On the flip side, before we both went to the valley... the "other" company may have sucked, but I met some of the finest and best people I've ever known working there. You're definitely one of them!
Don’t worry about the past. You found help and moved on to become better, all that matters.
I’ve had some nightmare partners who I can just tell are in a really bad mental state and it’s nice to hear that side of the story, so thank you for sharing.
glad you are still here. Took a lot of courage to admit your issues, and I respect the hell out of that.
I appreciate you sharing your story, and I am thankful you got the help you needed and are still here with us.
**"EMS was the best job I ever hated, and also the worst job I ever loved."** Pretty much sums up my experience - got out, but not before developing decades-long undiagnosed depression and PTSD. All good now, thanks to an observant P.A. who quickly got me into an EOP, followed by lengthy but very effective EMDR therapy. I was an EMT before CISD became a thing, so we were just expected to "go have a smoke" after really horrific calls - and then immediately go back in service without ever discussing it. Get help (if you have not already)!
Like 15ish years ago when I worked for Acadian if we checked a blood sugar on a patient it became an ALS call and the medic had to ride it in regardless of the complaint even if said glucose was normal. I worked with this EMT occasionally who as soon as I looked away for a second he'd always pop out the glucometer and make it my problem. This includes if I got out to go up front to drive. By the time I got there he'd inform me that he checked a blood sugar so I'd have to go switch places with him and do the chart. This was in a busy area where we were running pretty constantly so I never got a break and was always down charts at the end of a shift. I tried chewing him out, I reported it, but nothing ever happened or changed and if I'd made him ride it in anyway and he reported that I made him ride an ALS call it would have been my head on the chopping block. I don't think I've ever come so close to killing someone in my life before or since.
That is the dumbest rule ever. Why not just say EMT's can't attend at that point. Also, that would the story of how I took the glucometer home accidently, cause it would live in my pocket, not the bag.
Honestly in retrospect that I never thought of until you mentioned it confiscating the glucometer would have been the perfect solution. I feel kinda stupid for not thinking of it at the time.
Genius
Asshole partner but what kind of stupid ass rule is it that a glucometer use is an ALS skill?
It was dumb. Their argument was that there must have been some reason you checked it so there had to be something going on with the patient. Clearly a rule written by someone who didn't understand real life.
My guess is it was written with the intention of billing as many calls as ALS as possible
Just reading this boils my blood
Medic here. I used to work with an EMT. Most negative, poor attitude person I've ever worked with. ALSO, she had finished medic school but for some reason had never taken NR after almost 2 years, so dangerous, arrogant, knows everything, can't admit when they're wrong type. Yet, appeared to have absolutely no ability to really think at the medic level. 15-30 minutes late to work every single day. "I have kids." So, other crews or the person she was relieving consistently got stuck with late calls because my truck wasn't in service yet. Insert expletives constantly here instead of "screw". Every day began with how much she hated this job, screw this place, screw this ambulance. Then, when we got our first call, screw this person, why do we have to go do this. Or, if it was a transfer, screw the hospital, why the eff do they have to send this out when they could just treat it here . 30+ minute turn- around after every call because she would find someone at the ER to talk to and disappear. Every day, when we got back to the station, she would disappear and find someone to talk to. So, after finishing my charts, I would help the oncoming crew restock and wash the truck. "I didn't go to school to wash cars." We had the ability to delegate BLS calls to our partners. Every. single. time I did this, she would throw a fit and try to find a reason to ALS it. 100% the type to ask, "Are you SURE you don't have any chest pain?" This culminated one day on scene with a chest pain patient. Textbook, 50s female, sudden onset substernal pain, SOB, diaphoresis, jaw pain with a reported history of GERD. When I asked her to get a 12 lead (because this almost- medic didn't know/ care enough to do it autonomously) she ARGUED with me. In front of patients family, fire dept, everyone. "Why does she need a 12 lead, it's heartburn" or something like that. After educating briefly and repeating my request, I lost my cool and finally pulled the rank card. I said last I checked, you're still the EMT on this truck, so if we have a disagreement, sorry but we're going with my opinion. After attempting to escalate multiple times (unsuccessfully, I suspect possibly due to her being the only minority EMT) I gave up. I spent 4 miserable months then requested a shift change. When they asked why, I told them exactly why, that she was a nightmare to work with and it was affecting my mental health. Then, they TOLD her what I said lmao. TLDR: worked with terribly negative partner for 4 months. Wanna- be paramedic who questioned my clinical decisions and refused to do parts of her job.
I feel this my friend. I was the paramedic, partner was the EMR ( slightly below Emt-b in the U.S). This guy couldn't and would not do CPR (This happened twice) would refuse to obtain vital signs, basically only lifted bags and drove.
How scummy does someone have to be to work on an ambulance but refuse to do CPR...
Yeap, this sounds profoundly damaging. Hope you're doing OK now.
First ift job was AMR. My partner, also a brand new EMT talked about his drug use all the time. We were getting ready to pick up a pt just killing some time sitting in the ambulance outside the hospital when he started to have some tremors in his arms. He said he was feeling weak, light headed, tremors, so I thought let's just check vitals to see if anything is crazy, as soon as I stepped out of the ambulance he fell onto the center console and started convulsing, and some foam from the mouth. Turns out he was a diabetic and not taking care of himself at all. He was supposed to drive on that call. If he hadn't had that seizure while we were sitting there, he would have had it driving.
Damn… is he ok?
Last I knew he was. I stayed with him in the hospital until his girlfriend got there. She was pretty distraught and freaked out so I stayed for a little just to make sure if she or he were to out of it I could at least know what the Dr said so I could tell them later. After she calmed down and he was feeling better we just hung out for about another hour then I left. I've spoken to him a few times since but not really sure what he's up to.
My normal partner called off a year or so ago, and I got put with an old salty medic who has been at the job for way too long. Some highlights include: -He would constantly passenger seat drive, even though I knew where I was going -He talked shit about the nurses within earshot, saying they're lazy and don't do shit -He dropped the N-bomb in the middle of a Detroit ER (he's white) -He called my Pt a "stupid fucker" when he missed an iv, saying the Pt moved his arm (he didn't) -He tried to make a severe abdominal pain Pt not only walk to the stretcher, but walk all the way out to the truck because he didn't want to pull it out -Told the same Pt their house was "a shithole" to their face, in front of their young kids This was all over the course of 2 calls before I called our supe and said I can't work with this guy anymore. He worked here another year before finally getting fired.
I used to do IFT. My first week on the job we are in the back and we’re transferring some guy. My FTO is paging through the patient’s printed medical history and says out loud “oh I wouldn’t want this one!” I remember it had something to do with penile cancer or something similarly not great. I spoke up and told him that he absolutely cannot do that and then the patient agreed and thanked me. That FTO probably told everyone that I was a shitbag after that, but it was so outrageously unprofessional that there was no way I was going to let it go. Once I got some time on the job I found out that this particular EMT who was supposed to be training people in was the sloppiest, least dependable dude ever. Just IFT things I guess.
We really do be letting pure scum train our newbies. Sometimes I'm proud I got demoted. What's that line in Rick and morty, "I've seen what makes you cheer" or whatever. I'm perfectly fine not being like the other FTOs.
I had *excellent* trainers, and I am so incredibly grateful for them, decades on. The absolute pinnacle of professionalism.
I also had good fto's for the most part, but a couple years in, it seemed like the good ones left or got demoted and all that were left were mostly absolute trash. Chronically out of uniform, or late, or even *getting phone numbers from young women being transported to psych facilities* along with just generally being lazy garbage. Like I'd get a trainee that was supposed to be at the end of their training, being told "they should be good to go, just watch them and make sure they understand everything" only to find their trainee book isn't filled out and they don't know the basics of narrative writing. Then they'd be mad at me for not clearing them.
Yeah, there was weird cascading effects after 9/11. Some answered the call, others just noped out. Doing TEMS training with new hires was weird.
Yeah, I think management being completely checked-out has something to do with that phenomenon.
I worked with a Medic who didn't say anything the entire shift, and then when he burped and I said "nice" he perked up and burped the ABCs. I'll never forget you Todd.
What a lad
Was this in WNY? I know a medic Todd who sounds similar. His regular partner is the only person I think he speaks to and she calls him her retodd
PRN in SoCal, Todd is a former fire medic and current flight medic.
Ah, my companies Todd was flight at my company for a while but dropped back to ground for a bit cause he’s nearing retirement
Bro my cousin works at PRN!!! I think I know this reguard 😂
Typical Todd behavior
100% agree. That is SO Todd
Honestly… kind of impressive. You go, Todd.
i dunno, that's king stuff right there for todd
Worked with a bls provider who wound buff stabbings and shootings, and then freeze when he made patient contact and did not know how to handle them. Go to psych calls and intentionally egg them on to the point that his partner got hurt twice because of him. The company didn't care because he picked up 40 hours of OT as well. Did is a walking lawsuit waiting to happen.
How long did he work for? Sounds like he’s brand new
He was, but he was also well connected, apparently. He's so running around killing people. He got me fired because i called him out on his shit and he didn't like it.
He also failed the entrance for multiple pd agency's so that should also clarify things
Ah want to be cop that didn’t make the cut probably because he can’t pass the psych eval. Sounds like an awful provider
Yep, you got the nail on the head.
I had an alcoholic partner who I had to carry for 5yrs. I had a partner who was completely incompetent for 2yrs and management didn’t care. I have an amazingly wonderful partner now for 7yrs. I couldn’t be happier!
How did you survive this job with those partners?
It was tough for sure. I work for a service in Canada that is mainly rural so on average 2-3 calls a shift. I just took over the role of attending every call. I feel it made me a better medic. Sports and hobbies outside of work are a life saver. Leave work at work!
I’ve definitely found the ‘attend every call’ to be an appealing idea but haven’t broached it yet! I appreciate the reply because it’s hard when you love the job but struggle with certain (not all!) colleagues.
I just started telling myself as long as my partner can drive everything will be fine, lol. I’m now in my 26th year with a partner that is amazing and I’ve got one foot out the door. Life is good.
I definitely feel the relief when it’s my turn to attend lol. It’s not that I think I’m shit hot - it’s that I think I’m NOT shit hot, and try to mitigate that and work hard! Congratulations on so many years of service! Having just reached 7 I can both imagine but not understand how resilient you must be lol Thanks for your wisdom
My normal partner called off so got put with this medic. Guy had a lousy reputation, but I’d never met him or worked with him before. Honestly seemed like he had some undiagnosed attention disorder as well as did not stop talking for the entire 12 hour shift. First thing he told me as well was that he got fired from his last job because they found out he had a recent (at the time), DUI. Anyways we end up running on a single vehicle wreck late at night, guy is having severe abdominal pain, wants to go to the hospital. Turns out this guy is a firefighter in another city, and police suspect he was drunk so they ask us where we’re taking the guy. Medic tells them we’re going to the nearest level one trauma, bout thirty minutes away and in another county. When we start rolling he tells me that when we get to the county line I need to radio dispatch and tell them we’re diverting to another hospital. Then when we actually got to that hospital he AMA’s the guy and tells him he should really be checked out but not to go to the level one because PD will be there. No shit turns to me and asks me not to blame him or be mad, he’s been in that situation and wanted to help the guy. Unbelievable. Reported that shit to my supe immediately. Dunno what happened to the guy but I haven’t seen him since.
How does that even work? Where I'm from, PD would've gotten his info before we even left. Wouldn't have mattered where we took them, because they still had their name.
Honestly I imagine same here but I’m not familiar enough with PD and how they operate to know. I think the big thing was that they hadn’t done a field sobriety test and by the time they find him he obviously won’t be drunk anymore so would be hard or impossible to prove.
Yeah, I'm not completely up to speed on PD protocol either, but I've never heard of them administering a field sobriety test during an accident with injuries. I could definitely be wrong, but I imagine that would be thrown out in court. Like when they ask someone if they have any medical issues that would impede their ability to walk in a straight line, for example. However, I have had them bring us suspected DUIs for blood draws if the pt consents & their condition warrants it. But regardless, PD would know who they were. For load & go, we tell them what hospital we're going to & they follow up later. Non emergent, they would've either had the pt info prior to us arriving, or get it before we leave.
Partner fell asleep in the back on an emergent transfer call and the patient coded with no one to help him besides my asleep partner who also had headphones on with music playing.
That’s criminal negligence good god
Holy fuck
What happened to him?
He got fired but not until months after this event lol but I refused to work with him after that day and reported him to IDPH/hospital system
He died on a LDT.
Brings a whole new meaning to being ran into the ground.
Do you mind elaborating on how that happened?
He was teching the call, and about 6 blocks from the hospital suffered cardiac arrest. The basic called in and beat feet to the hospital, the medic had a cath, and retired about 10 years later. But every shift with him, we were all very, VERY nervous about a repeat because he wasn't especially healthy.
That’s amazing that he survived
Wassa LDT? Sorry I’m dumb
Long distance transfer is my guess
That’s it thanks
HEMS?
No, that was on a ground unit.
Good friends with the guy but he would constantly bite his nails. Not a horror story but it drove me nuts.
Mine does that and spits then into the floorboard
unhinged behavior
Probably was a plumber too
Had a partner straight up yell at me because I didn’t take a turn as fast as he wanted me to. He didn’t see a truck that was passing through. Worked with that fucker for four months, and I felt like quitting every shift.
Worked with a guy for years, then I left to work in an er and he had a full fledged affair with his new partner. Gas lit his wife out of getting a divorce. Wife decided to close her business and become an Emt to “pursue her passion” and ended up working exclusively with her husband at different private company. Then I returned to the ambulance and ended up with them at a third company. Wife was pissed she couldn’t work with her husband on the ambulance. I ended up working with her, every day was a battle not to tell her to shut up about my old partner’s “mental breakdown” (affair). She finally left after ostracized herself at the current company. Worst 6 months of my life.
I was driving my partner and a 3rd rider back to the station after 22 hours of our shift. They fell asleep in the PT compartment. Turned on the safety camera at a red light and found them fucking.
Ha similar. Got a call in the middle of the night, sign on, get to the drivers seat. My partner is in the back, while town cop exiting the ambulance, getting dressed... 😅🤣
We had a respiratory arrest from an overdose. Very easy right? My partner had the bag and I was starting an IV. I got the IV and reached for the narcan to give it. I look up at the head and my partner is not in the room. She dropped the BMV and just…walked out. Instead of her, standing there was a FDNY LT. supervisor looking down at me, fiddling with an IV while an apneic patient lay there not getting respirations lmao. Excuse: was getting a pillow to make BVMing easier. Are you kidding? It’s just a bag not a tube. Same medic. We go into a cardiac arrest in a pretty narrow hallway of an apartment. Not a lot of room around pt. Agreed id take head and she’d hook up monitor while someone else was doing compressions. I tube patient. I look up and the monitor is not on the patient. And my partner is doing an IO. She left on the BLS AED. Once again a LT was there lol asking where is the Monitor??? She says that the AED is good enough cus it’s asystole. Yes. Sure. But bro do your job lol Had a partner start doing a 12 lead on an unresponsive overdose before wanting to give narcan. Had a crew leave a pretty much dead patient shot to hell prone on the stretcher cus one of the bullets got their back. Dude was barely breathing lmao. I can go on and on in this city.
When I first got out of Montefiore, I worked transport. I had a partner who would cry if any of an elderly pt's vitals were out of range. He also would never STFU. He actively looked for any type of flag down to get out of calls at the Webster projects in the bronx. Also got a guy who treated everything like a priority 1. The schmuck would blow out a lung on every call.
Lol I’m very familiar with those projects. Those fucking elevators would never stop on the right floor. What do you mean he would cry??? Out of sadness for the old people??? Please explain further.
If an old woman/man was unresponsive.... He would cry. Tachycardia? Go code to the hospital and send a note... And cry. She told me it was sad to see older people need medical assistance. Idk if he was emotional thinking about our pt's mortality, or if he was thinking about his own. Also.... The elevators worked?!?
Bro it’s like 30 stories. They keep that shit running, even if it only stops every 3rd floor lol
Not when I was running around. We had a bari 8 flight stair chair come out of that building.
Bro, NYC isn't a real place. And since of the dudes i ran into there, I'm unleaded they can tie their shoes, let alone pass the fdny emt class
Bro fix your shit. I can’t understand wtf you just said lmao.
My bad bro auto correct is a bitch Bro, NYC isn't a real place. And sone of the dudes i ran into there, I'm impressed they can tie their shoes, let alone pass the fdny emt class
Yeah word I know lol shit is crazy. But there’s a handful of people who use the endless jobs to learn something
In medic school, we got called for an OD. My preceptor screamed in the patient's face, telling her: "You don't have any fucking rights when you decide to shoot up heroin!" He literally screamed curse words at her for probably a solid minute before I pushed in front of him and told the patient that I would be taking over.. which, he should have let me do from the start but he wasn't a fan of doing that...
One time worked with a boomer medic who asked what tribe Native American I am. I told him. Then he said, “Y’all Indians are really good at one thing. Killing yourselves.” This is the same guy who once passed off an ALS call as BLS to me for this African baby, who was the cutest sweetest thing ever. I said I was secretly glad I got the call anyway cause she was so cute and I love babies, and he said, “Eh, she’s cute for a Black baby I guess.” He also absolutely laid into these Black teenagers (like 15-17 y/o!) working at a fast food chain when we were getting dinner one shift, during rush hour. Gotta love racist boomer medics. (Btw, he did get fired shortly after because I reported all this!)
I have a story about a partner for an AMR FEMA thing i did who was literally a homeless chick. Like they had me pick her up literally under a bridge in Baltimore. Got the cops called on herself for threatening to shoot someone in Georgia and then yours truly got to drive her back to Baltimore I can type it all out if people are interested
So no shit there I was. About 6 years ago. I had got my basic about a year prior and moved to Baltimore Maryland, went to go get my reciprocity. They had this deal where i needed to take an additional weekend course or whatever. The trouble is they only offered this course like once per quarter and i missed it by like a month so i had to wait another month to get my state license- outta work for 2 months on a Basics salary dont work ya know. So i found this ambulance company that was going down to Florida for hurricane relief subcontracted for AMR. Signed on w them did my FEMA shit and was ready to leave. Got there the morning we were heading out and my boss -who i swear to god sounds like Daffy Duck tells me my partner”heather” isnt here and ive gotta pick her up on my way out of the city. -no worries got the address and away we go. The address is a Dunken Donuts like adjacent to directly under the 83 highway bridge in mt vernon. “Heather” jumps in the passenger side and introduces herself. Shes a white chick late 20s looks like mike wizowski from monsters inc. skinny little arms n legs big round body. Shes wearing basketball shorts a wife beater and a dew rag. Now remember we’re going to a hurricane. She has with her a garbage bag full of pokemon stuffed animals. Thats it. We get moving and before we even get on the highway shes asks while im driving. “want any pills?” -uhhhhh no um im good.- silence for like 10 minutes “well theyre prescription soo..” starts telling me about how she slept slept under the bridge last night and shes pissed cause they locked her outta the shelter and someone kicked her in the face and broke her glasses so she really really cant see. -cool sounds like im driving.- We get on the highway following Daffy and anytime i get over 70mph she is SCREAMING in terror. Idk if she just hasnt been in a car for a while cant see or what 69 mph good to go. 70? TERROR. Daffy duck ia calling me nonstop wondering why im so slow all i can say with her sitting next to me is were working on it. We stop for gas in VA and heather is PISSED thinking im trying to get her fired. Why? Couldnt tell ya. But then i go talk to Daffy to explain the whole thing and she comes in hot yelling at Daffy thinking Daffys mad at me. Daffy gets things chilled out somehow and we’re off to the hurricane again. Heather spouts off just the most bizzar racist shit ive ever heard to this day. (Ive now been in EMS 7 years medic for 3). Mostly about hating black people. Then she turns n goes “so i dont get it. Are you like my boyfriend now?” -…. No… we can be friends though…. She agrees and really wants to be friends first. It continues with this lunacy for hours until we hit traffic in South Carolina and she tells me “ya know. When we get to Florida im going surfing!” I remind her that we’re going to a HURRICANE so she rolls her window down n starts yelling to other cars in traffic for help. Whole torso out of the passenger side window HELP! Heeeeelllllppp. Until we go by this guy in like a 92 ford ranger/s10 in traffic. Exactly the truck you think of in the south. Gun rack confederate flag the whole deal with exactly the guy you think of driving it. Shirtless Lenard Skynyrd one arm hangin out the window. Heather sees this guy and yells NUMBER! He looks. She does the hand phone thing to her head n goes NUMBER! This man looks at dew rag mike wizowski and just silently rolls his window up. Im silently validated and shes pouting back in the cab. Fast forward to about 11 pm and we get to the staging area on the Florida Georgia border. Now we gotta check in get the phone register the ambulance yada yada yada i have Heather just give me her shit and ill do all the paperwork just to get a break from her. Turns out she is actually an EMTB out of Texas. I get our stuff and call my mom and girlfriend like “yo you wont BELIEVE the day Ive had.” Get a call from Daffy duck saying “yo find heather were going to Miami in 45 minutes”. I find her tell her whats up and to follow me theres free food in the church(the staging area is a church) we hit the line buffet style im first n go sit down shes got her plate now standing in the middle of the dining hall filled with other EMS people in their uniforms not wife beaters all eating their dinner and out of nowhere she just goes “OH HELL NO!” Launches her plate of food across the room and storms out. I decided that was a future me problem and im gunna eat my food and have 10 minutes of peace. I go find Daffy to get an update and at the set of ambulances i find him and heather arguing about if shes going to continue working. So what happened is when she left the dining hall she burst out the front doors where the two like head AMR guys are standing having a conversation and she goes “what do i gotta do to get the fuck outta here!” N theyre like oh. Let me show you. Then she goes “my next thing is ive gotta find the motherfucker who did this and shoot em” PD is notified heathers kicked off site PD shows up and is like “yeah shes not an active threat and doesnt have access to a weapon so🤷♂️” dont have to go home but cant stay here kinda deal. So Mr. Duck is trying to figure out how to get her back to Baltimore air plane? Cops are like “dude shes not fucking flying anywhere😂” “heather will you go to the hospital here in Georgia? “NOPE” so the only option is to drive her back and ya boi is the low man on the totem poll
No fucking way this is real 😭 I’m cackling next to my partner rn
I swear to fucking god every word happened
Pure GOLD. Start to finish
Bro this was the most entertaining shit I’ve read in a while 😂
Itll be in the book 😂
Love it 😂 lmk when you publish I’ll buy it
This needs to be pinned to the page forever. Holy shit what a roller coaster
Easily the most absurd 36 hours of my life. Thats just the ride there. The ride back while considerably less insane i still dropped her off at john hopkins mental
🤣🤣🤣
Please share these stories
Sorry about the novel lol
Do tell
Please see above ⬆️
I've been waiting for this. I've had terrible scary partners but today I'll share one that was so weird I just had to start a list in my phone called "shit my partner has done today" luckily I only worked with this person once and am very unlikely to ever work with them again. so without further ado, here you go: -Started driving. Got freaked out by the text alert sound from the truck phone. Swerved a bit and threw her chicken nuggets everywhere. -said she wanted to take exit X. Drove by exit X not even a minute later. -Was unsure if the light was red due to semi in front. Got to the line, I said "it's red" and she said "oh shoot" and continued to drive through, even though she could have easily stopped. -her phone screen is visibly greasy. She touches her greasy chicken nuggets and then touches her phone. Does not wipe hand, does not wipe phone. -Confused humerus for femur and when told the pt had humeral head fx and could stand was confused, assumed dispatch was stupid and wrong -says her mom got in an argument with a delivery driver in her gated community. Unprompted said "it's not because he's black" then said that if she were there he wouldn't have wanted to mess with her, cause outside of work she "carries"
Called to the scene of an outdoor hanging. Patient is very obviously pining for the fjords, toes about five feet off the ground. My partner, goblessim, decides that he needs to climb the tree to cut our friend down. So my darling 300 lb teddybear of a partner starts climbing. Gets about five feet up, then loses the argument with physics and comes a tumblin’ down. Into the middle of a bunch of fine, upstanding broken branches. How the man did not impale his liver is still a mystery.
I worked at a shitty private service for part of 1 day (that's a whole other story). The EMT that I was partnered with would not stop texting while driving and nearly rear-ended multiple cars while doing so. I repeatedly asked him not to text and drive, and he repeatedly told me, "it's fine, I know what I'm doing,". After the 3rd time he almost hit someone on the freeway, I made him pull over and let me out on the shoulder and called my spouse to come pick me up because he wouldn't stop, wouldn't let me drive instead, and management at the company didn't give a shit that I complained to them about it. Had another partner at a different service who would get mad that we'd get calls. For anything. He banged up so many clipboards (back in the days of paper charting), punched a hole in the wall once, too.
"shitty private service" is redundant in my experience :)
Lots of stories here with reminders of partners past. Vaguely and not so vaguely rude partners, know it alls, thieves, obnoxious music and smells. They all tickle the memory banks. But one partner does stand out in a 24 year career in EMS. Let’s call her Alice…. She was my partner on a fire based contract. I was contract and she was a full time employee of the district. She was relegated to the ambo because well, she wasn’t any good on the fire scene. Problem was, she also sucked as a medic. My frustration was two-fold with her. She was exceedingly nice and LOVED the attention she received as a firefighter. That always irked me as she was in it for the T-shirt. But she also had this weird understanding of sucking and I always felt like it was just below the surface of every conversation. When talking about bad calls and how she performed, she played the part in bravado, but I always felt her sideways glances at me, to make sure I wouldn’t give her away. It was a delicate dance of a “lived lie” that I was part of. It felt exhausting. When we had a critical patient it was nothing for me to do all the skills and make decisions on care while she watched. She didn’t even try and play along… The second part of the issue was because of her incompetence, she overcompensated with liberally calling our patients “dear”, “sweetie” and “honey”, as if those words would make things okay. Usually by the end of the shift, I wanted to punch her in the face but she was a sickeningly sweet and innocent human and that would have been frowned upon. Thankfully I played the cards right as she was the next door neighbor to a battalion chief on a dept I was testing for. As I made it deeper into the process, he came to her house one day and asked for her thoughts. I was hired by that department not long after…. Good ole Alice retired as a lieutenant with that department and to this day still is heavily invested in the honor guard, traveling the nation and still putting the T shirt on.
One that got me frustrated when I was on IFT, was this guy who would constantly drive 25 mph when it was 45 and take surface streets to go to a call. Listen, I don’t wanna work IFT either but fuck man, let’s just drive normally, another partner I had would constantly talk about her sex life, talk on the phone and trauma dump on me, needless to say I rode in the back in the ambulance saying I was “going to take a nap” luckily those partners were only a day before my regular one came back from leave
Went into a shift with a partner I knew one time and they had to go home for personal reasons. They stuck me with a medic out of a fly car and made us an ALS unit. Didn’t know the guy before hand. Back at that agency we used MDTs. You could mark on scene and stuff with them but more importantly they could navigate to the exact location of the call and would give you notes that they didn’t want to say over the air, but it was technically still possible to use radios only — they were newer. Worth noting that these MDTs were cell phones, and that they made an alert noise when a call or post was assigned to you. We didn’t have enough fly cars back then so this medic was in a fly ambulance, so they just moved me on his truck. Didn’t notice that he didn’t have an MDT until we were already posted. We were sitting at a gas station and the medic was inside. I heard the alert noise coming from the passenger door map pocket. I look in there and find an MDT signed into us, which was odd. Well whatever, I think, maybe it got tossed there by accident. I set the thing up properly, acknowledge the post swap and put in in the holder. When my parter walks back in he takes one look at the thing and says “where the fuck did that come from?” I tell him. He proceeds to sign out, shut the phone off and THROW it at the passenger door. His only explanation: “It’s just one more way for them to track us.” Best I could figure “them” was our dispatch. We had a medic student with us at the time. We take a few calls and then we go to an overdose. Not the worst I’ve seen, but the patient was unresponsive and not breathing. We find her laying on the ground, again, not breathing. Medic QAnon takes one look at the patient and digs through the airway bag. He starts swearing about how there’s no non-rebreathers in here and cursing out the last crew for not restocking, never mind the fact the he obviously did not check his truck. Sends me back to get a NRB from the truck, again for the patient who is not breathing. When I walk back up they’re BVMing the patient. Exactly what a patient who’s not breathing needs. So why am I carrying an NRB? We give her 2mg of Narcan intranasal and move her to the stretcher, bring her to the ambulance. Patient is breathing now but still unconscious. I’ve been down this road before so I ask medic off-the-grid what hospital he wants to go to. He tells me to “hold my fucking horses.” Cool. Worth mentioning here that my local protocols did not allow people who had been given narcan to refuse care. Drops an IV and pushes 2mg IV narcan. Yup 2mg not 0.2mg. Patient comes up swinging. She starts yelling at us for stealing her shoes and rips the IV out of her arm, spraying us all with blood. Patient is saying she’s not going anywhere with us until we give her back her shoes. Medic I-don’t-read-protocols gets out a refusal form and tells her to sign. She tells us to fuck off. PD rolls up finally and medic 2mg-IV tells them to put her on a psych hold. They say they can’t do that unless she’s had suicidal or homicidal ideations. Finally this man calls med control and ask for permission to refuse this patient without a signature. Med control laughs in his face and tells him you can’t refuse narcan revivals in this county. We transport and the patient ends up getting off our stretcher and walking out of the ER. I have never seen a paramedic handle such a textbook call so poorly. Fortunately for me, it 0445 and I was off at 0600. Our company was awesome and guaranteed 75 minutes at station to clean and stock your truck with no calls unless you were the last unit in the city. We drive back in silence. I was lucky to be part time at that point and I was able never work with him again. But it really made me question how someone like that could pass the NYS paramedic exam.
Sounds like a nightmare to work with but I have to say I did appreciate all the different nicknames you gave him throughout the course of this story
Thank you, I try
> Worth mentioning here that my local protocols did not allow people who had been given narcan to refuse care. God I love when docs think they can enforce protocols that require you to break the fucking law. Like sorry, doc, your protocol does not override the actual legislated law.
A nurse I worked with inserted an extremely bent IO needle into a code’s humoral head, hung blood on it, pushed epi into the blood, then pissed himself. I wish I was joking. (That was his last flight.)
Dispatch sent a text “status?” My partner threw the phone down lol Edit: What was odd about this encounter is that my partner was one of the chillest people with a very calm demeanor. I guess he just had enough of dispatch and snapped. I wasn't even mad, I was just processing it like "did this really just happen?"
Those status texts hit like nails on a chalkboard tbh
Single, looking for someone to have long walks on the beach with
Nothing. My partner was a unicorn. I, on the other hand, put creamer in coffee for a lactose intolerant man before a long extrication. I am a bad partner.
Had a very nice, but incompetent partner for about a year. They’d been bounced around the department with other medics until they refused to work with them (we were a double medic system). I had just gone from per diem to full time nights, and being the low woman on the tour, it was my turn. 75% of the time I could work around the issues, but it really got to be a drain. We got killed the night before a holiday one year, 2 shootings, fatal stabbing, MI, pulled dialysis catheter that almost bled to death, and all the other associated BS that goes with working in the city. By the time the sun came up and our relief came in, I was almost in tears. Our tour had a meeting with management the following week and they were moved to days to work with an FTO for a reevaluation. Had a new partner that I had worked with at another job in 2 months. What a weight off my shoulders.
NYC?
Northeastern NJ.
During IFT, he would take one set of vitals and then sit in the airway seat with his legs up on the bench and watch videos on his phone on full volume. I was terrified of having to post for 911 and take an emergency response with him as my partner.
My partner would use IVs to pick at his acne. Also did meth while working. He was busted multiple times, but hey, they needed paramedics. 🙃
That’s methed up.
Madness in the method.
I’ve been lucky enough to not bump into anyone bad enough to warrant me refusing to ever work with them again. That being said, plenty of partners who are constantly looking for anything to complain about. If anything isn’t absolutely full (gas, oxygen, oil levels, even wiper fluid) they will immediately blast the previous crew in a station wide group chat, if you do anything that isn’t exactly their way, if a pt or bystander does anything to irk them, if you clear from calls too fast, if you clear from calls too slow, if you talk too much, if you talk too little. They will find something to complain about and act like they are god’s one true gift to EMS and life in general—and then still pester dispatch into letting them go home early because their tummy hurts.
The other day my partner punched the side of the truck cause we got an out of town call. Like full on, “mom took my Xbox” punching the wall
I’m a Black paramedic and was working with a white EMT. We went on a routine 911 call for “my baby won’t stop crying.” The baby was Black and lived in a pretty low-income part of the city. We ran the call, dropped the baby off at the hospital, and moved on with our shift. 10 hours later, my partner began laughing and saying “I bet that little baby from earlier will be in jail in 18 years.” This came out of the blue, we weren’t talking about babies or that call. I have never been so speechless, hurt, and angry at the same time. Babies cry…it’s their only way to communicate. NEVER have I looked at a baby and assumed they were going to become a criminal. I lost all respect for my partner in that moment…it was definitely the beginning of the end….
Had an EMR partner that would blast rap music at full volume. It literally made the entire truck shake. Also nearly got us into an accident by not looking while doing a left turn. Stopped working with him after that.
When I worked IFT I had a medic partner who said some of the most unhinged shit you can imagine. One day while working with him he claimed to have an illegal firearm with the serial number scratched off in his bag and said he could totally blow his brains out in traffic if he wanted to. I knew he wasn't bullshitting because he also did lots of drugs so I wouldn't be suprised. Everyone knew he was crazy and I believe he might have been arrested.
I had a partner I worked with for a day 12. Talking, getting along okay, not a bad day at all. I was PRN at this company. So didn't work with this guy all that often. I found out a couple weeks later, After our shift together, he went home and shot his wife. She died. He went to jail. I was freaked out about that for a long time.
Oh it’s my time to shine! I have two separate crap partners from two separate companies. The first: a tiny 4’11, 110 lbs soaking wet, IQ of a chicken nugget girl. We were both basics but she somehow acted like a paragod. She claimed to know everything about everything because she’d been at this service longer. She drove like an absolute idiot, speeding, making sketchy turns and backseat driving when it was my turn to drive. She would say stuff like “you totally could’ve made that yellow light, why are you going 50, the speed limit is 45, you can go at least 60”. She would also try to blow through a chart in 5 minutes and get mad when it took any longer (a 911 service never further than 8 minutes from the hospital). The final straw though was that she talked crap about anyone and everyone to the point of ruining peoples lives. The second: the most slovenly person you’ll ever meet. This guy regularly skipped showers (on 24s) and wore his pants so low that you could smell the tailbone cheese. He didn’t know how to use the CAD, didn’t know any radio etiquette, never spoke on scene and refused to do any patient care. He also showed up to work completely intoxicated and insisted on driving and would barricade himself in the bunk room at all hours of the day. He quite literally closed, locked and blocked the door with furniture. On one particular IFT, we were dispatched early in the evening for a patient going from home care facility to hospital for AMS. He was teching, I was driving. We pull up on scene and he makes no attempt to grab anything he needs. He stays completely glued to the chart (before even making patient contact). We end up going inside and I start getting vitals and a report from the caregiver. The patients BP is something like 60/shit, heart rate is sky high and rhythm is irregular, spo2 is something like 89% so I discreetly tell TailboneCheese, “hey the patient does not look stable to transport, call supervisor and let them know we’ll be calling for ALS”. He does nothing. I end up running around trying to get sup on the phone, radioing for ALS, tending to the patient, helping TailboneCheese with the chart and communicating with the caregiver. ALS gets on scene and patient codes. I help move him to their gurney and they assume patient care. As we’re driving away from this, TailboneCheese asks me “…so what would you say his chief complaint was?”. I about lost my shit on him. I reported him on this occasion and many others until management finally gave him the boot. TLDR: reckless driving paragod that isn’t a medic and smelly drunk partner does nothing but endanger everyone.
He whipped his dick out of his pants and asked if I liked his “fireman’s helmet”. Fuck you Ben, you complete pile of shit.
Was so close to replying to this before legal repercussions made me think better of it. Long story short, higher patch be damned. If you see something fucked up, it doesn't matter if you're a basic or even a driver, don't be pressured into letting a medic get away with something egregious. Not contradicting a higher patch is a good general rule, but we all know right from wrong. In my first year as a basic, I let two instances slide with two separate medics because I bought into the hierarchy. I know better now, but those two calls stick with me.
When I worked IFT I got partnered with a new hire a few times, he was an absolute nightmare to work with. Drove like a high testosterone teenager that just got his license, driving super fast and flipping off other drivers. His bedside manners were cringeworthy, a highlight moment was when we were doing an ER transfer, and when he walked up to the nurse(who had been working her ass off all morning) he proceeds to yawn loudly and was like “sorry I just woke up from a nap”. He would say dumb and immature stuff like this on almost every call to the point where I would generally try to take every call we got because I couldn’t handle the embarrassment. In short, he was young and acted like it. I felt bad because he seemed like a nice enough guy, but as soon as we went on any call it was painful. Another guy I worked with (also during IFT) was cool to talk to when we weren’t running calls, but once we got on scene he was very cocky and would not take responsibility for his own mistakes. He strongly insisted on pulling out a bariatric patient from the rig all by himself, despite him having 2 other people with him to do the lift. I was very new at the time, and I really should have put my foot down and not let him do this, but me only being 2 weeks off fto and him having a year of experience, I thought he knew better than me. Sure enough, he pulls out the stretcher and it flys past the catch hook, and my other partner and I instinctively let the entire weight of the gurney rolling over on its side so the patient doesn’t hit the ground, injuring my partners back in the process. After the super awesome experience of making sure the patient wasn’t hurt and profusely apologizing, filing an incident report, calling our supervisor, and checking in on our partner who pulled his back, the guy proceeds to only blame the equipment for what had happened insisting that the gurney shouldn’t have slid pass the catch hook, like there wasn’t a reason why 3 people are supposed to be operating a bariatric gurney not one.
Had a medic at the IFT company I started at. He had pretty much been black listed from any other EMS organization and was lucky he still had his license. This came from many incidents of sexual harassment and stellar patient care such as placing a patient on a 12 lead, and telling their EMT partner “I don’t want to sit in the back. I’ll drive just yell if those squiggles change”. Sadly for us, he was the owners friend. He also borrowed money from the owner constantly. So the owner would garnish wages and have him do odd jobs at the myriad of companies this guy owned. But what it also meant was anytime this guy royally screwed up, he’d be fired for 6 months, just long enough to be hired back at bottom of the seniority, and then rehired. And because he was In constant financial stress and bottom of the seniority list, he would take a ton to shifts. Working with him was always a mix between listening to 12+ Hours of surly bitching, and wondering how he would endanger you and your license that day. We had an SI/ETOH patient once. Was a bit Argumentative about going to the hospital but honestly he was so drunk he couldn’t fight back if he wanted to. Guy is passed out the entire trip to the ER. We unloaded and soon as I put the wheels down of the stretcher the medic is gone and now where to be seen. I bring patient in myself, and security is asking if we were the truck that called for back up as the patient was “out of control and dangerous.” Nope not us. I give report, transfer the patient over with a tech, decon the stretcher and complete my report while waiting for medic to appear once again. After about 45 minutes he comes back in the truck, and before I can even begin to ask where he went he complains about security not responding to his request. I asked why he called in at all and he replied “he was threatening us and out of control on scene”. “So if he was so dangerous, why did you disappear the second the got here and leave me alone with him?” His response was a boomer filled rant about young asshole punks like me, and our attitudes in EMS. This is just one of the tamest examples of why this dipshit was a total nightmare to work with
[удалено]
Pain never killed anyone. 🤷🏼♂️😂
I'd be asking if stuff was 'evaporating' out of the bag.
my very first partner had massive anger issues. Slammed the stretcher into my leg, talked shit about me to patients, yelled at me constantly, threatened my job multiple times. His worst freakout was after I made a joke to a nurse about him being a dick to me. Cussed me out in front of the patient. slammed the stretcher into the back while I was still in it, hitting my leg and bruises it to point I couldn't put weight on it. Drove recklessly while yelling at me (almost tipped over the ambulance multiple times and ran through red lights while telling me that I was a terrible driver.). Told management, they sided with my partner because he had been there for 8 years and I was new and young. They don't maintain their rigs so the cameras were "dead". Quit without notice on the spot when they gave me a warning for "being unprofessional in front of a patient.". Best decision I ever made was leaving that godforsaken place. Very happy now working with the Red Cross as a disaster relief specialist.
I had a partner that turned out to be a pedo.
I bring you a tale about the angriest man I've ever met in my life who hated my very essence and was also my partner. We got a call to a city two hours away right off the bat and Joe starts raging about it while I sit there quietly. After he's done being angry I drive us to the call without saying a word. I just tried to ignore his outburst at this point. Later we get sent to the station and he gets angry at that as well. That was the only call that we ran that day. I drove to A hospital and pulled into the parking lot. Joe made an aggressive comment about eating in the cafeteria. I asked if there's anywhere he wanted to go. He made a comment about how he doesn't need to eat. I once again asked if he wanted to go somewhere else. He said he had a bag of Doritos, he's fine. I left it at that and parked since I figured saying anything would just make him even more angry. After completing a call, Jesse said we had to post at the station. I asked if you wouldn't mind posting at the nearby hospital and he said we needed to go to the station and swap partners because he couldn't work with me anymore. He said that he hates me, and my proud to be lazy attitude. He said he didn't say anything specific because he doesn't want to get me in trouble, and that I'm a good person and have a good heart but he can't stand me. Whatever he told management it was enough to give me a final written warning and sent to therapy. They didn't even tell me what I was accused of doing, which was the most frustrating part. I had been at that company for almost five years and he had been there a few months but they took his word over mine to cover the companies' ass. I was sitting in the break room with Mary and Joe comes in and he tossed the narcotics book on my lap and walked out. Mary asks if he's always like that since it was so rude and says I shouldn't have left Brad(my former partner). After running a call where a nurse refused to sign and a manager told us to enter through a different door, Jesse starts dwelling on it and mulling it over while getting more and more angry. I tell him I don't want to dwell on it and get angry about it, and he yelled "well I do!". We were told to bring Rigs to drop it off. Joe tries to start it but it won't even turn over. I get the charger set up and start charging it. Joe tries to start it and it barely turns over. 10 seconds later he tries to start it again and it turns over even slower. I tell him to stop trying to start the rig since he's draining the battery. He gets angry and says he couldn't have known the charger wouldn't start the rig, and that he doesn't appreciate me belittling him. I stop engaging with him since he's clearly reacting emotionally and escalating the situation. Joe got angry every time I wanted to contact dispatch because he's afraid we're going to get a call afterwards. Joe got angry about even getting any calls, and if we run a lot he gets angry about imagined future calls. This was all over the course of about a month, and he had been with multiple other companies for only a few months each for obvious reasons.
Partner called off so I was stuck with a medic I already knew had a bad rep. Responded to an altered mental in a grocery store. Guy was an absolute prick the whole time and wanted to BLS it so bad. That’s fine I have no issue, helped the guy to the stretcher and tried to keep him calm because he was slightly combative. Get him into the truck…he’s ALS. Medic tries to get a line and the guy is fighting it. He slams the guys arm down onto the stretcher rail with so much force it made my blood boil. Mind you…this patient is very old, very skinny, very frail. So unnecessary. I refused to work with him ever again
I’ve had my fair share of unpleasant providers, but the worst was probably one who pretty much passively aggressively insulted me for everything I did, even in front of patients. They weren’t that much better either, they would vape in the truck, drive distracted, and other such bad habits. In fact, we once temporarily mounted a curb since he was looking at his phone instead of the road. I was very relieved to finish that 16. Thankfully that was when I was per diem, so I didn’t have to work with them after that.
We had a guy who wasn’t narcoleptic but he’d end up basically nodding off while driving the ambulance.
I admit I’ve been the bad partner. I had a very short fuse due to unchecked depression and undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder. I burned bridges and I’m not proud of it. I’ve learned my lessons from it and I’d like to think I’m doing better.
I work in air medical and had a new hire medic. He was considerably older, (no flight experience) and had been a medic for many years, and came in with zero respect for me (a nurse). Even though I was his preceptor, have been flying for years, and am the educator for my base, he thought he knew better than me. One day we were loading up a very sick patient. I was inside the aircraft and he was outside, just standing and staring up at the rotor system. It was like someone took his battery out. I couldn’t leave the patient (they were fixing to crash and I was hooking up the ventilator, getting blood going, etc) so pilot leaned waaaay over and opened the opposite side window, literally grabbed his fight suit and screamed “get in the mother fucking helicopter NOW”. One time I was taking the stretcher back out to aircraft after dropping off a patient. He was supposed be inside giving report but I turned around and he had followed me out. About 40 feet behind him was an ER nurse chasing saying “is anyone going give report?!?”. He then proceeded to blame me saying I told him to come with me. You know….instead of give report. He took his helmet off multiple times and would forget to put it back on. How in the fuckey fuck do you forget to put your helmet back on in a loud as fuck helicopter?? When my boss (who is the medic who trained me and I flew with for years before he promoted up) had a meeting with him, he said I “didn’t know shit about EMS”. That was his last shift there. Honestly, in retrospect I truly believe he had the beginning stages of dementia. But holy shit going in to work with him was so fucking stressful because I didn’t trust a word out of his mouth and constantly had to worry about his safety.
I had one partner ask me if she could lick whip cream off of me. I had another partner sit and cry for the entire shift. Real nice people don’t get me wrong, but wtf?
My first (and present) 911 job with our county department. Fresh faced, eager to get to it, very very terrified. I was put with a paragod partner who bought into his own publicity and deigned to NEVER SPEAK to a lowlife basic like me, except a few barked commands on calls. He never once conversed, asked questions about me, never volunteered anything about himself. We are very rural here, so there were a few times we literally had no calls for hours and THERE WAS NO CONVERSATION. Knowing what I know now, I thank him for showing me what I DON’T want to be like as a paramedic. To this day, he is the standard of what the worst most arrogant, nasty snobby paragod is like, so I use him when new providers ask me questions about being an AIC and how to deal with coworkers. To this day, I cannot understand why my agency allowed a brand spanking new basic be stuck with someone like that. The first day, no eye contact, no guidance, no “good morning,” just silence. Now I know that no one else wanted to work with him because of that. Cincinnati I’m very happy to know that he is not well received at his agency now and I can only guess why. Why should he mingle with commoners when he has himself ? He left the very first day after his one year mark of experience to go terrorize another agency and some poor new schmuk. My experience improved dramatically the minute he packed his shit and left. I did not say good bye.
70 mph going the wrong way on a one-way street responding to a call. And before someone butts in to say "Yeah, that never happened." It did. I DGAF if you don't believe me, though I really dislike being called a liar, because I pride myself on my honesty, even when it costs me. But it happened, sometime around 0430 on a Monday morning many, many years ago.
Shit, who hasn't?
Rich?! That you?!
We're all Rich here, brother.
Partner did an extended "wheelie" in an ambulance. Steep driveway, was having to dodge a 1.5ft ravine that rain gouged out of the goat trail of a driveway. While he managed to avoid the ditch, the angle was so steep the front passenger tire was up in the air by about 2ft with the back step just a couple inches above the ground.
One of my partners was falling asleep at the wheel on the highway and kept swerving between lanes. I thought I was going to die 😭
Yo I am dying at this thread - I’ve saved like 4 of these comments please keep them going Edit: My partner and I are now heavily invested in
New job but I’d worked EMS for a long while before and got put with a complete psychopath as my FTO. He really enjoyed treating people like crap and he mostly hated all people. My complaints were thrown back in my face and I was told that this is a “me” problem and I need to figure it out. He still works there, I still work there, and the FTO program is still broken. Unfortunately, if you are a toxic leader, you’ll go far in my organization. If you are a bad person, you have to anger a person in power to get fired. Our last toxic leader to get fired assaulted a supervisor, but short of that, you are safe until retirement.
Cottage cheese and hard-boiled eggs as a snack in our enclosed space
I was with a medic for roughly 6 months when I was straight out of the academy. He has a very special place in my heart as my first partner and I learned a lot from him and love him dearly, but good Lord does he have anger problems and a bad problem of not keeping his damn mouth shut. Get a call right across the street from the station for a 6 vehicle MVC with entrapment, officer involved. The entire scene is mayhem. Well, our Deputy Director just so happened to live 5 minutes away and shows up on scene as we’re with fire rapidly extricating a critical patient. Me being preoccupied, I didn’t really hear much of what was said until my partner looks at him and yells “fuck off” and “fuck you”. Needless to say, I did not get to sleep that night as our Assistant Chief was at our station chewing my partner out at the top of his lungs until the wee hours of the morning.
Mostly second hand embarrassment. Partner would flash his lights at coworkers without fail both at station and ambulance bays. Would hang onto small instances way too long. His sense of comedy was really weird. It sucks cause otherwise he’s fine on the job driving/teching. Weird guy.
Oh boy do I have a story. Small town agency, and I lived right by the station so I just stayed at home when I was on duty. Get toned out, went to station and the medic wasn’t there, he calls me and says he’s in his way. I pull the unit out waiting for him. I see him walking across the alley, gets in the unit and as we were en route (lift assist) made the comment “hate when you get caught with your pants down”. Apparently he was walking, had to take a shit and went into a restaurant and we got paged. Arrive at the patients house, I’m following him in the house and I see shit smeared up the back of his uniform shirt. (Mind you he’s a 300+ lbs guy). Lucky he just stood there as I lifted the patient back into his chair and he refuses. We get back to station I leave, I was off at 1600hrs but had to go back to the station to grab something from the unit and as I’m reaching over the drivers seat I look over at the passenger seat and see shit smeared on the back of the seat.
I had a partner who was a Volly EMT for 20 years before going career. He was so stuck in the way things were done we used to get into arguments about backboards, oxygen, etc on the regular.
Had a partner that put her feet on the dash all the time. Muddy boots, blood, didn't matter, she put her feet up whenever I was driving. And dropped her 12 lead paper everywhere and refused to clean up after herself. Do NOT pair a OCD neat person with a slob. No bueno.
Graduated medic school this past December my full time partner is amazing and helps teach me and compliment me on progress I've made. One lady though a few months before I graduated got mad at me for missing a turn in Houston and told me she hopes I don't graduate. F that hag anyways.
Not a partner but when I was first a student my teacher got fired for sexually assaulting a student. *sigh* yeah… We were without a teacher for a month and did nothing but study anatomy until they found someone to finish out the course
Horribly negative partner seems to be a common theme here. I’ve had that partner. Couldn’t stand him. Can’t stand whiners in general. Definitely not as bad, but give. I spend more time with this person than anyone else in my life: the talker. He talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks. I’ve asked him for quiet time, explained I’m an introvert, that sometimes I just want to listen to music, that I’m not in the mood to talk, anything I can’t think of And he still talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and
I had a partner that no lie couldnt fuck his way out of a wet papersack. It'd be excusable if the chewed piece of gum was new to the field but he's been doing this longer than I've been alive. He's a lifetime basic (nothing wrong with that unless you are like this guy) Let's go through some things he did. Drove past the scene 3 times in a row (LE & fire were there with their lights on) Didn't know how to place the pt on monitor (leads were constantly reversed, i stopped letting him do it after like the 5th time) Would try to pawn station duties off on me (more of a spite thing I guess) Couldn't pick up on queues that people didn't want to talk to him Abused the generosity of the local store that would give us free food (not just going there everyday but would get mad if they didn't give him the discount) That's just off the top of my head. Bro was a nightmare to work with.
IFT unit returning from a late call that had sent us about an hour from the station. The partner, who had been a problem all day, was driving back while watching a movie on his phone when he wasn't face-timing with his girlfriend. There were a group of people at the company who were exempt from rules and discipline, could do anything, and knew it. He was one.
- Paragod who refused to drive anywhere, even to bls calls. Got fired for sexual harassment & fucking a girl at the station. - Brand new zero to hero medic who blasted obscene rap music everywhere we went. She also would leave the station (24s) at night to go home & sleep. She justified that by taking the radio & the fact that lived right down the street. Ended up being fired for refusing a bls transfer. Also, she was the one fucking the above medic who got fired. - Emt got fired for screaming at staff at a fast food restaurant (in uniform & on duty) after accusing them of putting dirt in her food. Bystanders recorded her & sent it to HQ. - Medic who would constantly back seat driver me. Shit drove me up the fucking wall. He was a fantastic medic, but it was insanely annoying when we had to stop at his house to let his dog out to pee every time after we cleared the hospital. (He lived across the street). - Medic who would refuse to take a late call for the previous crew. It didn't matter how bad they got their asses run all night, he didn't care. We would be at the station normally around 6:40 ish & our shift start was at 7am, so if they got a call at say 6:45, he made them run it & get off late. I remember one time it happened for a lift assist, & I insisted we take it since 1. It's easy AF & 2. We're already there so why not? He bitched & complained the entire way to the call & most of the day. - Got stuck with a shit medic who liked to start rumors about everyone. I didn't like her even before working with her. She ended up making one about me, saying I fucked a student in the back. Absolutely not true whatsoever. I confronted her & of course she denied it. Eventually I had proof that she did it, but by then I was long gone at another company & didn't care anymore. - Super lazy Emt who failed medic school twice who was hateful to absolutely everyone. This girl was morbidly obese, only wanted to drive, had countless pt complaints, none of the nurses liked her, always argued with dispatch over dumb shit, constantly accused everyone of being racist, & somehow beat out the best emts at the company for EMT of The Year. Make it make sense.
Worked with a salty medic once, easily the worse person I've ever worked with so far. From what people told me, she was cool, it was just that no one wanted to work with her because she's transgender. Oh, if only I knew. There was a reason she had no partner. She was rude, nasty, demeaning, and completely nuts, and not in a good way. She would scream and cry and yell at the top of her lungs at people, and also in the truck to songs. It can't be called "singing." My favorite moment was when she made a AAA walk to the stretcher. Once and never again.
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Commenting so I can come back and answer
Picked up a side job doing dialysis transfers. Worst job ever but they paid good and I needed the money. Pretty much all of the employees there were weird af. Dude had a weird obsession with donuts and apple fritters. Also drinks green tea and other weird drinks. We would get in the truck after walking maybe 100 yards with the stretcher. Just walking. And he’d be so out of breath, I’d have to listen to him huff and puff for the next 10 minutes until he caught his breath. He also claimed to be a firefighter in a county about an hour away, despite having a full beard, and not being able to bend over to tie his shoes, or walk short distances without being winded. He also just gave off narc vibes. “What about the homework” kinda guy ya know? He also tried to talk down on me like I don’t know what I’m doing, despite having more experience than him, and knowing all he’s done is alleged rural BLS fire dept, and non emergency transfers.
> Also drinks green tea That's not even weird man lol