sad but true

[rescueeagle]

Hey everyone,
New to this forum but been a member of MNN for almost a year now i believe. Anyways a little background. I am currently a student firefighter and am in school to get my degree in fire science tech and also another in fire service management. I was an intern for Aurora for a while so i have been around the service for a little while. So hello!
OK now the fun stuff

I scan aurora very closely and I just heard a call that i couldn't help but chuckle about and hang my head. Engine 2 got a call for difficulty breathing. They are on scene for several min and then you hear this transmission...."Dispatch engine 2, were going to need the truck with the man sack, an extra engine for manpower and the bariatric ambulance. Now I can only imagine how big this lady must be, but it is sad commentary! I remember a call I rode on that they had similar problems. and i was embarresed for this guy. We didn't even put him on the pram! We rolled him onto the whale tarp.....i mean man sack and drug him into the ambulance and he rode on the floor.

Anyone had similar experiences?

 

[scanjunkie]

I have had many similar experiences, from someone being too large for the BP cuff (Had to get the obese cuff out) up to situations like the one you mentioned. It is very sad to see. Also, it seemed that about 75% of the calls I went on were in homes that were disgustingly dirty too...not just messy or cluttered...I'm talking filthy. Some of those homes had children in them...that always broke my heart...any call involving children directly or indirectly are the toughest one's to handle. Good luck with school and with your career. Make sure you have some kind of a fun hobby to do outside of work to release the stress and tension associated with the field!

 

[rananthony04]

You guys think it's bad dragging/pulling out an over sized person, try doing it when they are dead. This is just as bad, if not worse. I pick up the dead for the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner in California. I have so many stories about this but the one that really sticks in my memory was a guy who weighed between 700-750 lbs. To make matters worse, he was already decomposing, he lived in a filthy pack-rat mobile home, there was literally only trails leading to his bedroom, bathroom and I think the other trail went off into the kitchen/living room area, at least thats what it looked like due to the large amounts of trash that (and I am NOT kidding!) rose just shy of his ceiling. We also found his cat on his matress, deceased. There was no way in hell the Coroner and I were dragging him through all of that filth, so she called for the FD to return with a "solution" as she put it. FD arrived with lots of man power and a device to cut out the wall of this guys bedroom. Can't remember what the device was called. I am happy to say that they did ALOT if not most of the dirty work and all ended well. I give you guys alot of credit for doing what you do. Be safe and take care, thanks for reading.

-Robert Anthony

 

[papaelk]

Welcome Aboard Rescueeagle

 

[firescannerbob]

Many, many years ago while I was a police/fire/ems dispatcher in NJ, we got a call in the wee hours of the morning for a sick person at one of the local trailer parks. I sent an ambulance and a paramedic unit (in NJ the paramedics don't transport, they assist at the scene and ride in with the patient, but I digress). After the ambulance was on scene for a few minutes, they asked me to send the local FD for manpower (in NJ, most FD's do not do EMS). After a few minutes the FD called and asked for the PD. The PD then asked for a flat bed tow truck. I asked why, and they said the guy was in bed, he was HUGE and they couldn't get him on to the stretcher. Worse yet, even if they could, they thought he was too big to even get out the door of the room he was in. Long story short, the FD cut a huge chunk of the wall out of the side of the mobile home, the tow truck winched the guy (in his bed) on to the flat bed, and the EMS folks attended to him on the flat bed all the way to the hospital with a slow police escort. Luckily, the hospital was only a few miles away.
I've been a fire fighter for almost 30 years and an EMT for almost that long, and have seen all types of disgusting things (the worst is seeing tiny "livestock" crawling around the floor you're kneeling on). Not much surprises me anymore.

 

[Tazcop]

We had a guy (a frequent flyer) that Flight would not respond to because of his weight, he was 375+. On one call when EMS arrived, they were not aware of who the patient was,(I advised dispatch who the patient was) EMS didnt recieve the information and when they arrived on scene and saw him, they had to get a different ambulance due to his weight and size. It usually takes 6 of us to load him on the gurney.His living conditions were atroshis, he is now in assisted living, I'm happy for DSS to intervene.

Jim

 

[rananthony04]

Personally I think it's sad that these people who are severely overweight and live in a rat-packed domicile don't get the help they need from family or neighbors. However, when that person dies, out comes the family members to "dig up" whatever they can find.

-Robert

 

[KB9LMJ]

You ever seen what's eating Gilbert Grape? Okay, I know, that was bad!