Assault With Bodily Fluids

I am usually a very cool customer when it comes to dealing with patients. Even the ones that are really annoying and/or offensive. But there are times when my limits are stretched.

Or both

We were called to one of our local dive bars for a 'man down.' As we pulled up we could see that PD was there talking to a man sitting on the sidewalk. There was blood all over the concrete.

My patient was walking out of the bar and was supposedly hit in the back of the head by someone with something. He then fell to the ground and hit his head causing a 4 inch laceration. Being a head wound there was quite a bit of blood.

I knelt down next to my patient and inspected his head wound while holding his head and neck still. The bleeding had mostly stopped. I asked my engineer to bandage it up and I started my assessment to see if I could clear c-spine. I asked my patient if he had any pain in his head or neck? He responded by swearing at me and telling me that he was bleeding.

No ****ing duh Sherlock.

I tried again and got the same response. After a couple of other questions to determine if he was alert and oriented (he was) I asked him how many drinks he had had. In response he reached his hand up to his head, covered his hand in blood and proceeded to wipe on my turnouts.

At that point I was done. I asked my captain to throw a c collar on the guy. By this time AMR was pulling up. I walked over and gave them a rundown on the call. Basically I told them that the....patient was hit and the head, was bleeding, was alert and oriented and being a prick. Since he didn't want to answer questions he was going to have to be placed on a backboard. Just precautionary. Usually I don't like placing people on a board because it's really uncomfortable, even painful. This time I was happy to do it.

While I was talking to the AMR guys I could hear my captain yelling at the patient not to grab him. At least the drunk wasn't just being difficult with me.

While strapping him to the board the pain in the caboose kept trying to sit up and yell that we should be trying to find the guy that hit him. We assured him the the police were doing just that. We finally got him good and strapped down and loaded in the ambulance. The last thing I heard from him was him yelling obscenities at the medic in the back of the ambulance.

Stupid patients.

Pass The Joint

It's strange how some apartment complexes never generate 911 calls while others are visited every week by the fire department. We have one in our district that we go to frequently. Stranger still, there's no frequent flyer. The calls are almost always for someone new.

This time the call came in for a juvenile that was altered. We pulled in the driveway past the security gate and parked. We grabbed our gear and headed for the apartment when the first PD unit showed up. Immediately we started wondering what was going on and what information PD had that we didn't. They showed up because there was possibly someone on drugs.

We made our way inside and found our patient sitting on the couch. Boy was he stoned. He admitted that he had smoked a bunch of weed (no, not medicinal). And with the rest he had made some muffins. Just after we started our assessment we heard a police officer outside start yelling at someone to get down on the ground. Then the sounds of a struggle followed. My captain and my engineer went out to make sure the officer had everything under control.

An 18 year old neighbor and so called friend of my patient was trying to push past the officers to see what was going on. After ignoring one officer and trying to push past him several times the officer ordered the young man to the ground to detain him for our safety. That's when the fight ensued. It was rather one sided. You can't fix stupid.

Back with my patient everything was under control. How could it not be. My patient was completely toasted. It was funny to see his delayed reaction to the police walking in his room. And it was funny to note he was more afraid of his mother when she walked in having been called home from work. 

Embarrassing Beat Down

The tones jolted me awake again. It was just after 4 in the morning, about 2 hours after our last call. Whenever I get these calls I always hope it's at least for something legit. I hate getting up for BS (so does everyone in this profession).

Dispatch informed us that we were responding for an assault victim and that PD was already on scene. Coming around the corner in the quiet residential neighborhood we spotted several police cruisers. We were in the right spot.

My engineer pulled past the house, parked the rig and shut off the engine. There's no need to wake up everyone with our big diesel motor. We could hear yelling from inside the house. The officer at the door told us that the step-father and step-son had been drinking (shocker) and there had been an altercation. One look at the 19 year old kid and it was easy to see who had won that fight. He already had a big black eye, swollen face, bloody nose and cut lip. He may have been missing a tooth as well but I couldn't be sure.

My patient quickly refused to service. He told me rather indignantly that he was an EMT and he knew I couldn't touch him. He then tried to give me the silent treatment. That was until I quietly told him that if he refused to answer my questions I would have to assume that he was mentally impaired. And if I assumed that he would end up naked on a backboard with a C collar on and some IV's in his arms.

The kid became almost nice to me after that but he kept yelling at and antagonizing the cops. After refusing to be treated again he started arguing with one of the officers. Just then the on duty sergeant came in. After surveying the situation for a second he ask the other officers to place the young man under arrest. That didn't sit too well with the teen and he decided to fight. Alcohol made him think he could beat down his mom's new husband and then it made him think he could defeat several officers. He was sadly (for him) mistaken.

It must be a little embarrassing to wake up in jail having lost not one, but two fights in the previous night.

Assault With A Deadly Weapon

The tones interrupted my morning workout. And for the second time that morning we were dispatched to a stabbing.

This call was again in district 52 at one of the local hotels. One of the nicer ones actually. As we approached we could see the sea of police vehicles (most of which were at our last call) and the AMR unit. For once they had beat us on scene.

As the air brakes set I jumped off the truck and walked over to the victim. The AMR medic gave me a quick run down. The patient appeared to be in his 20's and had been robbed. Or at least someone attempted to rob him. I don't know if they got anything. The poor guy had a defensive stab wound on one of his hands and another minor wound on his arm. The cut that we were worried about was the one in his chest.

He had about a on inch laceration about 3 ribs down from the middle of his clavicle. The puncture was bleeding slowly but steadily. The patient denied any trouble breathing and his lung sounds were equal bilaterally. He would be closely monitored all the way to the ER. With his vitals stable we bandaged him up and sent him on his way to the trauma center.


As we were leaving we were joking about the poor people trying to check into the hotel. They would be met at the front by several police cars, crime scene tape blocking the entrance and bloody clothes on the sidewalk. I can hear it now, "Honey, let's get another hotel."

What?! No Gun?

At just after 4 in the morning the tones went off. We were being dispatched to Denny's for an assault victim.

As we pulled around the corner we were greeted what seemed like every police vehicle in the area. As we walked toward the entrance we could see that the dining area inside looked like a tornado had swept through. Several of the officers directed us over to one of the 3 guys in handcuffs.

The patient, a man in his early 20's, had a bloody nose. He was very angry and didn't want any help from us. We checked him out anyways since he was in police custody. He said nothing hurt and continued to refuse treatment. One of the other guys had reportedly been hit in the head but he also denied any medical complaint.

While listening to the officers as the interacted with the guys in silver bracelets I heard that the three of them were involved in a fight with 9 other gang members. Not good odds. But what I don't get is how 12 gang members can have a fight and not one of them is carrying a weapon. No knife. No gun. No whip, axe or sling shot. I guess they're going soft.

Stabbing...Kind Of

For the fourth time that afternoon we were toned out to a medical aid with staging. This time it was for a stabbing at Rite Aid. We staged a half block away and watched as PD swarmed the area. They set up a perimeter really fast. They left us waiting for what seemed like an hour.

After about 5 minutes we were cleared to enter. We pulled up and jumped out. There was already caution tape stretched across the entrance. One of the officers raised it so we could slide past. Another officer, just inside the front door, directed us to the center of the store. We asked how bad it was and he said it wasn't.

As we approached the center of the store I noticed random drops of blood on the floor. As I turned onto the center isle I noticed a young man, in a security guard uniform, sitting on the floor. I didn't notice any bleeding so I asked him if he was hurt. He held up his and and I could see a bit of dried blood. I've seen paper cuts that have bled more.

The assailant had managed to take a small slice of skin off of the security guards thumb. I asked the guy if he wanted to go to the hospital, which he thankfully refused. As I placed a band-aid on his wound I asked if had had a recent tetanus booster. He had no idea. So before signing him out AMA I made sure he understood that he needed to go to his MD or a free clinic or an urgent care to get that shot.

As we walked out we canceled AMR. Another life saved (this last statement is literally dripping with sarcasm).

Jealous Cops

Sometime around 0200 someone apparently assaulted a woman. It was enough of a fight that someone called the cops. When they arrived on scene and discovered that the victim had been pushed in the neck they called us.

Now there was a disconnect in communication somewhere. When we arrived on scene I found PD talking to the woman on the sidewalk. The first officer to talk to me said that she had no medical complaint. My immediate thought, "Then why are we here?!" As I approached, the victim (please note that I do not call her a patient) became agitated at our presence and made it well known that she didn't "need no firemen" and that she wasn't going to the hospital. I made sure she was able to refuse medical care and headed back to the engine.

As we finished loading our equipment one of the officers said that they had to call simply because she had been assaulted. I think they were just jealous that we were asleep and they weren't. Misery loves company.

Rough Job

Warm night + alcohol + loud music + alcohol + rowdy people + alcohol + someone telling the rowdy people not to be so rowdy + alcohol = Any one? Any one? That's right, a 911 assault call.

We got a call around midnight at one of the local rented out halls. There was a large party going on with lots of drunk people. We had actually driven by it earlier in the shift and surmised that we would be back later. You gotta love how predictable this job can be sometimes.

While the crowd was getting out of hand two lowly security guards tried to keep the peace. They should have called the cops. The first security guard got knocked to the ground and then kicked in his head. While this was going on another assailant stole his Maglite. When the second security guard came to the assistance of the first she was knocked up side the head with the flashlight. Fortunately for them someone else called PD. By the time that we arrived everything was calm.

The first guard got off easy. He just had some bumps and a bruised ego. The security officer that was treated like a pinata wasn't too bad off considering. She had a good size laceration right at the hairline that had stopped bleeding before our arrival thanks to some direct pressure and a towel. She denied having been knocked out and said that her head didn't even really hurt. She refused to go by ambulance instead opting to have her coworker take her to the ER to get checked out. 

Next time, duck.