If you're in one of the above mentioned categories, you're welcome to enter.

Tell us some interesting stories, if you care.

Winner will be picked at the end of the month.

Good luck!

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Ill be # 1.Im a Volunteer firefighter/first responder.Thank you for your generous Karma.

Former EMT, former Flight Nurse, current RN, here.

I once flew a guy, in AZ, who had been shot in the abdomen while defending his daughter, who had also been shot. The fellow was in his late 60's, gutshot, and cool as a cucumber. He wanted to know how his daughter was, that's all. I tried to get him to take some pain meds (to make me feel better) but he wouldn't take them. He shrugged the bullet wound off like "Bah, I've had worse".

Tough old buzzard. He did fine.

I'd be honored to be entered for this Karma.

Bruce

I'll throw in for that! With a story...



2009 or so, I was working a street crimes unit. I was driving a Crown Vic and my buddy Sammich was riding shotgun. Now, Sammich was called Sammich for a reason...all 350 pounds of him.

We had just gone through the local coffee shop drive through and bought a couple of fufu drinks. This part is important here in a minute.

As we pulled out, we turned right onto a narrow 4 lane street. Within a few hundred feet we saw a vehicle that we had been looking for the prior night. Vice had put a tracker on it and the tracker had died, and we were supposed to find the vehicle and get the tracker back. This was before warrants were required for them, and they cost about 2 grand a piece...so loosing one was a big deal.

Well, we met the vehicle on the 4 lane, and I did a quick U turn, but they saw it and took off. I punched it trying to catch up, with the bone-shaking roar that only a V8 Crown Vic could make, but we lost sight of them. I slowed down to look down the next side-street but didn't see them. Approaching the next intersection, there was a car in front of us and a car approaching us, waiting to turn left. That one waited for the car in front of us to go through, but then turned right smack dab in front of me and Sammich. I remember Sammich making a gutteral "Uh Uh UH!" sound as I said "I see it!".

I had three choices. Swerve left and hit a car head on, swerve right and hit a brick wall, or T-bone the dang car as it turned.

So we T-boned it.

Of course, us being smart, inner city, cops, we weren't wearing our handy-dandy seatbelts. We slid a few feet until the left tires caught the curb, and promptly started a roll. As I looked at the freshly-mowed grass out my open window to my left, or down, rather, thinking "Oh shit, I'm about to die", I felt all the cold fufu coffee drinks pouring all over me. I was suddenly really thankful that we hadn't bought some tall cups of hot coffee.

I continued to ponder my fortune in drink choice, but I suddenly realized that all 350 pounds of Sammich was now directly above me, also not seat-belted in. I looked to my right...errr...up, and saw Sammich, coming down!


That was it, I was done. I knew my last breath would be pushed out of me as Sammich landed on top of me.


But my fortune hadn't ran out yet! Mid-way through the roll, we found a phone pole, that gave us a sudden jolt, followed by a return to proper orientation!

Except I couldn't hear Sammich breathing anymore. That was another thing about ol' Sammich, you could hear him breathing across a crowded room. But there he was, right next to me, and I couldn't hear him. So now all I could think about was how mad everyone was going to be at me for killing Sammich!

But fortune struck again! Sammich took a deep breath and told me how wonderful a time he had just had!

We crawled out and checked on the other car, finding no one injured thankfully. The other driver was apologizing profusely, which made me feel a bit better. Made all the appropriate notifications and I got breathalyzed on the side of the street for all to see...and luckily passed!

I was supposed to get a seatbelt ticket from my department, but someone else did something even more spectacularly stupid shortly after, and my near-Sammicocide was quickly forgotten!


To this day the curb is still cracked in two spots from the tires catching it at that intersection where we hit it.

Firefighter/Paramedic 25 years, Been with the FD for 23 years and currently Station/Engine Capt. I generally don't talk about calls as I'm a guy that stuffs things in the suite case and totes it along with me. A few years ago I had to open that suite case and refold some things in order to get more in it. Thanks for the chance and be safe Doc. Hray

Edit to add the rest of the house hold. We're a family of 5, My wife RRT at hospital, My son transporter same hospital as wife, my daughter EMT/PMD is a ER tech same hospital as wife, and my youngest daughter 7th grade and is front line due to the rest of us living in the same house hold.

Please include me in your generous karma.

Back when I worked on the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of our officers was checking pull offs where we frequently had trash dumped. He looked off into the woods and saw something that looked out of place. When he got closer, he saw that it was a human leg. Not far away was an arm. He called it in, and nearby Henderson County advised they were working a murder where the head and all four limbs had been cut off. We closed the Parkway around Asheville and started checking other pull offs and within a couple of hours, located the rest of the missing body parts. I found one of the legs, and another officer located the other arm and head. It was a grisly murder case to say the least.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/w...33%3ftemplate=ampart

14 years on the department and oddly enough this is the slowest time that I have had.
We are fortunate here most folks are behaving. For now at least.

Thanks!

Thanks for the chance!

Firefighter/EMT for 15 years now.

My favorite story to tell is a call that came in as a general sickness. I'm on rescue that day with a buddy of mine and we walk in expecting the same old story from this frequent flyer. As we get in the house we end up on opposite sides of her in the living room. He's grabbing things out of the bag and I'm asking her what was going on. She looks straight at me, spreads her legs (thank goodness that she was wearing pants), pats herself and proceeds to tell me that "her monkey hurts". My buddy gets a shit eating grin on his face staring me down, knowing that I'm struggling to keep a straight face. Somehow I did and once she was in the med unit and we got back in our truck we laughed our asses off all the way back.

As luck would have it, we were on the truck together and went back to the same house a few weeks later. I asked the guy (her dad) what was wrong and he said "my balls hurt".

I have no clue what was going on in that house, but this happened 10+ years ago and we still laugh about it today.

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Please and thank you.

Popo for 23 years now.

Dispatch tried to send me on a call last night. Lady called 9-1-1 to report she wanted to police to come check her dog for Covid-19. Dispatch actually tried to send me. I told them to call the drunk lady back and said we weren't coming out for that and next time to call the FD. lol

30 year Firefighter/EMT here. Please include me in your generous karma.

Thankfully things are slow right now and we are well stocked with PPE.

Had a woman 10+ years ago called 911 with abdominal pains. Ended up assisting in the delivery of a healthy baby boy (my 3rd delivery assist). She had no idea she was pregnant (larger lady) and thought she had some bad hot wings for lunch that day......

LE here, going on 10 years in one capacity or another. Thanks for the generous Karma, please count me in!

As for stories...here's one that's safe to share.

We have a juvenile detention center/halfway house in a town about 8 miles from us. They aren't 100% lockdown and the staff have little training and aren't allowed to do anything besides soft restraints, so they frequently have runaways. Usually, if the weather is adverse, the runaways end up just going back on their own, but there have been cases where they've robbed people or stolen cars, so we have to treat them all seriously.

One day the officer in that town got dispatched to a runaway from that facility. I went to help him look, and we looked all over the place but couldn't find the kid. Ended up putting out an ATL and entering him as a runaway.

5 or 6 hours later (around midnight-1am), I was back in my town eating dinner on station, when the doorbell to the PD rang. I checked the camera, and saw a kid standing outside. Turns out it was our runaway. He'd walked 8 miles through fields, woods, and down the railroad tracks...his feet now hurt, he was tired, done, and ready to go back. Easiest apprehension I've ever made .

Please include me in this karma. I have 16 years as a cop (13 years as a fed, 3 years as a uniformed local police officer) and 21 years next month as a volunteer firefighter. It’s been a hell of a ride and although I’m a bit grumpy and salty about a lot of things now, I must admit that it’s been cool having front row seats to the greatest shows on earth.

I wish I could share the details of my recent 3 day bomb tech operation but since it’s an open case I can’t say much. Suffice to say that there is some bathroom humor associated with it and will get a few laughs when I can tell the whole story.

One of my proudest moments was when I was still a green patrol cop with all of a year and a half on the job. A number of units got dispatched to a stabbing inside a bank on a Saturday afternoon. It was at the other end of the city as me so I didn’t get dispatched to the call, but on a whim I decided to check another branch of the same bank but with a very similar street name in my patrol area. While the other units were finding nothing showing at the other bank I discovered an unlocked door at a closed bank at the branch I was checking. While I was waiting for a backup unit to clear the bank I heard moaning coming from inside. Less than a minute later when my backup arrived and we were clearing the bank we found the stabbing victim. She was the teenage daughter of the bank cleaner and she still had the broken knife blade stuck in her neck resting up against her carotid artery. I kept her calm, with pressure on the wound to control bleeding but without disturbing the knife. Thankfully the girl made it and it was my first official “save” for having been thinking to check the other bank branch and providing medical care until the paramedics arrived. It is still one of my proudest moments as a cop to this day. Knowing that someone is alive because of your efforts can erase a lot of bad things from the shitty column and help increase your positivity.

Anyhow thanks again for your generosity Q.

Please count me in. Work as a Nurse Practitioner in large hospital system in Cleveland. I work the ER.

I am looking forward to the Covid surge to hit and pass. So far we have several daily. I have managed to avoid catching it. Hope the rest of my colleagues are fairing just as well.

Very nice Karma thanks for the chance.

Jim

Retired Cop (34 years) but still a volunteer EMT/FR.

Many years ago, we were paged to a lady in distress at her home. One of our frequent flyers, along with being an aficionado of the hop and vine, she had an extensive medical history. On scene she was in bed with a can of 'Old Milwaukee' and complaining of shortness of breath. Her vitals showed a pulse in the high 190s, so one of the crew decided to put her on the Defib/Ekg. All well and good, but instead of using the EKG patches, she used the defib pads (which work, but...) and the machine detected a VTach rhythmn. Now, as FR and Basic Life Support, we are not permitted to cardiovert patients in the field. However, the machine did not know that so it went into it's 'shock advised' spiel. The girl running it defaulted to her training on hearing this and started to reach for the shock button. I was on the other side of the bed, and just had time to reach out and grab the beer from the patient, who was sitting up talking to us, and say 'hold tight XXX, this will hurt' when the EMT hit the shock button. The patients eyes went wide as saucers, and I swear I saw 'TILT' flash up, before she went 'Ouch!' and jumped about 6 inches off the bed and flopping back down unresponsive. When we got over our 'shock' we ran her vitals again (because we thought we'd killed her) and her pulse was down to 126 - still high, but better. At that moment, the patient opened her eyes and said 'where's my beer?' We stuck her on O2 and got her to the ER ASAP. After giving report to the nurse we skedaddled out to clean the rig and debrief our CF when the ER Doc came out and said 'who decided to shock a conscious patient?' We explained what had happened and he said 'Good job you did, she was likely to code with a pulse that high, BUT don't do it again!'.

Enter me please.

Thanks for the generous chance.

Working patrol on night shift several years ago, I was in an area notorious for open air drug sales and all the accompanying fun. I saw an out of state car around 0200 in the morning seemingly driving the streets in circles. I followed him for several turns and was given the opportunity to stop him when he entered and stopped in the parking lot of a closed business.

I saw that he had a TV in the back seat, appeared nervous, and was sweating when the temperature didn't merit it. Naturally, he didn't have a drivers license or ID with him. The car registration belonged to a female. I radioed the the name provided by him and the response was that his license was valid. Without anything to go on, I let him go.

After getting off work and later going to get a haircut, my phone rang while I was in the barber's chair. Rude, I know, but I answered it anyway. It was one of our agency's detectives asking where I was and if I could pick the guy I had stopped out of a photo lineup. The detective met me in the parking lot of the barbershop. I picked the correct photo and was told that he had tried to beat to death the elderly lady who owned the car. During my contact with him, he provided a last name the was misspelled by one letter from his true last name. He was a drug addict, the lady he beat was a friend of his mother, he robbed her, and left her for dead in a city an hour from me.

He remained jailed until his case finally went to trial several years later. By this time, I joined another agency and moved across the country. I was subpoenaed and was flown back for the trial. Standing outside the courtroom, I saw him and his attorney at their table when the courtroom doors were opened by people coming and going. The prosecutor then approached me and told me I wouldn't be needed. When I was pointed out to the defendant and his attorney, they decided to finally accept the state's plea offer. They had been banking that I wouldn't return from Florida to testify.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: L90814,

Police officer since 1979, still working though mostly admin now.

Would very much like to be included.

Thank you very much!

LVN here for 10 years now. Have always worked in Mental Health area. First 3 years in Acute Care Mental Health setting in Cali. Then relocated to the Silver State and have been with the VA for almost 7 years now. No particular story to share. But would like to share how Mental Health nurses are viewed by "some" in the nursing field. Some colleagues look at our field as "really not nursing". One executive even once stated "Mental Health is a cake walk". We say "is that so"? Then why do you all call "Code Grey" every time some patient starts calling you names and hurt your feelings???

Thanks for the chance.

^^^^^^
Yeah. Guess who gets assaulted as much as the ER nurses.

Since I punched out yesterday for the last time (I work in the OR and we're basically shut down) this karma would be nice and put a smile back on my face! I'm hunkered down, and there will always be food on the plate, so no worries. I'm hoping this all blows over and I can get back to getting 'under your skin'!

Volunteer EMT for the past 10 years. Our community is 1.2 square miles, so you know most of the people you encounter. We have 140-160 runs annually.

Lots of good memories and some terribly tragic memories as well.

Thank you for the opportunity to win this piece from your collection.