ok, this shoud be fun. tell us about your most embarrasing situation eitheir on a ambulance call or on a funeral. i'll start. we had a funeral for a very prominent buisness man and was a feather in our cap if you will to hold services for such a prominent citizen here in houston. my father was beside himself to make sure everything went correctly for this funeral he even hired a motorcycle escort for the flower car as he didnt want the flower car to be late. here flowers are taken after the funeral straight to the cemetary and are to be set up and waiting when the funeral arrives at the cemetary. well everything was going good and we had 8 escorts (motor officers) to escort the funeral to the cemetary. going just fine until i turned the coach into the entrance to the cemetary. yep, brand new 73 cad coach and it dies at the entrance. well tried to start the coach but got the old caddy drag. uuh uuhh . yall know the sound. either vapor locked or somethin. point is it would not start. well the flowers were taken in a 70 suburban that was a retired ambulance but was used for flowers or pickups from the me's office(county morgue) well had to stop all traffic and get some help from the officers and load casket into the 70 suburban amb. then it gets real fun as we had to push 3 tons of caddy uphill cause it was blocking the entrance to glenwood cemetary. the casket didnt slide to well and the ambulance had a squad bench. well would not fit! 4 cops and 2 funeral home employees carried the casket all the wy to the gravesite. it was a hike especially with a copper case casket. my dad was livid and embarrased to say the least. got back to the coach and of course it started. a week later a man who was way back in the procession and didnt see everything called to thank us for carrying the deceased to the gravesite and told my mom that his wish was to brought to his grave this way! ok lets hear your tale of the trade!!
most embarrasing moment
- Thread starter Kyle Martin
- Start date
Yeah right! Don't have anything car related but I did drop a man once while using a Junkin cot. Making the transfer from the table to the cot, cot didn't lock, weight on it then it collapsed.I cooked a engine in an ambulance once. Had four patients in the back from a rollover accident attended by two EMT's and myself, the designated EMT driver.
This was on a Sunday afternoon. Friday night this unit was tagged as out of service due to having a very loose alternator belt with a chunk of the vee section missing. Some rocket surgeon on the department did not read the trouble ticket all the way through and tightened the belt. Everyone wanted to drive this as it was our newest unit and the other two ambulances had in excess of 100k on each and were thoroughly thrashed.
Anyway, I was jumped the crash while driving with my wife and daughter to a picnic and stopped to assist the NM State Police officer. As this occurred in the county that was our service area I rendered aid and assistance until our unit arrived at the scene. The crew "volunteered"(?) me to run with them to the hospital (28 miles).
Anyway, about two miles from the scene at 80 mph +/- I heard a "BANG" that was evidently the alternator belt hitting the hood. Two battery banks, no big deal, radioed dispatch of our dilemma. Of the two ambulances at the station, another one was downed due to a no start, the other on another run. Assistant Chief and I made the decision to keep rolling as we were the only "official" ambulances in the county except for a Navajo Nation unit on the "local" reservation that was about 75 miles from our location.
When the belt went, it nicked the lower radiator hose unknown to us. Twenty three miles later we found out when the temperature gauge pegged.
454 Chevys were not designed to be air cooled. We proved that.
The Assistant Chief upon my radioing in 10-7/10-55 (dead ambulance) commandeered a demo unit left on Friday morning for the Chief to inspect and show to the City Council on Tuesday. No plates, no radio except for his prep and best of all, no authorization from the ambulance company to operate it on the street or use it in a incident.
City Council approved purchase of that unit at the session, Chevy goodwilled the replacement engine as it was just replaced two weeks previous to me melting it and the dealership noted the bad belt on the repair order but forgot to install the new one before it left the shop.
This was on a Sunday afternoon. Friday night this unit was tagged as out of service due to having a very loose alternator belt with a chunk of the vee section missing. Some rocket surgeon on the department did not read the trouble ticket all the way through and tightened the belt. Everyone wanted to drive this as it was our newest unit and the other two ambulances had in excess of 100k on each and were thoroughly thrashed.
Anyway, I was jumped the crash while driving with my wife and daughter to a picnic and stopped to assist the NM State Police officer. As this occurred in the county that was our service area I rendered aid and assistance until our unit arrived at the scene. The crew "volunteered"(?) me to run with them to the hospital (28 miles).
Anyway, about two miles from the scene at 80 mph +/- I heard a "BANG" that was evidently the alternator belt hitting the hood. Two battery banks, no big deal, radioed dispatch of our dilemma. Of the two ambulances at the station, another one was downed due to a no start, the other on another run. Assistant Chief and I made the decision to keep rolling as we were the only "official" ambulances in the county except for a Navajo Nation unit on the "local" reservation that was about 75 miles from our location.
When the belt went, it nicked the lower radiator hose unknown to us. Twenty three miles later we found out when the temperature gauge pegged.
454 Chevys were not designed to be air cooled. We proved that.
The Assistant Chief upon my radioing in 10-7/10-55 (dead ambulance) commandeered a demo unit left on Friday morning for the Chief to inspect and show to the City Council on Tuesday. No plates, no radio except for his prep and best of all, no authorization from the ambulance company to operate it on the street or use it in a incident.
City Council approved purchase of that unit at the session, Chevy goodwilled the replacement engine as it was just replaced two weeks previous to me melting it and the dealership noted the bad belt on the repair order but forgot to install the new one before it left the shop.