First responders are the backbone of society. They extinguish fires, chase down criminals, resuscitate the gravely injured, and do so much more so that everyone can safely return to their families. These jobs put the brave men and women who undertake them in situations the rest of us hope we never have to face.

However, Reddit user Catsugh got interested in the moments that take by surprise even those dealing with emergencies on a daily basis. So, she asked them to describe the most memorable calls they've ever had. Here are the replies she has received.

#1

This isn't mine, but a friend of mine fielded this call. An elderly gentleman called 911 to notify them that his wife had passed in her sleep. Only it was like 7 o'clock at night. Apparently he just couldn't deal with it emotionally, so he got her dressed, took her out to the car, and drove around doing his errands for the day. Watched some TV together. And then after 12 or so hours he finally sort of accepted that she was gone and called 911.

Image credits: Hysterymystery

#2

Someone called stating they had seen a man on a small island on the lake hours ago but now the man was gone and his boat is still out there.
An older woman called in a half hour later stating her husband had gone missing, he was last seen taking his boat out on the lake sometime overnight. The increasing tension in her voice as she noticed sheriff's deputies were already dredging the lake was something else. She was calm but clearly actively dealing with the fact her husband was likely dead. They found his body not long after I hung up with her.
Sometimes it's the people screaming that get to you, sometimes its the quiet acceptance of a horrible truth that stays with you longer.

Image credits: GameDrain

It's important to remember that the police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and other professionals behind these stories are still people, and constantly dealing with life-threatening situations takes a toll on you.

A few months ago, for example, New York State released an assessment of its first responders' mental health needs.

More than two-thirds (68%) said they experience stress, while 53% reported they have had symptoms of depression. Burnout (59%) and anxiety (52%) were among the other mental health challenges identified by the respondents, with 38% saying they’ve had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as well.

#3

Man called to report a male was breaking into his neighbors vehicle across the street. A few minutes into the call the man came and started to break into the callers vehicle. A few minutes later the man spotted my caller and broke into his house from the window. Spent 10 minutes listening to physical fight when I finally heard the police enter the house and say “there’s blood everywhere.” Both intruder and caller died. Oh, and another 911 dispatcher had my callers wife and kids on another line who were hiding upstairs and heard everything.

I talked a lot of people who were shot/stabbed/beaten in the final moments of their lives but you usually get them after the situation occurred. This caller was just trying to look out for his neighbor and I spent a good 15-20 minutes bantering while waiting for officers to arrive and get the auto thief. Getting to joke around and get to know someone’s personality before they violently die hit a lot different than taking a call after violence had occurred.

Image credits: meshellella

#4

Harley motorcycle tipped over and the clutch lever went into a 4 year old's eye. Parent was on the line asking what to do. Suddenly, she said, "They're going lift the motorcycle." I emphatically told her to tell them to stop and wait for rescue and EMS. Rescue ended up cutting off the clutch lever and transporting the kid to hospital. She underwent surgery. That was 1982. Just last year, I met the lead rescue officer and the girl herself, now fully grown. They wanted to meet the 911 operator that saved her vision.

Image credits: shadow_carlson

#5

I'm not a first responder anymore but one of my first arson cases was an absolutely hilarious disaster. This husband and wife hated each other but didn't want to get divorced. What they did want was a new house.

So they poured kerosene on approximately 60 rags and stuffed them under the end table next to the couch. Then placed an *empty* kerosene lamp on the end table.

Then they took a 5 gallon gas can full of gas, took the spout off, and placed it in their master bedroom closet. Their completely devoid of all clothing master bedroom closet except for two jackets with tassels with the price tags still on them. Then they opened all their safes and left them empty and open in the middle of the bedroom.

Then they took all the pictures out of the house and replaced them with random photos they printed off the internet.

Then they removed the televisions and replaced them with old tvs. They put the flat screen televisions in their barn.

Then they poured a clear trail of gasoline down the hallway.

Their alibi was that on the day of the fire, they were trying to sell their canoe. They finally got a buyer, but the only time they could meet the buyer was at 3 am that night. So they drove 2 hours away to sell a canoe at 3 am the very same night. They then tried to claim the unlit, non electric kerosene lamp must have exploded. Then they claimed that their c*******d neighbors were trying to frame them for arson. Then the husband claimed that his wife was trying to frame him for arson because she's quote "A Blackfoot Indian and they are notorious for not wanting to work". Then he claimed that Sears was trying to frame him for arson because they were tired of paying his settlement after being injured at work 25 years prior.

It was a good time.

Image credits: fireinvestigator113

The aforementioned New York assessment also discovered that the vast majority of first responders — over 90% — agree that mental health services, such as support groups and therapy, would help them if they were accessible and free.

However, 80% also acknowledge that the stigma associated with mental health is an obstacle to seeking assistance.

Hopefully, we can all work together to remove these barriers to pay back the heroes looking out for us.

#6

My father used to be a 911 dispatcher; was also an EMT for 5 years and a fire fighter for over 30 years.

Worst call he ever took was a women who called that her house was on fire. She was trapped in the burning house and could not get out. First responders did not make it in time. He had to stay on the line with and listened to her as she burned to death.

He also witnessed, while responding to a s*****e call, one of his friends shoot himself in the face with a shotgun. He was still alive after the shotgun blast. They saved his life.

He also responded to an ATV rollover of one his friends kids. ATV landed on the kids face. Shattered his skull. His jaw was not longer attached. My dad had to hold his face together while they transported the kid to the hospital. An over 45 minute drive. Kid survived.

There are countless other calls that I could tell, my dad has witnessed a lot. Nicest man you will ever meet.

Image credits: iElim

#7

Not a first responder but I work in the ED. One of our physician’s friends is a first responder and got a call for s*****e. It was his own house. His daughter hanged herself.

Image credits: anon

#8

A mother called because her kid pulled a pot of oil off the stove and it spilled on his face. she said she could see the skin peeling off his face.

Image credits: Humans_Being_Bros

#9

My friend is a first responder. He once got a call about a man that had fallen in the shower. He gets there and the guy is over 400 pounds and out cold on the bathroom floor. My friend, his partner and the guys roommate try everything they can think of to get the guy on the stretcher, but the bathroom is tiny and they can’t even roll him over. Eventually they call two more ambulances and finally get the guy out of the bathroom.

They get to the elevator and it’s too small to fit the guy on the stretcher. So six paramedics have to carry the guy down five flights of stairs.

My friend called in sick for the rest of the week cause he was so sore and stiff, he couldn’t move.

Image credits: idontdigdinosaurs

#10

I once had a call from a 11 year old girl who was just stabbed by her stepfather, she kick him in the balls and went to hide and call 911. She was scared and I stayed on the line until her stepfather found her. The last thing I heard was her yelling no please don't do it again. Then I heard an angry yell then gurgling. Turns out he stabbed her in the neck one minute before the police got there. I quit the next day.

Image credits: nonsensicalsymbiosis

#11

Got a call for a s******l male. Went to the house, and we could see through the glass someone holding a big knife, but it looked to be a female (it was some type of stained glass stuff). So we ask what's going on and if Brian (names have been changed) was home. She yelled "Brian isn't here anymore!" Which you know, isn't great to hear from someone holding a knife. So we make entry into the house, and after much confusion, figure out that the lady we saw through the window was actually Brian, and was transitioning (or had transitioned) to Brianna. She was in her 50s, and had been struggling for a long time because she'd worked at a place with the same coworkers for 20 years, and after starting her transition she was made fun of and left out of conversations. Her family wasn't supportive, and apparently when she went online to seek help from groups, she was too old and wasn't accepted by them either. So she wanted to k**l herself because of how alone she felt.

I was able to chat with her for a while, and convinced her to go to the hospital with me (she was going to go regardless, but there's less stress/danger for everyone if they come voluntarily). When we arrived at the hospital, she said she was too scared to get out of the car. My shift had ended like 30 minutes earlier. I asked her if holding my hand would help. She said yes. So I get out of the car, and hold her hand walking into the hospital. I'm 5'6", and she's at LEAST 6'2" and outweighs me by 100+ pounds. So I'm holding her hand, and my hand is like at eye level for me, lol. We go in, and I tell the nurse at the ER that this is Brianna and she's having a bad night (code for wanting to k**l herself). The nurse gets her a room, which is where we part ways. I say something to her about getting help and happier days ahead, and she quietly asks for a hug before I go. I say sure and give her a hug.

Sometimes I wonder if she found a support group, and if not, if she's still around. I hope so.

Image credits: anon

#12

Was an EMT before I became a nurse. Call came in for an MVC (motor vehicle collision) with two trapped. On arrival, cops said 2 young woman, early 20s, drinking and going too fast and flipped their car. Driver ejected. Then, we hear passenger screaming....”she’s pregnant! Be careful, she’s pregnant!” Jaws hit the floor as the smell of alcohol on both them and their car was overwhelming. We wanted to airlift the driver, but medic on scene said no. She had fractured literally, almost every bone in her body. Open, compound fracture of tibia/fibula (two bones lower leg and fractured femurs. Normal protocol didn’t work because we can’t pull traction on femur for the open fracture and can’t MAST pants because she has massive pelvic trauma/fractures with obvious internal bleeding signs and symptoms. Picking up her leg was like picking up jello. Had no substance to it. Was shattered beyond belief. We transported both of them together and not sure how we kept driver alive. She obviously lost the baby. Miscarriage started in back of ambulance. Rushed her in for emergency surgery. If I remember, she broke both legs, pelvis, arms, clavicles, ribs, facial breaks, skull fractures, brain bleeds, spleen ruptured, bowel damaged, lost uterus and ovaries and I don’t even remember what else. First bad accident scene as an EMT. Will never forget that feeling of holding a leg with no bone left to hold it together.

Image credits: LupusWarriorRN

#13

I work in a region that covers a lot of forest area. I was patrolling and heading to recertify with my firearms when I passed vehicle tracks leading into the trees where vehicles aren't supposed to be. It wasn't unusual for that spot but I'd never been able to catch anyone up there. Because I was on a timetable, I figured I'd check in it on the way back to the office

After an hour or so, we got a bolo for a potentially s******l male. He was found dead a couple of hours later, in that exact area I was going to check. And now I can't help but wonder if he was alive when I drove by and I could have done something.

Image credits: Witless_Wonder

#14

911 dispatcher here. There's many that stick with me, but the absolute hardest one was a mother finding her child after the child had committed s*****e by hanging.

She was absolutely destroyed, but I could clearly hear her fighting to keep control as I walked her through getting the child down and attempting CPR. I knew that child was gone, but the mother refused to give up. I stayed with her on the phone and counted compressions with her while we waited for pd and the ambo to arrive, listened to her alternate between counting and begging her child to come back. When the EMTs showed up and took over, she finally let it go... That scream broke me, and I can still hear it to this day.

Image credits: Gwinblayd

#15

I remember odd things people say under stress...

A girl’s arm was ripped to shreds in a dog mauling, she kept using the word “meat”. “There’s shredded meat everywhere!” And she continued to say it as she found pieces of her arm on the ground. “Is that a piece of my meat?!” and “Huhuhu, omg it’s my meat!!”

Some others...

“I brought you the asparagus. The asparagus!!” -guy who came back from the market to find his partner dead.

“C’mon buddy! Don’t do this. It’s Valentine’s Day!” -homeless passerby who started CPR on a distraught woman’s husband who collapsed at a gas pump.

Image credits: evel333

#16

Volunteer Firefighter in Europe. Some summers ago we were called as first responders to a motorcycle accident. When we arrived the cyclist was obviously badly hurt after crashing in a car. But he was orientated and seemed okay, ambulance and helicopter were on their way already, so we just had to stabilize him. Not a minute later he started deteriorating, another minute later we started CPR.

One of the arriving bystanders was a trauma surgeon and started helping immediately, shortly after the doctor on the helicopter arrived. It was obvious that there was massive internal bleeding, they first tried to relieve pressure by puncturing and then pretty soon decided that the only chance was to open him up. So they managed a clamshell thoractomy in the middle of the street, and one started to give the heart direct compressions. The bleeding was massive and they discovered that there was a aortic rupture.

The blood loss was too extreme and he died there. Still to this day I have to drive slowly when I pass by that stretch of road.

Image credits: Cyrond

#17

My first cardiac arrest call.


An old lady had woken up to her husband not breathing. He'd passed at some point during the night it seems, but all I was given at the start of the call was that he wasn't breathing, so I launched into CPR instructions.
They lived out of town, so it took the ambulance crew about 25 minutes to get out to them.
There was nothing crazy about the call and I've dealt with way more traumatic calls in the 2 years since, but at some point during the call, she realised he was gone and you could hear it in her voice.
That shift in tone is what sticks with me.

Image credits: juzzzyb

#18

Got a call for a three month old baby that was not responsive; arrived on scene and was the second person through the door right behind the Senior Fire Officer (SFO). SFO immediately began doing CPR and was therefore unable to take on role of Incident Commander. I quickly reached up and grabbed the radio off his side and assumed command and control. This happened several years ago and I can still clearly see the child's face; that was a hard day knowing that there was literally nothing we could do, but trying our darnedest to do whatever we could. We never did find out the cause of death but it was suspected that the infant passed away from SIDS while taking a nap.

Edited to explain SIDS:
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome; infants suddenly stop breathing spontaneously while asleep.

Image credits: anon

#19

A lighthearted one - my friend got a call from a very cross sounding old lady that was absolutely furious because her neighbors had stolen her plants. When my friend asked her how she knew it was them, the woman said “because there’s holes in my yard and She planted them in her f*****g garden! I’m going to go take them back, I have a shovel, and you probably wont get here in time to do anything about it!”

Thank goodness it was a slow day because my friend had to stay on the line for at least 15 minutes to convince her to wait for a cop to come by and talk to her neighbors for her.

Image credits: cashil

#20

Firefighter emt recent call actually still fresh in memory only 2 days ago fatal accident 16 year old female deceased at the scene low speed (20kmh) accident but airbags deployed shouldve been a simple move the cars get them home but she had her feet on the dashboard and the airbags broke her legs one pierced her heart the other d**n near decapitated her

so if you ever get the idea putting your feet up on the dash is a good idea...dont.

Image credits: spartan-moose245

#21

Little 4 year old girl got ran over by her grandmother with a lawnmower that was on. It was not the gore or the blood that got me, it was the utter panic of the family, and the way they broke down when the helicopter took off with her inside.

Image credits: LoanSurvivor19

#22

Memorial Day, 1989. FF/EMT at the time. Call dispatched as a "car into a telephone pole." When we got there, I couldn't believe the carnage. A HS student had been given a muscle car as a birthday present. The police later estimated he was going over 90mph when he hit the pole head-on.

Patient's right femur was about six inches long, his patella almost touching his pelvis. The entire long bone had compressed like an accordion. He had other multiple injures. Took us two hours to cut him out of the car. The medics were pumping him so full of d***s to maintain his blood pressure they started to openly worry that they might f**k his kidneys up.

We finally got him out of the car (only time I've ever seen a KED used) on a gurney and took off for the hospital. Medic had two large-bore IVs going, and had a BP cuff wrapped around one of the bags to create his own "rapid infuser."

The kid lived. He ended up losing the foot on the leg that was destroyed, and that leg (from what I heard months later) was more metal than flesh.

The irony was that the kid was a NY State indoor track and field state champion runner.

Image credits: dramboxf

#23

I'm not a first responder, but my sisters is a LEO.

Her worst story, was there were 2 junkies in town, non-violent criminals, who had multiple children together all which had been taken away by Children's Aid Services.

So there was a report that she had given birth, so CAS wanted police escort to go get the baby. They knocked on the door, the dad opened it, and just said, oh, you're here for the baby, walked across the room, picked up a swaddled baby and handed the child to my sister. She looked at the baby, (this was something like her 3rd or 4th actual shift) started shaking and crying, the seargent sees this, says give it and get back to the car. The baby had been dead for a couple days already.

My sister is ok with things now, but that one messed her up for a bit.

Image credits: Pyanfars

#24

Car wreck, late night heavily forested mountain road. Drunk woman flying down the highway, lost control and flipped the car multiple times. We arrive and shes unconscious, boarded and shipped. After about 45 minutes, we're gearing up to leave is when we find the empty baby car seat.

Took another 45 minutes to find the body.

Image credits: lionofwar87

#25

Listened to a young p******ute get strangled to death by a crazy religious guy. She kept struggling for her cell phone, and I could hear the guy yelling crazy stuff about religion and her being a w***e. Because of the constant gasps and the phone being thrown around, it was initially hard to make out what was going on. It was a pay as you go phone so it was hard to find out where she was located exactly.

Eventually her noises stopped and the guy who did it was left huffing and puffing. Keeping an open line as I’m supposed to do, afterwards I heard a twinkling noise; turns out it was him urinating on her corpse.

The craziest part of this is that it didn’t even make the news. She was young, about 19 ish, indigenous girl if I recall correctly, this was 2009.

I don’t do call taking anymore but whenever people ask what the worst one was that was probably it.

The other one that haunted me was a guy called 911 and said he had a loaded gun and was going to k**l people in his apartment, and he told me over the phone I had five minutes to convince him not to do it (no one was hurt, thankfully, but he did have a gun, and had severe mental problems). I wasn’t very long on the job and there aren’t always crazy calls like that so needless to say this was a stressful experience.

Image credits: BlackIsTheSoul

#26

This isn't mine, but my dad went on a call in 1988 where a man had attempted s*****e by cutting his wrists. He and his partner each grabbed a wrist and stopped the bleeding, saved the guys life.

But it wasn't until a week later when they found out why he was trying to die. His wife had left him because of various reasons I'm sure, but these reasons included the fact that he had full blown AIDS. So my dad and his friend had to get tested since they had been covered in this dude's blood. This was before all the protocols surrounding blood and pathogens had been implemented.

My dad was negative, but his friend wasn't so lucky. The blood had gotten in his eye. I was 2 years old at the time. He quit doing calls soon after. His friend died 7 years ago of AIDS related things.

Image credits: verus_es_tu

#27

Instead of bringing up a f****d up call I'll bring up a funny one. We went for a call to meet the police for an a*****t, we get there the guy had been attacked with a frozen turkey. Whacked over the head with it. Big lump already formed. Guy had gotten into an argument with his old lady and she bopped him upside the head with the bird. He ended up fighting the cops and his wife and mother tried to jump in so I'm holding them back as the cops are wrestling with him. Cops ended up transporting him so we cleared and went back in service. Turns out the same guy had gotten whacked in the head by a 2x4 the week prior too.

Image credits: the_falconator

#28

Working as a deputy sheriff. Got a 911 call to the local park for a dead body. Got there and this lady with a flashlight waved us down. As we approached we yelled out asking if she was the caller. She said yes. We yelled out again where is the body. She said right here, pulled out a gun, and k**led herself right in front of us. She wanted to make sure we found her body before the kids showed up the next morning to play in the park.

Image credits: darrevan

#29

I do Search and Rescue work.

Got a call to respond to a missing lady in her 60s, gone overnight. Police had been searching for hours with no luck, so by the time I got there she had been missing for over 16 hours.

This was my K9s first search ever, so I was super nervous but also proud that we could help. The police kept trying to hold me to a small 10 acres set of woods but my gut said trust my dog, she wasn't there.

The police officer got angry with me and decided to go back to the 10 acres while I continued with my K9 into a new area. 5 mins later my dog gives an alert and I watch which way she went. I climbed over a huge tree to find the lady standing there in shock. She went passed out as soon as I said who I was and asked her what her name was.

After years of being told I was wasting my time, my dog was s**t, and if I wanted to do SAR I should get a real dog, it was the most amazing feeling in the world. My K9 is almost retired, has multiple finds and a recovery under her paws now, and she is just simply amazing.

Edited for dog tax! Peanut

Image credits: I_am_so_lost_again

#30

I'm not a first responder, but a dentistry student. Dentistry professionals can work in the hospital as trauma surgeons of the face. This facial surgeon showed us a case of a man that didn't pay his d**g dealers, they took hit to an empty field and blew his face off with a shotgun and left. Surprisingly the man survived and woke up half an hour later and called the police, they spent hours trying to pinpoint his exact locating because at this point he was somewhere in the middle of an open field and obviously he didn't had eyes anymore to help them. He was taken to the hospital and his surgery took 18 hours but he did survive.
Edit: today he lives in a rest home with a tube helping him breathe and another helping him eat.

Image credits: agorafilia

#31

Had an ALS call for a s******l patient who set himself on fire but decided he still wanted to live after 3 seconds so he jumped into a lake, which was coincidentally nearby so he obviously had doubts as to whether or not he actually wanted to die. We got him fully intubated, IVs and all the works.

Image credits: CAMuffinMan

#32

Former Deputy. One morning I was the early person in to take calls as the night shift was headed out and to cover what trickled in as shift change took place.

It's cold and rainy and miserable all around. I'm on my way to someone's house to talk to them about a phone scam when a call comes out to another unit who just marked on duty. He lives across the county from where this call came out. A mother has called in stating her little girl got out of the house while she was getting her ready for a bath. Her daughter is non-verbal and naked and mom can't find her.

Everyone that owned a radio in the county started to mark in route, last night's shift, court bailiffs, the d**n Major-everyone was coming. I actually had to wait to get onto the radio to let dispatch know I was now in the area, turning onto the road.

The way this road was situated was a hairpin turn off a highway that led to a dead end at a lake with a stretch in the middle of it going up towards the houses. As I make this right turn and am about to head up towards the residence, something catches my eye. This litte girl is standing at the edge of this lake, just staring at it.

I bolt from my car, snatch her up in my coat, and start hoofing it back towards the houses. Some stranger just grabbed her and she's crying and trying to wiggle free. Mom sees me about half way and nearly tackles me as she comes in for the biggest hug probably any of us has ever experienced. The baby was cold, but safe, and unharmed.

We made sure to get mom in contact with a resource that would get her little girl a tracking bracelet and she rejoiced to learn that such a thing existed.

A couple days later, the mom delivered flowers and a card to me at the office. I still have it, years later, and it still makes me smile.

Sure, there's some stories of horrible things, but there's also good calls you can't forget. Although I have real mixed feelings about my time in law enforcement, I know that day I did good.

#33

I responded POV to a motorcycle crash as a volunteer EMT in a small mountain town. A lady was coming down a rocky canyon when (her husband believes) she likely feel asleep (medically related drowsiness in her history). She launched "Dukes of Hazard" style off the road edge about 50ft with a 30ft drop into a mat of bushes. Her body hit and snapped a 4-5" diameter fir tree. There were civilians all over and down in the ditch helping her already. No LE on scene yet, volunteer FD just arriving, and Air Med in route, too.

I get down to her and she is on a good samaritan's backboard. After a quick assessment and some ABCs mitigation I decide it's best to get her to the road - we can hardly stand in the brambles and taking vitals is a nightmare. With the help of civilians and the local type 4 forest service fire engine we got her up to the road.

(The extent of her injuries were later relayed to us by the Air Med service) She had rapid and irregular breathing but absent breath sounds (both lungs were collapsed) on both sides, weak/thready radial pulses, blown pupil, broken collarbone, broken tib/fib, broken lumbar, broken ribs, a lacerated liver, her vitals were not good and she would only make pain noises, sometimes the words were audible about her back pain. Convening with the flight medics, her outlook did not look great and I helped load her up into the bird thinking she would be lucky if she made it to the hospital.

Fast forward a year(ish) later, she WALKED into the Forest Service I worked at looking for me to say thank you. I was in the field that day, so I was not able to meet with her, but it was a great reminder as to why I got my EMT in the first place. I was astonished and so thankful to hear of her recovery.

Edit: Thank you so much for the awards! There are a lot of stories on both sides of the spectrum in this field and often the awful ones stick around for a while. I'm glad when I read this prompt that a heartwarming story came to mind. Thank you reddit community! I'm so glad she made it and I hope to run into her at that trauma conference someday.

#34

Ran a run of the mill house fire in a McMansion. Fire was small enough we could perform an interior attack, but big enough that it was a little dicey and hot as f**k. Go up into the second floor master bedroom and where the walk-in closet should have been was a s*x dungeon filled to the brim with charred leather and scortched [adult toys].

For years after that fire a charred [adult toys] would magically appear in turnout boots, pockets, inside helmets, anywhere inconvenient you can think of.

#35

Not a 911 responder, but I will never forget about hearing this one in my area. Student housing in the city's center wasnt up to code, someone left something burning in the clothingstore below and a huge fire broke out. One student was still inside and couldnt get out because there was no fire escape. Trapped. He called 911. She stayed with him till the end.

Image credits: BobRosssChesthair

#36

I used to be a volunteer fire fighter and the one that sticks out in my mind was getting a call about an accident involving a semi and motorcycle. The guy driving the motorcycle had a stroke and went under the belly of the trailer, which lead to his decapitation.

Seeing a head detached from the body is quite unnerving.

#37

When I delivered a woman's 14th kid in the back of the ambulance. The entire birth she was on the phone with her "friend" having her get the paperwork ready to surrender custody.

#38

Entering a missile silo 60 feet below ground level to rescue two stoners in the middle of the Colorado plains. The only thing that saved them were piles of dead cows at the bottom of the silo. One of the injured had rebar sticking through his leg we had to cut off the pipe in order to fly him to the hospital.🙏🇺🇸.

#39

Animal call about an injured owl. Get there and the woman has the dead owl her arms saying it flew into a transformer and it blew up. She wants me to take the owl to a vet, I am explaining to her that it’s dead and we cannot help it when it wakes up. She is still holding it and the owl and her scream at the same time. The owl then digs its talons into her collar bone and starts beating her face with its wings. I fight it off her and she is bleeding profusely. I call her an ambulance and then have to explain to my Sgt want happened.

TL:DR Woman gets viciously attacked by and owl cause she dumb.

#40

My mum qualified as an ambulance call handler. Once they qualify they go through a period where an experienced call handler sits with them and listens to the calls with them in case they have any trouble. She passed this with flying colours. It all went downhill after that though, here first ever 'solo call' was from a mother whose newish baby (few weeks I think but not really relevant I guess) had fallen out of the car door on an A road and went under the wheels of a lorry following behind her. Safe to say it f****d her up a bit but she carried on the job for years afterwards and now she's a student paramedic. So proud of her it's unbelievable!

#41

My dads a firefighter and for most of my younger childhood he didn’t expose much of what he’s seen/gone through in his career. As I’ve gotten older, he’s shared a bit more and one day shared a perspective with me that opened my eyes to the full scope of what he does for the community. My brother and I were discussing my brothers military deployment and how some guys from his unit were struggling with PTSD and my dad said that something that isn’t talked about often is how many people walking the street who do what he does often have the same thing happening to them but for an entire career/lifetime. I asked him what he meant and he shared with me that it only took him about 3 years on the job before he couldn’t truly celebrate any holiday anymore. Obviously this was met with some confusion on my end but he said that every holiday/event in the yearly calendar is marred in his memory by some earth shattering event he was called to for work. 4th of July for him is a child having drowned in a pool while parents were occupied with entertaining guests. Thanksgiving is car wreck in which the drunk driver walked away while their sober brother was in the passenger seat having their skull crushed by the frame of the vehicle he was driving. He has an entire calendar year of these and that was the part that really stunned me. Gave me a whole new respect for the guy.

#42

Not to me directly but happened in our Firehouse years before (horror story from the 70's.)
It's shared with everyone to stress the importance of hazardous chemical exposure.


There was a chemical leak (I don't know what chemical exactly) and a subsequent fire.
The team responded and one of the firefighter's turnouts ended up getting pretty heavily soaked in the chemical bath. Upon returning to the firehouse, his young daughter was there waiting; she gave him a hug and got the chemical all over herself. The substance was extremely toxic and she got ill and eventually passed a couple days later. The firefighter went through extreme depression afterwards and ended up committing s*****e.


Never forget that safety protocols and regulations are written in blood.

#43

*I'd prefer not to revisit my old calls, because the few memorable ones f****d me up. But here's one that another rig told us about at the time:*

Someone called in saying she she heard a loud scraping form the roof and thinks her husband fell off while fixing the satellite.

They arrived to find he hanged himself with the satellite cable and the wife was trying to get him down with a rake. Paramedic had to walk behind the rig and take a deep breath, which was weird. He was normally the embodiment of calm.

They get the poor soul down, wife angrily yelling at them to get the guy down before the neighbors see.

They load him in the ambulance and the wife just walked inside after they took down info from her. They got into the rig and drove for about a mile before the paramedic burst out laughing, asking if they just "skidoo'd" into a British dark comedy. The reason he dipped out for a second was to regain composure and not laugh.

#44

Buddy of mine is a 911 operator.

He had a call where a young kid (like 6 or 7) called in. He was in the woods and didn't know where he was.

Also he had been shot by his father. His mother and father were both dead next to him in a murder s*****e.

Another call was a guy calling in to say he had just shot his girlfriend. My buddy asked if she was still alive. The guy said to wait just a second. There was a gunshot and then he said "Not any more."

I couldn't do that job.

#45

I'm not a first responder but in 2007 my 4 friends and i were driving home at 2am one night on the highway (no we were not drinking that night) and up ahead in the distance i could faintly see something in the middle of the road (it was pitch dark) and i slowed down and kept saying "uh wtf is that?" over and over again..well we slowed down and realized it was a black car with NO headlights on just sitting in the middle of the road **demolished**..i pulled over and me and all my friends sprinted to the car and checked it to see if anyone was inside, there was a woman in driver's seat who definitely didn't survive the initial crash, face just completely embedded into the windshield (i can still see this image til this day) and we were looking as fast as we could because we were in the middle of i95 and thankfully no other cars had come by..we heard a child faintly crying and my friend looks in the backseat and sees there is a child in a car seat who didn't look injured, so we tried to open the door and it wouldn't fully open due to the damage to the car, so we all had to pull at this door to get it open and let me tell ya, as easy as it sounds that was no easy task for four 18 year old kids, but eventually we got it open just enough to get in there and pull the child out, we get to the side of the road and in the blink of an eye a semi comes full speed and pulverizes the car and drags it about 100 feet before coming to a complete stop..we called the state police and they came 15 minutes later and we waited with the child until they came and questioned us...we were called heroes by all the officers. later investigations revealed that she came around the turn too fast and hit the guardrail and died on impact.

on the way home nobody made a f*****g sound.

#46

Man blew his face off with a shotgun. Wasn’t dead yet. Scary s**t.

Also, a couple weeks ago I responded to a woman in labor. Get on scene, she had just delivered. She was naked and holding the baby with the cord still coming out of her v****a. She was high as hell and trying to shoot up one last time before she went with us. *With her bloodstream still feeding the baby through the cord.*

Edit: Thank you so much for the Wholesome Award hahaha.

#47

I wasn't going to post, but the stories now make me want to.

I work in maritime search and rescue.

I was fairly new at my job and the area is quite large that we are in charge of. I had just showed up maybe a month prior still learning the area. We get a call that two smaller private planes had collided midair. It was a horrible day. In total there were 19 people, we only found 12 people. Eight were deceased, and out of the rest who survived, 2 later to pass due to complications on the way to the hospitals. Anyone that survived was a miracle to say the least. This was almost a year ago and we still get reports that parts of the plane are washing ashore.

EDIT: woah thanks for the award! and yes this was in alaska, but saying so its a big state.

#48

One of my first calls ever, actually.

Calls drops on the radio, "so and so 40ish y/o female low blood sugar/diabetic complications..."

The EMT training me (E) and his paramedic partner (P) are familiar with the address and said it would be a good call for me to drive code 1 (lights and sirens) to, as each was very confident this woman wasn't dying. (It was my first code 1 experience)

We arrived to the scene and *just* before entering the residence, I'm talking on its very porch, E pulls me aside and says something to the effect of, "Now, when we go in there, the patient (PT) is going to be completely naked laying at the bottom of her stairs, she has bilateral, below the knee amputations (she ain't got legs), and when we give her some sugar, she's going to wake up and do naked, nubby gymnastics all over the place. Oh, and its going to be hot as hell inside because she gets cold when her sugar is low."

When E and I went inside, we were hit with 100° F room temperature on an already hot day.

P had already pulled up a chair in the living room and began adding demographic information and history to our patient care report, business as usual.

The patient, as promised, was laying at the bottom of her stairs, completely naked, completely disoriented (effectively the mind of a toddler), and legolas as can be.

As my first diabetic emergency, I was taking a back seat and observing E treat the PT.

E carefully approached PT and struggled with her a bit to get a BGL reading. Her sugar was alarmingly low for a healthy person, but not far from her average and certainly not her record low, as noted by E.

After obtained the BGL reading, E had the green light to attempt to administer a dose of oral glucose, a really sticky, really disgusting toothpaste-like substance. PT wasn't having it, she started spitting and pulling away and ultimately was left unchanged.

Now it was P's turn. A nice shot of glucagon and within minutes, PT was speaking in tongues and spinning naked cartwheels on her stumps, amazing. P had just sat back down when PT had gone face down, a*s up about 3ish feet in front of P. PT paused, and then started back up into a tantrum akin to an exorcism.

After several minutes of the most awkwardly surreal experience of my life, PT had transitioned into a sort of recovery phase that entailed sitting on the heating vent and shouting "I'm so cold!" at the top of her lungs over and over. No, we didn't adjust the thermostat.

Eventually PT became coherent and adamantly refused transport to the hospital for further treatment. Then, she ate the breakfast her daughter made and we left.






I've seen PT a few times since, but she's in prison now so its been awhile.

I've never seen her with clothes on, even during discharges from the hospital.

Edit: spelling, formatting, etc.

#49

Obligatory “I’m not a 911 responder” intro, but... the one and only time I ever had to call 911 was interesting. It was around 1997 and I lived in a suburb of Atlanta. I was getting on I85 NB and looked over and saw a car on fire on the I85 SB ramp. I grabbed my cell phone and called 911.

Now I had purchased the phone in Fayetteville where I lived. The car fire was happening in Union City about 15 miles away. Call went like this:

Operator: “911. What is your emergency?”

Me: “Yeah I’m getting on 85N at Union City (gave her the exit number) and there is a car on fire on the south bound ramp.”

Operator: “Sir, you’ve called Fayetteville 911. You’ll need to call Union City 911.”

Me: “How the f**k do I dial a different 911?!? What, do I need to put in an area code first???”

Operator: (Big dramatic SIGH) Hold on...

(Proceeds to put me on hold for about 90 seconds, comes back on the line)

Operator: (Very rude tone) Sir... someone else has already called that in, Fire and Ambulance are already on their way.

Me: Geez, I’m so sorry to have bothered you with this potentially deadly emergency...

Operator: *CLICK*

She seemed nice...

#50

Obligatory “I’m not a first responder, but...”, I always wonder about the 911 operator that was on the phone with me when I found my (21F at the time) brother (24M) after he hung himself. It’s a bit blurry but I remember I was “calm” (in shock) and I think he started to ask if I needed fire, police, or ambulance and as soon as he spoke I said “my brother killed himself”. I think he asked if I could get him down and try CPR, but as soon as I said “his feet are blue” he knew he had passed and instructed me to go wait outside on my steps and to stay on the phone til the police got there. I kept saying things like “this is so f****d up, I’m sorry for swearing” and he said it’s okay. Later I found out that I found my brother about 14 hours after it happened. My poor parents were out of town on vacation too... I called them first before I even called 911. :( I always hope it didn’t make the operator sad.

#51

Not a first responder, but my instructor for my EMT class told us about the worst call he’s ever been on.

He said they got a call one night and sent 5 ambulances to the scene, he was in the third. They arrive on scene to a car accident where a drunk teenager hit a family’s car. The father and the son were ejected from the car and were already about to be transported, and the teenager had fled the scene

My instructor was tasked with getting the other family members out of the car, the pregnant wife and 3 kids. Sadly, they were all k**led on impact and nothing could be done for them. He had to retrieve their bodies and sit with them for something over an hour if my memory serves, with the knowledge that if the father and son lived(which they did) they would wake up to hear the terrible news of what happened to the rest of their family, and live with the fact that the kid who k**led them was almost uninjured.

The story sounds awful enough just hearing about it, I can’t even imagine what he must have gone through. I have so much respect for every first responder out there and want to thank you for what you do.

#52

I’m a 911 operator. The hardest call I’ve ever gotten was a 7 year old boy who drowned at the local lake/beach we had in town. He was in the states custody and his sister had took him and his maybe 5 year old brother out for the day to spend time together. The boy was in the water and all of a sudden the sister couldn’t find him, a bystander called 911 while she ran into the water to find the boy. I ordered the caller to get all the children out of the water and to have all the adults get in, form a line and start searching for the boy, I stayed on the line until the fire department got there and they found the boy about 10 minutes later, so about 15-20 minutes after the initial call. They were able to get a pulse when in the ambulance and drove to the hospital, he was later pronounced dead that night and the hospital called us to let us know, which usually never happens. I was 19 years old and I had a 7 year old brother, I held it together but as soon as I got into my car after my shift I cried so hard, all I could imagine was that it could have been my brother, and I NEVER get emotional on my calls. I’m able to keep calm bc it’s not my emergency, but this one hit me right in the stomach.


I’m lucky to have had such a good partner to help me through it because I would’ve struggled doing that alone.


I will never ever forget that day, I remember everything that happened like it was yesterday, and it’s been 2 1/2 years.

#53

Not me, not 911 but a buddy who was an Army Ranger. They needed evac but the environment was hostile the entire time. He threw one of his injured teammates over his shoulder & ran for the chopper (Marines came) he said there was a blast; he went down on his knees, managed to get back up & keep running. He went to drop his battle back first onto the floor of the bird - he only had him from the waist down. Basically his legs & boots. From the torso up, he was gone - that part of his body was hanging down my friends back. As messed up as it is - it saved my friends life. He was an accidental shield basically.

#54

Had a guy who was intoxicated and s******l and laying on train tracks with a train due by in minutes. We were able to talk him into getting off the tracks and had officers in route, but when he tried to get up, he couldn't because his boot was wedged in between the spokes of the tracks and he could not free it. We tried to get him to undo the laces and slide his foot out, but he couldn't manage that either. Plan C was to stop every train in the entire area until officers were able to get to him. That worked.

#55

I worked as an EMT for a while. Went on a call to a trailer park in town for a man "having a heart attack." We get there and discover that it was an elderly man who was under the care of a younger couple. The younger couple was being paid to care for him except they weren't– they were starving him and using the money for other things. He was dying from lack of nutrition. He had long, white, unkept hair and a beard and he wasn't just skinny, he was a skeleton with skin stretched over it like a drum. He was naked except for an adult diaper. We began CPR, pushed d***s, defibrillated him, and loaded him into the ambulance to rush to the hospital. Many of his ribs broke from the CPR and he'd arch his back and kick once or twice from time to time. He rallied a couple times because he wasn't sick, but he was just too weak and he passed away.

The couple also had a child, who was standing in the back hallway wordlessly watching this all unfold. CPS got involved.

#56

Not a 911 responder, but I worked on the recording equipment.

Someone called in two dead bodies (there was a woman screaming and crying in the background).

The operator asked for the callers name. He calmly said "I'm the other one" and hung up.

Yeah - I don't think I will ever forget that voice.

#57

A Car accident where an elderly woman was sandwiched in the car and clinging on to life.

I held her hand as she passed.

Sometimes I still feel her hand squeeze.

#58

Listening to the screams of a 5 year old and his parents when their 4 wheeler's gas tank exploded showering the kid with flaming gasoline. It was about 4 minutes until firefighters and emts arrived on scene and I remember every second.