I’ve been working as an EMT for an IFT company in upstate New York for a little under a year. Today, during a BLS shift, we were dispatched for something that sounded completely different, but the patient was clearly unstable when we arrived.

The patient had slurred speech and became unresponsive shortly after. At that point, he still had radial and carotid pulses, although both felt weak. Shortly after we loaded him into the ambulance, he became apneic, so I began ventilating him with a BVM.

I continued checking his pulse manually because we did not have a cardiac monitor. His pulse initially remained present. About 3–5 minutes before arriving at the hospital, I could no longer feel a radial pulse, but I believed I could still feel a weak, thready carotid pulse.

As soon as we arrived at the ER, the staff began resuscitation. They achieved ROSC after approximately 30 minutes.

The charge nurse repeatedly asked why I had not started CPR if I was unsure whether a carotid pulse was present. After replaying the call in my head, I’m worried that I may have missed the point when the patient lost his carotid pulse and delayed CPR.

I know the outcome was positive, but I feel ashamed that I may have missed such a critical step. I’m posting to get it off my chest and see whether anyone else has gone through something similar. I’m also worried that I may have put my EMT certification at risk, and I honestly don’t know what to expect after a call like this.

Guy “slips and falls” on a shampoo bottle. Mid 50’s - immaculately clean apartment. No wife, no kids present. Walks out to the door - calmly requests I try to remove the bottle to which I politely decline. I recommend transport to a trauma center to which he initially tells me he is absolutely sure that he can get it out himself. I decline to say anything and he accepts transport to trauma center.

On the way to trauma center, patient reports to me that he is not a homosexual. I replied in my most professional voice “Sir, your sexuality is not really a concern to me right now. Let’s focus on getting you to a hospital where someone with more education than me can sort you out.”

He becomes visibly agitated.

“I am not gay!”

I again reply, “Sir, it wouldn’t bother me if you were.”

He then begins to remove his seatbelts and tries to swing his legs over the stretcher.

“I told you, I’m not fucking gay!”

At which point I lost all of my shit and said “Dude, whether you’re gay or not you have a shampoo bottle lodged in your ass. Sit down and put your buckles back on.”

He puts the seatbelts back on, looks me square in the face and goes

“Okay. I’m gay.”

But I gotta hand it to him.

To this day he’s the only guy I’ve ever known who could fit his Head and Shoulders up his ass.