TheBanyanTree: our tax dollars at work ;)

[Sachet]

Last Saturday night, I invited several friends over to celebrate my
husband's birthday. Two of the guys who happen to work in EMS as a
firefighter (J.) and a paramedic (M.) entertained us part of the time by
sharing practical joke stories from work at EMS.

It seems a popular trick to play on rookies is to rig up an IV so that
the needle is sticking through one of the ceiling tiles and slowly drips
down on the unsuspecting rookie who is trying to sleep. Naturally, they
assume the roof is leaking and get harassed by the other guys who are
trying to sleep. Or better yet, they sleep through it and wake up with a
soaked bed that they then have to explain. Another way to accomplish a
similar goal is to place an IV bag with pinprick holes in it under the
mattress. By morning the bed and sleeper are soaked. Mission
accomplished. <g>

Or the ever popular, place the vacuum sweeper under the rookies bed and
wait until he's asleep before turning it on. Supposedly this helps
rookies learn to wake up instantly. A much needed job skill. <g>

And we have M.'s best story...

Whilst the two rookies were sleeping, all the rest of the firefighters
and paramedics pushed the two fire trucks out of the bays and out back.
Then they started up the ambulance and left it running while one of them
ran up the stairs yelling at the rookies to wake up, asking them how
come they weren't on their fire trucks since a plane had crashed and all
crews were needed at the site. The rookies jump up in alarm, throw on
their clothes, stumble into the truck bays and PANIC when they find all
the fire trucks gone. They start begging a ride with the paramedics who
finally let them off the hook. <g>

M. had another one...

At one time or another M. had mentioned how much he enjoyed scuba
diving in the past. But his new partner forgot this little tidbit of
information when they went on a call to rescue a guy who had driven his
VW bug into an old canal. The VW was partially submerged and so one of
them had to go in while the other paramedic got everything set up on dry
land. As soon as they reached the site, M. said..."Man, I am sorry but
you are going to have to take this call because I don't know how to
swim." In the rush of it all, his partner said no problem and proceeded
to jump into the dirty water of the canal. He got to the car, all of a
sudden remembered M. and scuba diving, looked back at M. and swore
vengeance.

It took a solid year, but vengeance did cometh. They got a call to
rescue a guy who evidently had been sleeping in a garbage dumpster and
accidentally got dumped into one of the huge garbage trucks. The truck
was so big, it meant that someone had to climb a ladder before he could
then climb down another ladder to reach the guy. As they arrive on the
scene, M.'s partner sez...."Man, I'm really sorry, but you are going
to have to take this call, because I'm afraid of heights."  In the rush
of it all, M. said no problem and climbed up the ladder. Just as he
was climbing down into the back of the garbage truck, he remembered that
his partner used to fly helicopters in Vietnam. He paused a moment to
look through the small portal at the top of the ladder inside the back
of the truck. His partner looked up at him, grinned, and nodded.

J.'s best was about their one fire chief who was an extremely sound
sleeper and only woke up to the sound of the alarm tones.  One night
some of the guys carried his bed outside while he was sleeping in it and
placed it next to the road. In the morning when it got light enough for
the passing cars to see him, they started honking. THAT managed to wake
him up. <g>

I called my brother (also a paramedic) to tell him the stories and he
told me one of his favorite pranks he pulled on a rookie while he was
stationed in Grand
Forks, ND. Everybody was assigned a specific bunk when they came on
duty. my brother took note of the rookies bunk number and
oh-so-carefully placed the CPR practice dummy in his bed, so just the
top of his head
was showing. Later that night, the rookie came in, paused when he
noticed that someone was sleeping in his bunk, went back to check the
bunk chart and came back again. He stood there awhile before he started
whispering for the "guy" to please move, because he was in the wrong
bunk. He tried this a couple of times, got disgusted, went away and came
back to try again. My brother, who is in the next bunk over, turns to
him to ask what his problem is because people are trying to sleep! The
rookie
explains his dilemma and my brother forcefully tells him to nudge the
"guy" to wake him up and tell him to move! The rookie does so and it
doesn't
work. So my brother climbs out of bed making his disgust known, grabs
his flashlight and says he's going to wake the "guy" up even if he has
to
shine the light in his eyes. He rips the covers back and starts laughing
when he sees the expression on the rookies face. As do all the other
firefighters in their surrounding bunks, who have been intently
listening in to the whole hilarious saga.


...Sachet (who thinks someone should write a book about EMS practical
jokes)