What each individual consider and emergency could vary quite much. Working in EMS, fire or law enforcement probably will change your perception of the general public and the definition of emergency.

A while back, me and my partner had just started a shift, we were only 1.5 hour into the 24 hours. Thou we are a very busy truck, this was already our second call of the day. We got the call and this was what I read…

It is not often I am actually curious to get on scene to see what in the world is going on with this patient but this made me laugh out loud. “Patient has gas built up in his stomach“. And that was true fact.

We came on scene and a nice, elderly gentleman is sitting on the porch waiting for us. He stated that it started last night, feeling gas building up in his stomach and he wanted to get checked out at the hospital. For him this was an emergency. Don’t ask me why the family couldn’t give him a ride to the doctor in one of the three cars parked outside… Thankfully this was early in the morning and not in the middle of the night when these calls usually comes in so both me and my partner had the ability to keep a straight face and not say what we thought, probably the same as you are thinking.

But the patient wanted to go to the hospital so we loaded him up in the ambulance and off to the hospital we went. Enroute to the hospital the man was sitting and trying to do some kind of burping sounds that wasn’t really burping. I intended to ask the ER what they did for the patient but forgot it when we came back to that hospital later on.

What is sad with these calls is that they really take up important resources from real emergencies. What if there is a school bus in a crash in the area while we are transporting someone with gas in his stomach? A stroke or a heart attack? A child birth? Honestly… I don’t know how else to tell you but gas in your stomach does not require an ambulance… That requires a phone call to a family member, neighbor or friend asking if they can take you to the ER or more preferably your Primary Care Physician. But on the other hand… job security for me…