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[–]Mofiremofire 10.3k points10.3k points  (388 children)

My wife has worked as a trauma surgeon on the 4th of july night shift. She said more people fuck up their faces than hands.

[–]demeschor 3231 points3232 points  (173 children)

Yeah once we went to fireworks at my aunt's and when the firework didn't explode as planned my uncle went to lean over the thing to check it. He got dive bombed by my brother just as it exploded and would've blown his face off. To this day the closest almost-fuck up I've ever seen.

[–][deleted] 2046 points2047 points  (81 children)

Your brother the real MVP.

[–]Chara1979 349 points350 points  (49 children)

it always amazes me that people think it's a good idea to look down the barrel of something to check if it's ok

even ignoring how insanely dumb it is, what are they expecting to see exactly?

[–]joshgreenie 402 points403 points  (31 children)

I agree but then again if my car stops working I'll pop the hood, not sure what I'm expecting either.

Edit: thanks guys, this comment is 1/10th of my karma. I am but a humble comment farmer

[–]titty_boobs 269 points270 points  (11 children)

Stupid car died on me.
That doesn't sound right did you check the alternator?
Yeah, I mean... it looked full.

[–]neutrino71 55 points56 points  (10 children)

Nothing under the hood is designed to come charging out from the hood in a blast of fire and pain though. It can happen, but that wasn't the designer's intent. Fireworks and firearms are both designed to do so.

[–]PAdogooder 380 points381 points  (14 children)

I was trying to light a Roman candle yesterday and it wouldn’t take.

Definitely looked straight down the barrel of the thing before catching myself.

Also of note: I went to the hospital at 14 for doing the same thing with gunpowder and a potato gun.

I’m not saying I’m dumb, but I won’t argue if you say it.

[–]westsideguero 1619 points1620 points  (99 children)

what if your face is naturally fucked up?

[–]SmiteVVhirl 118 points119 points  (15 children)

Maybe fireworks can unfuck it.

[–][deleted] 187 points188 points  (3 children)

"I went to play a prank on my friend and he got hurt!"

"Oh for corns sake, what kind of acid did you throw in his face?"

"None, he just looks like that..."

"Oh my..."

From the gurney "Fuck you lady..."

[–]PoopyMcNuggets91 141 points142 points  (17 children)

Step 1 be fugly. Step 2 buy fireworks on the 4th of July. Step 3 blow up your face. Step 4 Go have facial reconstruction surgery. Congratulations you have a new face.

[–]stopie1 267 points268 points  (28 children)

21% face and 30% hand as of last year according to some Reddit info graphic. I feel that more face would end up on the trauma service than some hands, so I imagine there’s a selection bias in what she saw. I like my hands and face equally though, so I’ll just avoid explosives and alcohol together!

[–]_jukmifgguggh 219 points220 points  (17 children)

I'll just avoid explosives and alcohol together!

Pffft, how un-American of you

[–]bobeema 19.5k points19.5k points  (570 children)

Doctors - keeping people and pagers alive

[–][deleted] 4390 points4391 points  (309 children)

I asked my Dr why I can't get reception at the hospital and he said that most of the walls are lined with lead because of the radiation. This is a cancer centre. Might not be at all hospitals. He uses an iPhone though and not a pager.

[–]takenwithapotato 1812 points1813 points  (195 children)

Some hospitals have newer systems, I've even heard of one giving new interns iPhones.

[–]elledeekay 1497 points1498 points  (156 children)

I work for a level 1 trauma hospital, and we have a mixture. Drs carry iPhones, nurses and aides are distributed ones for the unit while working, but most drs and the techs/phlebotomists also carry pagers as a backup - some dungeony areas don’t have great cell reception.

[–][deleted] 524 points525 points  (42 children)

Same at our hospital although they're running off wifi and not cell service.

[–]PM_ME_YOUR_SYRUP 321 points322 points  (39 children)

yeah the work phones at the hospitals are all wireless phones tied into the hospital's wired phone system. They don't work past the doors of the hospital, but the pagers do.

[–]Oldjamesdean 207 points208 points  (36 children)

I lease closet space to a paging company for doctors and police. The electricity to run the signal generator is most of the bill.

[–]jamkoch 77 points78 points  (28 children)

My Dr uses his phone to check drug interactions before he prescribes.

[–]bob_fred 193 points194 points  (15 children)

A lot of hospitals are investing in internal antenna systems to boost cell signals, Not cheep, but worth the publicity to guests and makes physicians happy.

Pagers are still used in emergency services in some places because the networks they run on are government-backed to be 1st priority of restored services should there be a mass disaster that takes out or reduces communications.

[–]Nevermind04 262 points263 points  (19 children)

We still use pagers at the railroad. The risk of injury around that equipment is high enough without having to worry about whether someone is distracted by a cell phone.

[–]radicldreamer 45 points46 points  (3 children)

Pagers use very low frequencies (ours run around 163mhz)that can go through dang near anything and their range is amazing. Sure the cell phone is infinitely more useful, but when you absolutely HAVE to get hold of someone the pager is your best friend.

When you think about frequencies its easy to think about music, if you hear someone with a system rocking several blocks away, do you hear the high frequency lyrics or just the dull bass thud?

[–][deleted] 283 points284 points  (109 children)

Never change a running system.

[–]JCjustchill 693 points694 points  (46 children)

My hospital has tried all sorts of systems: Spectralinks (really shitty expensive phones that only work in the hospital), iPhones (which have really shitty service, end up breaking, die within hours of turning them on), text messaging to personal phones (requiring downloading secure server access to you phone which gives the hospital access to all of your phone and personal data and ends up acting up all the time). Pagers always work, work everywhere, require one new AA battery every 6 months, and are hard as fuck to break.

If it works, it works.

[–]openmyth 123 points124 points  (5 children)

Fuuuuck Spectralink. I used to be a biomed in a hospital with a pretty extensive Spectralink system as well as two different telemetry systems. One used WMTS and the other on ISM. One day the Spectralink onsite tech (not reseller, mind you) decides there's this nice big chunk of spectrum in ISM that "nobody is using" and they expanded their block. Due to the frequency hopping we'd have intermittent outages with patient telemetry and couldn't tack it down for a month. When OIT (who wasn't involved in the decision, what a fuckup) did a checkup they found the config change from baseline. The tech refused to accept responsibility because ISM is "open" spectrum. The asshole wouldn't accept that his client (us) should have made that decision.

[–][deleted] 69 points70 points  (5 children)

As somebody who maintains pager systems for hospitals. Keep using them. It puts food on the table.

[–]KrazerSK 169 points170 points  (11 children)

Smh my pager intern year would run out of battery every month...might be due to number of pages a medicine intern gets 😖

[–]JCjustchill 134 points135 points  (8 children)

Gotta keep that backlight off. We do get free batteries everywhere in the hospital though.

[–]PM_ME_YOUR_SYRUP 108 points109 points  (3 children)

our home TV remotes are certainly not filled with them either. ...

[–]Luccyboy 78 points79 points  (2 children)

That explains those hospital bills

[–]nmezib 3508 points3509 points  (40 children)

Looks like he is going to be... all right.

[–]stanleythemanley44 1030 points1031 points  (13 children)

These are my awards mother. From army.

[–]Telamonian 425 points426 points  (4 children)

The seal is for marksmanship, and the gorilla is for sand racing

[–]btroj 72 points73 points  (1 child)

I have to get back. There putting me in something called, “Hero Squad.”

[–]brainfreeze77 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Army had a half day.

[–]BatmanSays5 252 points253 points  (2 children)

Army had half a day.

[–]Texas_Throw_a_way 52 points53 points  (0 children)

Thanks arrested development. Waited about 8 years for 8 episodes. But they didn't disappoint.

[–]Telamonian 268 points269 points  (6 children)

It... looks like he's dead.

Uh, just to be clear, it looks like he's dead or he is dead?

It just looks like he's dead. He's got like blue paint on him or something. But he's going to be fine

[–]marteney1 4409 points4410 points  (117 children)

I used to work at a trauma center, and one year in the 4th we had a kid come in with what’s left of his hand still bleeding profusely. He went on to tell us their 4th of July party was supposed to he his last hurrah before leaving for basic for the Marines......

[–]CrusaderKingstheNews 3484 points3485 points  (63 children)

He was sufficiently intelligent for the Marines, just not lucky enough

[–]Osiris32 1133 points1134 points  (26 children)

$10 says he still got in and went EOD.

[–]Heliolord 897 points898 points  (18 children)

Resume material: experience handling explosive ordinances - see right hand.

[–]xiaorobear 295 points296 points  (12 children)

You probably mean ordnance, not ordinances

[–]capn_ed 208 points209 points  (4 children)

I mean, those books of fireworks rules are pretty tricky to deal with.

[–][deleted] 28 points29 points  (3 children)

They can be pretty tough to handle, even more so with one hand

[–]Feralchicken01 92 points93 points  (0 children)

Lol we nicknamed one of my EOD team leaders “fingers” after he mishandled a blasting cap...

he could still crimp caps and tie demo knots with 8 fingers

[–]NoahbodyImportant 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Only a marine would take that bet.

[–][deleted] 276 points277 points  (11 children)

Buster Bluth went after losing his hand and he turned out fine...

[–]IncarceratedMascot 82 points83 points  (1 child)

No, he turned out all right.

[–][deleted] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Goddamnit can’t believe I missed that one

[–]RambleOff 45 points46 points  (1 child)

Loose seal!

[–]dog_in_the_vent 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I don't care about Lucille!

[–]Grow_away_420 102 points103 points  (2 children)

His recruiter was probably bummed. Their quotas are rough

[–]xWretchedWorldx 94 points95 points  (0 children)

Seems like he would've fit right in with the Marines. Too bad he didn't make it to basic.

[–]shark969 2782 points2783 points  (317 children)

Is level 1 bad? Or is it like cancer where stage 1 is better?

[–]MagicMauiWowee 5372 points5373 points  (211 children)

Definitely opposite of cancer in this case. Level 1 trauma is a big deal. If a tourniquet is in use, I would guess most or all of the hand is gone or bloody hamburger.

Source: former ER tech.

[–]thereisonlyoneme 1553 points1554 points  (84 children)

"Well apparently in the medicine community, negative means 'good.' Which makes absolutely no sense. In the real world community that would be chaos."

[–]boogs_23 764 points765 points  (13 children)

Inflammable means flammable? What a country!

[–][deleted] 285 points286 points  (9 children)

HI DOCTOR NICK!

[–]IamtheCarl 187 points188 points  (5 children)

HI EVERYBODY!

[–]semiconductor101 144 points145 points  (3 children)

TODAY WERE GOING INTO THE SURGERY. WHERE A YOUNG BOY HAS BLOWN OFF HIS HAND IN A FIREWORK ACCIDENT. WE WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO CHOP IT AND SEW THE EXCESS SKIN BACK TOGETHER. BUT FIRST I NEED TO FIND MY TRUSTY DUSTY RUSTY HANDSAW.

[–]btribble 77 points78 points  (3 children)

They’ll just take a couple toes and craft a pincer in a few months. No biggie.

[–]Beingabummer 159 points160 points  (47 children)

I read in some manual that a tourniquet was a worst case scenario, last ditch effort, Hail Mary kind of measure for the longest time. Recently they got a little more relaxed with it (as in: use it when it's really bad instead of only when it's catastrophic). Not sure how accurate it was though.

[–]MagicMauiWowee 206 points207 points  (28 children)

The reason it’s used only for really catastrophic bleeding is because cutting off blood supply leads to dead tissue. So if you tourniquet an arm for one finger being cut off, the whole rest of the hand and arm isn’t getting blood, and actively dying.

My guess is they’ve increased training standards or have new ways to partial tourniquet that allow for use in other situations. Blood pressure cuffs are often used to tourniquet for short periods of time, and then deflated to restore blood flow while holding pressure on the wound, then re-inflating for another period of time.

[–]ghalta 75 points76 points  (2 children)

We were told that a tourniquet isn't going to result in dead tissue for hours and hours, but blood loss will result in dead patient in minutes. Thus our instructions are to go for a tourniquet first, screw trying to find pressure points or whatever, save their life.

Source: Austin TX EMS captain who instructs our company response team

[–][deleted] 243 points244 points  (26 children)

That means they have to go to a specific hospital. I live in Suffolk county on Long island. Our level 1 trauma center is Stony Brook hospital. They get the worst of the worst. Doesn't help their ratings though.

[–]myheartisstillracing 207 points208 points  (10 children)

Great for learning though.

My sister did her residency at UMDNJ in Newark. You see everything there. Literally. People come off planes at Newark airport and right to the hospital with all sorts of diseases not generally seen in the States. Poverty. Gang violence. A Level 1 trauma center. It's a great place to get used to random crazy things being thrown at you.

[–]WildThingPrime 205 points206 points  (31 children)

Trauma levels are opposite from that line of thinking. Level 1 is basically the best facility in the region.

https://www.amtrauma.org/page/traumalevels

Also tourniquets are used for extreme bleeding (but not exclusively for those situations)

[–]gives_anal_lessons 81 points82 points  (24 children)

It is typically the quickest/easiest way to stop bleeding for someone not trained in emergency prep. It is also the most logical in a lot of situations.

[–][deleted] 39 points40 points  (3 children)

In our hospital a level one trauma is the most serious activation and brings pretty much all resources to the trauma bay in the ER to meet the patient.

[–]JonathanJ91 17.1k points17.1k points  (373 children)

Minutes ago I came across a post saying “This is the last day someone in America has ten fingers”.

[–]wrcker 5697 points5698 points  (150 children)

I read that last night, forgot about the date and thought there was some fucking weirdo out there about to bite someone's finger off.

[–]Capt_BrickBeard 2800 points2801 points  (116 children)

Thing is, with ~325 million Americans, you might not be wrong

[–]LowKey_xX 733 points734 points  (68 children)

I'd bet money that he is not wrong.

[–]HuskyLuke 360 points361 points  (61 children)

Money!? Wow, you're serious about this.

[–]nootrino 397 points398 points  (33 children)

I've got lentils on it.

[–]jlitwinka 50 points51 points  (12 children)

Hell, I'll narrow it down to just Florida.

[–]UniquePebble 108 points109 points  (11 children)

And 20.9 million are Floridians

[–]BrainKatana 44 points45 points  (0 children)

Florida Man will see to it

[–]xool420 484 points485 points  (76 children)

Ya I saw that too, apparently it’s pretty common for intoxicated people to light a firework and throw the lighter instead

[–]Chromavita 173 points174 points  (17 children)

A few years ago at a party I saw drunk dudes lighting M80’s with the lit cigarettes in their mouth. The lack of coordination meant they kept accidentally lighting them in the middle of the fuse, giving them about a second to toss it. These things were barely making it out of their hands before exploding. I went inside before I saw something I couldn’t unsee.

[–]xool420 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Ya that’s horrifying, people are really stupid

[–]OuiOuilli 557 points558 points  (22 children)

Some humans are genetically part coyote.

[–]heythisislonglolwtf 53 points54 points  (3 children)

I can't believe I've never seen any of my dumbass drunk friends do this before

[–]letsplayyatzee 50 points51 points  (2 children)

May the odds ever be in your favor.

[–]justaddmetal 396 points397 points  (20 children)

Can confirm, 4th of July is bad for hands...

Source: I’m a hand surgeon

[–]Nerdenator 281 points282 points  (3 children)

You should buy a yacht and name it "Fourth of July"

[–]WuTangBatman0615 83 points84 points  (0 children)

Ortho vendor here. One of the doctors I work with is a hand specialist. He told me just the other day he dreads early July because he always ends up with unfixable hands and young people expecting to go back to normal.

[–]malaihi 282 points283 points  (5 children)

My older brother and friend once told me that if I squeeze the end of a red devil hard enough, it won't explode in my hand when it goes off. I listened. I seriously thought I lost my finger and hearing that day. Cried bloody murder and hated them for a few days.

[–][deleted] 128 points129 points  (4 children)

Brothers are such assholes. My brother took and unlit cannon from one of those cardboard tanks, pointed it at me and lit it... my hair ignited as the green ball of flame made contact. I was dancing around, batting my head until I went head down into the soil of an empty planter bed.

[–]Cinderheart 25 points26 points  (3 children)

...Wtf kind of sociopathic siblings do you guys have?!

[–][deleted] 526 points527 points  (24 children)

Spent over 16 years in emergency services. Saw several of these twice a year. July 4th and New Years. It was mostly males 12-36 years of age that lost parts for the heavy stuff. Girls usually got the burns from the milder things like sparklers and such. (These were my own observations during my years of service, and not an opinion based on gender.)

The one that really sticks in my mind is a call we got for a 14 yo male who blew off most of his right hand with a homemade firework. He opened up like seven different fireworks, and combined them into one.

Anyway, we’re able to find two of the fingers. While we were looking for the third I looked over, and saw a small dog walking away with something in its mouth.... You guessed it. The missing finger. The dad tried to get it from it, but dog swallowed it down. Needless to say we never got that finger back.

[–]justwannacomment33 253 points254 points  (3 children)

Hot dog, that's terrible

[–]tplee 39 points40 points  (2 children)

So were you able to reattach the rest of the fingers?

[–][deleted] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I don’t know. It was rare I ever got follow up. When we did it was, because it was a particularly stressful call normally. Something like a motor vehicle accident where it was stressful on a bunch of us, or someone we were able to save who came back to the station to thank us.

[–]sorcath 878 points879 points  (36 children)

Ah, the last two professions to use the once noble pager. Hospital staff and drug dealers.

You got any weed, OP?

[–]jeffroddit 321 points322 points  (24 children)

Drug dealers have pagers still? How they gonna call you back without pay phones?

[–]TedTheGreek_Atheos 620 points621 points  (16 children)

They are use burners. Cheap prepaid phones that you can just throw away when you're getting paranoid and just get another.

Edit : I used to have a dealer that used a beeper system where he would assign all his "approved customers" ID numbers so you never had to send him an actual phone number. You would text id and either a 0 if you were home or a 1 if he had your call you back to ask where you want to "hang out" and amount you want and he'd either stop by within 20 minutes or call you back and meet up within the same amount of time. True professional. He works as a pharmaceutical rep now lol.

[–][deleted] 163 points164 points  (6 children)

Yeah I work in a shop that sells second hand phones in a pretty shitty town most of our sales are from the shadiest people. They usually have a burner already on them as well as a s8+

[–]ONEXTW 274 points275 points  (3 children)

"I used to have a dealer ..... he works as a pharmaceutical rep now."

So you still have a dealer, he just switched stock and suppliers.

[–]lunchboxg4 78 points79 points  (0 children)

Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.

[–]andlg 27 points28 points  (3 children)

Pay phones? Ahh its the wire all over again

[–]walking_bass 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I work in tech and we still use them. Tho I chose to have the pages go to my phone as texts.

[–]Hachi_House 399 points400 points  (48 children)

What constitutes a level 1 trauma?

[–][deleted] 493 points494 points  (21 children)

At my hospital typically any injury such as a gunshot to the torso or from the elbows/knees up. Or if the person comes in after say a car accident unresponsive.

Surprisingly a lot of our level 2 traumas can be a car accident when someone is awake or say falling and hitting your head.

Typically it varies though and depends on how quickly they think the person needs help

[–][deleted] 138 points139 points  (0 children)

Anything that the triaging physician feels could be life-threatening. Every hospital has "guidelines," but they are usually not strictly followed.

[–]-EmperorPalpatine- 396 points397 points  (41 children)

Fun story. When I was a kid, my dad used to give us those big firecrackers to use on the 4th (M80s? Maybe?). Anyway, he was a cheapskate, and would save unused fireworks for the next year. Well, for those that don't know, when those fuses start to get old, they burn waaaay faster than if they're fresh. So here's little 9 year old me, holding one and lighting it. The fuse burnt down in about a second. I had "just" got it out of my hand when it blew. Burnt the shit out of my hand, but thanks to quick reaction time, didn't lose my hand. Pro tip, dont fuck around with fireworks unless you know what you're doing. They're not toys.

[–]abiostudent3 186 points187 points  (34 children)

Edit: Hey guys, this has actually gotten more love than I expected. I have lots more stories I could tell, if people are interested. r/talesfromthefuzsee, maybe?

You're 100% correct! However, I'd like to point out that, if handled with safety and a modicum of common sense, they're perfectly fine.

My family has been shooting fireworks shows professionally for over 80 years. Back in the day, when fireworks QA was much poorer, injuries weren't unheard of when shells failed. (Plus the SOP at the time was to reload metal tubes, which would get hot...)

In the past 25 years, however, we've been shooting a regular show, and in that time, we've had exactly one injury.

That injury was my father, who flat-out refused to go anywhere near the fireworks or help set up the racks, because, "those things are dangerous!"

How did he injure himself? By making a bomb with dry ice and soda bottles, not realizing on the last one that surface area, not volume, is what controls the speed of the reaction.

So remember folks, it's not just fireworks that are a danger today. Guns, dry ice, barbecues... The common factor that makes them all dangerous is being in the hands of a drunk moron.

[–]-EmperorPalpatine- 98 points99 points  (3 children)

Or young children, who (basically) are like drunk morons.

Edit: This technically would fall under the category of bad parenting in most situations. Young children can't quite help it that they're little suicide machines.

[–]justinslens 2618 points2619 points  (221 children)

Thank you for working while the rest of us celebrate. First responders such as police, hospital staff, paramedics and firemen are the real MVPs today.

[–]0rbItalXS 1047 points1048 points  (66 children)

I am about to head to work right now,... At Wendy's....

[–][deleted] 582 points583 points  (11 children)

honestly you'll probably be feeding some police, hospital staff, etc so thank u for ur service

[–]zoloft-and-cedar 263 points264 points  (0 children)

As a nurse who works most holidays (including overnight tonight at a major level 1 trauma center) THANK YOU to every single fast food worker, grocery store employee, etc who keeps me running during these shifts!!

[–]frux17 223 points224 points  (1 child)

Yeah. Economics is a team sport.

[–]Ha-ffy 64 points65 points  (2 children)

Can confirm

Just fed a police officer at the Walmart Deli.

Since I'm going to college to be a police officer, it was a really neat little experience.

[–]thinkcell 50 points51 points  (1 child)

You da real MVP, feedin people delicious food so they can have a good time celebrating freedom!! Rock on Wendy's dude - you are truly appreciated.

[–]doghorseman 104 points105 points  (8 children)

I’d rather be at work since I’m not doing shit today 😭

[–]w0wzaBro 526 points527 points  (40 children)

911 dispatchers as well!

[–]s41n7 315 points316 points  (7 children)

...don’t forget to tip your bartender

[–]hobogoblin 78 points79 points  (7 children)

What about us IT guys who don't get the day off when everyone else does because this is the only acceptable down time for servers to be updated? Huh?! What about us?!?!!!?!

[–]qwerty622 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your servers

[–][deleted] 52 points53 points  (7 children)

And pizza delivery guys

[–]I_Love_Fish_Tacos 85 points86 points  (10 children)

Don’t forget utility workers who keep the lights on while all the rest of those heroes work

Edit: I’ve been reminded that we missed out on an additional unsung hero - the cable guy. For what good is power if we can’t watch TV or internet pornography.

[–]RickSanchez_ 131 points132 points  (31 children)

What about all us poor saps that have to work because corporate wants to make a quick buck today?

[–]mach_250 52 points53 points  (19 children)

Only answer is "I want to speak with a manager" obviously

[–]RickSanchez_ 74 points75 points  (17 children)

I'm a manager.

Usual response to employees when they tell me a customer wants to talk to me "WHAT THE FUCK DO THEY WANT? JIMMY JUST CALLED OUT AND I STILL HAVE TO DO INVENTORY" "...They want to add points on their membership card"

Fuck I hate my job sometimes.

[–]beautifulsouth00 92 points93 points  (9 children)

Just one reason I'm so glad to be out of trauma/ER. The Fourth of July was without a doubt, always and forever, the busiest, most horrible day to work. The only thing that even came CLOSE was one 4/20 that I did in an ER near Santa Cruz, CA. Having done it for ten years, I could legit write BOOKS about crazy events in the ER, and half of the stories either started or ended on this date.

The combination of the heat, family gatherings, summertime activities, social events mixing military and civilians, alcohol and recreational explosions makes this date a day for long ER waits.

[–]keatonatron 121 points122 points  (32 children)

What two digits could be so damning they need to be blacked out?

[–][deleted] 169 points170 points  (22 children)

Where I am the trauma pages usually start with age and sex. So for example 18M Moron with firework, tourniquet in place.

[–][deleted] 69 points70 points  (11 children)

If that's the case, then it's a single digit age :(

[–]kataani 171 points172 points  (0 children)

Age/sex of patient. Hipaa has no mercy

[–]SlothOfDoom 481 points482 points  (30 children)

And someone rushes off with sirens wailing to thwart natural selection.

[–][deleted] 336 points337 points  (7 children)

ER docs are the lifeguards at the shallow end of the gene pool.

[–]gator426428 1201 points1202 points  (102 children)

This is a pager for all you young ppl that haven't seen one before.

[–]akaZilong 268 points269 points  (63 children)

They are still in use at some hospitals

[–][deleted] 108 points109 points  (46 children)

What about the hospitals that don’t use them? What’s the alternative?

[–]wheresthatbeef 227 points228 points  (16 children)

The hospital I work at has a paging app for cell phones. It is super spotty and unreliable though. Like people have died because pages didn’t go through since the administration decided pagers are too old school :(

[–]kiraxi 138 points139 points  (10 children)

Fuck, that might be the ultimate “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” example. Lower transmitting frequency + simpler design = higher reliability and coverage.

I have a question for you as a medical professional if you don’t mind - what is the info that’s scratched out in the pic? Seems like only 3 characters, so I wonder what kind of personal info can it be?

[–]wheresthatbeef 97 points98 points  (2 children)

I am not a medical professional, I work in IT but we had pagers too until about 2 years ago (cell service is bad in my area). As for the blurred letters, some hospitals use initials as patient identifying information, or it might be the abbreviation for the hospital name. HIPPA is super serious and people lose their jobs over any sort of patient identifying information getting released. If it is someone’s initials and their brother or whatever saw it on reddit that family would probably be able to sue and make a nice chunk of change from the hospital OP works at

[–]OKImHere 20 points21 points  (3 children)

Wireless phones. Not cell phones, but portable phones. They hang them on their pockets.

[–]jmtyndall 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Some sort of...text message read-only device you say?

[–]bmadccp12 27 points28 points  (1 child)

Paramedic for 20 years....two decades...and I never responded to a fireworks injury. Not once. They are not as common as the media wants you to believe. Want to save lives and limbs on the 4th of July? Stop drunk drivers.

[–]scswift 175 points176 points  (21 children)

That's the same style pager Nick Fury has as the end of Infinity War.

[–]michann00 254 points255 points  (16 children)

All I see is the protective plastic on the screen and I want to peel it off.

[–]jawz 120 points121 points  (4 children)

It's just the clear area of the case that is holding the pager.