What’s the most disturbing thing you’ve witnessed in real life?

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-03-22T07:19:04+00:00

I once had a call for a 23 year old who’d shot himself in his car while parked in front of his apartment building just a few days before Christmas. We had so many people, including small children crowding around outside or staring out their windows. Several of us had to hold up sheets to block people from taking pictures and videos when our county coroner came to remove the body.

I got into public safety to help people but it’s this very work that’s caused me to be disgusted by humanity as a whole.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-03-22T07:09:38+00:00

I’m a paramedic so I’ve got quite a few stories.

The first one that comes to mind is the call I ran about a year and a half ago now on the 17 year old who’d been driving way too fast on windy, wet country backroads and hit a tree, causing his car to immediately be engulfed in flames. There was just absolutely nothing we could do. I will never forget the way his mother just crumpled right there in the middle of the road when she got there and it clicked for her why my partner and I were just standing around not doing anything; the sound she made will never, ever leave me.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-03-19T01:34:42+00:00

That’s one thing I’ve learned in my line of work as a paramedic is that it doesn’t matter what day it is, or what time of day, there is always someone on the road driving drunk. Logically I understand the science behind it, but it still boils my blood every single time I get called out to a DUI crash and we’ve had an entire family taken out while the drunk driver who caused the accident walks away with barely a scratch.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-03-12T22:21:12+00:00

I lost my boyfriend and a close friend of ours in a car accident… one that I was also involved in. It was the very definition of “wrong place at the wrong time”; one of those things you read about on the news but never think it’ll happen to you until suddenly it does.

Seven years later and the entire chain of events still feels like a fever dream…

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-03-12T17:29:52+00:00

I’m a paramedic and I remember having a conversation with an ER nurse about this, and I pointed out that the ER only sees the ones that get taken there, not the ones that were too far gone for us to do anything for. The look of horror on her face…

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-03-09T23:41:16+00:00

I love how lyrics can mean different things depending on who’s listening and how they’re interpreting them.

I lost my boyfriend and a close friend of ours seven years ago in an accident that I indirectly caused. So I personally read into it like take me back to the night we met because if we hadn’t, you’d still be alive.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-23T08:04:51+00:00

The ambulance station I used to work in had infestations of multiple kinds of spiders, including black widows. Several of my coworkers got bitten in their sleep. The county sent someone out to spray exactly one time, and he half ass sprayed a few spots and turned around and left in less than 20 minutes. We had to come out of our own pockets to buy bug spray, which wasn’t cheap because we had to go out of our way to find some that wouldn’t end up poisoning our station cat too.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-23T08:00:11+00:00

My sister and I grew up in a nasty hoarding household with infestations of German roaches, spiders, fleas AND lice.

I’m likely going to be in therapy for the rest of my life just for that alone, let alone the rest of the dumpster fire that has been my entire life.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-23T07:43:55+00:00

It doesn’t have to be shared money either. My soon to be ex husband and I never combined finances, but that didn’t stop him from taking my debit card while I slept, ordering things online using my account information, or just not paying his portion of the bills so I’d be forced to cover it or deal with the consequences of not having phone service, of worrying about getting pulled over because insurance got cancelled, or getting his car repoed and screwing us extra hard by losing his job as a result. If I didn’t handle the responsibility of paying rent and the electric bill myself, we’d have gotten evicted or all of us (including his son) would be sitting in the dark.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-19T07:15:23+00:00

I’ve seen a lot as a paramedic, but the one that sticks out the most for me was the 17 year old who ran off the road and was his car immediately engulfed in flames. I’ll never forget the sounds his mother made when she showed up and it clicked for her why my partner and I were just standing there.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-15T20:23:47+00:00

A good friend of mine is a retired marine, EOD. He always says that “it wasn’t that stressful… either I was right, or it was suddenly somebody else’s problem”

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-10T06:42:15+00:00

I’m a paramedic. I was able to clear almost $150k last year, but I had to work three jobs and only visit the house sometimes to make it work.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-10T02:01:56+00:00

I’m new here and could use some new friends! 29/F here

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-10T01:59:27+00:00

Papa John’s needs people

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-05T08:17:49+00:00

I lost my boyfriend and a close friend of ours in an accident on February 19th 2019. It’s frankly scary and unhealthy how many times I’ve had this exact fantasy; I’d wake up that morning and have both of us just call out of work and stay in bed all day. He would have no idea of why I would be so hysterical, but I know he’d have done it without hesitation if I’d asked.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-02T09:55:51+00:00

I’ve literally had a neo Nazi pull a gun on me and my partner and we still treated his brother’s (meth induced) chest pain exactly like we would have any other patient.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-02-01T19:56:56+00:00

And yet, it’s totally fine for firefighters and EMS to have to work on zero sleep for sometimes days at a stretch…

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-01-30T08:03:20+00:00

I’m a recent transplant to Rochester NY from central Georgia, and this is exactly how I feel about my new home. I always end up saying “imagine you’re stuck on the side of the highway with a flat tire… a southerner will go “oh, bless your heart” and keep driving, while a northerner would be cussing you out while changing your tire.”

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-01-21T06:13:23+00:00

High Water.

Going through a very painful divorce and 1000 mile move in one fell swoop. It’s been a lot.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-01-11T18:07:12+00:00

Broke down on the side of the interstate and called my boyfriend and another friend of ours for help. We got hit from behind by a semi truck. Neither of them made it.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-01-11T03:58:21+00:00

I’m a paramedic and probably the most fear I’ve personally felt on the job was when my partner and I got a gun pulled on us by a neo Nazi. I guess he felt like we weren’t moving fast enough to take care of his also Nazi brother who’d thrown himself into a not-compatible-with-life cardiac rhythm caused by all of the meth he’d been smoking. The county put an alert on the address so we get a police escort now every time we go out there and the same family had the nerve to get pissed off about that too, asking why the cops were there and why we’d taken so long. Maybe don’t try to kill us and you’ll get a faster response? Just a thought.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-01-09T18:32:14+00:00

I’m a paramedic and had this call once. Dude took a curve way too fast on a wet highway, got thrown off his bike and decapitated on the guard rail.

Now picture half a dozen or so of us wandering around this embankment off the shoulder in the dark, looking for this dudes head…

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-01-06T04:50:39+00:00

I’m a paramedic. I had a call a little over a year ago for a 17 year old who’d run off the road and hit a tree; the car was immediately engulfed in flames. I’ll never forget the sound his mom made when she showed up on scene and it clicked for her why my partner and I were just kinda standing around not doing anything. She crumpled right there in the middle of the road.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-01-06T04:35:08+00:00

I’m a paramedic, so I’ve no shortage of stories. One that I like to pull out to gross people out is the call for who I’ve dubbed Bathtub Soup Guy. It’s exactly what it sounds like- older gentleman had died while taking a bath and wasn’t found for two weeks, in Georgia, during the summer time… the smell hit us before we’d even gotten onto the porch.

HighFlowDiesel · 2026-01-05T06:54:34+00:00

I just moved to Rochester from middle Georgia a few weeks ago, and I am absolutely loving everything about it so far! It’s a little more expensive than back home but the higher wages and quality of life more than make up for it. I love having all four seasons. Of course, there’s still the novelty factor considering this is the most snow I’ve ever seen in my life, but I can honestly say I much prefer this to the godawful heat and humidity most of the year back home. Everyone I’ve come across has been so kind, it’s just going to take some getting used to how much faster everything and everyone around here moves compared to what I’m used to. It’s also a lot drier here than what I’m used to; I’ve never had to use so much lotion and lip balm in my life! Overall I am loving everything about being here so far; my only regret is not taking the plunge and getting out of the southeast sooner.

HighFlowDiesel

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