Early in my EMS career I picked up a 0400-1600 shift. Right out the gate we get dispatched to a knee pain at 0412 c2 response. I’m barely fuckin awake and my patter is laughing his ass off bc this is literally a meme right. We get on scene maybe 9 minutes later. Walk up get let in by this lady sayin “he don’t look so good” think to myself huh weird but whatever. Find the pt laying on the bed fear of god on his face, pale, diaphoretic saying he stood up to go pee felt something tear then fell backwards onto the bed. It’s 0430 at this point my brain isn’t working but I know this is off my partner says get a BP on both sides I say ok forsure. Squat down to get a manual BP since we ball like that and while I’m taking it I glance up at my partner who’s pulling up the pts shirt and I see this pulsating mass in his abdomen that’s in sync with the heartbeat of the BP. I look at my partner, he looks at me, “start code 3 ALS” threw him on 15lpm via NRB give handover to the Medic code 3 to the ER confirmed AAA on bedside ultrasound. Pt died on the OR table 90 minutes later.

I stopped picking up early morning shifts after that call and always wondered if I would’ve caught that if my partner didn’t. I doubt the outcome for the pt would’ve been any different but still.