At the ass end of my shift (so about six am) we get a page for an ER to ER transfer from a hospital the next county over. Made more frustrating by the fact the patient was 350 lbs, so we had to go get the special super sized gurney and its special rig. This gurney could only fit in this one specific rig, an ancient creaking piece of diesel-powered shit with an astronomical unit on the odometer and kitchen sponges for break pads.

We get to the hospital and right away I knew something was wrong. The strong odor of shit wafted down the hall from our patient's room. The curtain was drawn and isolation gear (gowns and masks) were set up by the door. The smell was an almost tangible sensation.
Just as we got there a doctor and nurse duck in and start talking to the patient. I didn't get the full conversation but I distinctly heard the phrase "football-sized abscess".

Turns out she had a horrible infection at the site of a hernia surgery. I looked in and saw she had a negative pressure device hooked up to the wound. Basically a small vacuum and reservoir connected to the wound site with a rubber tube which sucks up ooze and helps with healing. This thing was kicked into overdrive and was sucking up discharge like a fucking gas pump. It looked and smelled like shit but it wasn't. It had the color and consistency of chocolate milk, complete with a fucking froth at the top of the fluid. And as it turns out the reservoir actually overflowed and fucking broke open shortly before we got there. So we waited for about forty minutes as the hospital staff cleaned her up. Small miracle we didn't have to help with that.

We finally did get her in our rig and back to our county to the other hospital. There was an EMT student doing his observation there so I made him hold the vacuum reservoir while we moved her off our gurney.

=====
rcvrd jan 2021