The Podiatrist
If there’s one thing one can’t have enough of during an accident, it’s doctors, which is why Reddit user medicff was so happy when another doctor was at the scene willing to help a family in a car crash. But when he asked her what kind of doctor she was, the answer left him shook.
“Oooo I have a good one! I was responding to a call with our volunteer fire dept a couple years ago. I was west of town and a vehicle rolled halfway between where I was and the fire hall. So I called the responding people and said I’ll meet you there.
It was a single vehicle that rolled and they were all immigrants from the Pakistan/Afghanistan region. Before I got there, a doctor from the same region had stopped to lend a hand. She was from the similar region as those involved in the crash and I had assumed she was the eighth person in the van. She started to try to order me around and tell me I only needed to know certain information about the patient she was with.
It went something like this. Dr: “She has midline neck pain and sore ribs.” Me: “Okay, and crepitus or deformity to the…..” Dr: “That’s all you need to know!” Me: “Uhhh wha?” Dr: “I am a doctor and that’s all you need to know!” That’s when I figured maybe I should ask what kind of doctor, in case this is some whackadoo who just claims to be a doctor like we’ve had happen before.
She tells me she’s a podiatrist. I gave her my best look of trying to be nice but their feet are fine right now. When doctors or nurses show up on scene, they ultimately can trump EMS. But they have to actually do the work and sign off as having taken patient control. As soon as I asked her to sign the paperwork and ride with us to the hospital she realized she was out of her knowledge area and disappeared.”