Clothes cut or taken off during emergency trauma exam

A couple of years ago I totaled my car on the way to work and was taken to the ER where two pair of scissors were used at once to cut my shirt and tee shirt off (both brand new!). the female tech then pulled my shoes and pants off and felt all up and down my legs with both hands to see if I had any broken bones which thankfully I did not. plenty of stitches and staples in my head, though....

Here's a curiosity, slightly different than other situation.

The ambulance arrived after I had been run off the road on my motorcycle. The EMT looked at my jacket and said " I've got to take that off". My reply was " Cut it off!" I already knew I had several broken ribs, and a broken collar bone (felt them breaking as I skidded to a stop. The EMT said it's a really nice jacket." (Twice more in fact). I replied flatly, "It's done it's job, cut it off."

I think the poor guy was worried about getting in trouble later. :-(

When the whirlybird dropped me at the state hospital, and I was taken to the trauma room I couldn't get the guy to stop pulling my boots until I cursed at him and told him there were zippers. I was promptly upbraided for using bad language. :-\

I guess even patients are supposed to maintain decorum under all circumstances. 😶

I was and am still grateful for the care I received. No, I don't want to have a repeat, but if necessary, I'll still be glad those folks chose their careers.

I have been to the ER several times for everything from being bitten by a dog to a possible appendicitis. Only once when I was hit by a car while riding my bike was I brought in by ambulance and they did cut my clothes off. I frankly don’t remember much. Other times I was asked to undress and put on my own gown. I think those times were more embarrassing because I was completely lucid. No boy likes the nurse looking at his bum where the dog bit him.

The first time I came into the ER by ambulance I was a front seat passenger in a bad wreck and my head had slammed into the windshield and cut open my scalp which bled profusely all over me and I was a bit woozy. They cut my shirt off in the ambulance and figured out the blood was primarily from my head. Once in the ER I was put on a gurney and 2 female nurses said they had to remove all my clothes to make sure I had no other injuries. I was lying flat so I couldn’t see anything but I felt one taking off my socks and shoes while the other undid my belt and they pulled my pants off first and then my underwear. They spread my legs and I felt hands on me then they rolled me onto one side after confirming I had no neck pain or loss of consciousness and looked at my backside. Once on my back someone put a sheet over my lower body. My head required several staples after I had a cat scan. They actually transported me to radiology with just a sheet and blanket over me. The x ray tech noticed after I transferred and gave me a gown.

The second time was many years later when I passed out in the lobby of an auditorium. I came to in the ambulance after a couple walking by kept me from falling on my face. Nothing was cut off but the nurses again removed all my clothes and were feverishly checking my skin. I asked what they were looking for and they said needle marks. I was accused by everyone that came in my room of using drugs but I hadn’t and tested negative. They never figured out why I passed out.

Thankfully, I've never had to visit an ER for anything serious enough to require cutting my clothes off.

But it sure does make for a hot fantasy! Love the thought of someone cutting my underwear off.....

Who cares! If for some reason I am in the ER - I wouldn’t care if they cut my clothes off - just fix me!

Was taken in, and clothes were removed, but under a sheet.

As being an EMT myself it depends on the life threatening situation we may or may not cut clothes. If a heart attack we will cut clothes, car accident, or broken bones we cut. If we are called for seziures we tend not to clothes. We are very modest if we cut clothes off for privacy cover with a sheet or blanket.

Who cares! If for some reason I am in the ER - I wouldn’t care if they cut my clothes off - just fix me!

The EMT said it's a really nice jacket." (Twice more in fact). I replied flatly, "It's done its job, cut it off."

Generally, that's the right idea.....

As being an EMT myself it .... We are very modest if we cut clothes off for privacy cover with a sheet or blanket.

As (former) EMT myself - I get it. EMT's / hospital staff are often kinda reluctant to cut off clothing because lot's of people will bark at them for it......it's yet another thing they might have to answer for later. That being said - you also have to answer for fucking up somehow - and they give you shears for a reason - and I've never really hesitated to cut clothing when I found it required - nor have my superiours ever questioned that.

As a patient, I recently wound up with a 90% amputation of my index finger, with closed fractures to my other fingers in my hand, following a strike by an airplane propeller (long story, I like flying). In the ambulance, I tried to be generally nice to the EMTs (I know them) - but they didn't actually need to cut anything off - so they didn't.

Once I got to the hospital, they realized they needed my shirt off to get me on a monitor (relevant because they were about to give me enough --redacted-- to kill a small horse, so that they could temporarily fix my hand - and so they REALLY needed me on a monitor, and they weren't about to risk a shirt pulling at the leads). Said shirt was one of my better shirts, but, at this point, was covered in blood (and probably beyond saving). I told them they should cut it off. They argued at first, not wanting to deal with it later, but consented once I suggested that either they cut it off or I would with my good hand and the blade in my pocket (I'm...erm....not a nice person when I'm not feeling well) - I didn't want to f%@$ about trying to get it off over my hand messed up.....

At that point, however, I didn't care that I was being treated by a cuteish nurse - she might well have been a smurf...I was so far from interested in that...I have to say - I LOVE medical fetish. I love EMS. Not for even remotely the same reasons.

For having had a car accident when I was 30 years old, with a broken leg and various cuts (face, arms, legs,...) I confirm that we cut all the clothes...

When I found myself in the emergency room, 2 nurses cut off my ti-short, pants, underwear and found myself completely naked.

I was friends with a girl in high school, who would always wear fashion jeans. She was in a bad car wreck and broke her leg. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital ER. She told me that when they first looked at her, the first thing they did was take the shears and cut off her very expensive jeans, along with the rest of he clothes, including her panties. After she said she was mad because I guess she felt it was unnecessary. And I guess she really liked the jeans.

Life, Limb, designer jeans..

Wait, that’s wrong. That’s not a consideration in a trauma unit.

I had my corduroys cut off in the emergency room when I was there as a teenager. There was obviously a lot on at the time, a lot to attempt to process. Everything happened very fast.

@des why were you in the emergency room as a teenager? What happened that they had to cut off your courdory pants? Did they have to cut off your bra and underwear as well? I hope I am not asking to personal of questions of you? If I am I am sorry please forgive me?

To the OP, I think this is an area where fantasy and reality should be 2 separate things, if doing this fantasy as play scenario, then fine. I have no problem with doing it as play if everyone is consenting and on board. As most have already posted, if you are in the ER with possible life threatening issues, you need to trust these professionals. Setting the bad apples aside, the mindset of these people is more complicated than what people might expect. These people are focused on you, they are assessing the situation, looking for clues to your status that might be overlooked, running a possible ever changing plan of treatment depending on what they find, thinking ahead of the what if's and worse case scenario. And on top of that they are trying to keep you calm, getting your cooperation and any other information from you that might have been missed. During this, the clock is ticking, some treatments are time sensitive which can affect having a positive outcome.

Being a social worker in ER I was party to wardrobe shredding in many cases. Not only of trauma patients but many other things.

My piece was to get the patient ready to treat and in many cases try to find id and notify the appropriate people.

I’d rather not stick my hands in pockets while on the patient.

My favourite story is the afternoon I spent picking the inseam stitches out of a very expensive pair of leather pants from a very attractive young lady with a broken (femur I think) before she went to the OR.

The part that made people laugh was that I used the scissors in my Swiss Army knife. I call that pocket knife the ER social workers tool.

I also handed the scissors into a code response. It worked and I provided the laugh of the day.

PS. EMTs often have started the shredding in the field.

Here is an ad for an S-Cut gadget, and a demo on cutting off clothes (for those of you who appreciate the visual)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca4h-qO9KX0

I don't feel pain like most other's . When i get hurt i get mad at myself for getting into what ever it was that got me into that position .

After one bad bike crash the E.R. nurse was cussing my leather's as she tried to cut through them and i was cussing as she cut off my colors . Few know what it take's to earn you're colors . The pride you have in earning them . The pain you feel when you're first colors are destroyed is more then any hurt from the crash . Thankfully two of the lady's rescued them , patched them and added the largest fallen angel wings they could find . The pride i felt when the club pres, and his wife gave them back to me was worth every hurt i had endured . Never do i want to have my clothes cut off again for any reason .

i no longer ride due to health reasons and most of the men i rode with are gone . But my colors are in the saddle bag on my bike .

Back during my paramedic days, in my ambulance, cutting off a patient's clothes was usually done if we needed quick exposure to the patient. Examples: fractured leg, bleeding from somewhere, cardiac arrest, major car wreck and patient is backboarded, etc. Otherwise we tried to work around the patient's clothing, lifting shirts for cardiac monitors, etc.

ER is a different story. Unless you're there for a hangnail, they usually have you out of your clothes and into a gown. If you can take it off, good. If not, it's being cut off. We aren't about to let clothing get in between us and what's making you sick and show up in the ER.

I am happy to say that I never had to cut anyone's leathers/colors. I remember being warned not to do so, and if it was ABSOLUTELY necessary, then try to cut the seams, so they could be resewn.

Worst thing I ever had to cut was a down-filled coat!

I've never had it done in a real medical situation but I've certainly done it for other guys when I was the doctor

I enjoy and like having my clothes cut off.

I would really like to have that experience of lying there and the doctor cuts off my clothes for full exposure.

I lost a collectible shirt that way and boy was I upset, because I tried to stop them but they just cut away.

Years ago while on vacation with family I felt nauseous and stomach pain. We feared that it was appendicitis so we went to the ER and I was taken back to an exam cubicle and undressed fully with the nurse's assistance. I am not sure I needed that but she was insistent and once in a gown, I was turned onto my side for a rectal temp, and overheard the gal next to me protesting that she did not want a shot for her migraine pain. She had no choice and from the outline on the curtain she was on her belly and got it in her bottom. She gasped and yelped. By then the nurse removed my thermometer, took my bp, and reviewed my complaints. She felt my lower belly having raised the gown so all was showing when the curtain was pulled and a male ER doc came in yanking the curtain behind him. He clearly saw my privates and soon was conducting a rectal exam so it didn't really matter. He did the stethoscope exam of lungs, heart and lower belly. No breast exam but nipples were prominent. Abdominal exam was uncomfortable and ended with a finger in my rectum and concerns about constipation. I was mortified but sent for an xray which confirmed it was not appendicitis. I had managed to become constipated and therefore given a full bag enema to get me working again. Let's just say it was one trip to the ER that I have not forgotten and gladly never repeated!

I'm a doctor, and I have cut clothes off of a person many times. There are a lot of lessons I could teach about cutting clothes off, but the first is, never cut a down coat. If you do, you get an explosion of little down feathers that will go everywhere.

By the way, if you are a really "cool" ER or ambulance person, you have to have a pair of Raptors. https://www.leatherman.com/raptor-51.html

The leather pants opening was do with the er social worker’s universal tool, my Swiss Army knife

Like Julie, I ended up in the ER for appendicitis. I was allowed to undress myself but didn't get much privacy as I put on the gown in a relatively open area of the ER. (There was a shortage of beds/rooms.) The harder part was getting not one, but two, DREs performed on me by a doc and then by a resident over the course of the next hour-- still in an open space.

I have faced this. My clothes were cut off. I was falling unconscious after a head injury falling from stairs.

Been forcefully stripped. They held me up against the wall and pulled my pants down. Put me on a cot restrained my legs and then pulled my shirt off.