Chicago Fire Fans Have A Major Sanitary Issue With The Series' Medics

Contending with grisly vehicle pile-ups, toxic chemical spills, lethal disease outbreaks, and more, the dedicated paramedics on "Chicago Fire" face a litany of gnarly occupational hazards. As members of the heroic first responder team working out of the Windy City's Firehouse 51, the show's paramedics clearly do more than simply bandage up the wounded and hold patients' hands in the ambulance en route to the series' fictional Gaffney Chicago Medical Center.

As Chi-Hards who've been tuning into the show since it debuted back in 2012 understand, paramedics like Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer), Violet Mikami (Hanako Greensmith), and others often arrive at an accident or other emergency scene unsure of just what kind of trauma they could be called on to treat. In the course of a single episode, they could end up dealing with everything from administering CPR to drowning victims to staunching major bleeds to any number of other daunting medical crises. And now it seems the hard-working paramedics of "Chicago Fire" must add another item to their list of challenges: facing fan scorn over their unhygienic use of their disposable latex gloves.

Posting on the show's subreddit, "Chicago Fire" fan u/moonismyonlyfriend started a discussion with the title, "Do they treat patients with the same gloves they drive in?" They then went on to say, "I notice that when the medics are called out they're wearing their gloves to drive, open doors." This prompted u/imgie05 to respond, "Gloves can be really annoying to put on, I think that's why they do it off screen." They went on to add that it would likely require a lot of takes per scene if the actors had to put on their gloves for each situation where they have to take care of patients. 

However, the original poster, who noted that they have mysophobia, or a fear of contamination, disagreed with this excuse, writing, "Nah I get that but wouldn't it be more realistic to drive without the gloves and then put the gloves on before they start filming the scene where they treat the patient at least?"

Redditor u/obviously_blond also found the paramedic's glove protocol lacking. "I find it ridiculous that they cannot just put them on after exiting the vehicle," they wrote. This drew another response from the OP, who returned to the discussion with the comment, "Same! I notice it every time they go out in the ambo." This further reinforced their sentiment about the issue as they punctuated their reply with a laughing-so-hard-I'm-crying emoticon.